The surgical strike was over in a matter of hours, but its tremors rippled across continents. The world had changed overnight—though only a handful of men and machines knew the full truth.
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Pakistan's Denial
By morning, Pakistani state television was in overdrive. Anchors sat stiffly behind polished desks, their voices strained but unwavering as they repeated the official line:
> "No Indian operation has taken place. Claims of cross-border strikes are fabrications. Pakistan's sovereignty remains intact."
But even as they spoke, the smell of burnt wood and twisted metal clung to the air near Muzaffarabad and Kotli. Villagers whispered of "fire from the sky," of armed men who vanished like shadows, and of camps reduced to nothing but craters.
Military trucks sealed off the areas. Survivors, if there were any, were silenced.
Behind closed doors in Rawalpindi, panic simmered. The generals had not expected India to respond with such precision. Some of the dead had been their own former men, mercenaries they had trained and quietly unleashed. Now, those links lay exposed, and worse—obliterated.
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The Global Media Spin
Across the world, news networks carried contradictory stories.
BBC and Reuters reported "unconfirmed cross-border strikes by India," citing anonymous sources.
CNN cautiously described it as "a limited retaliation operation."
In Beijing, the state-run Xinhua dismissed it as "political theater."
In Washington, the Pentagon refused to comment, though unnamed officials leaked that "the precision of the operation suggested new technological assets at play."
Social media exploded. Hashtags like #SurgicalStrike2 and #JusticeForRajasthan trended in India, while in Pakistan, #FakeStrike and #IndianPropaganda filled Twitter feeds.
But satellite images told another story. Independent analysts quickly noted scorched earth patterns exactly where India claimed the strikes occurred. A debate erupted—had India really achieved this without a single soldier lost?
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The Hidden Hand of Arya
While the world argued, Arya moved silently in the digital void.
The network of men who had orchestrated the Rajasthan attack—funders, recruiters, middlemen—still pulsed with life across encrypted channels. Telegram groups buzzed with confusion, dark-web forums whispered of betrayal.
Arya's code slipped into their systems like a phantom.
Bank accounts in Dubai and Karachi drained to zero in seconds, funds rerouted through a maze of charities before vanishing into quantum-locked black vaults controlled by Prithvi's algorithms.
Servers hosting propaganda videos were not just deleted but rewritten—filled with loops of static and corrupted files, mocking their former owners with messages that read: "Truth burns brighter than your lies."
Encrypted chatrooms flickered out one by one, replaced by chilling notifications: "We see you."
By dawn, entire digital infrastructures of the terror network had collapsed. Men who once boasted of untouchability were suddenly penniless, invisible, voiceless.
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Whispers in Intelligence Circles
In London, a senior MI6 officer muttered to his team:
> "This wasn't India alone. Their tech has… evolved. Beyond what we've mapped. Someone's fingerprints are missing here—and that frightens me more than the strikes themselves."
In Washington, the NSA flagged anomalies: bursts of AI-level interference across Pakistani servers, vanishing as soon as they appeared. One analyst whispered:
> "If this is Indian homegrown tech, we're years behind."
Beijing, meanwhile, grew restless. Their own satellites had recorded something unusual—communications vanishing in microseconds, digital shadows that even their quantum nets couldn't trace.
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Inside the Private Island Command
Far from the headlines, on the private island where Deepak and his closest circle monitored the world, the mood was sober.
Sanjeev Rawat, CEO of Saraswati Search, scrolled through the media feeds.
> "They can deny all they want. The truth is bleeding through every satellite photo. But it's Arya's work that terrifies them, not the strike itself."
Shiva Shankar, the face of Prithvi Energy, nodded.
> "We showed them that their money, their weapons, their propaganda—none of it is safe anymore. Their wars are not fought with guns alone. They're fought in code. And in code, Arya is untouchable."
Deepak, silent in the background, only leaned forward, studying the reports. For him, this was not victory. This was a warning. If Arya could dismantle an entire terror network overnight, the world's powers would soon unite—not against terrorism, but against him.
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The Shift in Public Opinion
In India, the mood was electric. For the first time in years, people felt both vengeance and pride. Families lit candles for the martyrs of Rajasthan, this time with relief—justice had not only been promised but delivered.
On the streets of Delhi, banners read: "No More Silence."
In Pakistan, however, unease spread. Citizens whispered of government lies. Some even dared to post grainy mobile footage of the craters online, only for those videos to disappear within hours—Arya making sure the story remained fractured, confusing, untraceable.
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The Invisible Guardian
As the world argued over narratives, one truth remained hidden:
The strike had succeeded not because of India's weapons, but because of Deepak's unseen guardianship—his humanoid emissaries in the boardrooms, his AI in the networks, his technology in the soldiers' hands.
The world saw Prithvi Energy, Saraswati Search, Bharat Mail.
The world did not see him.
And that was exactly how Deepak wanted it.
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