The clock in the university cafeteria struck 2:00 PM. The air was thick with the smell of cheap coffee and the chatter of students cramming for midterms.
Sitting in a corner booth, wearing a simple hoodie and nursing a lukewarm tea, PK opened his laptop. He adjusted his earbuds, his face a mask of youthful boredom. On the screen, four windows opened simultaneously.
Silas Blackwell.Hector Vane.Henry Law. And Riya, sitting slightly behind her father, her eyes sharp and attentive.
The three titans of Z City looked grim. They were in a high-security conference room, the kind where billion-dollar fates were sealed. The silence on the call was heavy, a standoff between the old world and the new.
PK didn't offer a greeting. He didn't even look at the camera; he was scrolling through a data sheet.
"Did Leonard ask any of you for help?" PK's voice was flat, devoid of the warmth he usually showed them.
The three men exchanged a look. Silas was the one to clear his throat. "He reached out to all of us, PK. He's desperate. He's claiming the owner of PingMe is a psychopath—that the boy is using extortion and psychological torture to bleed him dry. We were actually just discussing if we should intervene. This PingMe owner… he's being too ruthless. It's bad for the city's ecosystem to have someone that volatile holding that much power."
Hector Vane nodded. "There is a limit to business rivalry, PK. Forcing a man to pay thirty crores and then leaking the tapes? It's… it's demonic. We were thinking of stabilizing the situation for Leonard."
A low, dry sound came through the speakers.
PK was chuckling. It wasn't a joyful sound; it was the sound of a blade sliding out of a sheath.
"I'm that ruthless man," PK said.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Riya's eyes widened, her pen stopping mid-air. Silas froze. Hector's hand, which had been reaching for a glass of water, stayed suspended in the air.
"You?" Henry Law whispered.
PK finally looked into the camera. His eyes, usually bright with intellect, were now cold, dark voids. "Me. I am the one who took his money. I am the one who leaked the tapes. And I am the one who is currently deciding if Leonard deserves to keep breathing the air in Z City."
"PK, listen—" Silas started, his voice uncharacteristically shaky.
"No, Silas. You listen," PK interrupted. His voice didn't rise, but the command in it was absolute. It was the voice of a king speaking to his vassals. "You will not help him. You will not answer his calls. You will not offer him a cent of liquidity."
He leaned closer to the screen, the bright cafeteria lights behind him making him look like a silhouette.
"I want Leonard erased. Not just defeated—erased. I want you three to move in and acquire every asset he has left for pennies on the rupee. Strip his holdings. Foreclose on his properties. By the time the sun sets tomorrow, I want it to be as if a man named Leonard never existed in Z City."
"You're asking us to cannibalize a peer?" Hector asked, a hint of fear in his voice.
"I'm telling you to clean my garden," PK replied. "Tell him to leave Z City. If he's still here by Friday, I'll stop being 'ruthless' and start being 'creative.' You've seen what I did with thirty crores. Imagine what I can do with a grudge."
PK glanced at his watch.
"Silas, you handle the real estate. Hector, the tech holdings. Henry, handle the legal lockdown. Let me know when he's on a plane out of here. Riya, I want the audit of his liquidated assets on my desk by midnight."
He scanned their faces—three of the most powerful men in the country, now looking like schoolboys being scolded.
"Any questions?" PK asked, his tone daring them to speak.
No one moved. Even Silas, who had known PK the longest, felt a cold sweat on the back of his neck. He realized they had never been "mentoring" PK. They had been keeping a tiger in a cage, and the cage was now open.
"Good," PK said, his face instantly shifting back into a casual, student-like expression as a group of loud freshmen walked past his table. "I have a Calculus lecture in five minutes. Don't disappoint me."
The screen went black.
In the silent conference room, Henry Law finally exhaled. He looked at Silas. "What have we been dealing with all this time?"
Riya, still staring at the blank screen, whispered the answer. "The person Leonard was afraid of... wasn't a businessman. It was him."