Ali, standing alone in the dark shipyard, rubbed his sore ribs and groaned. The fight with Tariq had taken more out of him than he cared to admit, and his body hurt in places he didn't even know could hurt. As he tried to catch his breath, a pair of headlights flashed from the distance and drew closer.
It was an old, beat-up Ambassador taxi 🚖 the kind you'd expect to see on the streets of Mumbai, not in the middle of an abandoned shipyard. The taxi screeched to a halt right next to Ali.
The driver, a middle-aged man with a thick mustache and a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips, leaned out of the window. "Arey, Inspector Ali! What are you doing out here, bhai? You look like you got into a fight with a tiger!"
Ali winced as he tried to smile. "Close enough. Can you give me a lift? I think my chest is still somewhere back there."
The driver chuckled, his gold tooth gleaming in the dim light. "Hop in, sahib. I'll get you to the hospital before your bones decide to retire early."
With some effort, Ali slid into the back of the cab, wincing with every movement. The driver sped off toward Lilavati Hospital, the cab bouncing over the rough roads.
Ali laid his head back and groaned. "First I get beaten up, then they escape on a motorcycle... Jai will laugh his head off."
The driver looked at him in the rearview mirror. "What was that? You said 'bike'? Was it a fancy one? I bet it was a gang, huh? Always these fancy bikes with the gangs."
Ali shook his head slightly, grinning despite the pain. "You have no idea, bhai. I just tangled with Kabir's crew. Kabir... can you believe it? Kabir. The guy we thought was long gone."
The driver whistled. "Kabir? The same Kabir from that big robbery years ago? I thought he was dead!"
"Yeah, we all did," Ali muttered, closing his eyes. "But apparently Mumbai can't let go of its legends."
-------------------------
Meanwhile, at the crime scene, Jai Dixit paced the dimly lit control room of the jewel vault, his brow furrowed in concentration. The vault's CCTV footage played on the screen in front of him, replaying the moments of the robbery over and over.
He had already inspected the blast site, collected evidence, and talked to witnesses. But nothing had prepared him for what he saw on the footage now.
The footage was crystal clear, almost too clear.
Kabir's face, staring directly into the camera, taunting him. His eyes cold, calculating, just as Jai remembered them. But how could this be?
Jai stopped the recording, zoomed in on the face. His heartbeat quickened and his mind raced. Kabir had died. Jai had seen him fall into the river at the end of that deadly chase years ago. No body had been recovered, but Kabir was presumed dead, his reign of terror over.
"How is that possible?" Jai muttered to himself, rewinding the footage and watching it again.
Kabir - his signature smirk still intact - was standing with the same confident posture as before, as if he had never disappeared. He was alive, right there on the screen, once again back to terrorized the city.
Kabir's gang, working with military precision, were seen disarming the guards, taking control of the vault, and letting the cameras record every second. He deliberately showed his face, almost as if he wanted Jai to see him.
Jai felt a shiver run down his spine. This wasn't just a robbery. This was personal.
He turned to Inspector Deshmukh,, who stood nearby, equally stunned. "Run it again," Jai ordered.
Deshmukh, wide-eyed, replayed the footage. "Sir, is that really Kabir? I thought..."
"I thought so too," Jai interrupted, his voice tightening. "But here he is. Alive. Back to finish what he started. But how? How is he alive?"
Jai leaned closer to the screen and studied Kabir's every move. The footage had no tricks, no glitches. It was Kabir in the flesh. The same man who had evaded capture, who had challenged Jai's intellect and skills at every turn. And now, somehow, he had returned.
Jai ran a hand through his hair, his mind swirling with questions. Was this a ghost? A double? Or had Kabir, the mastermind who was always ten steps ahead, faked his own death all those years ago?
It wouldn't be the first time a criminal had outsmarted the system. But Kabir? To fake death and return after all this time? It seemed too impossible... but then again, nothing was impossible with Kabir.
Deshmukh shifted uncomfortably. "Sir, what do we do now?"
Jai straightened, his expression hardening. "We find him. We find Kabir and we stop him before he does whatever he's planning next."
"But where do we start?" Deshmukh asked, unsure.
Jai stared at the screen that Kabir had deliberately left behind. It was a challenge, an invitation to play the game again.
"We start where it all started," Jai said grimly. "Kabir is not here just to rob. He's here to prove something. And I'll be damned if I let him win this time."
---
Meanwhile, at Lilavati Hospital, Ali was being wheeled into the emergency room by the same taxi driver, who was now bragging to the hospital staff about how he'd just saved a policeman's life.
"Doctor, quick!" the driver shouted, waving his hands dramatically. "This man needs help! He's a hero! A warrior! A true legend of Mumbai!"
Ali groaned as he was placed on the hospital bed. "Yes, a legend who got his butt kicked."
Nurses rushed around him, checking his injuries. As the driver continued his exaggerated account of events, Ali managed a weary grin.
"At least somebody thinks I'm a hero," he muttered before drifting off to sleep.
---
Back at the crime scene, Jai stared at the paused CCTV footage of Kabir's face.
--
Back at the crime scene, Jai stared at the paused CCTV footage, Kabir's face still haunting him from the screen. He knew this was only the beginning.
Kabir was back. And this time, he wasn't playing by anyone's rules but his own.