A new war room pulsed beneath the Hyderabad Police HQ—screens flickering, agents murmuring, maps glowing red.
At the center stood Commissioner Raman, head of Operation Red Veil.
"Every CCTV feed, every temple registry, every medical record—trace them all," he ordered.
"We're not chasing a myth; we're chasing a trained mind. She knows our system inside out."
On the wall, a single still frame—Rathnadevi mid-spin, veil flowing like fire—glowed under harsh white light.
In the ashram, Lakshmi Rajyam read the headline that chilled her:
"Police Close to Identifying the Whistleblower Goddess."
Naveen slammed the laptop shut. "Someone's leaking from inside our circle."
Haripriya looked up sharply. "Impossible. Only the four of us know—me, Parvathy, Satyabhama, and you."
Her eyes narrowed. "Trust is fragile when power trembles."
That night she combed through her hidden data servers—old intelligence backdoors Sathyamoorthy had once built for his Ashok Chakravarthy network.
A single encrypted file blinked at her: "Phoenix-Protocol."
Last edited—the day before the Tech Convention explosion.
When she decrypted it, a video flickered alive.
Sathyamoorthy's face appeared—calm, resolute.
"If you're watching this, it means truth has burned everything around you. They'll hunt you in the name of law. Don't fight them head-on—out-think them. Justice dies when we forget the cost of mercy."
At the end of the message, coordinates flashed—an abandoned biotech facility near Warangal.
Beneath them, one line of text:
'The cure lies where the infection began.'
Lakshmi Rajyam, Naveen, and Haripriya reached the ruined facility before dawn.
Inside, dust-covered computers hummed faintly—Sathyamoorthy's last base.
They uncovered encrypted case files: lists of politicians, corporate donors, and shell companies funding false safety reports—the same names now leading Operation Red Veil.
Haripriya whispered, "They're not hunting justice… they're protecting themselves."
Before they could copy everything, a red alarm blinked. Naveen cursed. "They traced us!" Gunfire echoed outside.
Lakshmi Rajyam grabbed the drives, shoving them into a steel box.
"Run to the east exit!" she ordered.
Smoke filled the halls as they escaped through the old drainage tunnel.
Behind them, the lab erupted in flames—the evidence half-saved, half-lost.
Two days later, Parvathy didn't return to the safe house.
Naveen tracked her phone—it pinged inside police headquarters.
"She's been taken," he said.
Her face was stone. "No… she went to them."
The next morning, Commissioner Raman announced publicly:
"The woman known as Rathnadevi is none other than Lakshmi Rajyam, former Home Minister, presumed dead. She's wanted for treason, vigilantism, and multiple cyber offences."
The news spread across every channel. The goddess was unmasked.
In a hidden temple deep in the forest, Lakshmi Rajyam sat before the idol, blood seeping through a wound on her arm.
The veil beside her lay torn. Naveen knelt beside her. "They'll close in soon. We can still flee—cross the border."
Lakshmi Rajyam shook her head. "If I run now, they'll bury the truth forever."
She looked toward the fire.
"Sathyamoorthy's message said 'the cure lies where the infection began.' It wasn't about medicine—it was about the system."
Haripriya clenched her fists. "Then we finish what he started."
Her eyes blazed again.
"No more hiding. They made me the villain—now I'll use it. If they fear Rathnadevi, then let fear become the cure."
Thunder rolled outside as the first drops of a new storm fell. Operation Red Veil was no longer a manhunt—it was a war for truth itself.