Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
Greesha
The edges of my vision are darkening with a vicious pulse.
I knew I was reaching a limit where I could either remain on the cusp of justifying caring for Viraj—a man who had betrayed me by ignoring my individuality—or believe that he didn’t deserve the outcome of a mission that was horrendously jeopardized.
Garvit had promptly given me the location to where Viraj’s phone pinged last. But that wasn’t the only thing he’d discovered. It was the fact that he’d found Viraj’s signal suspiciously close to someone else’s.
This rookie was proving to be an asset but I didn’t have time to think any further.
The moment Advik and I stop outside of a nondescript building—we jump out of the car. I have no idea what is waiting for us but I know to cover my bases.
I signal Advik to stay near our car while I go and pour all my surveillance tactics around the near-empty building. The roof is unprotected. The plots near it are almost empty. There are no structures to accommodate a sniper at a close enough range that could aim for someone inside the building.
With my inspection completed, I nod at Advik to follow me inside from the door that isn’t the obvious choice to enter. After a few tries, we are in. My ears locked on anything that seems out of the ordinary.
A scream freezes both of us. It’s a guttural one, sourced from the chest. Something that can’t have us feeling anything other than a directional sense. Not empathy. Not for me. My focus is locked in.
I feel Advik tense at the inhumane echo.
The moment we close in on the source, I find the door ominous enough in the labyrinth of an abandoned corporate structure.
My heart pounds in my throat as I realize that this is it. I’ve called for back up, but it’s too far away.
“Get around the hallway. Find a way to get signal so you can—”
“Get the evidence transmitted?” Advik cuts me off with an expression that has my stomach tightening. “I got you. Let me—”
The scream that causes our collective muteness is terrifying. The gravelly desperation makes me tune in... finally.
It’s someone we know. Someone we recognize. Someone different from who I believe would never make a sound in such a situation.
I watch as Advik’s eyes widen. His grip on his laptop tightens. Before I can stop him, he lunges at the forbidden door. Yanking it open. Stupid moron.
Everything stops.
It takes me two seconds to realize that their mission wasn’t to have us killed. But for me to get a working GenVault system at the premise and erase their existence from the company.
“Advik,” I breathe out as we find ourselves surrounded by at least ten men—all holding a rifle or a handgun.
I immediately spot Viraj’s limp body—strewn about on the floor—tied to the leg of a desk. The space is open yet utterly barren. Like a staging project to become an office space born out of blood.
I watch Advik’s hand hold up the laptop he’d been carrying. The subtle wave is enough for Mehul’s face to start beaming. Because right next to him, sitting in—no, tied to a chair, is... Dev.
And he isn’t moving either. Head bowed, Dev’s breathing is labored, harsh. But at least he looks alive.
I’m not in a position to actually do anything about this anymore. The back up—if it arrives—will only result in killing the men here. And that will bring us back to square one.
“Advik Sharma,” Mehul says, his expression almost ecstatic. “Take a seat. Take a seat!”
The casual gesture has my throat locked, my limbs ready to tackle every man in the room. But I know I’m severely outnumbered. I have no idea what Mehul has in store for me.
But I’m not kept waiting long because he addresses me immediately. “Aadya... care to join your friend?”
The moment the words leave his mouth, a grip engulfs me. Dragging my resisting body toward Viraj’s limp, bleeding form.
“Shut her mouth.”
That’s all Mehul says. And within a second a wet bitter cloth enters my mouth, taped equally quickly. I can’t make a sound. Because I know that if I try, the loose fabric will travel its way down my throat.
Advik walks over with shaky legs. Settling on a chair they have almost ready for him. Right opposite Dev, who is now staring at Advik with half-open eyes and a stricken face.
“Get it done. I’m guessing you know we want all evidence of Sitara’s access logs removed from GenVault’s database,” a man next to Mehul speaks up. “Do it.”
I realize in that moment that Advik knew this would happen. And he came prepared. But it’s also a weak lifeline he’d be forced to hang on to. Because I know the moment he does erase everything—we’re all dead.
There are two people watching over his shoulder and I assume they’re technologically capable enough to know whether he’s defying them or not.
“I... I need to access the remote network. You got wifi?” Advik asks—his voice slightly trembling.
All while I have a random man groping every single inch of my body, trying to find my weapons.
He’s found two knives and one handgun so far.
But my eyes never leave Advik’s back. I don’t know what he’s thinking. Is he actually going to erase everything? Does he know that there’s no way out of this alive even if he somehow transmits the data to a secure server?
The grabby asshole finds one more gun in my boot.
We had tried that on our way here. It didn’t work because Dev’s access credentials were needed. And Advik woefully admitted that he wasn’t tech-savvy enough to bypass it. He’d tried.
God! He’d tried.
Another knife is yanked out of my waist belt.
We needed Dev. But we didn’t know we’d encounter a very battered one right where we were headed.
“Roni!” Mehul signals the man next to him, who spoke earlier. “Set it up.”
The next ten minutes pass by tensely as I’m slowly stripped off all my ammunition. Viraj hasn’t moved but I can see his chest moving—barely. His face carrying reddish bruises that I know will turn purple soon.
I haven’t been hit yet. Just grabbed and groped aggressively. But that doesn’t hike up my pulse. It’s the fact that the two goons behind Advik are now grabbing his shoulders, making their presence known.
“I’m—uh—in,” Advik says hoarsely, his gaze locked on Dev’s, who is still unable to lift his head up.
Advik had tried earlier—I’ll give him that. He tried to look behind him, to find me. But the goon promptly slapped him to look ahead. Where Mehul was standing right behind Dev’s chair.
“Click on that.” One of the goons squeezed Advik’s shoulder enough for him to tremble in pain. I wanted to lunge at him. But my hands and legs were now tied. I watched him helplessly, getting slapped and punched around to get the data erased.
The way he is being monitored, I realize he has no chance to transmit the evidence to my Deputy Secretary, Nayan Murthy. And absolutely no way to ask Dev for his credential access to gain the evidence either.
We are all going to fucking die. My lungs working twice as hard to give me enough oxygen to contemplate the dire outcome.
I am in the middle of making peace with it when I hear Dev croak. “D-do it... A-Advik. You... You’ll need m-my access code.”
I watch as Advik’s head snaps up from his laptop. “Yes. I... can’t hard delete without your permission.”
I watch as the goons behind him tense but don’t say anything. I realize the tech jargon must be sound enough.
Is this it? Is there a chance for the evidence to transmit even if we die?
Fuck.
Dev groans, shifting in his chair. “You need my security key for AWS. That’s... where w-we store everything.”
Advik stiffens—just enough for me to notice. “Yeah. I... need your account password. I can gather that then.”
Dev smirks through his split lip and rattles it off. “Delete it. It’s... okay. The data bucket is under Sitara underscore client119.”
Advik holds his gaze for a moment, then finally nods.
A beat later, Dev whispers again. “Please... tell Meena—my wife. And my Gauri and Madhav that... I love them.”
Advik mutters, “Please. God! Shut u—”
“Aah! It doesn’t work, Dev bhai,” Mehul chuckles. “See, you’re not getting out of here anyway. None of you.”
Then he bends close to Dev’s ear. “But I can tell them.”
Dev thrashes violently in his chair—helpless, frantic—but says nothing. The sound is worse than screaming. It’s the sound of resignation.
I realize his words have probably stopped meaning anything to Mehul—way before we arrived. Sorrow heats up my entire body. Knowing that this will not end well. The tremor in Advik’s frame doesn’t go unnoticed either.
I don’t just feel helpless. I feel like I’ve surrendered for the first time. The way I’d felt when I was sitting in the chair Karim had tied me up to, felt less oppressive and powerless than this.
My expectations from my back up have dwindled to zero.
A few minutes pass and Advik finally slumps his shoulders. “It’s done.”
Mehul has been chatting with his “friends” this whole time. But the moment Advik’s words reach him, he beams like a kid at Christmas. “Perfect! It’s done?”
He doesn’t ask Advik. He’s projecting his question to the goons behind my man. Who promptly nod.
Dev sighs, his body turning in on itself. “What n-now?”
His voice is breaking at every syllable. And my heart breaks at his surrender. I know the moment Advik uttered those words—we were done.
My gaze slides from Advik to Viraj to Dev. This is it. We’re finished. I keep worrying at the ties on my hands, but they don’t budge. I hope to god, Advik found a way to get the evidence transmitted before deleting it. But I can’t be sure.
“Now...” Mehul brandishes a gun from behind his back. “We’re done. You’ll all be killed in... hmm... a car accident on your way home. That sound good?”
He mock pouts, pressing the barrel against Dev’s head.
Just then, I hear it—the clatter of laptop on tile.
Three shots. Three bodies collapsing.
My scream is muffled—harmless, insignificant, swallowed by the sound of blood rushing in my ears. The cloth in my fucking mouth.
Another volley cracks the air. My vision blurs with red and terror.
Then—hands. One of them scrapes the tape from my mouth, pulls the cloth out of my throat.
I look up. Someone’s eyes find mine—but the terror sitting in them doesn’t feel like it belongs to me. Or for me.
“You’re okay,” he whispers shakily.
That’s when I see him. Arms still raised. Aim still fixed on where Mehul should have been standing.
But his eyes—his eyes are on Dev.
And now mine are too. Tears welling. Heart stopping. Breath gone.
Something has shifted in this room forever.
And I know... I’ve reached the end of Aadya.