Chapter 3 — Room 4C

Bengaluru. CipherNet India Office. November 11th.CipherNet's India office was in a glass tower in Koramangala — the kind of building that announced its tenants' financial health through its architecture, all reflective surfaces and branded lobby displays. Naina arrived at nine AM with her High Commission identification and a story she had partially prepared on the cab from the airport.The story was: she was handling the London side of Arjun's estate, needed to collect personal items from his desk, had authorisation from the UK office. She had called ahead — not to the Bengaluru office, to the London office, to a woman named Sarah in HR who had sounded genuinely sorry about Arjun and had sent an email to the Bengaluru office manager.The office manager's name was Vikram Nair, thirty-five, the specific efficient quality of someone who ran a complex operation and had no patience for deviations from process."His personal items were packed up last week," Vikram said. "We can arrange a courier—""I'd rather collect them in person," Naina said. "I'm here anyway. And there may be some work-related materials that HR needs me to identify." She met his eyes with the calm of a woman who had looked at difficult people across interview tables for nine years. "I won't take long."He gave her the escort she'd expected — a junior admin named Pooja who was clearly under instructions to ensure nothing inappropriate happened and who had the manner of someone carrying an assignment slightly above her comfort level.Arjun's desk was in the open-plan section of the third floor. Clean. The kind of clean that came from someone having already gone through it — too orderly, the desk of a person who had been tidied rather than a person who worked. She went through the motions: the few personal items in the drawers, a photo of them in Goa that she took and held without expression, a book she recognized as his.She noted: no laptop. No USB drives. The desk of a man who had left nothing behind worth taking. Which either meant he had been careful, or someone else had been thorough."Is there a server room on this floor?" she asked Pooja. "His work involved some physical infrastructure—""The server room is restricted," Pooja said. "I'd need authorisation from the infrastructure team.""Of course," Naina said. She looked at the floor plan on the wall — the kind of emergency evacuation map that was legally required and practically ignored. She located the server room. Room 4C. One floor up. The stairs were behind the fire door at the end of the open-plan section.She spent twenty more minutes at the desk. She was very grateful to Pooja for being thorough and professional. She asked where the bathroom was. Pooja pointed her toward the right side of the building.She went left.Through the fire door.