Chapter 7 - Hideout of Shadows in Mount Abu?

             The road to Mount Abu began like any other hill road…lazy bends, rising cliffs, scattered villages…but for Arjun, every kilometer felt like a countdown. The rain from last night still clung to the mountains, dripping down tall pines that lined the serpentine path. A thin mist floated over the valley, making the whole region look like a half-remembered dream.

            It was the kind of place honeymoon couples visited, the kind that postcard designers adored. But Arjun was not here for views. Not anymore. Not after the body in the police van, not after the whispers that didn’t belong to any living human, not after learning that Sameer Vardhan - their dependable, smiling colleague - was not who he claimed to be.

            Sameer’s death only deepened the mystery instead of ending it.

            Ten hours ago, Arjun had watched Sameer’s body being loaded into the forensic van. A clean shot…one that didn’t match the weapon of any known pursuer. A professional kill. A silencing. A completion of someone’s unfinished agenda.

            Now,  as Arjun drove the rented Bolero up the incline, the truth felt closer, like the swirling fog was hiding answers within it.

            Beside him, Inspector Kavya Rao…sharp-eyed, stubborn, still smelling faintly of the morgue’s disinfectant…kept studying the GPS coordinates Sameer had left behind. Coordinates burned into a scrap of paper, hidden in the heel of his shoe. Coordinates pointing to a place inside the dense forests of Mount Abu. A place the locals whispered about but never entered.

            “Sameer wanted us here,” Kavya said quietly.

            Arjun nodded. “Or wanted someone to believe we’d come here.”

            “Either way,” she muttered, “this is the last trail he left.”

            And they had to follow it. Even if it led straight into the jaws of whatever killed him.

            They reached the drop-off point around noon. The road ended abruptly near a cluster of abandoned military sheds…old warehouses from the British era, rusted, half-swallowed by vines.

            “According to the map,” Kavya said, “the hideout is a three-kilometer trek inside.”

            Arjun looked around. “You realize this area has no official trails, right? Even forest officers avoid it due to… well…”

            He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to. The stories were notorious: strange disappearances, unusual animal behavior, unexplained deaths. But legends didn’t stop killers. Nor did they stop whispers.

            They began walking into the forest…uneasy silence following them like an unwanted companion. Tall Deodar trees stretched above their heads, blocking out most of the sunlight. The deeper they went, the thicker the forest became, until the road they had taken vanished completely behind them.

            Branches snapped under their boots. Metallic insects hummed in bursts. Every once in a while, Arjun thought he heard movements behind the trees, but when he turned, there was nothing.

            At least nothing visible.

            Kavya finally broke the silence. “Do you think Sameer was running from someone… or towards someone?”

            Arjun took a moment before replying. “Both. He looked terrified when he met me last night. But he wasn’t confused. He knew exactly what he needed us to find.”

            “And what do you think it is?”

            Arjun exhaled slowly. “His truth.”

            Because the man they buried ten hours ago wasn't the jovial tech analyst everyone at the department knew. That was a mask. A method. A shield. Sameer Vardhan had lived in shadows, and shadows were the only things left behind now.

            After almost ninety minutes of trekking, they reached a massive rock formation. A giant slab of granite leaned against another, forming a natural triangular entrance…like a cave waiting for explorers who would never return.

            The air here was colder. Still. Unnaturally still.

            Kavya shivered. “Are you sure this is it?”

            Arjun checked the coordinates. “Dead center.”

            They crouched and entered the cave. It was dark but not pitch-black…sunlight seeped through tiny gaps in the stone, laying faint silver lines across the rough floor. The cave extended deeper, much deeper than either expected.

            Their flashlight beams scanned the walls. That’s when Arjun froze. There were symbols. Dozens of them. Scratched into the stone. Circles, lines, arrows, spirals. Not tribal markings. Not ancient carvings. These were diagrams. Schematic-like. Tactical in precision.

            Kavya whispered, “This… this is modern.”

            Arjun moved closer, tracing one symbol with his fingers. “It’s like a code. Something he didn’t want written on paper.”

            “You think Sameer drew all this?”

            “No doubt.”

            Kavya shone her light further inside. “Look.”

            At the back of the cave was a metallic trunk. New. Stainless. Completely out of place among the natural stone.

            They approached it cautiously. The trunk had a keypad lock, but the lock had already been torn open…clean, precise…like someone used a diamond cutter.

            Arjun’s heartbeat doubled. Someone reached here before them. He lifted the lid. Inside were files. Bundles of them…some official-looking, some handwritten, some marked with strange symbols, and some printed with government emblems that definitely shouldn’t be here.

            But there was one thing that caught their attention first. A tablet device, cracked at the edges, still blinking a faint blue. Arjun pressed the side button. The screen flickered. A loading symbol spun. And then….A video.Sameer’s face filled the screen. Alive. Breathing. And afraid.

            “Arjun, Kavya… if you're watching this, then I am either dead or close to it,” the recording began. “There is no easy way to explain what I’ve been part of. But you deserve the truth. And the truth is inside these files.”

            Kavya swallowed hard.

            Sameer continued: “I was never a tech analyst. Not for the government. Not for the police. My identity… it was created by someone else. My real name is…”

            The video glitched. Static. And then…A gunshot sounded in the background of the video.

            Sameer flinched, panic flooding his eyes. “They found me. I don’t have much time. Listen carefully. What you call ‘The Whisperer’… it is not a person. It is a program. A behavioural acoustic trigger system. And I…”

            More static. The screen went black.

            Kavya stared at the blank screen. “A program? Not a person?”

 

            Arjun’s mind raced. “Behavioural acoustic trigger system… meaning something that manipulates people through sound?”

            Kavya whispered, “Like a frequency that forces actions…”

            “Like hypnotic commands embedded in whispers.”

            The cave suddenly felt too small, too suffocating. But before they could speak further…A branch snapped outside. Loud. Deliberate. Both instinctively shut off their flashlights. Silence. Then…Footsteps. Heavy. Measured. Arjun pulled out his gun and signaled Kavya to stay low. They crawled toward the entrance of the cave.

            A figure was standing about fifteen meters away. Tall. Dressed in black trekking gear. Face covered. A rifle slung across his shoulder. The figure scanned the forest methodically, then spoke into a radio device clipped to his vest.

            “Target site located. Files likely compromised. Proceeding with extraction.”

            Arjun’s breath froze. They weren’t alone. And whoever these people were…they were professionals. The man turned toward the cave.

            And started walking straight toward them.

            Arjun grabbed Kavya’s wrist. “Back. Now.”

            They moved deeper inside the cave, searching for another exit. The narrow tunnel they hadn’t explored earlier extended further than expected. They slid inside it just as the man reached the entrance.

            Footsteps echoed. A flashlight beam swept across the cave walls.

            The man muttered, “Someone opened the trunk…”

            His steps grew closer.

            Arjun and Kavya hurried through the narrow passage, crouching, breathing hard. The tunnel curved sharply left, then right, then descended, until they emerged behind the rock formation, on the opposite side of the forest.

            Finally able to stand upright, Kavya gasped for air. “Who are these people?!”

            Arjun loaded a fresh magazine. “Not police. Not military. Mercenaries.”

            “Then what about Sameer? Was he part of them?”

            “No,” Arjun said firmly. “But he knew them. And they killed him for what he knew.”

            They had only seconds to decide. Either they fled…or followed the hunter hunting them.

            Arjun tightened his jaw. “Come on. We need to track him.”

            Using the terrain and thick bushes for cover, they shadowed the mercenary’s movements. The man moved with military sharpness…pausing, scanning, adjusting, signaling.

            Finally he reached a small wooden hut tucked between two massive boulders. There were no windows. Only a door reinforced with metal. The man knocked twice…soft, rhythmic, coded. The door opened. A second man appeared. Younger. Nervous. Wearing a headset.

            “Any sign of them?” he asked.

            “Someone’s been inside,” the mercenary replied. “The files were disturbed.”

            “Do you think the police…”

            “Doesn’t matter. We’ll torch the whole location in an hour. Orders from the Commander.”

            The door shut behind them. Arjun and Kavya exchanged tense glances.

            “If they destroy this place,” Kavya whispered, “we lose everything that Sameer left.”

            “Not if we get inside first.”

            Arjun waited until the mercenaries were fully inside. Then he circled the hut, searching for a blind spot. Behind it, partly hidden by moss, he found a narrow gap where the wooden planks had rotted enough to pry open.

            They slipped inside silently.

            The interior was dim, lit only by a flickering lantern. The smell of stale cigarettes mixed with something metallic. Blood, maybe. Or chemicals. A radio unit crackled on the table. Kavya pointed toward the far wall. Arjun followed her gaze…and froze. Pinned across the wall were photographs. Hundreds of them. Each one marked with dates, red strings, coded notes.

            But one photo stood out. Sameer Vardhan. Smiling. Alive. Standing among a group of men in tactical gear. A younger Sameer. Perhaps six years younger. Wearing a uniform he had never told them about.

            Kavya whispered, “So he was part of some organization…”

            Arjun shook his head. “Not willingly.”

            He pointed at the corner of the photograph…barely visible, but enough. Sameer’s wrist had a pair of metallic bands…special cuffs used for conditioning subjects during psychological trials.

            Kavya’s stomach clenched. “He wasn’t their agent. He was their experiment.”

            Before Arjun could answer…A voice echoed from the front room: “Check the perimeter again. Commander wants confirmation.”

            Footsteps approached. They had less than three seconds. Arjun grabbed the lantern, blew it out, and pulled Kavya behind a stack of crates. The door creaked open.

            The younger mercenary walked inside, muttering to himself. “Always me checking… why not that gorilla outside…”

            He passed right by their hiding spot. Arjun held his breath. Kavya’s fingers tightened around her gun. The mercenary bent down to tie his boot. His flashlight beam moved away. Arjun seized the window. He leaped forward, wrapped his arm around the man’s neck, and dragged him into the shadows. There was a brief struggle…short, silent, efficient. The man collapsed unconscious.

            Kavya whispered, “That was too close…”

            “Shh.”

            The mercenary’s radio crackled. “Unit-2, report. Do you copy?”

Arjun picked up the earpiece, pressed the transmit button, and lowered his voice to mimic static. “Unit-2… signal weak… perimeter clear…” A pause. “Proceed to checkpoint Bravo.” The line cut.

            Arjun pocketed the device. “We need to leave. Now. And take whatever proof we can.”

            While searching the hut for any valuable evidence, Arjun noticed a faint metallic vibration under the wooden floorboards. He knelt and tapped lightly. Hollow. He signaled Kavya. Together they moved the table aside, lifted the rug, and uncovered a trapdoor. They opened it. A narrow staircase led downward…into a basement lit by a single bulb. And inside…Dozens of memory drives. Stacks of classified documents. Blueprints of acoustic devices. Maps marked with red circles. And a large monitoring screen displaying soundwave patterns. But the thing that made Arjun’s heart stop was a set of handwritten notes bearing the initials: S.V. 

            Sameer Vardhan.

            Kavya lifted one sheet. “These are… sound modulation studies.”

            Arjun scanned another. “This is beyond research. This is behavioural engineering.”

            And then his eyes fell on a locked metal case. He forced it open.

            Inside was a small, compact device…similar to a voice recorder, but far more advanced. Smooth. Black. No buttons. Just a microphone and a tiny indicator light.

            Kavya asked, “What is this?”

            Arjun’s voice dropped. “A Whisper Node.”

            “The thing used to trigger people?”

            “Yes. The thing that turned normal humans into puppets.”

            And Sameer had stolen it. Or created it. Or escaped because of it. Before they could analyze further…A distant explosion shook the hut. Dust rained from the ceiling.

            Kavya’s eyes widened. “They’ve started torching the forest!”

            Arjun grabbed the Whisper Node and shoved as many files as possible into his backpack.

            “We’re leaving.”

            They emerged from the hut to see orange flames rising in the distance. The mercenaries were burning the entire perimeter to erase evidence. Smoke rolled across the forest like a living creature. The two mercenaries they had seen earlier were gone…likely coordinating the burn. Arjun and Kavya sprinted downhill, but the fire spread faster than expected. Dry leaves ignited instantly. The heat intensified. Branches fell dangerously close.

            Kavya coughed. “We’re going to get trapped!”

            Arjun scanned the terrain. He spotted a ravine to the left. A steep drop, but survivable. “This way!”

            They slid down the slope just as flames engulfed the clearing behind them. Rocks bruised their legs, shrubs scratched their arms, but they kept moving. When they finally reached the base, panting, coughing, covered in soot, they collapsed behind a fallen log.

            Kavya wiped her forehead. “They’re willing to burn half the forest just to erase evidence… What kind of organization is this?”

            Arjun stared at the Whisper Node in his hand.

            “The kind that creates monsters.”

Once the smoke thinned enough for them to breathe normally, Arjun pulled out the tablet again and tried replaying Sameer’s video. The screen flickered. Then stabilized. Static cleared. Sameer reappeared. But this time, the video continued beyond the earlier cut.

            Sameer’s voice trembled. “I didn’t choose this life. None of us did. We were part of something called Project SARGO…Sensory And Response Genome Operations. They trained us to respond to acoustic triggers. Some of us survived. Some didn’t.”

            A distant crash was heard behind him. Sameer flinched.

            “I escaped because I recovered my memories. I remembered my real sister, my real life. They erased all of it. But I found fragments. Enough to know that I had been living a lie for years.”

            He breathed shakily.

            “And the Whisperer… It’s not one person. It’s a network. A system. Controlled by someone called ‘The Commander’. If you find his name, you find everything. I left clues in the cave. Follow them. But be careful.”

            The video shook violently. Sameer looked directly into the camera.

            “Arjun… Kavya… I’m sorry for lying. I didn’t know how to break free. I didn’t know how to tell you. But you are the only ones I trust.”

            A shadow appeared behind him. Sameer’s eyes widened in terror. “Run,” he whispered.

            The video ended. For good.

            Kavya’s voice was barely audible. “He wasn’t betraying us… he was protecting us.”

 

            Arjun nodded slowly. “And he died trying to expose them.”

            They sat in silence, letting the truth settle over them like a second skin. Then Arjun stood up, determination hardening his features. “Kavya.”

            “Yes?”

            “We’re not going back.”

            She didn’t ask why. She already knew.

            “Sameer gave his life to uncover this,” Arjun said. “We owe it to him to finish what he started.”

            Kavya looked at the backpack full of files. “But how far does this go?”

            Arjun stared at the burning forest, the rising smoke, the ruthless efficiency of the mercenaries.

            “It goes to the top,” he said. “And it won’t stop until we stop them.”

            Kavya took a deep breath. “Then let’s begin.”

            They turned away from the flames. Away from the death. Toward the truth. Mount Abu had given them the first glimpse into the monster behind the curtain. The real war began now.

######

The wind shifted as the sun dipped behind the jagged cliffs of Mount Abu, tinting the sky with a copper glow. Arjun wiped the dust off his face and looked back at the old stone hideout…Sameer Vardhan’s final sanctuary, final confession, and final battlefield. The mountain air carried a silence that felt too heavy, too watchful, as if the shadows were listening.

            Kavya stepped beside him, her breathing still unsteady after the chaos they had survived inside.

            “Arjun… we can’t stay here,” she said softly.

            She was right. Sameer’s whispers still lingered in the air…his last words, his trembling fear, his desperate attempt to leave behind a trail of truth before death reached him twice.

            Arjun forced himself to look away from the hideout. “Let’s move,” he said, masking the ache forming behind his eyes.

            They walked down the narrow path, boots scraping against loose gravel. Every step felt heavier…not just from the physical exhaustion, but from the weight of what Sameer had revealed: the Commander wasn’t a myth, Project SARGO wasn’t a failed experiment, and the Whisper Network wasn’t just a rogue operation.

            It was a system. A living, breathing, expanding system. And Sameer was only one of its casualties.

            They had barely reached the foothill when Arjun froze. A sound…faint, like a tuning fork tapping inside the air…vibrated through the valley. A pure tone. Clean. Sharp. Mechanical.

            Kavya heard it too. “Did you…?”

            Arjun nodded slowly, muscles tightening.

            Sameer had warned them: “If you ever hear that tone… run. It means someone nearby has been activated.”

            Which meant someone around them…someone innocent…might now be a weapon. The tone ended abruptly, leaving behind a vacuum of silence.

            Arjun scanned the treeline. “Stay close.”

            They descended further, every rustle, every footstep amplified. And then they saw him. A forest guard. Walking stiffly, unnaturally. Eyes unfocused. Mouth slightly open as if waiting for a command he no longer controlled. He approached them slowly, each step eerily measured.

            Kavya whispered, “He’s triggered.”

            Arjun raised his hand. “Don’t move.”

            The guard’s hand drifted toward his holster.

             “STOP!” Arjun shouted.

            For a brief second, the man blinked…as if his true self was trying to surface. But then his expression went cold again, and his fingers closed around his gun.

            “Arjun…!” Kavya pulled him aside as the guard fired. The bullet tore into the tree bark behind them.

            They ducked and rolled down the slope as more shots echoed through the valley. Pebbles scattered, dust rose, and the air filled with tension so sharp it nearly crackled. By the time they reached a cluster of rocks near the base, the firing had stopped.

            Kavya pressed a hand to her chest. “We have to help him. He isn’t doing this willingly.”

            “I know,” Arjun said quietly. “But whoever triggered him… knows we are here.”

            And that changed everything.

            They found shelter under a wide boulder, catching their breath. Kavya unfolded the small, crumpled note they had recovered from Sameer’s burnt jacket…its edges scorched but the center miraculously readable.

            Sameer had hidden it in the lining, perhaps sensing his time was running out. The handwriting was shaky, but clear: “If I die… follow the coordinates behind the glass plate. He will strike next where he once lived unnoticed. Where the city drowns in noise…the Whisper hides best.”

            Behind these lines were coordinates etched in faint pencil.

            Kavya ran her finger over them. “These don’t belong to Mount Abu.”

            Arjun leaned closer. “No mountain range. No forest zone. No desert grid.”

            He exhaled long and slow.

            “These coordinates belong to… a city.”

            Before Kavya could respond, his phone vibrated. A message. From an unknown number. No sender ID. No metadata. Just one line: “You found the wrong dead man.”

            Kavya’s eyes widened. “They’re watching us.”

            Arjun’s jaw clenched. “They always were.”

            Night fell quickly. The sky turned ink-black as they reached the road leading down to the town. A single jeep approached from a distance, headlights slicing through the darkness. Arjun stepped back, hand instinctively on his sidearm. The jeep slowed. Stopped. A man stepped out. Average height. Unremarkable face. A tourist’s shirt. But his eyes… they were unsettlingly calm.

            He smiled mildly. “You’re Arjun Mehra, right?”

            Arjun didn’t answer. Kavya’s hand hovered near her taser.

            The stranger held up his palms. “Relax. I’m not activated. Not here to kill you.”

            Arjun’s voice turned sharp. “Then who are you?”

            “Just a messenger.” He tossed a sealed envelope toward them. Arjun caught it mid-air. “From someone whose name you’ve been hearing too often.”

            Kavya’s blood chilled. “The Commander?”

            The man chuckled softly. “Names don’t matter. Only outcomes.”

            Before they could stop him, he added: “By the way… that guard you encountered? He wasn’t meant to fire. The tone was a test. And you both… passed.”

            Arjun stepped forward, fury flashing. “Wait…!”

            But the stranger raised a small remote device and pressed a button. A low hum filled the air. Then…The jeep exploded in a blast of white flame. The shockwave knocked dust into the air, branches rattling from the impact. When the smoke settled, there was nothing left of the man… or the message he had spoken.

            Kavya stared at the burning wreckage. “They’re erasing their own people now.”

            “Loose ends,” Arjun said grimly.

            He looked down at the envelope. One last thing the messenger didn’t destroy.

            Arjun tore it open carefully. Inside was: a small glass plate and a single line printed in neat black ink.

            “Noise is the best camouflage. We built our empire there.”

            Kavya lifted the glass plate against the moonlight. “Maybe this is what Sameer meant.”

            At first glance, it looked blank. But as Arjun angled it, faint etched numerals glimmered across the surface. The same coordinates from Sameer’s note. The same location. And finally, one more line appeared when tilted fully: “Return to the origin.”

            Arjun whispered, “Origin… Sameer said he escaped from the outskirts of the city where ‘silence was impossible.’”

            Kavya’s voice turned cautious. “Arjun… the noisiest place in India…”

            He nodded. “Mumbai.”

            They sat on a rock overlooking the valley, both breathing in the cold night air. Sameer hadn’t just run. He hadn’t just hidden. He had planned. Every clue, every scrap, every whisper had been layered toward one final destination.

            Kavya said quietly, “He wanted us to go there.”

            Arjun closed his eyes. Mumbai. A sea of millions. A city of noise so constant that a whisper could vanish inside it.

            Kavya hugged her arms. “Arjun… if they have a Whisper Cell running in a city of that size…”

She didn’t finish. She didn’t have to.

            Arjun stood slowly. “Then Volume 1 was just the beginning.”

            Just as they prepared to leave, Arjun’s phone buzzed again. Another unknown message. But this one carried an attachment. A blurry photograph. A person. Standing at Marine Drive. Facing the sea. Head slightly turned as if waiting. Arjun zoomed in. Kavya leaned over his shoulder. Her eyes widened.

            “No… no, no… Arjun… that’s…”

            Arjun’s throat tightened. It was Sameer. Alive. Standing in Mumbai. Taken just two hours ago. The timestamp confirmed it.

            Kavya whispered, “But we saw him dead. Twice.”

            Arjun’s voice dropped to a whisper…“He’s either not dead… or someone wants us to believe he isn’t.”

            And then the screen flickered and the photo vanished. Replaced by a final line:

            “See you in Mumbai.”

            The wind howled across the valley, carrying away the last traces of the burning jeep. Arjun and Kavya stood in the dark, shaken, breathless, and drawn irresistibly toward the truth waiting hundreds of kilometers away.

            Sameer’s shadow. The Commander’s reach. The whisper that kills. Arjun pocketed the coordinates. “This isn’t a hunt anymore, Kavya,” he said quietly, “It’s a war.”

            She nodded once, silently.

            Together, they walked down the mountain path…toward the city where noise ruled, where secrets hid.