The Goa videos had bought them silence—for forty-eight hours. No new Slack pings, no fresh threats. Just the quiet before the storm. The Series B pitch was tomorrow; the entire team was in crunch mode, but the five of them moved through the office like ghosts who’d already sold their souls.

Wednesday, 3:22 p.m. Meera’s desk. She was reviewing the final deck slides when her personal phone buzzed—not Slack, not company email. A WhatsApp from an unknown number.