Lut Gaye || لٹ گۓ

THIRTY ONE | Winged Heart (Part One)

"main usi pal tera hogaya."

            ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

LAST week of February had been full of praise for the sharpshooter. 

Local newspapers and news bulletins extolled the successful major operation against the city's most notorious drug syndicate conducted by the special investigation unit. The provincial ministers and police officials commended the team's leader and had even announced cash rewards for the entire unit at a press conference.

Zain hadn't let the acclaim go to his head and had taken it all with an unpretentious comportment.

Even right now, present in the squad room on the second floor of the special investigation unit, dressed in an ivory button-down shirt belted over charcoal pants, he sat adjacent to one of his colleagues with an introspective visage, turning his brass police badge in his palm again and again.

"Not only did you bust the city's most dangerous den of smugglers but also killed half-a-dozen of them by yourself. That's a huge success, sir," Wajid lauded with an emphatic gesture of his hand.

Zain placed the badge flat on the table and swiveled in his chair to face him directly.

The fourth member of his team had just returned from his leave and had missed the gory venture they had executed. Wajid was a man of robust physique with dark eyes and sharply defined features on a clean shaven face. An adequate combatant, but his real skills lay in digital forensics. 

"For me, the real success is killing the genesis of crime," Zain replied, clicking his tongue in disappointment as he added,  "And so far, we haven't really accomplished that."

And it was true. The ground reality of the operation was different from what was being projected. The quantity of drugs they had recovered from the underground base was significantly less than what he had personally observed, which meant a large portion of the narcotic material had already been exfiltrated by the gang.

Two most wanted hitmen of the cartel were still missing, and his main task of unveiling the identity of the drug kingpin remained unfinished.

"At least our image has been revamped in the eyes of the citizens thanks to this operation." There was a waggish arch to Wajid's mouth. "Take it easy for a while."

At that, Zain let out a dark laugh as his gaze turned into one of the raptors. 

"Just like there's no rest for the wicked, there's no rest for the one hunting them either." 

"True that," he conceded with a sigh.

"Anyway, Wajid, can you go through the devices we have seized and try to crack the database?" 

"All you need is to give me an order, sir," Wajid said with a hand on his heart.

Zain tapped on the wooden desk with a smirk. "I'll be expecting a document on this table in a week then."

"Understood!"

They were involved in a further discussion regarding city crimes when the door flew open and the other two members of his team blazed inside, sporting post-training ruggedness.

Saif, clad in an indigo compression shirt stretched taut against his solidly built torso and arms, stood there along with Sarmad, who wore a lighter, half-sleeved shirt, putting the fierce dragon tattoo coiled around his buff bicep on display.

"These new recruits for the security unit can't even stand after taking a punch man," Saif groused, taking his training gloves off and pushing back the damp locks of his hair with his fingers.