0x2000500

Location: New Delhi

The four thieves inside the bank now had completed the task of distributing the grenades to all the hostages. Radhe was still gazing at Neha, and Jay was still gazing at Radhe.

Madhavan came up to current boss, ‘Shall we?’

Radhe nodded; the four started to do as they were told by the lady on the phone.

‘. . . Just handing them grenades won’t ensure complete sterilization of the threat. If someone in them is a little more rational minded, he could use any piece of fabric to tie their grenade’s handle and hence be free. The solution to this is very simple. You just have to . . .’

Radhe took out the night-blinds that he had found in the SUV this morning. The members of his little legion started putting the blinds on the eyes of the hostages. No one would want to fondle with bombs while blind. The hostages were already looking scared, afraid of losing hold of the shells in the pitch black they were about to take a dip into.

The smooth elastic bands on the blinds ensured that they could be slipped easily and quickly on everyone’s heads, saving precious time. Radhe’s team was done away with the task in less than two minutes. Every single soul in the room now shivered with fear, even the quattro of criminals, because a hostage’s panic could cost them their own lives.

Radhe, even though seeing the very real and possibly fatal threat, approached the place where Neha and Jay had taken refuge. He gently touched Neha’s free flowing tresses.

Neha stiffened. She did not need her eyesight to determine who it was, yet she felt an uncertain fear. She did not dread who this might be, but what this man might touch.

The hand touched her shoulder, squeezing it gently; then it moved to her neck, tracing a finger along the path. Neha decided not to make a move. Radhe, sensing her surrender, kept moving his hand down her back, his slow and deliberate pace scaring Neha to an even greater extent. Neha tried to control her breathing as much as possible. But still she skipped a few dots here and there. A long breath, three long breaths, two short breaths followed by a long one; she appeared completely erratic to Radhe, which was an immense compliment by his standards. The hand was now on her lower waist, just a little lower and he would be able to touch her—

‘You alright?’ Jay’s low voice startled her. The hand froze in its position. Radhe wondered if and what Jay had figured.

‘Ye . . . Yes, why?’ she said, carefully calculating his reactions. She twice took a long breath, followed by a short one. Finally, she took four short breaths, and composed herself.

‘I don’t know, I had a feeling like someone had touched you.’

Neha felt the hand vanish. She believed she felt a waft as her molester retreated. She sighed in relief.

‘Someone was definitely touching you,’ Jay growled softly as his hands tightened onto hers.

  -/0/-

  0x2000501

Radhe was rarely as scared and astounded as he was now. Is that guy a psychic? Radhe’s mind was being rattled by that question. The man loved his girl; rightly so. But his uncanny perception was beyond Radhe’s own. He looked around to see if the mishap a few moments ago had been noticed by anyone. Only Madhav appeared to be looking back at him with a somewhat weird expression. Smartass sonovabiatch, an eye on everything. He could handle it.

Madhav remembered seeing a man named Keith Barry, a world renowned mentalist, perform a trick where he made the spouses of individuals feel pain by pinching their partners while their eyes were closed. Maybe it wasn’t a sham like he had originally assumed.

The four men walked towards the door of the workspace. One more reason why the third floor had been chosen, apart from the tinted windows, was that it had only one access. Even if his “guests” somehow neutralized the grenades, they would still have only one exit which, for obvious reasons, won’t be left unprotected.

Madhavan walked up to the door and signaled Radhe. Radhe nodded, and signaled the rest two members of his troops to get moving by some dexterous actions of his neck. They understood, and silently walked out of the room, after which Radhe turned back to the now blind and maimed hostages. He cleared his throat and shouted ‘Dear people, stay here and relax in our hospitality. Don’t try anything that may force us to try something. You ain’t gonna go nowhere.’

With that, he swung the door shut, but not before he had slipped out quietly. He looked at the herd inside one more time through the small glass window on the door, and then started rigging the door with the equipment he had found in the SUV. When finished, he doted his handiwork for a moment, and turned towards his men ‘Let’s go make some money.’

They went down the stairs to the ground floor. Reaching there, they walked up to the automatic doors which were clamp shut. They stood in front of it, and started what the woman had told them do.

‘The doors are bulletproof, and lock up within a few seconds of the moment the bank’s computerized security system senses a threat. They will save you from any attacks by the cops, but their transparency might give away your moves. So naturally, you have to keep that from happening if you want the money. For that you will just have to . . .’

They unhooked the spray cans from their belts and started spewing the contents on the plane glass. Madhav kept throwing suspicious glances at the cops and the Kevins stationed outside. Once the liquid had covered the entirety of the surface area of the transparent shield, Radhe took out his lighter from one of his pockets. Madhav spotted Akhilesh leaning against a PCR van. Their eyes met for a brief second, during which they both exchanged nods imperceptible to their respective teams. Sawant also appeared to mouth something, his lips forming traceable words that Madhav could easily read, with a look that almost looked like a taunt. Radhe then ticked the lighter to life, and gently touched the head of its flame to the glass. The glass immediately started smoldering with a bright yellow radiance, and Madhav’s ocular contact with his ally was broken. It was now as opaque as any metal.

And as strong too.

  -/0/-

  0x2000502

Police Chief Akhilesh Sawant had managed to gather at least some info on the hostages that were currently inside the bank. An army veteran, a couple, an old lady, about seven yet to be determined, and ten staff members, including the receptionist and the security specialists. The media had also arrived, not wanting to miss a juicy piece of news like this.

Mandal was still pondering over the mysterious answer Kevin had given his boss. Not just a bank. There was definitely more to Le Fort than what met the eye.

However, something else met his eyes too. A view he had not expected. The four intruders inside the bank had just arrived at the door. All four, which meant that the hostages were either contained, or worse.

He made an educated guess: the hostages were still alive. In a situation like this, the hostages were an asset for the robbers. They had planned it all too well to waste any resources at their disposal. There was no way they could exit the premises without some kind of a shield to prevent the cops from attacking, the hostages being perfect for the job.

Mandal assumed that they were probably going towards the back, where the elevator to the vault was. He had seen that much on the faux blueprints. He had tried tracking down the one that even remotely matched what he had seen on this guy Kevin’s laptop, but all was in the gutter. At least the transparent glass was providing some relief, in spite of it being bulletproof, which made the cops’ weapons useless. He gave himself a pat on the back for being a good thinker even though a trainee – he assumed he was good at predicting what a criminal might do next.

But instead of acting on what he had thought, the robbers turned towards the door itself. They took off the spray cans on their belts and started spraying devil-knows-what on the door.

‘What is that slime?’ Sawant thought out loud.

‘Nina,’ he heard the reply.

Mandal looked around, and saw Sawant frown, assuming that it was just a joke made by one of Kevin’s men. But then something else caught his attention. There was something suddenly amiss. He looked around, and easily found out what that was.

The man on Kevin’s team who had made the joke was standing still as a rock, a nervous bead of sweat forming on his forehead. The rest of Kevin’s men who had heard the small talk were all standing in attention. Half of them turned to look at the man, the rest were looking at Sawant. All of them with their right hands under their coats, presumably on their weapons. Sawant and Mandal looked around one more time before turning towards the bank again, acting disinterested.

The men waited for a second or two, after which they immediately took their hands off their artillery and went on to continue working like before. The man who had made the comment hurried off in the direction where Kevin One was standing. He seemed to apologize to Kevin, who in turn, had a grave expression on his face. Sawant could easily make out that mistakes were not tolerated leniently in this organization.

The man was then excused by Kevin, who looked towards the door of the bank. Sawant followed his gaze to see that the men had finished spraying the contents of the cans. The one which appeared to be the leader then fished out a lighter from his pocket. He clicked it to life, and gently touched the glass.

What happened next was beyond Mandal’s realm of explanation, adding to the list that had been growing exponentially since this morning. The whole sheet of glass burst into a bright yellow fire. But it was unlike any fire he had ever seen. It looked more like a solid wall, covering the entire area without any exceptions. A normal fire would have been translucent.

From the corner of their respective eyes, he and Sawant looked towards where Kevin was sitting. He nodded to one of his colleagues, and said something. Mandal could easily read his lips, for he knew what word Kevin was uttering.

Nina.

  -/0/-

  0x2000503

No one was making a single sound, apart from the sound of a frightened breathing, which was emanating from every throat.

It had been deathly quiet since the hostages had heard the door shut on them. Some of them thought that the bandits had left for the plundering; others thought one or two of them were still here, waiting for the maimed hostages to make a mistake, giving them an excuse to squeeze the trigger.

Joshi was holding on to the grenade in his hands, his breathing deep, concentrated. He was trying to figure out whether the thieves had abandoned this room or not. It would be unlikely for hostages to be left alone in a robbery, but then again, they were low on men and had sterilized all the men and women present there already.

Suddenly, Jay snatched both the grenades from a distracted Neha’s hands. She looked in his general direction ‘What are you doing?!’

‘Take off your blind’

‘But—’

‘Do it!’

Neha took off her blinds. She looked around.  All the men had left. She looked around to find about 20 people kneeled on the floor, all in the same condition that she had been in not more than three seconds ago. Most of them were the customers she had seen near the reception. A few of them however, were the security analysts whom she had seen in the cubicles. She looked towards Jay, who was still biting his lower lip – something he did when he was nervous – blind and holding the shells in his hands. ‘They’re gone’ she whispered.

Jay smiled a bit. Neha, though reluctant of holding the weapon, grabbed it and followed his plan, securing the handle by winding the nightblind’s elastic band around it multiple times. Jay took off his own blind and did the same to his own shell. He looked at her with a smile, ‘Our evil game is afoot.’

Neha cradled his face and said, ‘It has been since last night,’ and gave him a soft kiss. As she retreated, he pouted like an arrogant child ‘Just one?’

In spite of the fact that they had been in a life threatening situation just before he had said this – and probably still were, shall any of the hostages lose hold of their respective grenades – she could see Jay was in a mischievous mood as always. She bent forward for another kiss when a sound startled her.

‘Hey! Over here!’

Both the Singhanias looked towards the source of the sound. It was the army man they had seen downstairs. He must have heard the whispers between them. Nice timing bozo; I was looking forward to a frencher.

They approached him, Jay rather morose, took off his blind and grenade, and neutered it the same way they had done theirs. He stood up ‘Where are those bastards?’

Jay correctly hazarded a guess ‘Gone for the loot perhaps, in the vault.’

The army man had a frown on his face. It was clear that he wanted to get a hold of the four criminals. ‘I’m gonna get them’

Jay extended his hand ‘We will.’

Neha knew that it wasn’t about doing the right thing and catching the criminals or claim some reward that Jay was interested in. He could practically live in a house made of bricks of money, with everything – bed, tables, chairs, and even the toilet made out of notes and coins. It was because he wanted to avenge her particular situation from a few moments ago.

Jay had noticed Neha’s face; she had clearly seen his intentions. What was she so worried about? Jay was not going to get a chance to deal with Radhe first hand. He turned towards the army man ‘What’s your name friend?’

He proudly puffed his chest up ‘General B. K. Joshi.’

‘Nice to meet you General, let’s free the hostages.’

The threesome started working their way around the scared hostages. One by one, they freed all of them. The ones who were mentally strong even helped them in their task. After about three minutes, all the twenty one hostages and twenty one grenades had been brought to safety.

An old woman turned her head skywards with her eyes closed and hands folded ‘Thank God we are safe!’

Oh gimme a break, Neha thought.

The others immediately started reaching for their mobile phones so as to convey the state of affairs around them to their dear ones.

‘That’s odd’ said Joshi, ‘usually phones are snatched away in such a scenario to sever all connections to the outside world. Why would such sophisticated robbers forget something like that?’ Most of the hostages agreed with the man, while Jay wondered whether he was talking from knowledge or experience.

Everyone had their answer within minutes. Whoever tried to make contact was reported an error in the connection.

The thieves had clearly planned this very well. The security analysts marveled at the simple idea that the equipment on the top of the building was overshadowing the signal of their phones; it acted like a jammer.

Joshi spoke up to Jay ‘Thanks friend! Your presence saved us.’

Jay smiled politely ‘Oh no, I haven’t saved anybody. At least not yet.’ I’m just saving my own ass, he added in his mind, and the round squishy ass of the girl I love.

Joshi gave a hearty laugh. It was clear that he was a seasoned soldier, able to laugh even in such distress. Or maybe he was just showing off his masculine bravery. He obviously could not have heard Jay’s thoughts. We’ll see soon enough.

One woman among the now free hostages interrogated ‘What is your name?’

‘You can call me Jay Singhania.’

‘You were of great assistance to us!’ Joshi praised him.

Jay heard a small giggle. He spun on his right heel in the direction where the sound must have originated. He couldn’t help smiling when he faced Shalini. She hadn’t forgotten the morning conversations.

‘Hey don’t laugh at me!’ Joshi retorted. Apparently he hadn’t forgotten the conversation he had with the receptionist early this morning either.

‘Let’s try to get out of here’ Neha cut in. Jay went to the single door, peeped through the small aperture in it, and said just one word.

‘Shit!’

The army man came up on to his side, and looked through. In no time, he discovered the reason of Jay’s dismay.

On the door was a bomb, and not just any ordinary bomb you could find at a gun runner. It was circular in shape, like an overlarge ice hockey puck, with a few lights blinking on it, signaling that it was activated. It was stuck midway up from the base of the entrance. Two polystyrene strings which ended in small rings protruded from each side, connected to hooks attached to the frame of the door. The hooks weren’t the conventional bent-on-the-end either. Instead, they were straight, which made them look like smooth screws dug in the wrong direction. But Joshi knew that they weren’t screws.

It was a favorite of special ops teams predominantly in first world countries. The bomb and the screws had some kind of ready-to-stick glue, which meant that they could be stuck on most surfaces easily. It was always stuck on the direction of the door through which it would swing open. If the door in front of them was opened now, the retractable strings would slide off the hooks, and if even one of the strings were to completely retract into the body of the bomb while it was still active, BOOM! Game over.

Joshi looked at Jay, and saw the look of recognition on his face. The man in front of him looked young, in his early 20s perhaps. But he seemed to know what they were dealing with. He decided to ask for the reason of his extensive knowledge of firearms once they got out of here, if they ever could.

The old woman asked with a hint of worry ‘What happened?’

Joshi looked at the woman, confused on what to tell her. She would clearly not be able to understand the sheer complexity of the situation with the screws and the strings and the bomb and the door.

Jay came to his rescue, ‘A bomb is attached to the door. We cannot escape.’

All the people in the room, including Neha, frowned in unison. Joshi however marveled at the simple explanation that Jay gave to the people, getting the message through their heads easily. He surely knew his way around public.

‘So what do we do?’ asked a visibly exasperated Neha.

‘What can we do?’ was the answer of an equally exasperated Jay.

Joshi was still admiring Jay. His knowledge maybe odd, but his character was even.

Jay turned towards Shalini, ‘Any way outta here?’

Shalini looked equally blank as everyone else. ‘This is the work area for clerks. That is why there is a big space with so many desks, and only one door.’

‘Anything else like ventilation pipes?’ Neha was sounding more desperate by the minute.

‘Not that I know of’ was the disheartening reply.

Jay appeared to look around for something – anything – useful. Only long benches and temporarily disabled grenades. The grenades could be a possible way out, but the roof might collapse. Plus, the bomb on the door might be triggered by the explosion, adding to the mayhem, causing a sure cave-in.

And then, his eyes fell on something. Useful if used correctly. For the rest of the world it maybe a normal machine; wires, circuits, transistors, lights and sounds. But in the right hands, it was close to a weapon of mass destruction. Entire countries could be made to crumble with the right usage.

A computer.

Find the rest here: