Shantaram полностью

‘Old habits,’ she grinned, ‘die hard-and lie harder.’

Her eyes moved across my features for a moment, as if she was searching a map for a familiar reference point. Her smile slowly faded.

‘I’m going to miss Didier.’

‘Me, too,’ I muttered, thinking that he was probably in the air already, and on his way to Italy. ‘But I think he’ll be back before too long.’

‘Why?’

‘I put the Zodiac Georges in his apartment, to look after it.’

‘Ooooh!’ she winced, making a perfect kiss of her perfect mouth.

‘Yeah. If that doesn’t bring him back quick, nothing will. You know how he loves that apartment.’

She didn’t answer, but her stare tightened in the intensity of her concentration.

‘Khaled’s here, in India,’ she remarked flatly, watching my eyes.

‘Where?’

‘In Delhi-well, near Delhi, actually.’

‘When?’

‘The report came in two days ago. I had it checked. I think it’s him.’

‘What report?’

She looked away, towards the sea, and breathed a long, slow sigh.

‘Jeet has access to all the wire services. One of them sent a report about a new spiritual leader named Khaled Ansari, who walked all the way from Afghanistan, and was pulling in big crowds of followers wherever he went. When I saw it, I asked Jeet to check it out for me. His people sent a description, and it fits.’

‘Wow… thank God… thank God.’

‘Yeah, maybe,’ she murmured. Something of the old mischief and mystery flared in her eyes.

‘And you’re sure it’s him?’

‘Sure enough to go there myself,’ she answered, looking at me once more.

‘Do you know where he is-now, I mean?’

‘Not exactly, but I think I know where he’s going.’

‘Where?’

‘Varanasi. Khaderbhai’s teacher, Idriss, lives there. He’s very old now, but he still teaches there.’

‘Khaderbhai’s teacher?’ I asked, stunned to think that in all the hundreds of hours I’d spent with Khader, listening to his philosophy lectures, he’d never mentioned the name.

‘Yes. I met him once, right at the start, when I first came to India, with Khader. I was… I don’t know… I guess you’d call it a nervous breakdown. There was this plane, going to Singapore. I don’t even know how I got on it. And I broke down-just, kind of, cracked up. And Khader, he was on the same plane. And he put his arm around me. I told him everything… absolutely… everything. And next thing, I’m in this cave with a giant Buddha statue and this teacher named Idriss-Khader’s teacher.’

There was a pause while she let those memories pull her into the past, but then she shook herself free, and back into the moment.

‘I think that’s where Khaled is going-to see Idriss. The old guru fascinated him. He was obsessed about meeting him. I don’t know why he never got around to it then, but I think that’s where he’s headed now. Or maybe he’s already there. He used to ask me about him all the time. Idriss taught Khader everything he knew about Resolution theory, and-’

‘About what?’

‘Resolution theory. That’s what Khader called it, but he said it was Idriss who gave it that name. It was his philosophy of life, Khader’s philosophy, about how the universe is always moving toward-’

‘Complexity,’ I interrupted. ‘I know. I talked about it a lot with him. But he never called it Resolution theory. And he never talked about Idriss.’

‘That’s funny, because I think he loved Idriss, you know, like a father. Once, he called him the teacher of all teachers. And I know he wanted to retire up there, not far from Varanasi, with Idriss. Anyway, that’s where I’m going to start looking for Khaled.’

‘When?’

‘Tomorrow.’

‘O-kay,’ I responded, avoiding her eyes. ‘Is this… is this anything to do with… well, you and Khaled, from before?’

‘You can be such a fuck sometimes, Lin, you know that?’

I looked up sharply, but I didn’t respond.

‘Did you know Ulla’s in town?’ she asked after a while.

‘No. When did she get in? Have you seen her?’

‘That’s just it. I got a message from her. She was at the President, and she wanted to see me right away.’

‘Did you go?’

‘I didn’t want to,’ she mused. ‘If you got the message, would you have gone?’

‘I guess,’ I answered, staring out at the bay where moonlight crested on the serpent curves of a gently rolling sea. ‘But not for her. For Modena. I saw him a while ago. He’s still nuts about her.’

‘I saw him tonight,’ she said quietly.

‘Tonight?’

‘Yes. Just before. With her. It freaked me out. I went to the hotel and up to her room. There was another guy there, a guy named Ramesh-’

‘Modena told me about him. They’re friends.’

‘So, he opens the door, and I walk in, and I see Ulla, sitting on the bed, resting her back against the wall. And Modena, he’s lying across her legs, with his head back near her shoulder. That face…’

‘I know. It’s a hell of a mess.’