CHECKMATE : Game Of Shadows

8. unseen connections

Yuvika and Varun froze when they noticed Bhuvan staring at them. His gaze was intense, as though he could see right through them, filled with an unspoken question.

"What are you both doing here?" Bhuvan's question hung in the air leaving both Yuvika and Varun speechless.

Varun broke the silence first, trying to act casual. "Oh, we were just… hanging around," he said, a nervous laugh escaping his lips.

Yuvika shot him a sharp look, clearly unimpressed. "Seriously? Couldn’t come up with something better?"

Varun glanced at her, puzzled. "What?" he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Nothing," Yuvika replied, rolling her eyes before muttering to herself. "At least try to sound believable."

Bhuvan’s eyes narrowed as he leaned forward slightly. "Did you say something, Officer Yuvika?"

Yuvika’s face turned beet red as she scrambled to cover up. "Oh, um, just... hanging out," she added quickly, mentally cursing herself.

Bhuvan smirked, unamused. "Meri shakal par pagal likha hai kya?" he asked, his tone darkly amused, as though waiting for them to crack.

Both Yuvika and Varun exchanged nervous glances, their unease growing with every passing second. They couldn’t find an exit, not with Bhuvan standing there, his expression unreadable.

Then, almost casually, Bhuvan spoke again. "Now, tell me. What's really going on?"

The words hung in the air, heavy with meaning. Neither of them could think of a lie fast enough, and the weight of his question seemed to press down on them.

Bhuvan’s voice dropped, softer but somehow more chilling. "If you're thinking the truth is going to hurt me, don’t worry about that."

Yuvika and Varun exchanged a look—this time, a real one of confusion and concern. The oddness of Bhuvan’s statement gnawed at them.

Then, with a sudden shift in his demeanor, Bhuvan's face grew taut, his eyes clouding over with a tension neither of them had expected. "You both have a suspicion about Ritika, right?" he asked, his voice now laced with something darker. The words hit like a jolt of electricity, freezing both Yuvika and Varun in place.

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Yukta sat hunched over her laptop, the screen casting a faint glow across her focused face as her fingers flew across the keyboard with a speed. Vanshika and Yuvan were fully focused on Yukta's work but Arjun stood there with his hand folded, trying to act uninterested. However, he would stare at the screen for a while before turning away.

Meanwhile Yukta was trying to hack into a camera feed that could somehow relate to the mystery behind Bhavesh Sinha's death. It had been a long shot; the camera was connected to a private security system, and the owner had been tight-lipped. But Yukta knew better than to give up. She’d spent the last few hours bypassing firewalls, decrypting security codes, and bypassing the system’s multiple layers of protection.

Her screen flickered briefly, and a line of code scrolled rapidly across. She frowned—something had triggered an alert. She cursed under her breath, leaning closer, her eyes narrowing.

"Almost there," she muttered, fingers tapping faster. Her mind raced through the different tactics she could use, running calculations in her head. She needed to bypass this without leaving a trace—no time for errors.

Vanshika perched on the edge of the desk, leaned in. "Any luck?"

Yukta held up a finger, not looking away from the screen. The moment felt tense. Every second counted.