"I know I'm not saying this very well, but I just don't feel right about it. No matter what this guy did, I don't want to be put in a position of being... well, a kind of cop. I wouldn't feel right about working with them, even indirectly. In my country, the phrase helping the police with their enquiries is a euphemism for informing on someone. I'm sorry. I understand that this guy killed people. If you want to go after him, that's your business, and I'm happy to help you out in any way I can. But I don't want to be involved with the cops, or to help them do it.
If you're working outside the law, on your own-if you want to go after him, and put him out of action personally, for whatever reason of your own-then I'll be glad to help. You can count me in, if you want to fight his gang, whoever they are."
"Is there anything more?"
"No. That's... that's... pretty much it."
"Very well, Mr. Lin," he replied. His face was impassive as he studied me, but there was a puzzling laughter in his eyes. "I may put your mind at rest, I think, in assuring you that while I do assist a large number of policemen financially, so to say, I do not ever work with them. I can tell you, however, that the matter of Sapna is a deeply personal one, and I would ask that if you should wish to confide anything at all about this terrible fellow, you will speak of it only to me. You will not speak to any of the gentlemen you met here, last night, about this Sapna or... or to anyone else. Is that agreed?"
"Yes. Yes, that's agreed."
"Was there anything else?"
"Well, no."
"Excellent. Then, to business: I have very little time today, Mr.
Lin, so I will come directly to the point of the matter. The favour that I mentioned yesterday-I want you to teach one small boy, named Tariq, the English language. Not everything, of course, but enough that his English will be considerably improved, and that he will have some little advantage when he begins his formal studies."
"Well, I'll be happy to try," I stammered, bewildered by the request, but not daunted by it. I felt competent to teach the fundamentals of the language that I wrote in every day of my life. "I don't know how _good I'll be at it. I think there must be a lot of people who'd be better than I would, but I'm happy to take a shot at it. Where do you want me to do it? Would I come here to teach him?"
He looked at me with benign, almost affectionate condescension.
"Why, he will stay with you, naturally. I want you to have him with you, constantly, for the next ten or twelve weeks. He will live with you, eat with you, sleep at your house, go where you go. I do not simply want that he learns the English _phrases. I want that he learns the English way. Your way. I want that he learns this, with your constant company."
"But... but I'm not English," I objected stupidly.
"This is no matter. You are English enough, don't you think? You are a foreigner, and you will teach him the ways of a foreigner.
It is my desire."
My mind was hot, my thoughts scattered and flapping like the birds that he'd startled with his voice. There had to be a way out. It was impossible.
"But I live at the zhopadpatti. You know that. It's very rough.
My hut is really small, and there's nothing in it. He'll be uncomfortable. And it's... it's dirty and crowded and... where would he sleep and all that?"
"I am aware of your situation, Mr. Lin," he replied, a little sharply. "It is precisely this, your life in the zhopadpatti, that I want him to know. Tell me your honest opinion, do you think that there are lessons to be learned in the slum? Do you think he will benefit from spending some time with the city's poorest people?"
I did think that, of course. It seemed to me that every child, beginning with the sons and daughters of the rich, would benefit from the experience of slum life.
"Yes, I suppose I do. I do think it's important to see how people live there. But you have to understand, it's a huge responsibility for me. I'm not doing a spectacular job of looking after myself. I don't know how I could look after a kid."
Nazeer arrived with the tea and a prepared chillum.
"Ah, here is our tea. We shall first smoke, yes?"
