The man outside the school gate didn't move.
He just kept pretending to scroll through his phone, eyes flicking up every few seconds.
Aria's instincts screamed don't run. Running meant admitting guilt. Instead, she stepped into the shade of a neem tree, pretending to be absorbed in her lunchbox. Her peripheral vision stayed locked on him.
When the bell rang, she slipped into the crowd of students heading back to class. But halfway down the corridor, a folded note was shoved into her hand.
No one was there.
She opened it under the desk, shielding it from the teacher. The handwriting was neat, precise:
> "You don't belong here, Dr. Mehra. Stop looking, or you'll die twice."
Her blood turned cold.
Only a handful of people in the world knew her real name and the fact she had died. Whoever wrote this wasn't guessing—they knew.
At the end of the day, she decided to take a longer route home. She slipped into a cyber café, paid in cash, and opened an encrypted browser. Using the hacking protocols she'd built in her past life, she searched Genex Labs surveillance contractors.
One name popped up: Vikram Kaul. Former intelligence officer. Current "security consultant." The same man she saw outside the gate.
Her eyes narrowed.
If he was here, then Genex was already onto her.
As she logged out, the café's power flickered. The screen went black. A whisper came from directly behind her:
"You can't hide in school forever, Ananya."
She turned sharply—
but the doorway was empty.