Client: Vikram Malhotra, MP, Lutyens Zone, New Delhi. Requirement: Close Personal Protection for daughter, Ms. Priya Malhotra, 28. Duration: Minimum 3 months. Threat level: Assessed medium-high. Incidents: 3 in 6 weeks. Budget: Unlimited.
Dev was leaning against the wall with the expression he wore when he knew Arjun was going to say no and had decided to make the case for yes anyway.
"MP Vikram Malhotra," Arjun said. "Finance Minister's party. Three states. One of the five most powerful men in Delhi not currently in formal government."
"The six most powerful," Dev said. "He got the infrastructure portfolio recommendation last week."
"Even better. More enemies."
"Three incidents in six weeks," Dev said. "His regular security assessed them as politically motivated — opposition trying to intimidate him ahead of the Karnataka by-election. Standard threat escalation."
"But?" Arjun said, because there was always a but when Dev presented a case this way.
"But the incidents targeted the daughter. Not Malhotra. Not his office. Not his convoy. His daughter." Dev turned to the photographs inside the file. "Letter one — slipped under the door of her apartment. She lives separately, Vasant Vihar. The letter wasn't addressed to Malhotra — it was addressed to her, by name." He flipped to the next photograph. "Incident two — her car. The brake fluid line was cut. Noticed by her driver before she got in — pure luck. Not Malhotra's official car. Her personal car, which most of the Malhotra household staff don't even know she owns. She bought it herself six months ago under a different name."
"How would someone know she had a car registered under another name?"
"Exactly," Dev said.
Arjun looked at the file. Then at Dev. "You think it's inside."
"I think the regular security's 'opposition motivated' assessment is convenient. Especially for certain people inside the household who benefit from the explanation that says this is political and external. Three incidents. Zero political fingerprints — no opposition group has claimed connection, no corresponding escalation in Malhotra's public-facing threats. The targeting is too specific. The method is too intimate. Whoever is doing this knows her routines, her private arrangements, and her address separately from the family compound."
Arjun closed the file. "The daughter. What do we know?"
"Twenty-eight. MBA, Delhi University, then LSE. Runs her own urban planning consultancy — small, three people, getting contracts from the municipal corporation. Has an apartment in Vasant Vihar that she pays for herself. Very deliberately not in the family business. Engaged to one Rohit Kapoor — Kapoor Industries family, Noida, third-generation manufacturing. Engagement announced four months ago. Wedding in seven months."
