"The ghost you control is still a ghost — and ghosts never stay caged."
Abandoned Train Yard, Majestic – 2:13 AM
Thunder cracked as Kabir sprinted across the rusting yard, ducking behind derailed bogies.
He wasn't running from a killer.
He was chasing a truth.
One that had started eating through the edges of his own memories.
Since the footage. Since that voice.
Vihaan's deal with the Crown. Kabir's face in the meeting.
What if…
He was never the outsider?
What if his assignment all along was never to catch Zayen, but to guide him into the trap?
He skidded to a halt before an old switch box.
Inside it: a briefcase.
The one he buried seven years ago.
Still untouched.
He opened it slowly — and inside, found a drive labeled:
PHOENIX.EXE
A program he didn't remember writing.
But it had his signature.
Meanwhile – Clone Zayen's Path, Near UB City
The streets below were empty.
On the rooftop, the clone moved like a whisper.
Effortless. Focused.
Every step mimicked Zayen's parkour routes.
He paused at a ledge overlooking the Commissioner's Office.
"Upload commencing," said the voice in his earpiece.
But the clone hesitated.
Because in the glass reflection of a tower across the road…
He saw Zayen.
The real one.
Watching him.
Neither moved.
No gun.
No threats.
Just silence.
Until Zayen lifted a small device… and pressed a button.
The lights in the entire block died.
Underground – Tech Crypt in Jayanagar
Zayen entered what looked like a server graveyard.
Here, systems that were "too dangerous to destroy" were kept on lockdown.
One of them: SARATHI CORE 1.0
The original AI.
Corrupted. Obsolete. But still intact.
He placed his decrypted Crown chip into the port.
The system blinked alive.
"USER MATCHED."
SARATHI had no voice. But it knew him.
He didn't want to use it.
But he had to level the field.
"Inject yourself into the current network," he typed.
"Hijack all identities under my tag. Make me untraceable."
The system replied:
"You won't exist anymore."
Zayen smiled.
"Good. That's what they want anyway."
Back in Kabir's Safehouse
He ran PHOENIX.EXE.
The screen filled with coordinates — all over Bangalore — where Crown had tagged assets, manipulated CCTV, and planted cloned behavioral data.
It also showed him something else.
A list of detained originals.
Including:
Zayen Mehra (Classified: Target Red)
Neha Sharma (Classified: Rogue Agent)
Vihaan Mehra (Status: UNKNOWN)
But at the bottom, a final tag:
"Agent Kabir Sharma – Status: Controlled Variable"
He blinked.
"I've been a pawn all along…"
He pulled a pistol.
Pointed it at the screen.
Didn't fire.
Instead, he smiled.
"If I'm their weapon, then it's time I backfire."
Somewhere in Shivajinagar
The clone received a new directive from Crown:
"APPROACH ORIGINAL. ENGAGE. ELIMINATE IF UNSTABLE."
He stared at the message.
His fingers hovered.
Then deleted it.
For the first time, the clone didn't obey.
3:33 AM – Citywide Broadcast Jam
All across Bangalore, every phone lit up with a single video:
Zayen. Hood up. Face visible.
He looked directly into the camera.
"You've seen a version of me. You've been fed a story.
But stories written by tyrants always leave one thing out —
The ending they fear the most."
The feed cut.
No trace left.
But it was enough.
The city blinked.
The Crown panicked