"For the past few days, our city of New York has been witnessing a series of deeply disturbing incidents.
In just four days, reports have come in of two children missing in Queens, four in Brooklyn, and three in Midtown.
None of them have been found yet.
The NYPD says it is doing everything within its capacity to locate the missing children.
For further updates, stay with ChannelNY."
The news continued to play on the screen
while Fahad, Frostbite, Jafar, and Juliana watched in silence.
Juliana spoke quietly from beside them,
"Where are the children disappearing to?"
Jafar didn't look away from the screen. From the faces of the innocent children frozen on the TV, he answered evenly,
"They aren't disappearing."
A pause.
"Someone is taking them."
His voice remained steady, experienced, certain.
"The one doing this won't stop. He will take more children."
"After that, he'll push New York to the edge of fear."
Jafar finally turned his gaze toward Juliana.
"He will demand something. Something New York will be forced to give."
Another pause and heavier this time.
"And if it isn't given, he will threaten to kill every child he has taken."
He leaned back slightly.
"I've protected the law for twenty-seven years," he said calmly.
"I've seen this kind of thing before."
The room stayed silent.
Because some threats don't announce themselves with chaos,
they arrive with certainty.
But Fahad and Frostbite were thinking of something else entirely.
Frostbite looked at Fahad and asked quietly,
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Fahad replied without hesitation,
"I'm thinking so deeply that I can see it when I close my eyes."
A pause.
"Yes. What you're thinking, I'm thinking the same."
They rose together, already preparing to leave without explaining where.
Jafar spoke then, firm but controlled.
"Fahad. You're not fully recovered yet. I won't stop you, but for your own protection, take my pistol."
Fahad smiled faintly.
"I have my pencil," he said.
"It keeps me safer than your gun ever could."
Then, almost casually,
"And tonight, I'm not in the mood to kill anyone."
With that, they left.
Fahad and Frostbite rode their bike back to the science lab, the same place Fahad had visited before.
The moment they got off, they broke into a run.
They went straight to Farooq's room.
The machine was gone.
Someone had taken it.
A few drops of blood stained the floor.
Fahad knelt, dipped his finger into it, then looked at Frostbite.
"Fresh."
The room told the rest of the story.
Not through noise or chaos but through absence.
Many people had been here.
What was even more disturbing,
Judging by the machine's height and volume, it had to weigh at least seven hundred kilograms.
Yet there were no marks on the floor.
No drag lines.
No signs it had been moved.
More unsettling still, the door to the room was narrow.
The machine was wider than the doorway.
Which meant one thing.
The machine hadn't been brought into this room.
And it couldn't have been taken out.
It must have been built here.
And if that was true, then the most important question remained unanswered.
Where did the machine go?
That thought unsettled both Fahad and Frostbite.
Not because it was strange, but because it was impossible.
Suddenly, Fahad's eyes fell on the lock of the room's door.
He stepped forward and turned it to the left. Nothing happened.
Then he turned it to the right, and slowly, impossibly, the entire door along with the wall began to slide downwards, inch by inch.
Fahad and Frostbite watched, stunned, unable to look away.
"My brother… was awesome," Fahad murmured.
In that moment, they understood how the machine had been removed.
There were faint traces on the floor with marks from hidden wheels, but they had been cleaned meticulously.
Yet Fahad's eyes didn't lie.
Beneath the machine, hidden wheels had carried it away.
And that was how it had vanished.
Frostbite said quietly,
"I saw a CCTV camera on the power pole outside. If we check the footage, maybe we'll understand which way they took it."
Fahad's eyes narrowed.
"Then we don't waste time. Let's go. The children are being held here."
They made their way to the shed.
Frostbite carefully lowered the CCTV camera, removed the memory card, and inserted it into his smartphone, trying to view the footage.
But as they watched, it became clear, the recording had been looped.
Frostbite muttered,
"Whoever is controlling this… they know everything we do. Maybe they're always two steps ahead of us."
Fahad's eyes glinted, ego and determination flaring.
That wasn't an obstacle. That was a challenge.
Now, Fahad would not rest.
Not until the children were found.
Not until the calm could return.
Not until justice, in his own way, was done.
To Be Continued...