The next morning began like any other — Vicky yawning through Data Structures, Kiran stuffing biscuits into his mouth at 9:10 AM, and the professor lecturing about trees like they were a personal religion.
But halfway through class, Vicky's phone vibrated.
A single notification from Rani:
"Shift in external network behavior. TCS Butterfly has increased internal monitoring parameters. Reason unknown. Stay alert."
He blinked at the screen.
"TCS increased security? Why?" he whispered.
Kiran leaned over. "You're talking to yourself, da. You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, just… life," Vicky muttered.
But his brain was spinning.
TCS didn't suddenly "increase monitoring" for fun. Something triggered it.
A system update?
A breach?
Or worse — did someone detect his Beacon tests?
He forced himself to sit through the lecture, though none of it registered. The words "binary tree" and "heapify" bounced off his skull like mosquitoes.
BACK AT THE OFFICE — RANI EXPLAINS
Vicky reached the office straight after class. Rani was already active, hovering above the workstation with her usual composed presence.
"Explain," he said, dropping his bag.
Rani didn't waste a second.
"TCS Butterfly deployed a silent protocol at 10:41 AM. Enhanced netflow analysis. Packet anomaly detection tripled. Wifi triangulation grid refreshed."
"…English?" Vicky begged.
"They're scanning harder. Watching everything twice as closely."
He swallowed. "Because of us?"
"Unlikely. They would need to detect your Beacon for that. And frankly, they do not have the tools."
"So what's the real reason?"
Rani's eyes flickered.
She displayed a timestamped log of foreign network pings — a list of rapid location changes.
Chennai → Mars → Saturn → Out of range.
"You're saying… that thing from yesterday…" he whispered.
"Maybe TCS noticed something unrelated," she said. "Maybe not. But the timing aligns. A foreign AI pinged me. And that ping passed through India's defense net. A corporation like TCS would have sensed a disturbance."
Vicky frowned.
"So someone else poked around Chennai yesterday… and now the biggest IT campus in the city is nervous."
"Yes," Rani confirmed. "And nervous institutions tighten security."
"Great. Just what we need."
TCS INTERNAL MEETING — SAME MORNING
Inside TCS Butterfly, several floors above busy interns and caffeine-fueled coders, a meeting was happening.
A small team sat around a long conference table.
Screens glowed.
Logs scrolled.
A tension hung in the air.
"Sir, anomaly logs are confirmed. The foreign ping signature reappeared last night. It wasn't an attack, but it wasn't normal either."
"What was its origin?"
"Impossible to determine. It appeared inside our local subnet for 0.2 seconds and vanished."
The senior security architect folded his hands.
"This isn't random. Double all monitoring layers. Firewall, packet sniffers, camera behavior analytics — everything. And I want every intern and visitor movement recorded."
Another engineer frowned.
"Even interns?"
"Yes. Everyone."
He leaned back.
"If this foreign system tries again, I want to know exactly where it's aimed."
RANI'S WARNING
"So," Vicky said as he leaned over the table, "our infiltration just got ten times harder."
Rani nodded. "Correct. This complicates everything."
He let out a long, frustrated sigh.
"Perfect timing."
Rani projected the TCS layout again — this time with little orange dots blinking at every choke point.
"What are those?" he asked.
"Upgraded surveillance. And these—"
She pointed at new red dots.
"—are motion-heat hybrid cameras. Installed this morning."
"They installed more cameras?"
"Yes."
"Are you kidding me?"
"No."
He stared at the map with a sinking feeling.
"…so now what?"
"We adapt," Rani said simply. "Your training becomes more important."
"Great. We barely survived day three."
"And you will barely survive day four," she said without irony. "But survival is progress."
He slumped in his chair.
"Please tell me the universe will give me at least one easy day."
"Statistically unlikely."
"I hate you."
She didn't blink.
"But you need me."
He didn't argue.
THE REAL PROBLEM — RILU
"Okay," Vicky said, rubbing his temples. "Forget infiltration for one second. What about her? Rilu. Does this change anything?"
"Yes," Rani replied. "She now walks inside a building that is on high alert. Talking to her is impossible. Following her is dangerous. Contact is out of the question."
He groaned.
"So everything got worse."
"Yes."
But then she added something unexpected.
"However… increased tension means increased cracks. Pressure forces mistakes. Mistakes create openings."
He blinked. "You're saying… security upgrades can create vulnerabilities?"
"Yes. Humans panic when rushed. Morale drops, mistakes rise. Someone may leave a door open. Someone may forget a badge. Someone may tailgate. Someone may plug something in without thinking."
"And we take advantage."
"Exactly."
He exhaled slowly.
"Alright."
Rani studied him for a moment.
"You're scared."
He didn't deny it.
"Yeah."
"But you're still choosing to move forward."
"Because I need answers," he said quietly. "I need to know why she came in that dream. Why she said my name. Why the potion was used. Why the Beacon pinged. I'm not going to sit in college pretending everything's fine."
Rani nodded.
Something like respect passed through her expression.
"Then we proceed."
TCS BUTTERFLY — LATE AFTERNOON
On the fifteenth floor, near a corner window overlooking the sprawling city, a girl in a crisp TCS intern badge typed quietly.
RILU A. ARASU
INTERN — AUTOMATION & CLOUD
Her fingers moved quickly across the keyboard.
Her brow furrowed slightly.
A new internal memo popped into her inbox:
"Immediate Protocol Elevation — All Employees and Interns
Effective From: Today 2:00 PM"
"Hmm," she murmured. "So they noticed it too…"
She closed the window gently.
Then she whispered to herself:
"Which means he'll try something soon."