The proposal - 2

Arjun practically ran to the laundry room, his heels clicking frantically. He pushed the door open and locked it behind him.

He leaned against the washing machine, panting heavily. His whole body was shaking. He had done it.

Ten minutes later, the door handle rattled. Arjun opened it quickly. Priya slipped inside, her corporate suit looking entirely out of place in the warm, detergent-scented room.

"What happened?" Priya asked quickly, keeping her voice to a bare whisper.

Arjun grabbed her hands. His massive glass bangles clinked against her watch. "I got it, Priya. He had to type the decryption key. I leaned right over him. He was so busy staring at my deep blouse that he typed it slowly. I saw every single letter."

Priya let out a quiet, thrilled laugh. She looked at his sheer black saree, his heavy red lipstick, and the massive padding. "You are incredible. You are the most brilliant spy in the world. What is the password?"

"Empire_Builder_Vikram!1," Arjun whispered. "With a capital E."

Priya rolled her eyes at the sheer arrogance of the password. She pulled out her phone and quickly typed it into a secure, encrypted message to herself. "Okay. Okay, this is it. Tomorrow, Vikram leaves for the city office at 9:00 AM. The minister is leaving tonight. I will pretend to be sick tomorrow morning and stay home from work."

"And when the house is empty..." Arjun started, his eyes wide with fear and excitement.

"When the house is empty, we go into the study," Priya finished firmly. "We take the black laptop, unlock it, copy the corrupted files onto a flash drive, and send them directly to Rohan."

The next morning, the Alibaug mansion was filled with a thick, nervous energy.

At 9:00 AM, Vikram walked out the front door. A minute later, they heard the heavy iron gates of the mansion open, and the sound of Vikram's silver luxury car driving away.

The house was completely silent.

Priya and Arjun walked quickly down the long marble hallway toward the study. Arjun was wearing a soft pink chiffon saree today, but his heart was racing so fast he barely noticed his heavy silver anklets chiming.

Priya pushed the heavy oak doors of the study open. She walked straight around the massive mahogany desk and sat down in Vikram's large leather chair. Arjun stood right beside her, gripping the edge of the desk with his manicured fingers.

Priya opened the lid of the black, offline laptop. The black encryption screen lit up, asking for the password. She typed Empire_Builder_Vikram!1 and hit enter.

The screen loaded. The desktop appeared.

"Find the folder," Arjun urged, his voice tight with anxiety. "Hurry."

Priya navigated through the files. "Because he thinks this laptop is a fortress, he didn't lock the files themselves," she whispered. She found the folder labeled "Strategic_Leverage_Assets". She opened it. Inside were dozens of spreadsheets, bank routing numbers, and scanned copies of illegal wire transfers. It was undeniable proof of massive corruption.

"This is it. This is his entire empire," Priya said, her voice hard. She plugged a small USB drive into the side of the laptop. She dragged the folder over to the drive.

A small box popped up on the screen: Copying files. Estimated time: 6 minutes.

Arjun stared at the screen, his massive gold mangalsutra rising and falling quickly with his panicked breathing.

Suddenly, a loud noise echoed from outside. Beep-beep!

It was a car horn near the front gate.

Arjun gasped, his hands flying up to his heavily padded chest. "Did he come back? Did he forget something?"

"Stay calm," Priya ordered, though her own leg was bouncing nervously under the desk. She looked at the progress bar. 45 percent. "Even if it is him, it will take him a minute to walk up to the house. Just breathe, Arjun."

Every single second felt like an hour. The sound of footsteps crunched on the gravel outside the window. It was just the estate gardener, but the sheer terror of getting caught in the act made the air in the room feel suffocating.

Finally, the bar hit 100 percent. The box disappeared.

"Done," Priya said sharply, ripping the USB drive out. She completely shut down the black laptop, locking the encrypted drive once again, leaving it exactly as they found it.

She pulled her smartphone from her pocket, plugged the USB drive into it using an adapter, and attached the corrupted folder to a highly secure email.

She looked at Arjun. "Ready?"

Arjun nodded, a fierce tear ruining a tiny bit of his winged eyeliner. "Send it. Destroy him."

Priya hit send. The files went straight to Rohan.