chapter 6
1279 Words
Zulfishan didn’t wait for hesitation to creep in this time.
She knocked on Aabi’s cabin once — lightly — then pushed the door open.
He looked up from his desk, slightly startled, but said nothing. The faint hum of the air conditioner filled the silence.
“I need to talk,” she said, her voice more firm than she expected.
Aabi leaned back in his chair, his expression unreadable. “About what?”
She stepped forward, placing the printout of the man Mehreen had met on his desk. “Do you recognize him?”
He glanced at the photo. His jaw tightened ever so slightly.
“I saw Mehreen meeting this man last evening in an alleyway. She took an envelope from him. I think he’s connected to the file leak… and maybe to someone inside this office.”
Aabi didn’t speak for a few seconds. Then he leaned forward and said, low and steady, “I know.”
Zulfishan blinked. “You... what?”
“I’ve been investigating her,” he admitted. “Ever since the first breach. Her digital footprint never matched her resume. Her references checked out — but the names didn’t exist. The photo you brought me? That man is not just anyone. He used to work for a rival firm. He vanished after a corporate espionage case.”
Zulfishan’s heart raced. “Then she’s planted?”
“She’s here for something,” Aabi replied. “But it’s not just her. Someone is helping her from the inside. Someone she trusts. Someone who’s been feeding her information.”
“Salman,” Zulfishan whispered.
Aabi looked at her sharply. “Why him?”
She told him everything. The late visits to IT. The photograph of the man on Salman’s phone. The anonymous messages.
Aabi listened, the way only he could — silent, intense, thoughtful.
When she finished, he stood up slowly and walked to the window, staring out at the dusky sky.
“I didn’t want to involve you,” he said after a long pause. “But you’ve already been pulled in. You’ve been watched. Framed. Targeted.”
Zulfishan swallowed the lump in her throat. “Then why did you stay distant?”
He turned to face her, and for the first time, the wall around him cracked.
“Because I thought keeping my distance would protect you. I thought staying professional was safer. But every time you walked past, pretending like you weren’t breaking inside... I saw it. And I hated myself for not doing more.”
Her breath caught.
“Aabi…”
He stepped closer. “I’ve never met someone like you. You didn’t fall apart. You stood up. Again and again. And now... I can't keep pretending I don't care.”
Zulfishan’s eyes burned.
In that one moment, the silence between them didn’t feel lonely anymore. It felt full. Alive. Breathing.
Then — suddenly — a sharp, blaring noise echoed through the office.
Security alarm.
Both of them froze.
Aabi immediately rushed to his desk, checked the internal feed, and cursed under his breath. “The server room. It’s been accessed.”
Zulfishan followed him as he sprinted toward the back hallway. A few staff members had already gathered.
“Who’s in there?” she asked breathlessly.
The security officer ran up. “We can’t see. Cameras just went black.”
Aabi typed in the override code. The door clicked open.
Inside — the room was dark except for the blinking red of disconnected cables.
And on the floor…
Mehreen’s phone.
Still recording.
Zulfishan stepped back in shock.
“She’s gone,” Aabi muttered. “And she didn’t leave through the front door.”
Zulfishan stared at the phone. There was a video on screen, still playing.
She reached down, pressed it open.
It showed Mehreen — whispering into the camera.
> “If you’re seeing this, it means I failed.
I was being followed. There’s more. Much more.
Look into the ‘Project X’ folder.
But be careful. You have no idea what they’re capable of.”
The video cut to static.
Zulfishan looked at Aabi.
He met her eyes.
Something bigger was coming.
And now… they were in it together.
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Zulfishan sat quietly in Aabi’s office, looking at the screen in front of her. A folder named “Project X” had just opened. Her hands felt cold.
Aabi moved the mouse and opened the files. Inside were pictures, messages, and some secret reports.
Then she saw something that shocked her.
There were photos of her.
Pictures of her entering her home, working at her desk, and sitting alone at her favorite café.
“Someone has been following me,” she whispered.
“Yes,” Aabi said. “And not just recently. These pictures are from different times. Someone has been watching you for weeks… maybe longer.”
“Why? What do they want from me?”
“I don’t know yet,” he replied, “but this goes deeper than we thought.”
That night, Zulfishan went home, her mind full of questions. She was still thinking when there was a knock at the door.
It was Mawra, holding two cups of coffee.
“I thought you might need this,” Mawra smiled and walked in.
Zulfishan was surprised. Mawra wasn’t usually this friendly.
They sat down. Mawra spoke first.
“So… how’s Aabi?”
Zulfishan looked at her. “Why are you asking?”
“I just saw you both leave together today. You looked serious.”
Zulfishan stared at her. “Were you watching us?”
“I work in the same building,” Mawra said, smiling. “It wasn’t hard to see.”
But Zulfishan felt something strange in Mawra’s words — like she was hiding something.
As Mawra talked, Zulfishan noticed a piece of paper sticking out from Mawra’s purse.
She leaned closer.
It had a small logo… the same logo from the “Project X” documents.
Her heart raced.
“Mawra,” she said calmly, “what is that paper?”
Mawra quickly pushed it back inside her purse. “Nothing. Just old notes.”
“Let me see it.”
“No,” Mawra snapped. “You don’t trust me? You think I’m one of your suspects now?”
“You’re carrying something connected to the people spying on me!”
Mawra stood up, her face angry.
“You always think you’re the victim, Zulfishan! You think only you’ve suffered? I’ve been compared to you my whole life. You got everything — the attention, the praise… even Salman!”
Zulfishan was shocked. “This is about jealousy?”
Mawra laughed bitterly. “No. It’s about finally feeling like I matter.”
Before Zulfishan could say anything else, her phone buzzed.
It was a message from Aabi:
“Come to the office now. It’s urgent. It’s about Salman.”
Zulfishan rushed out, leaving Mawra in silence.
When she reached the office, Aabi was waiting.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Someone broke into my office,” he said. “My laptop is gone.”
“What?!”
“But they left something behind.”
He handed her a USB.
She plugged it into the computer.
A video opened.
It was Salman.
“You’re close, Zulfishan. But not close enough.
You think you know who to trust? You don’t.
The game started long before Mehreen came into it.
And you…
You were always the main piece.”
The screen went black.
Zulfishan’s breath stopped for a second.
Mawra’s strange behavior.
Salman’s secret message.
Aabi’s warning.
She was in the middle of a dangerous game — and it was only getting darker.
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- Writer
