Location: Swindon Private Hospital – Room 207 – 6:33 AM
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The smell of antiseptic hung heavy in the air. Machines beeped in slow, measured rhythm as sunlight slipped through the blinds, casting golden lines across the hospital bed where Kiaan lay, his head bandaged, blood cleaned, but his eyes still sharp—calculating even through the ache.
Tara, Rehaan, Dev, and Zid stood around him, all tense, all shaken—but none more than Tara, whose fingers kept twitching at her side, as if itching for her keyboard.
Tara (exasperated): "We still don't know who the hell sent me Kiaan's exact location last night. The number was encrypted. Anonymous. It vanished as soon as the coordinates came through."
Dev frowned, arms crossed.
Dev: "No way this was random. Someone knew Kiaan was taken. Someone tracked him… and sent the rescue coordinates directly to HQ."
He glanced around the room, his voice lowering.
Dev: "Either someone's watching him closely… or someone's watching all of us."
Kiaan blinked slowly, voice gravelly but clear.
Kiaan: "Does it matter right now?"
He sat up slightly, wincing.
Kiaan: "The killer was right there. He let me live on purpose."
Rehaan: "He hit you hard enough to knock you out. You think that was mercy?"
Kiaan: "No."
A pause, his voice darkening.
Kiaan: "That was a warning. He wanted me to know he could've killed me. And next time, he might."
Everyone fell silent.
Zid's phone buzzed quietly. A new message flashed from Zay: "Good. He's alive. Boss is updated."
Zid typed back quickly:
"Kiaan's safe. No visible threat now. Team's rattled. No one knows who tracked him."Zay's reply came almost instantly:
"Keep it that way. Do your job. Keep your mouth shut. Reyaan doesn't want loose ends."
Zid looked up. His expression unreadable.
Tara kept pacing, frustration rising.
Tara: "I've tried backtracing the signal three different ways. It was clean. Professional. Government-level masking. No one outside our agency should be able to…"
Her voice trailed off. A thought hit her like a bullet.
Tara (softly, to herself): "…Unless they're already inside."
Kiaan raised an eyebrow but didn't ask. He could see the storm in Tara's mind.
But the truth sat quietly in the corner of the hospital—Arav Mehra's . The tech prodigy, the recluse who rarely left his encrypted digital bunker, had been the one to trace Kiaan's location. He watched it all unfold from his surveillance room.
Zid knew who did but he keep silence.
He also knew why he have to kept it hidden.
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Back in the hospital room, Kiaan spoke again, low and firm.
Kiaan: "Dev. Rehaan. I need full lists of who was discharged from Swindon Military Base over the last six years. Especially anyone who had psychological flags."
Dev: "Already on it. But it'll take time. The military's not exactly cooperative post-incident."
Kiaan (grinning faintly): "Then twist them. You know how."
Rehaan stepped forward.
Rehaan: "And what do we do about this… shadow helping us?"
Kiaan: "We don't chase shadows. We use them."
Zid watched them all closely, hiding his phone behind his back.
Only he knew that Reyaan Malhotra—the cold-blooded kingmaker in the shadows—was watching everything unfold. Every move of Kiaan's was marked. Every ally… judged.
And the game was just getting deeper.