Viju laughed, a low, honest sound. He tapped the meter on his auto, which clicked to life.

The air in Mirzapur was thick with the smell of marigolds, desi ghee , and fear. For decades, the throne of the district had been a cursed iron chair, polished not by cloth, but by the constant friction of those who tried to sit on it and failed. The ruler was Kaleen Bhaiya—Akhandanand Tripathi—the undisputed Carpenter of Mirzapur , who dealt in a different kind of wood: the wood of custom-made shotguns smuggled in crates marked "Furniture."

He parked his auto near the abandoned Tripathi carpet godown on the outskirts of town. The place was a skeleton of its former self—rusted tin sheets, shattered bulbs, and bullet holes like constellations on the walls. As midnight struck, a black Scorpio rolled in without headlights.

"Viju," Abhay said, his voice cracking into manhood. "You could sit here. I would step down."

Behind him came a boy, no older than sixteen, but with a stillness that belonged to a forty-year-old hitman. He had the Tripathi nose—the same arrogant bridge. The same cleft chin.