The rain had finally stopped by the time Nadia returned to her apartment.
Her place was small but comfortable—two rooms on the twelfth floor of an old residential building overlooking a busy Mumbai street. From the balcony she could see traffic lights blinking through the evening haze while the city slowly shifted into its night rhythm.
But Nadia barely noticed any of it.
Her mind was still inside Orion Strategic Consulting.
More specifically… near the window where Varma had been sitting.
She dropped her bag onto the chair and opened her laptop again.
The screen lit up instantly, displaying the collection of documents she had been studying for years.
Shipping manifests.
Insurance reports.
Corporate records.
Police investigation summaries.
For ten years she had slowly built this archive.
Most people might call it obsession.
Nadia called it persistence.
She leaned forward, typing quickly.
"Orion Strategic Consulting… history."
Search results filled the screen.
The firm had existed for almost fifteen years, specializing in corporate crisis management and financial restructuring.
On the surface, everything looked legitimate.
Too legitimate.
Companies usually hired Orion after disasters—bankruptcies, lawsuits, failed mergers, industrial accidents.
Including one very specific disaster.
The port explosion.
Nadia opened a financial report dated two weeks after the incident.
Her eyes scanned the pages carefully again. She went through these documents before but she wants to read them again so as not miss even minute of the details.
Then she came across a line which she went through before but not place to much attention on it.
Consulting advisor assigned: Varma
Her heartbeat quickened slightly.
"So, you were involved," she murmured.
She scrolled further.
The report explained that Orion had helped the shipping company restructure its finances following the insurance payout.
Which meant something important.
Orion—and by extension Varma—had access to all the internal details surrounding the explosion.
Cargo records.
Insurance claims.
Investigation findings.
Information that had never been released publicly.
Nadia leaned back in her chair.
For ten years she had searched for someone connected to the case.
Someone who might know the truth.
And now she had found him.
Varma.
But something about him still bothered her.
His reaction earlier in the office had been… strange.
When she mentioned the port explosion during their brief conversation, he hadn't seemed surprised.
Not shocked.
Not confused.
Instead he had simply told her to stop investigating.
Almost like someone warning a child not to touch a hot stove.
That wasn't the response of someone who knew nothing.
That was the response of someone who knew too much.
Nadia stared at the rain droplets sliding slowly down the balcony glass.
"Why warn me?" she whispered.
Unless the truth behind the explosion was more dangerous than she imagined.
She turned back to the laptop and opened another document.
An insurance claim filed after the disaster.
Her eyes scanned the details.
Container numbers.
Cargo weight.
Declared contents.
Then she froze.
One of the containers listed in the report had been classified as restricted cargo.
Which meant its contents were never publicly disclosed.
Nadia's fingers hovered above the keyboard.
"What were you carrying?" she murmured.
Whatever had been inside that container…
It had terrified her father.
She remembered the expression on his face clearly.
Shock.
Fear.
Real fear.
Nadia slowly closed the laptop.
There was only one person who might know what had really happened that night.
Varma.
And this time she wouldn't leave Orion without answers.