Double Exposure

Just the other day, I made a plan to watch a movie with my friend as movie would be a perfect distraction from these daily hectic hours of work.
The season of rainfalls demand a cozy blanket and a cup of coffee to kick start the day. The so called friend whom I was about to meet for the movie woke me up at 5 in the morning on a holiday and I was trying my best to control my anger.
As the company had lost a person in a sad accident, it was a rare holiday for me.
The sound of soothing rainfall was a bliss for the lazy fatty ones who didn't have to work six days a week, but for me, sleep was all I needed that time to rest all my tired muscles.
The rain was still on at its own pace, when I woke up finally after two hours. There was coffee on the table for me, which had already transformed into a cold coffee by then.
I drank the coffee in a single gulp as soon as I woke up then went to freshen up myself.
I am Ramit Shakya, younger than ever in my mid twenties, have just completed my masters in IT, and have been working in a software project since six months.
Sharman's text was being displayed on my cellphone that he had booked the tickets for the 12:30 show at QFX Kumari.
The day was normal than ever, finished my morning deeds and had the meal in the normal time as ever, but certain events were about to change my life completely in a while.
I wandered around until 11, scrolling the same old newsfeed section of Facebook repeatedly for a number of times, with nothing new in it and then I decided to change and leave as I thought I'd walk my way to the movie hall.
It was 11:30 already and I rushed out of the house texting Sharman to wait for him at the gate. I was observing the busy streets of Kathmandu while I walked. People were busy with their lives. The roads were muddy because of the early morning rainfall but the clouds had disappeared by then, and the sun was shining brighter than ever.
I reached the movie hall premises by 12:10. Sharman had already paid for the tickets and was waiting for me by the gate.
"You follow the ritual for always being late." He fired a satire.
"The movie hasn't even started yet. That means I ain't late, mate." I replied.
We went inside the hall, with the security scanning the bar codes of our tickets. I bought some popcorn and coffee as Sharman had paid for the tickets; it was my obligation to pay for the food.
The movie was about to start. We were all seated in our respective seats. The show had begun now. It had started well. We were only halfway into the first half to the movie that my cellphone started buzzing. Then the same happened for the other people presented in the hall simultaneously.
I picked up the phone. It was my mom.
"There's a suspicious bag with supposedly a bomb outside the hall." She was worried.
"Its been all over the news." She added without even letting me speak.
Suddenly, people started panicking inside the hall. Sharman and me, we both were turning white with fear there.
"Don't worry. We'll be fine." That was all I could speak trembling with fear.
I didn't want to die. No one would ever want to die. And to add to our horror, the screen went black, the movie stopped and the exit door were opened with the securities requesting us to not to panic.
But who would listen to those shitheads in that type of situation.
They had to calm us down, to say what they had to say. They turned on the news in the big screen, as media were never late in these type of situations.
We were being held hostages as per the news but the news lacked details. We  were trapped inside the movie hall as the bomb would go off if anyone comes out of the hall, as per the news.
Mom was worriedly calling me and I had no courage to pick up the phone. I did pick it up somehow and asked her not to worry and follow the news and not to come there.
There were lots of police as the news showed outside the building. One of the policeman, Mr. Ganga Dhakal, was urging us not to panic and said they'll fix everything soon.
We were all waiting for that soon to come soon.

                                                  ***********************************
There was no bomb specialist in Nepal like in the other countries but they had someone to examine the bomb somehow. The person wore the bomb suit, and was proceeding towards the bomb when the phone rang in the ticket counter.

"Don't touch the phone, no one touch the phone," I said.
I picked up the phone.
"Mr. Dhakal, you said you'd fix everything in the news. I have the trigger to that bomb. If your guy doesn't step away, I'll pull the trigger and blow up everything. The choice is yours now." The person on the phone said.
"Who is this? Why are you doing this? What do you want?" I said.
"If anyone comes out of the hall, the hostages then they will be responsible for the explosion."
"And if the media doesn't pin point the camera to the bomb and the doors and they deviate away, stopping the live coverage, then I'll blow the place into flames." The anonymous person added.
"Wait for my call but if you don't obey my instructions, you won't exist anymore with all the other people." The anonymous man ordered.
"Hello...Hello..Hello" I was trying my best but he ended the call.
"Move a step back everyone. I meant everyone. You too, bomb guy. Pin point the camera at the doors and the bomb bag." I ordered.
I couldn't take a risk here as there were almost around 150 lives on stake, trembling inside the hall.
We couldn't trace the call or do anything as we had no such equipment in our country, so all we had to do was to wait for the call.
After almost fifteen minutes, the phone rang again.
I picked up the call again.
"Good job Mr. Dhakal. I can trust you now that you won't risk any innocent lives." The person said.
"Who are you? What do you want?" I asked roughly.
"It doesn't matter who am I. You should only concentrate on what I want for now." The person said politely.
"What do you want?" I asked again.
"There's a friend of mine, locked up in Panchkhal, Ravi Khatri, for murder. I want him out and an army helicopter for us to travel safely." He said.
"That's not possible. If he's been locked in for murder, I can't let a criminal walk free."' I said in anger.
"There are almost 200 people there. You are gonna risk the lives of 200 people for a person? You have exactly five hours. The choice is yours." He said.
"Five hours? Even if I obeyed what you said. The court order and all the paperworks would take almost a day to process." I pleaded.
"Surely the court would consider something for the numerous innocent lives." He ended the call.
"Hello...Hello." He again disconnected before I could say anything.
I had to act quickly but I knew that it was wrong to let a criminal walk out free so I decided to first release the hostages somehow and then go for the so called criminal.
I pretended to make some calls and ask for the paperworks in front of media to buy some time as the person was watching us all.
I went in front of media, and asked the person to call him so that I could buy some time.
The phone rang again and I wasted no time to pick up the call.
"What happened?" The person's voice sounded angrier than before.
"I tried. But this could take more than eight hours. Please give us some time." I pleaded for some time.
There was a big sound of explosion nearby. You hear that? That was another bomb. I activated it. Luckily there was no one in Tudikhel. But your next wrong step could cost you lives of that building. You have exactly 285 minutes." The person ended the call.
I, then had to act and act fast. I then inspected the building. I could see the window at the back side two floors up where the media cameras wouldn't even reach. I had to free the hostages anyhow and as fast as I can.
Then I called one of the person inside and asked him to gather everyone inside right by the window which was at the back side.
Then, I pretended to call the court and appeal for Ravi Khatri's freedom. Then I called the firetruck department and ordered a firetruck in the premises.
"Don't come from the usual way, I don;t want the people to get suspicious." I ordered the fireman.
The media were kept in a distance and they had no idea of the criminal's demands or anything.
After about twenty minutes, the firetruck arrived from a different way and directly parked at the backside below the window.
And the mission of rescue started. The ladder of the firetruck was enhanced towards the window and the people were being rescued one by one.
It almost took them two and a half hours to empty the building with no hostages trapped inside. Ramit and Sharman were free and walking towards home from the back passage.
It was almost four hours of the criminal's ultimatum of five hours but there was no call from him and the hostages were rescued by then.
Then I ordered two of my inspectors in Panchkhal to enquire about Ravi Khatri. After a while, they called and to my utter shock, they said there existed no criminal whose name goes by Ravi Khatri.
I asked them to check again and their reply was the same. There was no person locked up in Panchkhal as ravi Khatri.
It was more than five hours now. There was no call from the anonymous criminal. As the hostages were already rescued, I asked all the media people to evacuate the premises and asked the bomb guy to inspect the bomb now. The bomb guy walked towards the bomb and inspected it and his reply almost gave me a mild heart attack.
It was a fake bomb. It looked exactly like the real bomb as he said he respected the artist that he forged exactly the same design with some wires but it was a fake one.
Then my cellphone rang as it was from the head office stating that three banks were robbed at the same time. Almost 30 crores were robbed from the three banks.
The hostage situation and bomb was just a setup to distract everyone here. Their main mission was to rob the bank with no security in the busy area of New Road.
I asked the bomb guy to inspect the bomb that exploded in Tundikhel too. He said,, it was a small one and exploded exactly in the right time with proper planning when there was no one around.
"He was listening to every fake calls I made for Ravi Khatri's freedom and he knew that I was buying time to free the hostages. He was sure that I'd take this step and utilized his time to rob the banks." I thought for a while.
"The guy had no intention to harm anyone. Damn it, I fell for a setup. I couldn't believe it."
Two lives were affected. One was trapped inside as a captive and another one was manipulated with his own tricks.
After an hour, I received a text on my cellphone, " Thank you for the cooperation."
I knew I would only waste my time tracing the location of the cellphone.
I lost in my own game.
I lost.