The abandoned office smelled like dust and old secrets—both familiar, both dangerous.
Aarav Kane stood by the cracked window, watching the street below. No movement. No shadows lingering too long. Cipher Dawn had pulled back, which meant one thing: they were confident.
That bothered him more than gunfire.
Behind him, Nisha sat cross-legged on the floor, rubbing her temples. She had just finished reciting the names again. Aarav had recorded nothing. No devices. No notes. Some truths were too dangerous to exist outside the human mind.
Two Bureau handlers.
One operations analyst.
One logistics officer.
And one name that made his jaw tighten.
Rudra Malhotra.
Soren's mentor. A senior Sentinel strategist. A man who had shaken Aarav's hand three days ago and said, Welcome to the family.
Families, Aarav had learned, were excellent places to hide knives.
Soren's voice came through the comm again. "Kane, extraction team is ten minutes out. Low profile."
Aarav hesitated.
"Soren," he said slowly, "who authorized tonight's operation?"
Another pause. Too long.
"…Malhotra," Soren answered.
Aarav closed his eyes for half a second.
Checkmate position confirmed.
"Change extraction," Aarav said. "Abort Bureau pickup."
"What?" Soren snapped. "That's protocol violation—"
"Protocol is compromised," Aarav cut in. "If Malhotra's dirty, then extraction is a delivery."
Silence. Then quietly, "You're accusing a Sentinel architect of working with Cipher Dawn."
"I'm accusing him of surviving where others didn't," Aarav replied. "Including my father."
Nisha looked up sharply. "You trust him?"
Aarav met her eyes. "No. But I trust his doubt."
Soren exhaled. "You realize what this means if you're wrong."
Aarav smirked faintly. "And if I'm right?"
Another pause.
"…Then you're already dead," Soren said.
Aarav disconnected.
He turned to Nisha. "We can't go back to the Bureau. Not yet."
Her voice shook. "Then where do we go?"
Aarav thought of the list. The names. The patterns.
And one place Cipher Dawn avoided unless absolutely necessary.
"Public," he said. "Visible. Loud."
They moved fast.
By the time dawn crept into the city, Aarav and Nisha blended into the crowd outside a government-run forensic archive—open to researchers, journalists, and law students. Cameras everywhere. Security tight but predictable.
Cipher Dawn didn't like witnesses.
Inside, Aarav accessed archived case files using an old clearance code—his father's.
Still active.
That hurt more than it should have.
"Your father was officially declared missing," Nisha said softly. "Not dead."
Aarav didn't respond.
He pulled up one file after another, cross-referencing deaths ruled as suicides. Engineers. Analysts. Cryptographers. Whistleblowers.
All connected.
All brushed aside.
And every single investigation had been overseen by the same internal review officer.
Rudra Malhotra.
Aarav leaned back, mind racing. This wasn't chaos. It was architecture. Malhotra didn't just work with Cipher Dawn.
He managed the damage.
A shadow fell across their table.
A uniformed officer stood there, smiling politely. "Detective Kane?"
Aarav's muscles tensed.
"Yes?"
"You're requested upstairs. Bureau matter."
Aarav smiled back. Calm. Polite. Deadly.
"Tell whoever sent you," he said evenly, "that if they touch me here, every camera in this building records it."
The officer's smile faltered.
From across the hall, another figure approached.
Soren.
Real. Tense. Angry.
"Don't," Soren said to the officer. "I'll handle this."
The officer retreated.
Soren dropped into the chair opposite Aarav, voice low. "Malhotra knows you're onto him."
Aarav nodded. "He always did."
Soren glanced at Nisha. "And her?"
"She's alive," Aarav said. "Which makes her dangerous."
Soren met Aarav's eyes. "You're forcing a confrontation."
"No," Aarav corrected. "He is. I'm just refusing to disappear quietly."
Soren leaned back, conflicted. "If we expose him without airtight proof, the Bureau collapses inward."
Aarav stood. "Then we make sure the proof is loud."
Outside, a news van parked abruptly.
Inside Aarav's pocket, Nisha's burner phone vibrated.
One message.
UNKNOWN: You found the name. Good. Now choose—justice, or survival.
Aarav smiled grimly.
Cipher Dawn thought he was still playing their game.
They were wrong.