The beam of the heavy Eveready flashlight cut through the torrential monsoon rain like a fractured yellow blade, sweeping erratically across the jagged coastline.

Hari pulled his thick, yellow plastic raincoat tighter around his frail shoulders, his rubber boots sinking deep into the coastal mud. For twenty years, he had patrolled the perimeter of the abandoned textile godowns along this desolate stretch of the highway. He knew the sounds of the Arabian Sea—its angry roars, its hollow receding sighs—but tonight, the storm was different. It felt heavy, pregnant with a strange, suffocating dread.