By the time Rohan and Rhea cut the dark-matter net, the enforcers were gone.
The safehouse was destroyed, the walls covered in black soot and Aetheric bullet holes. Vikram sat on the floor, his muscles still twitching from the net's electric drain.
Rohan was pacing, his hand on his holster. "They took Desai. They have my father's killer, and now they have him. We're losing, Vikram."
"We're not losing," Rhea said, her voice shaking but determined. "Desai left his personal tracker active. He knew they would find him eventually."
She opened her modified tablet, which was powered by a small solar battery they had charged before the blackout. A single, red dot flickered on a dark map of Mumbai.
"He's moving south," Rhea said, tracing the signal. "Past the docks. He's stopped at the Colaba peninsula."
"The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel," Vikram said, remembering Desai's last words. "He said the vault beneath it."
"The Taj is Malhotra's regional headquarters now," Rahul said, looking up from his scouting notes. "The whole building is sealed. They have snipers on the domes and machine guns at the gates."
"Then we don't use the gates," Vikram said. "We use the old tunnels. The ones that go beneath the sea."