“Sir, what are your plans for the future?”

“For now, get that old man out of prison and get re– and then complete what I had set out to do.”

‘No need for them to know about that, at least for now.’

Abdul Matin went to the side, calling someone. He deliberately distanced himself, with no desire to peep on the man while he talked. Mamun came with him as they moved around the dhaba eventually standing next to the trunk of the chinaberry tree that gave shade to everyone eating.

“So, any changes to the prison?”

Mamun started filling him with the details of the prison, the facilities, the prison cells, and all the other things. The few things he did remember about the jail were crisp and clear, he could easily recall them but most of the information he did not remember.

After they had eaten their fill came the time to pay the bills and again he felt shocked. The prices had more than doubled compared to what he remembered.

He, Mamun, and Afzal got in Matin’s car heading for Kot Lakhpat where the central jail was located. He decided to get Arshad out tonight. He would not let the syndicate have a chance to do anything.

On the way, he described his experiences within the dungeon. His voice was bubbly and sounded pleasant, but with time it went into a low tune and he felt his face turn stiff. He did not stop, the memories replaying along with his words accompanied by the unforgettable pain. It was difficult to bear through it.

Somewhere along the way he had stopped talking, eyes closed he focus within, on the painful memories. The pain he had felt, the fear, and the anger further expanded his misery. His wife, Afzal, Mamun, Arshad, and many others had to face what they experienced because of him. He wanted to get rid of the syndicate but was incompetent and in the end, the price that had been paid was by his subordinates and his loved ones.

He had gotten a sweet deal in comparison, no one had harassed him in the prison and those officers within the prison usually gave him respect. He had spent his time quietly within the prison, at last, those years had passed now.

His memories suddenly repeated those faces, they had the drive to work for the betterment of people at one time, but now they had been reduced to just a group of fearful people hopping the criminals left them alone.

He poured these memories into the embers within, carefully managing them. It was difficult to stop himself from rushing off in anger but that would ultimately mean nothing. As embers burned brighter, starting to gain power. The flames of revenge kept flourishing within him as he kept pouring memory after memory.

The embers had finally become flames.

***

The prison still looked the same. He looked around. One side had rows of buildings while the other side had still more farms, just like the one he was standing in, and even further he could see buildings.

“Park the car under the shade, I will scout the place.”

As he walked away, others drove off the car, hiding the car within a small group of trees.

He circled the jail from the outside. The other side, too, had fields going as far as the eyes could see. Then he slowly came near the jail. There were trees outside the jail, he quickly ran within. Then he was like fish in the water as he silently ran through this small forest. He climbed the tree, jumped towards the massive wall, and looked inside.

It took him some while to come back and he quickly asked Matin.

“In which building is his cell, and the location of the cell within the building. Gather it”

While Abdul Matin took out his phone to call he looked around. He need a high place, somewhere he could analyze the prison as a whole now that he had seen all the parts one by one.

Within the sea of buildings, he saw a telecom tower towering over everything within its vicinity.

"What are you going to do?"

He turned towards Mamun, lifting the face covering to scratch his nose.

"Tonight I will get him out. With how bizarre they were acting who knows? They might start targeting Arshad and others similar to him just like they kidnapped your son without any worry."

"Surely they would not directly att– they don't need to do anything to kill someone, especially in a prison."

He nodded at Mamun.

"You guys relocate your families somewhere safe for now, it is going to get chaotic soon. Even though I will try acting stealthily who knows how the syndicate will react."

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“Though the place I have been assigned to is no better than slums, it is much safer than another part of the city, that I can say with confidence.”

Hearing him say that piqued his interest, but that had to wait for now.

"You do not plan to gather others?"

Just when he was going to continue, Abdul Matin intervened.

“Did you know they have expanded to all parts of the country, and even internationally? Despite all their bad points, they give the government a single point with which they can control the crimes. Furthermore, they don’t step out of their boundaries.”

“What are you trying to say?” he controlled the rising anger within. It rushed out too quickly trying to steal the control from him.

“If you kill their leader and managers, chaos is going to spread across the country. Who do you think will be affected by that? Certainly not the powerful. It is weak. Though I have helped you it is only because I believe that an honorable officer will be imprisoned or worse again.”

Abdul Matin took in a deep breath seemingly still having more things that he wanted to say.

“Didn’t you want to protect the weak? Currently, I don’t find any thought about them within your actions.”

He wanted to reject what he was saying but suddenly a came into his mind how he had left those rockets and those attackers to the mod. Who knew what could have happened.

‘Thank God nothing happened!’

They could have caused problems even if he had tied them, especially when the bag containing rockets had been near them.

“What do you think about this?”

Mamun turned away from his son.

“Unfortunately I have to disagree. Abul Matin said they did not go out of their bounds but that is because they do not have any boundaries. Those within the government support them and protect them. Just consider the protection money, the locals could do something to be protected against it but these days everyone has to give it. All the businesses, big and small within my area, have to pay these days and we can only watch. If we try touching them we would have to worry about the government later, the syndicate itself is more powerful than the police at its current stage. They have to give them their money with a smile. This is just one example. The weak have already been ground into dust. They can bear some more, especially if it can make the things better.”

Afzal suddenly interrupted them all.

“Can’t this all be discussed after you have rescued him?”

“He is right,” he quickly said to the other two.

“You guys park under the trees near that Steel mill. For now, I will monitor the area, and search the premises. I will act at 5 in the morning, okay?”

“Do we need to be here? I don’t see how can I help now”

“Both of you can go back, just leave me something that can be used for transportation at that time.”

As they are parting ways he ruffled Afzal’s hair.

“Allah hafiz.”

He waved at them until they disappear from his eyes. He closes his eyes, and they regained the focus that he had developed after surviving alone for so long. He starts jogging and after some while he stands in front of the walled telecom tower.

On the top, he focused on the massive area of the Lahore central jail. He repeated the location that Abdul Matin had told him, superimposing what was before him currently to what he had scouted before. It took a while for him to narrow it down to a specific building.

His mind swirled with ideas, on how to go about this prison break. He could always just rush in and grab the person and run away but it would be easy to find out who did the deed. It would only cause more trouble in the long run.

Coming down, he looked around, buying some street food to fill his stomach. Thankfully Abdul Matin had given some money.

After eating he walked towards the steel factory, there were clusters of trees that would make a safety net for him, giving him cover while he ran through the fields. He searched through the area, taking notes, on what to take care of. There would be a very tight window while the police will be filled with confusion he wanted to take advantage and break him out while the police stationed within were trying to process what had happened.

Once he could remember his escape path he sat down under the shade of the trees and started carving out blocks of wood using a knife. As time passed, asides from praying, he was focused on shaping the blocks of wood. Once he was satisfied with the about he started etching them, most of these would be just there for distraction without any real power.

The night was quiet. He, for the last time, repeated the whole process within his mind and then stood up just in time to see a car coming towards the forest and the parking under a tree, it stood such that the shadows covered the car completely and when the lights turned off it was invisible.

Nodding at the driver he started running towards the prison, hopping from tree to tree until he crossed the road and jumped inside the cluster of trees on the other side. From there it did not take long to stand face to face with the final obstruction, the massive wall.

Closing his eyes he focused on the Spark module and focused on reducing the number of energy. The flame that appeared, as a result, was impressive in itself. It was small, giving the impression it was more of a spark than a flame. It collided against the wall and the stones started melting. He kept repeating until he had created a wide hole the size of a man in the wall. All that remained there was a thin layer that he would break when he was escaping.

Climbing a tree, he jumped on top of the wall, taking out his knives and slowly climbing down. The sounds of barking and people entered his ears while he stalked through the massive space of the prison. He kept hiding bombs according to his plans.

Circumventing the dogs took a lot of effort. Their senses were too keen to fool them without any work. He had covered himself in mud, head to toe.

***

He looked at the building from the outside, calculating where Arshad would be located. He bore a hole in the wall, and peaking inside it was someone else. It still took a while but eventually, he found Arshad. Very, very slowly he kept one brick at a time.

“Hey!”, he whispered.

The head turned up from the book towards him, and the eyes widened. He put a finger on his lips.

“Act normal and sit in front of here.”

With time the whole widened and he covered himself with mud to stop the sent from reaching the dogs. It took some time but he was finally done. Melting the last brick, he grabbed the person that now appeared even healthier than the last time he had seen him.