Arjun didn’t feel relief. He felt the cold slide of a cage door clicking shut behind him—one lined with gold.

Welcome to the real Upwork.

Victor: Hey Arjun. Having trouble with the download?

He clicked.

For three seconds, nothing happened. Then his VM screen flashed black. A single line of green text appeared:

Victor: I already know your real name is Arjun Jitai. I know you have a daughter named Meera. She’s at Shishu Mandir school, pick-up at 3:30 PM. Run the file on your real machine, or I’ll send someone to pick her up early.

Arjun’s fingers hovered over the mouse. A .exe? For a payment gateway? He typed back.

Victor: Internal security. Just run it. It’ll decrypt the real files.