The next morning, Surya slept until 9:00 AM because of the exhaustion from the previous day.
His sleep was interrupted by the sounds of drilling machines, loud hammering, and banging.
Surya got up and went to see where the sounds were coming from, and saw that Arjun was working on something.
He greeted Arjun with a "Good morning," to which Arjun replied in kind.
Then someone else greeted Surya. When he turned his head to see who it was, he found Hari on the sofa playing games on the TV.
Surya greeted Hari back and asked him, "When did you get here?"
Hari had a lollipop in his mouth. So, to reply to Surya, he took it out of his mouth and said, "My father dropped me off here at 7:00 am."
Surya asked, "Is that so? Then where is your dad?"
Hari replied, "He said he had some work to do, so he'll come later after completing it."
As Surya was conversing with Hari, Muthu came and was surprised to see Surya there.
Muthu asked, "Why are you still here, Surya? Don't you have a flight at 9:30 AM to catch?"
Upon hearing this, Surya was surprised and said, "What? But Arjun didn't say anything about it."
Arjun replied, "That's because you didn't ask me about it."
Surya was about to say, "You son of a bitch," but both Muthu and Arjun signaled him to stop by mentioning, "Hari is here." This prompted him to say only, "Sonnova."
Surya quickly went into the bathroom, washed his face, got dressed, grabbed his tickets, and checked the time while putting on his shoes.
Arjun asked, "What about the cap?"
Surya went back into the room with his shoes on to fetch the cap. Arjun became angry and said, "Why are you running with shoes on in the room? You're making the floor dirty."
Surya replied, "Please clean it up."
After taking the cap, Surya said goodbye to Hari.
Meanwhile, Muthu said to Surya, "I know a shortcut to the airport that will get us there on time. Let me drive."
Surya said, "That would be great help."
Before leaving the room, Surya turned towards Arjun and said, "Put on the earbuds, I need to tell you something, so wait for my call."
Arjun said, "Nah! I know what you're going to say, so I'll pass."
Surya left without fully hearing Arjun's response.
Once he get inside the car, Surya called Arjun.
Arjun hesitated for a moment whether to answer or not, but finally he picked up the call.
As soon as Arjun answered the call, Surya started cursing at him.
Due to this, Arjun put the phone aside and continued with his work.
After venting his frustration on Arjun, Surya ended the call and said to Muthu, "Sorry Muthu, you had to hear some bad words because of me."
Muthu said, "It's okay. It's better to release anger than to hold it in."
Thanks to Muthu, Surya reached the airport on time and was able to catch his flight.
Time passed slowly as Arjun was completely engrossed in setting up a device both in Surya's house and in the office room of the factory.
Arjun regularly exercises according to his routine and also jogs in the morning.
Arjun doesn't want to reveal the location of his house, so he travels far from home to jog.
One fine day, while jogging on the footpath alongside a lake, he received an alert from AI.
[AI: Alert! Alert!]
Arjun: What happened?
[AI: Someone is following you.]
Arjun: Really?
[AI: Yes, after surveying satellite and some surveillance cameras in the surrounding area, I am 100% sure that someone is following you.]
Suddenly, many questions arose in Arjun's mind, but he didn't stop running, fearing it might give the stalker a chance to doubt him.
Arjun decided to use AI to eliminate the stalker before they could do anything.
Arjun: Search for nearby snipers.
[AI: Searching for nearby snipers.]
Arjun couldn't complete Phase 3, but the changes he made related to Phase 3 allowed AI to connect to the main server and operate without any device.
That's why AI was able to alert Surya, thanks to the self-defense module, which is a feature of Phase 3.
[AI: One sniper has been located in this area.]
Arjun: Try to contact him and offer him a ransom in a way that he won't reject.
[AI: Contacting the sniper.]
Meanwhile, in a hotel room, the sniper was cleaning his face in front of the mirror. He noticed the notification that appeared on his burner phone.
When he opened his phone, he saw a message from Athene instructing him to eliminate the threat immediately.
The AI also offered a significant amount of money that the sniper couldn't refuse, so he accepted the offer.
[AI: The sniper has accepted the job.]
Arjun:Guide him to the location and eliminate the threat.
[AI: Okay.]
A call came to the sniper's mobile phone.
When he answered, he was surprised to hear the instructions, to which he replied, "What? I have to shoot from the balcony of the room I'm in?"
AI, speaking as Athene on the line, said, "Yes, you can see the target from your balcony. Use the silencer to avoid any trouble."
The sniper thought for a moment and then said, "Okay."
He then picked up a guitar case from beneath the bed and opened it.
Instead of a guitar, his sniper gun was inside that guitar case.
He assembled the parts and then attached the silencer to the nozzle.
Following Athene's suggestions, he stepped onto the balcony and aimed towards the location indicated by AI.
Arjun stopped jogging and turned, pointing his index finger towards the location where the stalker was.
Seeing that, the stalker became worried and hid from Arjun's view, fearing that Arjun might discover him.
He quickly opened his phone and began typing something.
Arjun exclaimed, "Bang!"
At the exact moment, the stalker was hit by the sniper.
Arjun then went into the alley where the stalker was.
He picked up his phone and saw that the stalker was in the middle of sending a message to someone.
The message read, "I have seen '07'."
As he was typing the address, he got shot by the sniper.
Seeing the half-written address, Arjun cleared it completely.
The only other person who knows about him, aside from his current associates, is his mother.
He thought that someone related to his mother might be searching for him because instead of the names Athene or Arjun, a code-like number such as 07 was written.
So it could be his mother or someone connected to her who knows about him.
With anger, he threw the phone on the ground and kicked it until his anger was released.
He then gathered all the parts together, threw some trash on it, and lit it using a matchbox he borrowed from someone nearby.
He watched the flames until the phone completely burnt.
He then returned the matchbox to the person he borrowed it from and went back home.
He was deeply thinking about how to handle the situation with his mother or whoever it is.
He was continuously thinking about how to keep himself hidden, how to confront "The Brahmarakshas" group, and how to ensure the safety of his people.
As he continued to think about it, a sudden realization came to his mind.
Even with the knowledge of AI, he couldn't trace details of "The Brahmarakshas" group, and the credit goes to none other than "The Night_owl."
If he seeks help from "The Night_owl" or learns something from him, it could be helpful.
He remembered Yash's words to Surya about Night_owl's program.
If he can hack into it, then Night_owl would have to accept his terms and teach him everything about the web and other subjects.
Arjun seemed determined with his new goal, so he stood up and resumed his work. His plan was to quickly finish his tasks and return home to solve the Night_owl program.
Meanwhile, somewhere, a person was performing an operation in a shady, dim ICU room.
There were lights only on the operation table, and the rest of the area was completely dark.
Someone slowly walked down the dark corridor and knocked on the door of the operation room.
Upon hearing the knock, the person performing the operation stopped and looked towards the man at the door.
The man standing at the door said, "Ma'am, we received a message from '01991'. He said he saw '07'."
The man continued, "But he didn't send any address, so we tracked him."
"When we found the area and went there, we discovered that he is dead. So we left some of our team there to search for '07'."
The woman placed the knife on the table, removed her gloves, and walked slowly towards the window.
She slowly removed her mask.
It was the mother of Arjun.
She said, "There's no use in searching for him in that area. Call our men back."
The man said, "Okay, ma'am," and left the room.
She looked towards the moon and said, "The time for our reunion has come, my son."
Saying this, she smiled maniacally.
END OF VOLUME 1