Inside the high-rise penthouse office overlooking central London, the atmosphere was anything but calm. The floor-to-ceiling windows reflected the city's power, but at the heart of that empire stood a man whose brow had furrowed into a rare crease — Reyaan Malhotra — known to most as Rex, the silent ruler of England's underworld.
The quiet tick of the vintage wall clock was broken by the sharp buzz of the encrypted comm-line. Rex pressed a button, and Arav's voice poured through with urgency.
> "Boss, we've got a situation."
Rex, seated in his leather chair, didn't flinch. "Talk."
Arav's voice was taut. "Kiaan Verma… he's cut us off. Entirely."
A beat.
Rex's jaw clenched just slightly. "Explain."
Arav exhaled. "He's stopped using his old phone. The one we had tapped — audio, texts, even voice-command access. It's gone. SIM card trashed. Hardware decommissioned. He's got a new device. Completely clean. He did it right after your call."
Rex stood slowly, walking toward the glass wall, fingers locked behind his back.
> "So… he figured it out."
"He didn't say a word about it to anyone, Rex. No texts. No whispers. Not even facial expressions to suggest suspicion. Nothing. And that's the problem — it's like he knew all along and was just… waiting for the right moment to ditch it."
A pause. Rex let out a low, intrigued chuckle.
> "Smart kid," he muttered, almost admiring. "Smarter than I thought."
Arav's voice came back sharp. "This changes the game. We can't hear his calls. We don't know who he's reporting to, what locations he's planning to hit, or what theories he's building. We're flying blind now."
Rex turned, his face unreadable but eyes sharper than a blade.
> "No. He is flying into my storm without a map."
Arav, still wired into the feed, hesitated. "What's the move now?"
Rex smirked faintly, walking toward the encrypted server room behind his office — the heart of his digital empire. "You think I built an empire in England without planning for silence? You think one boy tossing his toy phone can blind me?"
Arav stayed quiet, sensing something brewing in Rex's mind.
Rex stopped in front of the server.
> "We had a leash. Now he's off it. And when dogs run free… they either find the wolf — or get eaten by it."
A beat passed before Arav spoke again. "Want me to plant something else on him? Maybe get someone closer—"
"No," Rex cut in sharply. "Let him believe he's safe. Let him feel clever. When the silence stretches long enough, people always talk louder — even if it's in footsteps."
Rex returned to his desk, eyes burning with a mixture of thrill and challenge.
> "We don't need to hear him anymore, Arav. We just need to watch where he goes. And trust me… his feet will tell me everything."
As the line disconnected, Rex sat down, fingers tapping lightly on the wood surface.
Kiaan had cut the wires.
Now, it was a game of shadow and light.
And in the shadows — Rex always wins.