Rain is a constant partner of Nadia throughout her childhood.
It was raining again the night she finally began uncovering the truth.
Mumbai was alive outside the café window—cars splashing through wet streets, neon lights reflecting the pavement, pedestrians hurrying beneath umbrellas as the city buzzed with evening traffic.
Inside the café the air smelled of coffee and pastries.
Soft music played in the background.
But Nadia barely noticed any of it.
Her entire focus rested on the glowing screen of her laptop.
Documents filled the display.
Shipping manifests.
Corporate registries.
Insurance reports.
Government investigation files.
Ten years had passed since the explosion.
Ten years since the night she lost her father.
For most people, that kind of tragedy slowly faded into memory.
Life moved on.
But Nadia had never allowed herself to forget.
For years she had quietly collected information about the port incident.
It became her obsession.
The more she investigated the explosion…
The less the official story made sense.
According to the government report, the disaster had been caused by improperly stored industrial chemicals.
A chain reaction of volatile compounds ignited during a storm, destroying part of the dock and killing several workers.
Case closed.
But Nadia had learned something important over the years.
Numbers didn't lie.
And the numbers surrounding the explosion were very strange.
She scrolled through another document.
Three shipping companies had been involved in the cargo shipment that exploded.
All three had received large insurance payouts afterward.
Nothing unusual there.
But within six months…
Every single one of those companies had vanished.
Bank accounts closed.
Corporate directors resigned.
Offices shut down.
As if someone had erased them from existence.
Nadia tapped the keyboard again.
A financial timeline appeared.
She traced the transactions carefully.
Insurance money flowing into various accounts.
Funds transferred between corporations.
Then disappearing into offshore holdings.
Someone had cleaned up after the explosion.
And they had done it very thoroughly.
Nadia leaned back in her chair and rubbed her eyes.
"Too neat," she whispered.
Accidents created chaos.
Messy investigations.
Conflicting reports.
But this case had been resolved with suspicious efficiency.
Almost like someone powerful had wanted it buried.
She returned her attention to the screen.
One final document remained open.
A financial advisory report filed shortly after the explosion.
At the top of the page was the name of a consulting firm.
Orion Strategic Consulting.
Nadia frowned.
She had never heard of them before.
But according to the report, Orion had been hired by one of the shipping companies two weeks after the disaster.
Their job had been to help restructure the company's finances following the insurance settlement.
Which meant something important.
Orion would have had full access to the company's internal records.
Cargo logs.
Insurance documents.
Employee statements.
Information that had never been released publicly.
Nadia quickly searched for the firm.
The results appeared instantly.
Headquarters: Mumbai.
Industry: Corporate strategic consulting.
Leadership page.
Her eyes moved down the list of names.
Managing directors.
Financial analysts.
Operations advisors.
Then she saw a title that stood out.
Senior Strategist – Varma
There was no photograph.
Just the name.
Something about it felt oddly familiar.
But she couldn't remember why.
Nadia closed the laptop slowly.
Outside, thunder rolled over the city as the rain intensified.
Her mind replayed the night of the explosion.
The argument.
The truck.
The man pressing the button.
For ten years she had searched for the smallest clue.
And now…
For the first time…
She might have found a lead.
If Orion had worked with the shipping companies after the disaster, someone there might know what really happened.
Nadia glanced once more at the glowing lights of Mumbai outside the window.
The city stretched endlessly into the darkness.
Millions of people living ordinary lives.
But somewhere in that vast network of streets and buildings…
Someone knew the truth about the explosion.
And tomorrow she would start asking questions.
She didn't know it yet.
But the name she had just discovered would change everything.
Because the man called Varma was not just a strategist.
In another world…
A far darker world of power and secrets…
He had once been known by a very different name.
A name whispered with both fear and respect.
Cobra.