Rain still poured across Karachi, but tonight it didn't sound like weather.
It sounded like warning.
Inside the Special Crimes Unit headquarters, Farooq sat in front of three monitors, fingers flying across the keyboard.
Each screen was a live map of signal triangulations — searching for the digital ghost named Zain.
He'd been working for six straight hours, ignoring the tremor in his hands.
Every few minutes, he glanced at the message Zain had left on the wall:
Next: Farooq.
He could almost hear the killer's calm voice whispering through the storm.
---
The Family's Divide
In the adjoining room, the team argued in low voices.
Major Rehman: "He's baiting you, Jamshed. You can't keep your son exposed."
Jamshed: "If we hide him, we lose our lead. Zain wants us reactive. We go offensive."
Halima: "He's your son, not a pawn in your investigation!"
Farzana, sitting near the corner, finally spoke.
"Abbu's right. But we protect Farooq our way — together."
The words silenced them for a moment.
Because even fear sounded different when spoken with courage.
---
Digital Shadows
Professor Dawood leaned over Farooq's shoulder. "He's using encrypted relays through decommissioned satellites. This pattern— it's old military tech."
Farooq replied without looking up. "He's hiding behind ghosts. But every ghost leaves a reflection."
He froze.
One of the feed windows blinked.
A message appeared — directly on his central terminal:
> Hello, Farooq.
You always loved puzzles.
Let's play one more.
A second later, the screen shifted to a live video feed — his own face staring back from the CCTV above his desk.
Then another feed appeared, showing Farzana walking toward the parking lot outside.
And a countdown appeared beneath her image.
00:05:00.
---
The Race Against the Clock
"Farzana, stop where you are!" Jamshed shouted, bolting out of the room.
Farooq followed, heart hammering. "Zain's watching us! He's everywhere!"
They sprinted down the corridor and burst into the rain.
The parking lot was empty — except for a single car parked under a flickering streetlight.
An arrow was lodged in the windshield, a small device blinking beneath it.
Rehman yelled, "Bomb! Everyone back!"
Farooq didn't move. He grabbed a metal bar and crawled under the car, rain soaking his clothes.
Wires. Three circuits. One lead pulsing faint blue.
"Two minutes left!" Mehmood's voice came through the radio.
Farooq's hands moved faster than his fear.
He cut the first wire — spark. Second — nothing.
Timer: 00:00:46.
He reached the final circuit.
He could hear Farzana crying somewhere behind him.
"Trust your instinct," Jamshed said quietly through the earpiece.
Farooq closed his eyes, took one breath — and cut the last wire.
Silence.
Then a click.
The timer stopped at 00:00:01.
---
The Arrow's True Target
Everyone exhaled at once.
But before relief could settle, Farooq noticed something.
The arrow on the windshield wasn't ordinary — it was hollow.
He unscrewed the shaft and found a microchip inside.
Plugging it into his tablet, a set of coordinates appeared — Quetta Military Research Outpost 13.
Zain's voice echoed through the speakers one last time:
"Good work, Farooq.
You defused your own death.
Now come find mine."
The feed cut out, but Farooq noticed one final line of code scrolling across the screen —
M.F. INITIATED.
Mehmood frowned. "He's not talking about himself. He's activating something called 'Mirror Falcon.'"
---
The Rift
Later that night, back in HQ, the team argued again.
Rehman slammed his fist on the table. "Mirror Falcon was never completed — it was a predictive warfare algorithm. If he's reactivated it, he can create chaos across cities."
Jamshed's gaze was cold steel. "Then this ends at Outpost 13."
Dawood shook his head. "No. That outpost was shut down after the S-13 collapse. Anyone going there is walking into a grave."
Jamshed looked at his children — Mehmood's analytical calm, Farooq's restless defiance, Farzana's frightened eyes.
"I've walked into graves before," he said. "This one has my name on it."
---
End of Chapter 7 — "The Arrow for Farooq"
Zain's game has changed — he's no longer hunting individuals.
He's awakening an entire system built to predict death itself.
And the final coordinates point to Outpost 13 — where the truth about "Arrow of Conspiracy" began.