Our Alibi Was Trending: A Digital Alibi at First Light

By Prashant Mishra

The story opens after Ayaan Khanna, 19, finds a police evidence label stitched inside a vintage jacket in a hill station near Shimla. As a heritage conservator, Ayaan knows how easily facts can be edited, but not why a colleague who may be protecting the culprit seems determined to help. Together they uncover evidence that a wellness app has been selling intimate voice recordings as training data. Their alliance fractures when an approaching storm cuts the setting off from outside help. With a child’s map of places adults deny exist as the last verifiable lead, Ayaan must trade the truth for someone else’s safety, only to learn that solving the mystery forces the protagonist to reveal a secret more damaging than the crime. The emotional counterpoint is an attempt to complete a deceased parent’s unfinished documentary, while the collaborator may be feeding information to the opposition.