"Are you... are you interested in helping me with something?"
Karla asked. Her tone was suddenly serious, portentous.
So that's it, I thought. That's why she came to see me. She wants something. The spiteful cat of wounded pride arched behind my eyes. She didn't miss me-she wanted something from me. But she had come, she was asking me, not someone else, and there was salvage in that. Looking into those serious green eyes, I sensed that it was rare for her to ask anyone for help. I also had the feeling that a great deal, maybe too much, was balanced in it.
"Sure," I said, careful not to hesitate for too long. "What do you want me to do?"
She swallowed hard, pushing past an obvious reluctance, and spoke in a rush of words.
"There's this girl, a friend of mine. Her name's Lisa. She's got herself in a very bad situation. She started working at this place-a place for foreign call girls. Anyway, Lisa messed up.
Now she owes money, a lot of it, and the Madame who runs the place where she works won't let her go. I want to get her out of there."
"I don't have much, but I think..."
"It's not the money. I've got the money. But the woman who runs the place has taken a liking to Lisa. Even if we pay, she won't let her go. I know what she's like. It's personal now. The money's just an excuse. What she really wants is to break Lisa, a little at a time, until there's nothing left. She hates her, because Lisa's beautiful and bright and she's got guts. She won't let her leave."
"You want us to break her out of there?"
"Not exactly."
"I know some people," I said, thinking of Abdullah Taheri and his mafia friends. "They're not afraid of a fight. We could ask them to help."
"No, I've got friends here, too. They could get her out of there easy enough, but that wouldn't stop the heavies from finding her, and taking it out on her later. They don't mess around. They use acid. Lisa wouldn't be the first girl to get acid thrown in her face because she got on the wrong side of Madame Zhou. We can't risk it. Whatever we do, it has to be in a way that convinces her to leave Lisa alone, forever."
I was uneasy about it. I sensed that there was more to it than Karla was telling me.
"Did you say Madame Zhou?"
"Yes-have you heard of her?"
"A bit," I nodded. "I don't know how much of it to believe.
People say some pretty wild and dirty things about her."
"The wild things... I don't know... but the dirty things are all true, take it from me."
I didn't feel any better about it.
"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."
