Paddy

That same night.

Paddy

Somewhere beyond the Delano estate, in the woods that surrounded the mansion, a small group of men was hunting around the body of the youth, who lay unconscious and bleeding.

Finally, one of them let out a shout.

“Over here! he called just as the leader, a grim-faced man with a flat face, hissed,

“Softly, you fool. ‘ and he grumbled under his breath,

“We don’t want those trigger-happy guards of Delano to discover us.’

The man who had shouted out in excitement had quietened down but he continued to shine his torch on an object on the forest floor which was covered in dry leaves and shrubs.

It was the backpack they had been ordered to find and bring back.

*

the men silently picked it up and after making sure that the contents of the backpack were intact, they swiftly boarded the vehicles they had come in and disappeared into the night, as silently as they had come.

One of them hesitated, his eyes on the prone, still figure on the ground.

“What about him, Afzal?’,