The elevator didn't go down to some dark basement. It went up—to the penthouse. The doors opened to reveal what could only be described as a dream laboratory disguised as a luxury spa. White marble floors, soft ambient music, and what looked like massage chairs arranged in neat rows. Except these chairs had neural headsets and IV drips attached.
"Welcome to my innovation lab," Verma said, his voice smooth as he gestured around the room. "Where we're perfecting human potential."
Arav counted eight people connected to the chairs, their bodies relaxed but their faces twitching with rapid eye movement. Dreaming. Against the far wall, floor-to-ceiling windows offered a breathtaking view of Mumbai's skyline, the city lights twinkling like stars below them.
Riya struggled against her restraints. "You can't keep us here. The CIB—"
"—has no jurisdiction over corporate R&D," Verma finished for her. "And your friend Ankit? Let's just say he's been... reassigned."
Two attendants—a man and a woman in crisp white uniforms—came forward. Without a word, they began guiding Arav and Riya toward two empty chairs.
"Don't fight it," Kiran murmured from behind them, his own guards flanking him closely. "The neural lock will cause pain if you resist."
Arav's mind raced, searching for an escape, a loophole, anything. His eyes met Riya's across the room. Her gaze was fierce, unwavering. She gave an almost imperceptible nod. Wait for our chance.
The headset felt cold against Arav's temples. The last thing he saw before the world dissolved was Verma's smiling face.
The Shared Dreamscape - Unknown Location
Arav found himself standing in a replica of his childhood orphanage—a place he hadn't thought about in years. The faded yellow walls, the cracked concrete floor, the smell of disinfectant. It felt so real.
"A clever defense mechanism," said a voice behind him.
Arav turned to find Riya, who looked exactly as she had in the real world, except for a faint shimmer around her edges. "Your mind created a familiar space to protect itself. Mine did too—I was in my first CIB training room."
"Where are the others?" Arav asked, looking around the empty hallway.
"Trapped in their own dream prisons," she said. "Verma's technology isolates us while making us believe we're sharing a space. My father's research notes mentioned this—it's how Verma breaks people."
As she spoke, the orphanage walls flickered, and for a second, Arav saw Riya's training room—weights, combat dummies, and tactical maps on the walls.
"We're bleeding into each other's dreams," Arav realized. "Why aren't we isolated like the others?"
Riya's eyes lit up with understanding. "Because we've already dream-walked together. Our neural patterns have synced."
The Real World - 10:17 PM
Verma watched the monitor with interest. Two of the dreamers' brainwave patterns were synchronizing in a way he'd never seen before. "Fascinating," he murmured to Kiran, who stood beside him under guard. "The Sharma girl has her father's resilience, and the boy... his raw talent is remarkable."
Kiran kept his face carefully neutral, though his hands trembled slightly. "You don't have to do this, Verma. The project is already—"
"Already what?" Verma's voice sharpened. "Successful? Of course it is. But perfection requires testing under all conditions." He turned to the attendant. "Increase the immersion levels. Let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes."
The Dreamscape - Deepening
The world shifted around them again, and suddenly they were in a perfect blend of both their memories—the orphanage's courtyard now contained CIB training equipment. Rain fell around them, though neither felt wet.
"I think I know how to break out," Arav said, examining the way the dream world seemed to bend at the edges of his vision. "But we'll need to go deeper, not fight our way out."
Riya stared at him. "Deeper? That's the opposite of what we should do!"
"Verma's system is designed to resist escape attempts," Arav explained. "But what if we stop trying to leave? What if we go so deep into the dream that we find the system's core programming?"
Understanding dawned in Riya's eyes. "Like finding the foundation of a building instead of trying to break through a wall."
They sat cross-legged on the dream ground, facing each other as the orphanage and training equipment melted away around them. Arav had never attempted anything like this—intentionally diving deeper into a controlled dream. It felt like falling awake.
The Real World - 11:02 PM
Alarms began to sound in the laboratory.
"Sir," the female attendant said, concern in her voice. "Subjects 9 and 10 are achieving dream state depth of 97%. That's beyond our safety parameters."
Verma's eyes gleamed with excitement. "No, this is what we've been waiting for! Record everything! They're reaching the foundational layer—the place where all dreams connect."
On the monitors, Arav and Riya's vital signs showed elevated heart rates and unusual brain activity. Their bodies in the chairs had gone perfectly still.
Kiran watched, his own fear forgotten as he witnessed something he'd only theorized about. "They're going to find the source code," he whispered.
The Foundational Layer
Arav and Riya now stood in a place of pure whiteness—no walls, no floor, no sky, yet they weren't floating. Before them stretched what looked like a vast, glowing river of light, with countless threads branching off in every direction.
"These are all the dreams," Riya said in awe. "Everyone connected to Verma's system."
Arav pointed to a particularly bright cluster of threads. "That's us. And there—" He indicated a dark, pulsing knot in the river's center. "That's the corruption. That's Verma's control."
As they moved closer, shapes began to form around them—the other dreamers, trapped in their personal nightmares, unaware of each other or the two intruders in their shared dream space.
"We can free them," Riya said, reaching toward the dark knot.
But before she could touch it, Verma's voice echoed through the whiteness: "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
A form materialized before them—Verma himself, standing in the dream space as solid as they were.
"You're not supposed to be able to enter this layer," Arav said, stepping protectively in front of Riya.
Verma smiled, a terrible, proud smile. "My boy, this is my design. Did you really think I'd build a prison I couldn't enter?"
Riya's hand found Arav's, their fingers interlacing. They stood together facing the man who had destroyed her father and threatened to enslave thousands.
"You won't win," Riya said, her voice steady. "My father stopped you once. We'll stop you for good."
Verma's smile didn't falter. "But my dear, your father didn't stop me. He became the foundation for all of this."
The white world around them began to fracture, and Arav caught a horrifying glimpse of a familiar face in the river of dreams—Officer Rajesh Sharma, trapped forever in the system, his consciousness powering the very technology that had killed him.