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Black Squad – Episode 86
Title: "The Dancer's Death"
(A graceful fall, a brutal truth. When a classical dancer collapses dead during a stage performance, the Black Squad enters a world of art, obsession, and betrayal. But behind the spotlight lies something darker...)
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[OPENING SCENE – NAVRANG NRITYA ACADEMY, MUMBAI | 7:40 PM]
Lights flash. The crowd applauds.
On stage, Meera Trivedi, 32, an internationally acclaimed Kathak dancer, performs her finale. Her movements are flawless — until her hand trembles.
Her face twists.
Her legs give way.
She collapses mid-spin, convulsing. The tabla player screams.
The lights go out.
Cut to black.
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ACT 1: Black Squad Called In
At HQ, the team is gathered.
Qazi reads the file with narrowed eyes.
Zoya and Imran will lead field investigation.
Arjun Rathore finally returns — now with a bandage on his shoulder from his off-screen operation.
Reet is tasked with toxicology and digital surveillance.
Qazi:
> "The academy claims heart failure. But postmortem says poisoning — fast-acting, organic compound."
Victim: Meera Trivedi. No known enemies.
Suspect: Her top student, Suhana Roy, 23 — seen arguing with her backstage.
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ACT 2: A Web of Motives
At the academy:
Zoya and Imran question Suhana, who insists:
> "I didn't kill her. She was going to announce me as the new face of Navrang. Why would I ruin that?"
Arjun finds surveillance footage mysteriously wiped.
Reet uncovers that Meera's phone was reset an hour before the performance — remotely.
They learn of an anonymous investor in the academy who had threatened to cut funding.
Also: A disgruntled ex-dancer, Ravi Nair, banned by Meera a year ago for misconduct.
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ACT 3: Layers Beneath the Stage
Imran discovers a series of encrypted voicemails Meera left on her old backup cloud drive:
> "He's watching us. The academy's not mine anymore. I'm afraid, but if anything happens to me—go to the mirror room. The code is in the beats."
Zoya and Arjun break into the Mirror Room, a private studio Meera used.
Behind the two-way glass: a hidden compartment with a small vial, documents, and flash drives.
Reet identifies the poison: Saxitoxin — rare, water-soluble, extracted from marine life, used by covert assassins.
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ACT 4: The Real Culprit
The squad reanalyzes the evidence.
Arjun notices something off in the recording of the tabla beats — coded patterns.
Translated, it spells out a name: Abhimanyu Varma.
He's not in any official record.
Turns out: He's the anonymous investor. A failed artist-turned-obsessive patron — and Meera's ex-fiancé.
Meera discovered he was laundering money through the academy's international tours.
She confronted him privately. He silenced her — via the water bottle she always kept on stage.
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ACT 5: Confrontation
The squad raids his sea-facing bungalow.
Abhimanyu tries to flee by boat. Zoya chases. Arjun intercepts.
A dramatic hand-to-hand fight on the dock. Abhimanyu injects himself with a suicide compound — but Reet had anticipated this and replaced the needle with saline.
He's arrested.
Qazi tells him:
> "You used art to kill. We use truth to destroy."
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ENDING SCENE – BACK AT HQ
The team quietly reflects in the war room.
Zoya watches a video of Meera performing, this time without a tragedy at the end.
Arjun looks at Qazi.
> "What next?"
Qazi smirks faintly.
> "Next? Another story. Another truth."
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Next Episode Tease: Episode 87 – "The Groom Vanishes"
A wedding day, a missing groom, and a secret double life. But is it a runaway… or a setup for murder?