A Valentine's Algorithm
Copyright© 2026 by Tantrayaan
Chapter 9
The fountain at night was a different animal. They’d waited until past midnight. The park was empty except for a few bundled homeless people sleeping on benches far from the water. Inna kept watch while Vikram worked.
He’d brought a headlamp this time, and tools and a plan to find the elusive proof that Elara had left behind.
“The plate is the marker,” he muttered, running his hands over the decorative stonework around the base. “She wouldn’t put it on the plate. She’d put it near it.”
He checked every ornamental feature within ten meters. The bollards. The drainage grates. The decorative caps on the low iron fence. But they found nothing.
An hour passed. Then two. Inna’s feet were numb from standing still.
“Vikram,” she said quietly. “We should go. Come back tomorrow night with better gear.”
“Wait.” He was crouched by one of the bollards. His fingers had found something. A seam in the base where there shouldn’t be one. He pulled a thin pry bar from his bag and worked it carefully into the gap. The bottom section of the bollard twisted and came free.
Inside the hollow metal tube was a sealed plastic bag. Another USB drive.
Vikram held it up to the headlamp and grinned.
“She’s a genius,” he breathed.
Inna couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah. She really is.”
They went to the bridge two weeks later. After two weeks of sleepless nights, failed decryptions, and waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The coordinates had pointed them to an old stone bridge on the east side.
It wasn’t a tourist spot. Just city infrastructure that had been there for a hundred years and would probably be there for a hundred more.
They went at dawn again. Early enough that the light was grey and nobody was around.
The drive was hidden behind a loose paver stone in the underside of the
arch. It took them two hours of freezing their fingers on moss-covered masonry to find it. When Vikram finally pulled out the weather-worn plastic bag, he looked like he might cry.
“Three for three,” Inna said.
“Three for three,” he repeated.
They walked back toward the car. It was parked in a gravel lot under the bridge. The kind of place the city forgot about. There were no streetlights or cameras. They thought they were safe. After all, all they had as company was the smell of damp concrete and the river.
Vikram was buzzing. He held the bag like it contained the Holy Grail.
“She used to do this for our anniversaries. Find these impossible little spots in the city. She said most people only look at eye level. They never see the seams.”
Inna listened but her eyes were scanning the shadows. The lot felt wrong. It felt too quiet. Too still.
“Let’s just get out of here,” she said.
She reached for the driver’s side door hoping to get out of there quickly.
Two figures came out from behind the dumpster. They moved fast and smoothly. Like they’d been waiting for prey.
Before Inna could pull her weapon, a hand clamped over her mouth. Cold metal pressed against her throat.
“Don’t scream.” The voice was strung out. High. “Just give us your wallets. Jewelry. Everything.”
The guy holding her smelled like malt liquor and sweat. His pupils were blown. Whatever he was on had him jittery and dangerous.
“And that.” The second one pointed at the bag in Vikram’s hand.
Vikram froze. The color drained from his face when he saw the knife at Inna’s neck.
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