Shantaram полностью

‘Chuha and his buddies,’ Amir answered in his lazy drawl. I think the slow, softly slurring style of the man gave everyone there new heart: he wasn’t, or didn’t seem to be, anywhere near as nervous as the rest of us. ‘That makes six. One of them, Manu, is a good man. You know him. He put the Harshan brothers down, all three of them, on his own. His cousin Bichchu is also a good fighter-they don’t call him the Scorpion for nothing. The rest of them, including Chuha, that madachudh, are not much. Then there’s the Sapnas. That makes three more. And from Iran, two more. That’s eleven. Maybe one or two more, at the most. Hussein is watching the place. He’ll tell us if any more arrived.’

‘Eleven,’ Salman murmured, avoiding the eyes of the men while he considered the situation. ‘And we are… eleven-twelve, counting Little Tony. But we have to lose two, on the street outside Chuha’s house-one on each side, to slow up the cops if they come screaming on us while we’re inside. I’ll make a call before we go in, to keep the cops away, but we need to be sure. Chuha might have more guys coming, as well, so we need at least two on the outside. I don’t mind fighting my way in there, but I don’t want to fight my way out again if I don’t have to. Hussein is already there. Faisal, you’re the number two on the street outside, okay? Nobody goes in, or out, but us.’

‘No problem,’ the young fighter agreed.

‘Check the guns, now, with Raj. Get them ready.’

‘I’m on it,’ he said, collecting guns from a few of the men and then jogging over to the cars, where Raj and Mahmoud waited.

‘And two will have to go back to Khader’s house with Tariq,’ Salman continued.

‘It was Nazeer’s idea to bring him with us,’ Andrew put in. ‘He didn’t want to leave him behind there when Faisal and Amir came to give us the news. I told him not to bring the kid, but you know how Nazeer is when he gets an idea in his head.’

‘Nazeer can take the boy to Sobhan Mahmoud’s house in Versova, and watch over him,’ Salman declared. ‘And you’ll go with him.’

‘Oh, come on, man!’ Andrew complained. ‘Why do I have to do that? Why do I have to miss all the action?’

‘I need two men to watch over old Sobhan and the boy. Especially the boy-Nazeer was right not to leave him. Tariq is a target. As long as he’s alive, the council is still Khader’s council. If they kill him, Chuha will take a lot of power from it. The same goes for old Sobhan. Take the boy out of the city, and keep him and Sobhan Mahmoud safe.’

‘But why do I have to miss the action, man? Why does it have to be me? Send someone else, Salman. Let me go with you to Chuha’s.’

‘Are you going to argue with me?’ Salman said, his lip curling with anger.

‘No, man,’ Andrew snarled petulantly. ‘I’ll do it. I’ll take the kid.’

‘That leaves eight of us,’ Salman concluded. ‘Sanjay and me, Abdullah and Amir, Raj and little Tony, Farid and Mahmoud-’

‘Nine,’ I cut in. ‘There’s nine of us.’

‘You should take off, Lin,’ Salman said quietly, raising his eyes to meet mine. ‘I was just now going to ask you to take a cab and pass the word to Rajubhai, and the boys at your passport shop.’

‘I’m not leaving Abdullah,’ I said flatly.

‘Maybe you can go back with Nazeer,’ Amir, who was Andrew’s close friend, suggested.

‘I left Abdullah once,’ I declared. ‘I’m not doing it again. It’s like fate or something. I’ve got a feeling, Salman. I’ve got a feeling not to leave Abdullah. I’m in it. I’m not leaving Mahmoud Melbaaf, either. I’m with them. I’m with you.’

Salman held the stare, frowning pensively. It occurred to me, stupidly, that his slightly crooked face-one eye a little lower than the other, his nose bent from a bad break, his mouth scarred in the corner-found a handsome symmetry only then, when the burden of his thoughts creased his features into a determined frown.

‘Okay,’ he agreed, at last.

‘What the fuck!’ Andrew exploded. ‘He gets to go, but I do the baby-sitting job?’

‘Settle down, Andrew,’ Farid said soothingly.

‘No, fuck him! I’m sick of this fuckin’ gora, man. So Khader liked him, so he went to Afghanistan, so fuckin’ what? Khader’s dead, yaar. Khader’s day is gone.’

‘Relax, man,’ Amir put in.

‘What relax? Fuck Khader, and fuck his gora, too!’

‘You should watch your mouth,’ I muttered through clenched teeth.

‘I should?’ he asked, thrusting his face forward pugnaciously. ‘Well, fuck your sister! How’s my mouth now? You like that?’

‘I don’t have a sister,’ I said evenly in Hindi. A few men laughed.

‘Well, maybe I’ll go fuck your mother,’ he snarled, ‘and make you a new sister!’

‘That’s good enough,’ I growled, shaping up to fight him. ‘Get ‘em up! Get your fuckin’ hands up! Let’s go!’