Anjali and Ajay entered Conference Room B. Rohan sat on the chair with his hands tied behind his back.
As Anjali and Ajay walked in, Rohan sneered, "You always did have a soft spot for strays," nodding at Ajay. "Though this one's more useful than most."
Anjali ignored Rohan's remark, her focus entirely on the data inside the drive. She inserted it into her laptop. The drive was encrypted, but it was nothing for her—within seconds, she cracked the code and scanned the files on the screen.
After a moment, Anjali exhaled sharply.
"This isn't K2," she realized aloud.
Rohan smirked in return. "No, it's not. But the fact that you just confirmed its existence? That's what I needed."
While Anjali was focused on the data, Ajay observed Rohan closely and spotted a pen camera in his left chest pocket.
Ajay's fingers darted to Rohan's pocket, snatching the pen. "He's recording this. The pen is transmitting everything to another location."
Hearing Ajay, Anjali grabbed the pen from him and crushed it under her heel.
"Clever," she admitted. "But not clever enough."
Rohan shrugged. "Doesn't matter. By now, my associates know K2 exists. They'll tear your company apart to find it."
Just as Rohan was feeling smug, Ajay's tablet pinged. He scanned the notification, then looked up with grim satisfaction. "Actually, they won't." He turned the screen to show a frozen live feed—Rohan's pen camera transmission had been cut off.
Ajay had been one step ahead. After meeting Rohan downstairs earlier, he had hacked into his devices using a custom-built virus, stopping the footage from ever reaching Rohan's backer.
"What the hell is this?" Rohan glared at Ajay.
"A lesson," Anjali said coldly. "You don't steal from me and walk away."
She called security to haul Rohan away and hand him over to the police.
As Rohan shouted obscenities, security dragged him out. When the door clicked shut, Anjali finally turned to Ajay.
"Start talking."
Ajay exhaled. "When I started working for you yesterday, I heard about stolen company data. I wanted to prove myself, so I investigated and found Rohan's name in the employee logs—the same man rumored to be behind the theft." He hesitated. "When we met him downstairs earlier, I... may have installed surveillance malware on his devices."
Anjali raised an eyebrow. "May have?"
"Okay, I definitely did." Ajay ran a hand through his hair. "You should know—I graduated from IIT Bombay in Computer Engineering. The malware was my own design. But it paid off."
Instead of anger, Anjali felt an unexpected flicker of admiration. "You're quite talented. Whoever fired you from your last job was a fool."
Ajay's eyes darkened, the humiliation of that memory flashing across his face.
Anjali didn't notice, lost in thought about who Rohan's backer might be. Silence stretched between them.
Then Ajay's phone rang—Divya's school calling.
Anjali turned toward the window, composing herself. "We'll continue this tonight. At the house."
As Ajay stepped out to take the call, she allowed herself a rare, unguarded moment. This man—resourceful, unpredictable—was dismantling her defenses without even trying.
And for the first time in years, she wasn't in a hurry to put them back up.