“Wait, you’re saying Sri was the one working with WTA, not someone directly on the R&D team?” Frankie said. “Impossible.”

“It’s possible. We have evidence, as well. We went into his access history and learned that he used Sahar Ali Khan’s access keys to pull data after Sahar had already been fired.”

Ajay had been told that there were also encrypted messages shared with one Guru Hothi. He hated having to tell Raj that her brother was involved, but he refused to withhold the truth from her.

She was strong. And if she couldn’t handle it on her own, he’d be there for her.

“What are the next steps, brother?” Hem asked. “Is Sri locked up?”

“Yes, but we’ll most likely have to provide testimony. Hopefully, with the help of RKH Collective, we’ll have a more robust security team so this situation never arises again.”

The intel had come in barely an hour ago from Roshan. Their FBI contact in white collar crimes, Ms. Hu, had been ready to assist.

“So Raj was right,” Mina said. She winked at Ajay. “She told me a while back that if our security team was having such a hard time finding out the mole in the company, we needed to fire them. She knew something was off before anyone.”

Ajay nodded with a bittersweet feeling—even though his company had succeeded in ousting the mole, his love was in pain because he’d been the root cause of her secrets being released to the world. “Raj’s life story has now been painted in the ugliest way possible in the news because of her dealings with Bharat, despite the positive outcome for us.”

Ajay shut the lid of his laptop and stood. “I know some of you blame me for the shit hitting the fan after Bharat went public two years ago. Before we were on the market, we were a growing, profitable business. The rest of you think I’m too young to fill my father’s shoes. Well, I’m here to tell all of you that I have no intention of filling anyone’s shoes. This is not a damn game of dress up. It’s a race, and the only thing that I’m getting from my father is the baton so I can run the next leg of the relay for Bharat.”

“Comparisons are inevitable,” one of the newer board members chimed in. “You’re his son, but you don’t program like he does and you stay out of the limelight. People are going to have to use what they know and make assumptions about you.”