Gunpoint: Part 1

The gun was pointed at my head. There were perhaps a lot of other things also happening in the room. But the most significant and terrifying thing to me, was the feel of that cold metal against my forehead. 

“Tijori kidhar hai??” the man in the black mask said.

They don’t teach you how to deal with this kind of a situation, in the bank manager trainee program. I guess it’s the sort of thing, you have to learn on the spur of the moment. 

I was never really a good learner.

But I loved my new job. I had just secured the position of assistant manager, in one of the most reputed banks of Mumbai. The job basically involved, getting other people to do their work and signing stuff here and there. But if things went wrong down the line, I guess I would be the one to get the blame.

Ten minutes ago, as I had been walking happily towards my office, I felt something cold pressed against my head. And then I encountered this guy and his five team members in black masks. As they lead me to the ground floor, I saw the five security guards nicely tied up in one corner. 

Great! So the one time, they had something more important to do, than just opening doors, this is what happens.

“Abbe bol chu****!” snapped the guy in the black mask.

Maybe this is not the best time to relapse into a flashback story. Oh by the way, my name is Sanjay Paranjape.

Still unsure about what to do, I stared at the dark brown eyes peeking out of the slits in the black mask. They were not particularly beautiful. I mean if the eyes were this ugly, I could only imagine how horrible the rest of the face was. Maybe when you are this hideous, robbery is the only profession open to you.

Thwack!!

The black masked guy laid a punch in my gut. My stomach hurt slightly, but I pretended it hurt a lot, so that I could get a few more moments to think things through. 

There were five trigger alarms in the bank. One at the entry security check post, one at the cash counter, one near the bank safe and one each in the general manager and chairman’s office(Both currently chilling in the Delhi branch. Perhaps not chilling exactly. But at least they weren’t in this mess.)

My best bet was to lead the robbers to the bank safe and raise the trigger without alerting them. They might get to rob the safe. But hopefully the police should be here before they can escape.

Wow, not bad thinking huh?

“Uhh...Let me show you where the safe is.” I said

With the gun now pointed at my back, I lead them to the safe, underneath the ground floor.

Next to the huge steel slab forming the safe entry, was a small electronic keypad. When I entered a particular sequence, the safe door would open. However when I entered another sequence, the safe door would open and an emergency message would be sent to the local police unit. 

I paused in front of the electronic keypad, not wanting to seem too eager. And when I was tapped again on my back with the tip of the gun barrel, I took it as my cue to enter the code.

The safe door opened. The leader, five other men and yours truly entered the safe. The leader stood with the gun held to my head as the rest of his team got to work. It seems that they had already collected the keys from the cash counter, for the lockers within the safe.

I suddenly remembered that Jyotsna sits at the cash counter. I hoped she was okay. Yes, I like her. Though I don’t know what she exactly feels about me. 

So for the next fifteen minutes, I watched as the five men emptied all the lockers, I was supposed to be safeguarding as a manager. But if the police got here in time, hopefully there wouldn’t be any problem.

The leader looked at his watch and said “Oye bohot time ho gaya. Pack it up boys. Nikalte hai.”

Again with the barrel of a gun at my back, our merry group of robbers led me to the bank lobby. As I turned around and looked at the leader, I could see in those ugly eyes a certain sense of joy and accomplishment. 

He raised the butt of his gun to hit me and said “Chal bye, chu****…”

I guess being well mannered, is not a very important criteria to become a robber.

As the butt of the gun almost struck my head, we all heard the distant sound of a siren. Whew, the police were here! As in, almost here I guess. 

The leader stared at me angrily “Police ko kaise pata chala?? Tune kya kiya be?”

He struck an angry blow to my jaw.

“Shana samajhta hai khudko? Hamari marega sale bh******? Chal ab aur thoda shana ban aur police ko bhaga..Nahi toh..”

The leader fired a bullet and my left shoulder seared with pain, as a bullet passed through the fleshy area, missing the bone.

As I hit the ground almost senseless with pain, the leader crouched by me and said “Agar hum logo ko nahi bachayega..toh tu bhi nahi bachega..”

Damn. This guy watches too many Hindi films.

TO BE CONTINUED…