Shantaram полностью

‘Why doesn’t she just run away, this friend of yours? Why doesn’t she get on a plane, and get the hell back to-where did you say she came from?’

‘She’s American. Look, if I could make her go back to the States, there wouldn’t be a problem. But she won’t go back. She won’t leave Bombay. She’ll never leave Bombay. She’s a junkie. That’s a big part of it. But there’s more than that-stuff from her past, stuff she can’t face back there. So she won’t go. I’ve tried to talk her into it, but it’s no good. She… she just won’t. And I can’t say that I blame her. I’ve got issues of my own-things in my past I’d rather not go back to. Things I won’t go back to.’

‘And you’ve got a plan-to get this girl out, I mean?’

‘Yes. I want you to pretend that you’re someone from the American embassy, some kind of consulate officer. I’ve already set it up. You won’t have to do much. I’ll do most of the talking. We’ll tell them that Lisa’s father is some big honcho in America with ties to the government, and that you’ve had orders to get her out of there and keep an eye on her. I’ll have all that straight before you even walk in the door.’

‘It sounds pretty fuzzy to me, Karla. You think that’ll be enough?’

She took a bundle of beedies from her pocket and lit two of them with a cigarette lighter, holding the small cigarettes in one hand and playing the flame over them with the other. She passed one to me, and puffed deeply on her own before answering me.

‘I think so. It’s the best thing I’ve come up with. I talked it over with Lisa, and she says she thinks it’ll work. If Madame Zhou gets her money, and if she believes you’re from the embassy, and if she’s convinced that she’ll get into trouble with the embassy or the government if she hassles Lisa any more, I think she’ll leave her alone. There’s a lot of ifs in there, I know. A lot of it really depends on you.’

‘It depends on her, too, this… Madame. Do you think she’ll believe it-believe me?’

‘We’ll have to play it exactly right. She’s more cunning than clever, but she’s not stupid.’

‘Do you think I can do this?’

‘How’s your American accent?’ she asked with a little embarrassed laugh.

‘I was an actor once,’ I muttered, ‘in another life.’

‘That’s great!’ she said, reaching out to touch my forearm. Her long, slender fingers felt cool against my warm skin.

‘I don’t know,’ I frowned. ‘It’s a lot of responsibility if it doesn’t go down right. If something happens to the girl, or to you…’

‘She’s my friend. It’s my idea. The responsibility’s mine.’

‘I’d feel better about it, you know, just fighting my way in there, and fighting my way out again. This embassy thing-there’s so many ways it could go wrong.’

‘I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t think it was the right way to go, and if I wasn’t sure you could do it, Lin.’

She fell silent, waiting. I let her wait, but I knew the answer already. She might’ve thought I was weighing it up, trying to make up my mind. In fact, I was only thinking about why I was going to do it. Is it for her? I asked myself. Am I committed, or just interested? Why did I hug the bear?

I smiled.

‘When do we do this?’

She smiled back.

‘In a couple of days. I’ve got to do a bit of stuff first, to set it all up.’

She threw the finished beedie away, and took a step towards me. I think she might’ve kissed me, but just then a frightened clamour of shouting and shrieks started up among the people, and they ran to join us at the windows. In the jam of bodies, Prabaker pushed his head through, under my arm and next to Karla.

‘Municipality!’ he shouted. ‘B.M.C. is coming! Bombay Municipal Corporation. Look there!’

‘What is it? What’s happening?’ Karla asked. Her voice was all but lost in the shouts and screams.

‘It’s the council. They’re going to tear down some houses,’ I called back, my lips close to her ear. ‘They do this every month or so. They’re trying to keep the slum under control, to stop it from spreading outside the edge, there, where it meets the street.’

We looked down near the main street to see four, five, six large, dark blue police trucks rolling into an open area that was a kind of no man’s land, enclosed by the crescent of the slum. The heavy trucks were covered with canvas tarpaulins. We couldn’t see inside them, but we knew they contained squads of cops, twenty or more men to each truck. An open tray-truck, loaded with council workers and their equipment, drove between the parked police vehicles and stopped near the huts. Several officers climbed down from the police trucks and deployed their men in two rows.