I observed him carefully as he walked to the door. I knew that time was running out but suppressed the urge to check my watch. I took a deep breath and started counting in reverse under my breath. ‘Ten, nine, eight, seven…three two one.’
He lost his consciousness and crashed to the ground. My darling didn’t fail me. I had finally got the chance to sneak into the server room. Inside the room, a couple of bulky guys were staring at their computer screens, their fingers dancing fast over their keyboards. They were so engaged in their jobs that they hardly noticed the presence of an unwanted guest. I had to make a move, either attack them and risk my life or just turn back and flee far-far away from there. My head was boiling, before this moment I never realized if such pressure existed. Too many lives were at stake including mine and I had to make a decision immediately. I would fight, finally I decided and somehow my pants were still dry. It was the worst moment to pick a fight for the first time in my life, that too with two giants of double my size who wouldn’t stop before killing me. But I knew too many faces around to let them burn down to ashes. I picked up a fire extinguisher lying in the corner of the room and slunk towards them. My eyes were blurry and tiny droplets of sweat popped over my forehead out of nowhere. Holding my breath I cautiously stepped forward with my feet almost defying my command to move. Finally I was standing behind them while those ignorant bastards kept on typing so many commands over their systems like some robots. I raised the fire extinguisher high up in the air to hit one of the giants sitting with his back towards me when a clicking sound behind my back startled me, he was standing behind my back with a gun in his hand pointed at my head. My darling had failed me, again.
Only if I had stuck to my natural instincts and had run away I could have continued living my scrappy life peacefully for many more years to come, but my only dare devilry in this life had brought me so close to the almighty.
***
Door-bell shrieked without break, on its way to open the door my drowsing body fumbled against the empty bottles of beer while crushing several cigarettes with my darling rolled inside them.
‘Saheb from tomorrow onward I am not going to ring your bell more than twice,’ Sharda, my maid, squawked.
‘Good morning to you too Sharda,’ I scratched my head and squinted at the wall clock, it showed nine.
‘What the hell?’
‘Yes, it’s nine. Have some more sleep,’ Sharda scoffed. Grabbing my towel, I rushed to the washroom. It would be the ninetieth time I was going to be late for my office since I joined my job three months back. Having taken the shower, I quickly slipped in my formals, all set to leave.
‘You ready?’ Sharda stood baffled, she was not even finished sweeping half of my one bedroom-hall-kitchen apartment.
‘Yes, I need to leave. Press the door-bell harder tomorrow.’
I locked my apartment and rushed to the basement to my ride. And after routine kicking of some thirty times and listening to all my cuss words for itself that machine finally woke up to life. I stormed out over the road where a big traffic jam was already waiting for me. I wondered if I could ever start a day any different, ever.
***
As my lift reached eighth floor, I could hear that familiar cacophony of the machines drilling through cement, reverberating through the walls of the lift. Construction of that server room in my office had made those last three days miserable, however we were assured it was the last day we had to bear that pain. My office occupied the tenth floor of the tallest building in Bangalore, a resident to twenty different IT companies over each floor. People in Bangalore called it ‘The Prestige of IT city.’
I jumped out of the lift and tried to sneak into my cubicle, undetected.
‘Saheb calling you,’ Harpal, the peon blocked my way at the very first step, smiling mischievously at me.
‘Damn.’
His smile broadened.
‘Try not to enjoy my misery so much,’ I mockingly smiled back and floundered towards what we called, ‘The chamber of protocols’.
‘Come in,’ I didn’t need to knock the door twice.
‘Hamid! So what is the excuse?’ My boss Sidhant Katara was cruelly straightforward. His eyes remained buried in his computer while he sipped his hot tea, his only addiction other than work.
‘Sir, I couldn’t wake up on time.’
His eyes rose from his screen to meet mine, ‘Honesty, I like it.’
I tried to find any hint of sarcasm over his face but he was a master of dead face.
‘You want me to be honest with you. Either you change your habits or change your company.’
‘Sorry sir.’
And then came the speech that everyone in that organization from peon to vice president had heard from him personally. I had the privilege to bear it almost every other day.
‘Hamid we are a small IT company of sixty employees. I have handpicked each one of you to ensure we move in right direction and we move fast. Your talent justifies my first motive but you miserably fails the other one. I would never allow that.’
‘Sir I am sorry. Wouldn’t happen again.’
All of a sudden the door opened and Harpal popped his head inside through the door, ‘Sir do you need tea?’
‘How many times do I need to tell you to knock the door before you enter?’ Mr Katara fumed.
‘Sorry sir. So, you need any tea?’
I somehow managed to suppress my smile.
‘Yes.’ Mr Katara frowned. His other cup of tea wasn’t even finished. Rumor was that on his busy days he could drink more than hundred cups of tea.
‘Go back to work.’ Mr. Katara turned towards me.
‘Thank you sir.’
I casually strolled back to my cubicle ignoring all the stares around as if nothing happened. I unlocked my computer, opened my company’s web-mail, and scrolled through the unread messages. A couple of clients were seeking a few details, there was a reminder for an online certification to improve my competency, there was a response by the client to one of my earlier queries, and one from some Mike Hayes whom I didn’t know.
I dialed a four-digit number over my extension and a phone few cubicles away rang loudly.
‘Hamed Khan speaking. Who is this?’
‘Hey Hamed, this is Hamid Khan with an ‘I’,’ I said.
‘Hi buddy how are you?’
‘You know any Mike Hayes?’
‘Yeah. Another one of my mail delivered to you?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t know why its so hard to remember. Mine is hamed.k@rcs.com’
‘Me neither. Every week there has to be at least one idiot to mix up. Anyways forwarding you your mail,’ I wasn’t too eager to prolong the conversation. Who spells a name Hamed with an ‘e’?
I pretended hard to work but my eyes were burning from last night and it felt impossible to keep my heavy head stable on its axis without rotating. I couldn’t get proper sleep last night and if it was not for Sharda I might have missed the office today. I cursed ‘my darling’ under my breathe.
My darling was highly unpredictable but very powerful. I smoked her for an hour last night and she dropped me like a zombie in my bed. I woke up dazed after a long sleep looking at the watch which surprisingly hadn’t moved beyond ten minutes. But I felt as if I had woken from a slumber. Anguished over the infidelity of my darling I sat still in my place staring at the ceiling for the next ten minutes and then I don’t remember anything apart from being woken up by my maid in the morning.
The headache was killing me and that constant noise of all the construction work going on in the server room was driving me crazy. I needed a break, already. Only if I wouldn’t have been summoned by Mr Katara. Somehow, I managed to kill a couple of hours over my computer before leaving for lunch. Post lunch I smoked ‘my darling’ outside the building. I never went anywhere without it. Finally, my hang over from last night was cleared away. When I returned, the office had gone unusually silent, might be the construction was over. A clear head and silence at the work place, I felt so happy as if my life was back on track. After returning to my seat I spent another hour over phone talking to a client, convincing him that incorporation of artificial intelligence in their existing systems would help them to shed another million dollars from their operational costs. Most of it even I never understood myself and it was all about using those jazzy terms which could confuse those poor fellows. Dropping that call, I returned back to my computer screen, my screen was blinking, indicating another new mail.
Sent by maqsood_al_jayed@yahoo.com. Definitely not mine. I rang Hamed’s extension, it remained unanswered. Casually I opened the mail and as soon as I finished reading it I knew I shouldn’t have. My regular day had just turned a lot more interesting.
It said – ‘Allah bestows its choicest blessings over the one who dares to walk on its path. Count yourself lucky for performing one of the greatest tasks in the path of Jehad. Wake the city from its slumber today, final part will be delivered to your gate at five. Tell the delivery boy, ‘Allah is mighty.’
I sat baffled, unable to move. Having spent another five minutes staring at that mail I couldn’t fathom anything other than malice. Clock over my wrist showed fifteen minutes past four thirty. Returning back to my senses I decided to act. I forwarded that e-mail to Mr. Katara and strode into his office.
‘Yes Hamid,’ he looked at me, surprised. For the first time I had entered his cabin without knocking his door. I nervously explained everything to him and showed him that e-mail.
‘How is that possible?’ Mr. Katara seemed taken aback, ‘that bastard,’ he grumbled walking across his cabin, still lost.
‘Sir we must call the police.’
‘Yeah,’ his fingers were already dialing a number from his mobile phone. ‘Police station, we think one of my employees is planning something bad, may be to execute a bomb blast somewhere in this city……’ He gave them all the information and the address.
‘They said they will reach soon disguised as civilians so that the suspect doesn’t run away. However they have asked us to keep an eye on Hamed and seize that thing which will be delivered at five,’ Mr. Katara exhaled.
‘How?’ It was almost five.
‘I don’t know. Just let me think,’ Mr. Katara was panicking. Ideally my job was done, but somehow, I felt like getting more involved. Somehow, I had begun imagining myself a hero from some weird tv series that I watched all the time. Who knows if I might actually end up saving the day and become a hero, even the thought was so intriguing.
‘If ‘wake the city from slumber today’ means some bomb blast then I don’t think sir the delivery guy wouldn’t be a dangerous man.’
‘Police won’t reach by that time and we must secure that final part.’
‘I agree. But what if he knows Hamed already?’
‘Then why would there be a code?’
‘What if he knows the name and asks for an identity proof?’
‘You know what, you should get it,’ I could sense the panic in Mr. Katara’s voice.
‘What do you mean?’ I couldn’t believe my ears.
‘You know what to say.’
‘You are not suggesting that I should receive that thing.’
‘You are Hamid. So even if he will check the identity, you are the closest one to pull it off. And meanwhile I will keep him busy. He might be a terrorist but I am still his boss. We don’t have any other option.’
‘Yes, we have. Let the police arrive.’ My hero just died inside me.
‘Listen, Hamed doesn’t even know about the mail. But if the courier boy would return, we don’t know who else could contact him and I don’t think every time they are going to send the mail to a wrong address.’
‘Sir how can you even think of getting involved in this life risking situation. Let the police do its job.’
‘My everything is at stake. The reputation of my company I have built from scratch could get finished in a blink of an eye. Please Hamid I need you on this one.’
I never dreamt of this day in my life when my boss would stand begging in front of me. I won’t lie, it felt good.
‘Okay sir. I will do it,’ even before I finished the sentence, I was already regretting my decision. An hour ago, I drooled imagining the beer supposed to run down my throat tonight, however at the moment my parched throat couldn’t even feel my own saliva.
With a head filled with illusions I rambled back to my seat. I had always remained unsure about everything in my life but for that moment I was sure of having committed a blunder.
I was sitting lost in my thoughts when my office’ phone rang yanking me out of my dilemma.
‘Hello,’ I whispered.
‘What are you doing? Its five, you need to get that last part.’ Mr. Katara sounded desperate.
‘Yes sir.’ I pulled myself together. I peeked at Hamed who was sitting in his cubicle working and looked way too casual for a terrorist.
‘What about Hamed sir? Don’t you think they might have contacted him through phone or anything?’
‘Let me take care of him.’
The phone was disconnected and the next moment Hamed’ phone rang and he immediately stood up and walked into Mr Katara’ cabin. Now it was my turn.
I felt I would faint but somehow kept my consciousness. I walked to the lobby area where all the mails and parcels were delivered, a lean boy in his late teens was standing over there with a box in his hands. Without making an eye contact I slowly walked to him.
‘Allah is mighty,’ I said shyly.
He smiled and handed over the parcel to me. For a moment I felt like some undercover agent and though not for long yet that feeling was awesome. The box was surprisingly light. I felt my limbs trembling and the thought of holding explosives made me weak at my knees.
I pulled the glass door to enter into my office when a couple of masculine fellows walked past me. Expecting them to be cops I quickly followed them, they entered straight into Mr. Katara’s office. To my surprise, everybody was leaving the office.
‘What happened? Where is everybody going?’ I asked one of my colleagues walking past me to the lift.
‘Boss said the server will be down.’
‘But why didn’t we get a notice earlier?’ Another colleague asked.
‘Construction of server room ended today, maybe he wants to migrate things over the server now,’ I sheepishly tried to defend Mr. Katara.
‘You okay?’ Asked my colleague.
‘Yes, why?’
‘You are defending the boss you know,’ he smirked. I reciprocated with a smile.
‘By the way what are you holding in your hands?’ He asked.
Bomb, I had almost replied. I had completely forgotten about the package in my hands, the typical me.
‘Nothing. You carry on. I just need to finish a few things.’
‘Sure.’
Everyone in the office had left and I could feel some strange fear creeping inside my heart. I ignored it and quickly entered into Mr. Katara’ cabin.
Both the men were shaking hands with Mr. Katara. Hamed wasn’t there.
‘Is this the parcel?’ asked Mr. Katara. I nodded affirmatively.
‘Can we have it?’ said one of the bulky men. I had never seen such intimidating personalities in my life. Both of them were beyond six feet and their round flabby bodies weighed at least two hundred pounds, each.
‘Sure.’ I gave the box to that man. It felt as if I had finally started breathing again.
‘Where is Hamed?’ I asked.
‘I tricked him to lock inside the server room.’
‘Show us the way. We need to spend some time with him.’
‘Sure. Not much time is left. Hamid wait for me here.’
‘Sure sir.’ Mr. Katara escorted them to the recently constructed server room.
I reclined back in a chair in his cabin, relaxed, reveling in the biggest achievement of my life. In my head, I had saved hundreds or might be thousands of lives, and I was ecstatic. Yet somehow, I could not believe about Hamed’s hidden identity of a terrorist. He always came to me as a nice guy. But for someone like him that seemed to be the whole point of being nice, to pull off such heinous act without any suspicion.
A steaming cup of tea rested on Mr. Katara’s table. My eyes leisurely swayed across the room to finally fall upon a paper lying next to his cup of tea. I felt my eyes were deluding me, it was a print of another mail from maqsood_al_jayed@yahoo.com which was sent five minutes back and it was directed at me. Have they sent another mail to me by mistake? But why didn’t Mr. Katara mention anything?
The mail said – ‘Burn the crackers in Prestige at 6.’
I immediately checked my smart phone for that mail. But there wasn’t any. How was it possible that I never received the mail? With the information I had, that mail was no riddle at the moment. I sat puzzled, why was that mail directed at me again and why I never received it and why it was lying on Mr. Katara’s table? Were Hamed and Mr. Katara on the same team? But then why did Mr. Katara risk his mission sending me for that final part. My fidgeting mind echoed through my restless eyes dashing through the room before something held my sight. A tiny stream of some red fluid, like red ink, was making its way from under the table. Frightened to death, I bent a little to have a closer look, it was blood. I jumped out of my chair. Flabbergasted I ran to the other side of the table to find Hamed’s dead body resting against the table with a pen stabbed inside his throat. A clothe was wrapped tightly around his wound to stop the blood but somehow the blood had made way to the floor. Chills ran through my spine. My vision was getting blurred, brain was going numb, and my whole body was shaking with fear. My mind was unable to contemplate anything anymore. Was it Mr. Katara who had killed Hamed? Who else it could be? Were the men inside the office really police men? Surely, they weren’t. Why had they gone into the server room? With pounding heart, I again read the line – ‘Burn the crackers in Prestige at 6.’ Then Mr. Katara’s words echoed in my mind, ‘Not much time is left.’ Suddenly the most terrifying thought struck my mind, even my life stood threatened. I thought of running away before Mr. Katara returned and I should have done that but I guess I had never stopped being high that day. My mind flashed a crazy idea. I gathered all my shaking courage and quickly drew all my cigarettes from my pocket. There were ten of them. I opened up the cigarettes and made a pile of my darling. I quickly fused all of it into his tea and stirred it with the spoon. It never left a trail behind, nothing to smell and nothing to taste and that is why it was perfect to smoke even at the office hours. According to my calculation it was enough to stone a man.
I was still trying hard to contain the tempest of questions just triggered inside me. Somehow my numb mind was still capable of comprehending that an explosion was planned in the next twenty minutes in most probably my own building, ‘The Prestige of IT city.’ I drew my phone to dial to police next when a voice startled me.
‘Hamid!’
I looked back; Mr. Katara was walking to my chair. Had he seen me poisoning his liquid?
‘Yes sir,’ my voice was disguised in every bit of courage left inside me, ready to elude me at any moment now. I cautiously shifted in my chair.
‘You did a good job.’ I felt he was standing just behind my back now, dangerously close. Shall I make a move? Was it the end? I sat paralyzed to act. It was the end.
‘Sir shall I take the cup away?’ Harpal popped his head inside the cabin like a savior.
‘You didn’t leave? And for the millionth time in the world learn to knock,’ Mr. Katara was startled by this unexpected intervention.
‘Sorry Sir.’
It was my only chance to act.
‘Harpal did you change the mouse of my computer,’ I stood up at once.
‘When….’
‘You lousy fellow. Do it now,’ I raced towards the door. ‘Sir just give me a minute; I will be back.’
With trembling limbs, I somehow maneuvered my way-out Mr. Katara’s cabin. Without even looking at him I could sense his frustration. I had dodged the death narrowly and now it was the time for me to stay true to my nature, to flee from there. But then either all those spy movies or my long-buried conscience had returned to mess with my head. All those faces that I met daily outside the building while smoking floated in front of my eyes. ‘Oh, come on, all of them smoke. Anyways they are going to die.’ I said to myself but perhaps it wasn’t convincing enough. Thus, to the very opposite of my nature, I decided to fight back. I shouldn’t have.
***
‘You want a new mouse?’ Harpal was standing over my head.
‘Go to home Harpal.’
‘I can’t sir. Not before everyone leaves.’
I looked at my watch, fifteen more minutes to the explosion. I had no time to explain, neither to him nor to the police. I flung a five hundred rupee note at him. ‘Get something to eat for both of us from that shop across the road. And you can keep the change.’ I was trying hard to conceal my trepidation but I wanted to save as many people I could. There was no time to find help because it was impossible to convince anybody about that situation in such short span. And even if I had tried to explain then that ‘anybody’ might not had been as high as I were to risk his life.
‘What should..’
‘Damn it Harpal. Bring anything. Just go.’ I shot at him. He strode outside, confused at my outburst.
My gaze returned to Mr. Katara.
I observed him carefully as he walked to the door. I knew that time was running out but suppressed the urge to check my watch. I took a deep breath and started counting in reverse under my breath. ‘Ten, nine, eight, seven…three two one.’
He lost his consciousness and crashed to the ground. My darling didn’t fail me. I had finally got the chance to sneak into the server room. Inside the room, a couple of bulky guys were staring at their computer screens, their fingers dancing fast over their keyboards. They were so engaged in their jobs that they hardly noticed the presence of an unwanted guest. I had to make a move, either attack them and risk my life or just turn back and flee far-far away from there. My head was boiling, before this moment I never realized if such pressure existed. Too many lives were at stake including mine and I had to make a decision immediately. I would fight, finally I decided and somehow my pants were still dry. It was the worst moment to pick a fight for the first time in my life, that too with two giants of double my size who wouldn’t stop before killing me. But I knew too many faces around to let them burn down to ashes. I picked up a fire extinguisher lying in the corner of the room and slunk towards them. My eyes were blurry and tiny droplets of sweat popped over my forehead out of nowhere. Holding my breath, I cautiously stepped forward with my feet almost defying my command to move. Finally, I was standing behind them while those ignorant bastards kept on typing so many commands over their systems like some zombies. I raised the fire extinguisher high up in the air to hit one of the giants sitting with his back towards me when a clicking sounds behind my back startled me, he was standing behind my back with a gun in his hand pointed at my head. My darling had failed me, again.
‘Sir, how could you?’ I turned around to face Mr. Katara. His eyes were different, emotions inside his eyes were different. I put the fire extinguisher down. Both the bulky guys turned back in bewilderment, they never heard me approaching.
‘You swine, you tried to drug me,’ he smirked. ‘Bhaijaan you continue. We aren’t left with much time. I will handle him.’
Suppressing their confusion, both the guys resumed their work turning their backs towards us.
‘I think it won’t hurt to unburden myself in the final few minutes plus I don’t have anything else to do,’ his eyes returned to me. ‘You know the tectonic plates over this earth have been moving for millions of years, they collided with each other to form the mountains and lands and everything,’ his voice was soaked in mischief. ‘They are moving even at this moment changing the face of earth and yet you don’t realize it. All it takes is patience and you can change everything without letting anyone know anything. You just need to take one calculative step at a time and nobody will ever doubt that you are running a race,’ he wickedly smiled at me and I could feel fear knocking at my heart. It was just a matter of few more minutes.
‘Where is the bomb?’
‘Right here. in this room?’
‘Yes’, Mr Katara hissed. ‘Have you heard about sleeping cells? Where a person spends his entire life living as somebody else, so engrossed, that forget about the people around, sometimes he himself starts doubting if his mask is his actual face,’ he paused for a moment and looked upward,’ only Allah’s blessings kept me on the path of righteousness. I was sent to your filthy land as a kid when I was four. Sidhant Katara, I have lived with this shitty name and identity for far too long now. Today is the day I will justify the faith of my masters and the millions of rupees they have invested in me. Today is the day when I will be free.’
‘How did you get my mails?’
‘You are stuck on that,’ a loud laughter echoed within those closed walls. Clock was moving too fast. However, I couldn’t muster the courage to look at the watch but I knew it was just a matter of few more minutes. The two bulky guys kept on typing over their laptops with unprecedented speed. The way they were hurrying, even they looked like a little short of time. Mr Katara checked his watch and a smile floated across his face.
‘This whole company was one big diversion to conceal our true motives. Our mission has always been to hit the ‘prestige’ of this city and to bury it in dust forever. All our clients are the heads of other sleeping cells spread out across the world. We are bigger than you people could ever imagine,’ he sneered, ‘This email thing was nothing. I just gave you a small window to peek into your own email Ids over my server and rather I used them to contact my masters to execute my plan. You know your agencies sniff too deep and we didn’t want to leave a trail behind. So, after we are gone, if they would ever be able to decode the ashes of my server, all they would be left with would be a lot of trails that would lead them to nowhere. Because I have used my every employee to fulfil my mission. But don’t worry, I ensured an extremely secured server which can’t be breached. This was just a minor precaution you can say. But the first and the last glitch with the mail server took place just a couple of hours before the plan had to be executed. Allah’s grace, you came straight to me pointing your finger towards Hamed.’
‘You killed him?’
‘It was convenient to kill him rather play hide and seek with both of you.’
‘Why did you send me to get that final part if it was so important.’
‘That is called improvisation. You are lucky to be alive till now. Anyways my plan is well on track.’
‘And what is your plan? To kill ten thousand people working in this building?’
Mr. Katara checked his watch.
‘Yes of course. From past three days all that noise was of us infusing explosives within this building. With my name and reputation nobody ever doubted me when I sneaked it in with our big servers and hundreds of other systems. Now it will be triggered by this last piece we just received. Just a few more codes to run to activate the explosives. You know, one calculative step at a time and nobody will ever doubt you are running a race,’ he smirked. ‘Who would suspect, we purposefully bought the floor in the middle of this building six years ago, four strong blasts at the right places and it will collapse like a pack of cards. I just need to press an enter button after the code is done.’
‘This is not a server room.’
Mr. Katara burst into laughter. ‘Now you are disappointing me.’
‘You will die too.’
‘I am going to meet Allah. That is my destiny. And you will die from my hands that is your destiny. Any ways you were a lousy employee,’ he sneered.
Gun in his hands was raised to point in between my eyes, I had failed miserably. The pressure of his finger rose over the trigger, it was curtains for me and might be for thousands working in the building ignorant of the death looming over their heads. With my heart pounding I looked at the gun, waiting for it to fire any moment now. But all of a sudden Mr. Katara fumbled for a moment and then collapsed to the ground with a thud, like some statue. Blood was streaming of his nose and iris of his half-opened eyes were hiding under his eyelids. I was sure it was my unpredictable darling, my dearest darling striking at the right time, saving my life. I hated it when it played tricks with me but for the first time, I couldn’t love it more. May be, my destiny was something different. My courage had returned. I picked up Mr. Katara’s gun and pointed at one of the bulky men who were suddenly aware of the situation. A moment’s halt and one of them began typing faster while another one plunged towards me. As expected, looking their mission in jeopardy they responded fiercely because for them they were already dead. It was time for me to act. I instinctively shot at the one attacking me. Blood and flesh from his blown off head smeared all around. I had killed a man. My sight was blurred and my hands were trembling gazing at the body writhing in pain lying in the pool of blood. But it wasn’t the time to lose my focus.
‘Last chance. Get your hands away from the laptop,’ I screamed.
He looked in no mood to stop as his fingers began typing over the keyboard faster than ever. I pressed the trigger, another shot and another person was dropped dead. Something from inside his head was spread over the table in front of him. I quickly grabbed the laptop lying over the floor, a cursor was blinking at the end of a command which read – ‘Press enter.’