Desai's Gym smelled of sweat and old leather. It was a simple room with concrete walls and punching bags, hidden in a quiet part of South Mumbai.
Vikram sat on a wooden bench, looking at the bloodstained paper. His friends stood around him in a tight circle.
Rhea was bent over a laptop, her fingers typing fast on the keys. Rohan sat on the edge of the boxing ring, his expensive leather jacket looking out of place. Rahul stood by the door, watching the street.
"This symbol," Rohan said, pointing to the moon and dagger. "My dad's gang talks about it in whispers. They say these men are not human—they are ghosts that walk through walls and leave ice behind. Vikram, if they find out you have this, they will kill you."
"They killed my father, Ro," Vikram said, his voice flat and hard. "They are already coming for me."
"I found something," Rhea said, her voice sharp. She zoomed in on the screen, magnifying the image of the paper. "Look at the bloodstain. It's not just blood. The ink has metal particles in it. The man used a special magnetic pen."
She dragged a slider on her laptop. The red color disappeared, showing a hidden map of tiny dots under the blood.
"It's a digital coordinate map," Rhea explained. "A secret GPS map. It uses the earth's magnetic fields to hide the location. If I match it with Mumbai's ground map..."
The laptop beeped, showing a 3D map of the city. A single red light blinked deep in the forest of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, north of the city.
"The Kanheri Caves," Rahul said, looking at the screen. "That's a tourist spot. It's crowded every day."
"Not Cave 90," Rhea said, pointing to the coordinates. "It's a sealed area. The government blocked it off ten years ago, saying the rocks were falling."
"It's not closed because of falling rocks," Rohan said, his face dark. "My dad's gang bought heavy drilling machines last month. The papers said they were for Malhotra Corp, but they delivered them to the national park. They are digging down there, Vikram."
"A Shadow Node," Vikram muttered, remembering his father's notebook. *The places where the shadow behaves like a physical wall.*
"We go tonight," Vikram said, standing up.
"Tonight?" Rhea looked at him with wide eyes. "The park is full of forest guards. And if the Vow is there, their enforcers will be hiding in the dark."
"The guards are the easy part," Rahul said, pulling lockpicks from his pocket. "I can get us past the gates. But once we are in the caves, we are in their territory."
"Then we bring our own lights," Vikram said, looking at the bright halogen work lights in the corner. "They need the dark to fight. If we light up the cave, we take away their weapon."
"And if the lights go out?" Rohan asked.
Vikram wrapped the cloth tight around his hands. "Then we fight in the dark."