Om Jindal Part 1 – The Transfer Order Ooty, 1895. The train hissed as it wound up the Nilgiri mountains, its wheels screeching around narrow curves, as though the very hills resisted intrusion. From his open window, Devendra Nath Rai watched thick clouds drape over eucalyptus trees and tea plantations like a shroud. The air had a peculiar chill—unlike the searing plains of Madras Presidency, where he’d spent most of his career. He was thirty-two, a quiet man with neat handwriting and a taste for facts. The British admired him for his efficiency; Indians called him “Sarkari Sahib” behind his…
-
-
शिवांगी तिवारी 1 मुंबई से लगभग 40 किलोमीटर दूर, समंदर के किनारे एक छोटा-सा गांव है—रॉकविले। यह गांव शहर की चकाचौंध से दूर है, लेकिन वहां की सबसे खास और डरावनी चीज़ है—’काली चट्टान’। हर शाम समंदर के बीचोंबीच उस काली चट्टान पर एक अजीब-सा नीला उजाला दिखाई देता है। कोई नहीं जानता वो रोशनी आती कहाँ से है। इसी गांव में पत्रकार आरव मेहरा आया था, एक स्टोरी की तलाश में। वो क्राइम रिपोर्टर था लेकिन इस बार उसने खुद चुना था रॉकविले आना। उसे किसी ने एक अनाम ईमेल भेजा था— “If you want the story of your…
-
Namrata Das Chapter 1: The Vanishing Act The early morning sun filtered through the glass windows of the high-rise building, casting long shadows over the boardroom table where Vikram Khandelwal, CEO of Khandelwal Technologies, had sat just days ago. The office now stood eerily silent, devoid of its usual buzz, as the city of Bangalore continued its relentless pace outside. Vikram’s sudden disappearance had left everyone in shock. The multi-billion-dollar merger between Khandelwal Technologies and Rathi Innovations, set to redefine the Indian tech landscape, had fallen apart without explanation. In a matter of hours, a corporate juggernaut had crumbled, and…
-
Talia Verma Part 1: The Signal Beneath the Code Riya D’Souza had spent the last thirty-six hours in the analytics lab of Delphatech Systems with nothing but a lukewarm soy latte and a dozen lines of untraceable code for company. She blinked at the double-screen setup in front of her, the left monitor displaying her algorithm’s output logs, the right one scrolling endless rows of encrypted global banking transactions. Her job wasn’t supposed to be this intense. Data mining for anomalies was mundane, tedious—until it wasn’t. It had started with a flicker. A pattern buried deep within the monetary flow…
-
Rohan Mehta Part 1 The rains had returned to Mumbai like an old enemy. Not with the promise of relief, but the murky stench of trouble. It was just past midnight when Inspector Alisha Ranade pulled up in her rain-splashed black Bolero outside the abandoned Crawford Mills compound. Her phone buzzed again—a message from headquarters: “Body found. Possibly political.” She hated those two words. In her experience, “possibly political” meant either someone too powerful was involved or someone too disposable had been silenced. The scene was taped off by a lone constable who looked more scared than soaked. “Inside,” he…
-
Karan Dev Chapter 1: The Last Broadcast The rain tapped steadily on the windowpane of Arya Thomas’s seventh-floor apartment, a constant rhythm that sounded like code—dots and dashes tapping out some forgotten message. The city of Solace—ironically named—was still half-awake beyond the misted glass, skyscrapers glowing in haze and neon, while below, the hum of wet tires and distant sirens filled the night. Arya sat hunched over her desk, a condenser mic tilted toward her, headphones wrapped tightly around her ears, her voice low and smooth as she whispered into the night. “This is Arya Thomas, and you’re listening to…