**Mumbai, India – 2024**
Detective Adi Shekhawat's office felt unusually quiet, as if the very walls were holding their breath. The usual hum of city traffic outside, the chatter of colleagues in the hallway, it all seemed muted today. It was the kind of silence that only came when something was wrong—something you couldn't quite place. And Adi felt it in his bones.
The case had been haunting him. Three deaths—three seemingly unrelated victims, all found in peculiar circumstances. But beneath the surface, something connected them. Something dark.
Adi sat in his chair, hands steepled in front of his face, staring at the files laid out before him. His partner, Soham Desai, leaned against the doorframe of the office, arms crossed, still in the same clothes from earlier. Both men were exhausted, but neither could walk away from the case just yet.
"What do you think?" Soham asked, his voice soft but tired.
Adi shook his head, pushing the pile of papers away. "I don't know. We've been at this for days, and nothing's making sense. Vikram Mehta, Ravi Sharma, and Meenal Raghav… they're connected, but I can't figure out how. Each one of them came from completely different walks of life."
Soham was quiet for a moment, then stepped forward. "The pattern seems too deliberate to be random, though. Someone's pulling the strings."
"Exactly," Adi murmured, his gaze flickering to the open file on Vikram Mehta. The man had been the first victim. His body had been found in a nondescript alley in Andheri, the result of what appeared to be a sudden and violent death. But when the forensic team had conducted the autopsy, they found nothing—no wounds, no signs of poisoning, no indication of trauma.
"I keep going over this," Adi muttered, tapping the file. "Vikram was well-connected. A successful businessman, well-respected in the community. He had no known enemies. Nothing in his history screams 'target.' And yet..."
Soham leaned in to look at the file, his eyes scanning the documents. "The message he left behind is strange, too," Soham added. "'The time has come. I trust you're ready. Everything is set.' Who was he talking to?"
"It's the same with Ravi and Meenal," Adi said, standing up and pacing. "Ravi's message was the same—cryptic. 'The mountain's calling.' And Meenal… she wrote, 'I'm ready. I've already made my preparations.' What were they preparing for? And why did they all disappear in the days leading up to their deaths?"
Soham rubbed his forehead, thinking. "Could it be connected to some underground organization? A cult or something?"
"I don't know," Adi said, shaking his head. "There's no evidence of any group like that. But all of them were in contact with someone. Someone named Anaya. We need to find out who she is. If she's the one leading them to their deaths, she might be the key."
Soham exhaled sharply. "Anaya. I've heard that name before… I've just… I can't place it."
Adi gave him a pointed look. "Well, start placing it. Whoever she is, she's the link between all of them."
---
**Vikram Mehta's Digital Footprint**
Later that afternoon, Adi and Soham sat together in the tech lab, surrounded by monitors, cables, and the hum of computers. The forensics team had managed to extract Vikram Mehta's phone records, and they were ready to start digging deeper.
Priya, the tech lead, was already at work. "The encryption's tight, but we managed to get into the phone," she said, pulling up a screen full of text messages. "Seems like there was some communication with someone named 'Anaya.'"
Adi's heart skipped a beat. He leaned forward. "What did they say?"
Priya scrolled through the messages, her fingers dancing over the keyboard. "It's strange… these messages are short, almost like code. 'The time is near. Are you ready for the task?' 'I trust you, Vikram. The plan is set in motion.'"
"Who is she?" Soham asked, leaning over to get a closer look.
"Unknown," Priya said. "There's no traceable record. All the emails are sent from an encrypted server, making it almost impossible to track. But whoever she is, she's been in contact with Vikram for weeks."
Adi frowned. "The plan is set in motion... Could it be related to the other victims?"
"I think so," Priya replied. "And get this—there's a series of deleted messages, which we managed to recover. One of them says, 'You're getting close, Vikram. The others are almost ready.'"
"Others?" Soham asked. "What does that mean? Is she referring to Ravi and Meenal?"
"It's possible," Adi said, a sense of dread creeping into his chest. "If Vikram was involved in something bigger than just business—if he was part of something… clandestine."
---
**Ravi Sharma's Digital Footprint**
The next stop was Ravi Sharma's phone, and the tech team was quick to pull up his data as well. Ravi's messages were far less cryptic than Vikram's, but there was something unnerving about them.
Soham scrolled through the messages. "Here's one: 'The mountain's calling. I won't be back until I'm finished.' What the hell does that mean?"
"It's like a riddle," Adi muttered, his mind racing. "What mountain?"
Priya, now observing the screen, pointed to a map app on Ravi's phone. "It's a location. The 'mountain' he's referring to is actually a remote hilltop on the outskirts of Lonavala."
"The mountain…" Soham repeated. "Could it be symbolic? Or… is it literal?"
Adi's gaze hardened. "Doesn't matter. If Ravi was planning to meet someone out there, it's worth checking. Let's get a team ready and head to Lonavala."
---
**Meenal Raghav's Digital Footprint**
By late evening, they had Meenal Raghav's data in hand. Her phone had been locked tight, but the team had managed to break through the encryption with relative ease. It wasn't long before they found the disturbing link to Anaya once again.
Adi's eyes scanned the screen. Meenal's final message read: "I'm ready. I've already made my preparations."
"Prepped for what?" Soham muttered under his breath.
"There's something bigger at play here," Adi said. "We need to understand what these 'preparations' were."
Meenal's social media pages were sparse, just a few innocuous posts about work and family. But there was one post—a photo of a darkened street corner, with the caption, "The circle is complete." The post was timestamped just two days before her death.
Soham frowned. "The circle is complete? What does that mean?"
"I think Anaya is the one bringing them all together," Adi said, his thoughts racing. "She's orchestrating something. But we don't know what yet."
---
**The Unsettling Call**
As they were leaving the tech lab, Adi's phone buzzed again. This time, it was a call.
"Detective Shekhawat," Adi answered, his voice steady but his heart pounding.
The voice on the other end was familiar, but chilling.
"You're getting closer, Detective," the voice said, calm and low. "But you're still missing the point. If you dig too deep, you may find more than you can handle. Consider this your final warning."
Before Adi could respond, the call ended, leaving a ringing silence in his ears.
Soham, standing beside him, raised an eyebrow. "That was strange. Who was that?"
"I don't know," Adi said, his mind racing. "But they know too much. They know we're onto something."
Soham's face tightened with concern. "What now?"
Adi turned to face him, his eyes steely. "We don't stop. We find Anaya. We find the answers. And we don't let them stop us."