Читаем Shantaram полностью

‘It would be a great help if you could get the goras for me when we need them,’ Kalpana said, offering me what seemed to be a well-practised leer. Practised or not, it was damned effective. ‘We provide a cab to bring them to the shoot and take them home again. We give them a full lunch during the break. And we pay about two thousand rupees a day, per person. We pay that to you, plus a bonus commission per head. What you pay them, well, it’s up to you. Most of them are happy to do it for nothing, and are real surprised, you know, when they find out we actually pay them to be in the movies.’

‘Whaddaya say?’ Lisa asked me, her eyes gleaming through the rose filter of her stone.

‘I’m interested.’

My mind was trawling through the possible lateral benefits in the arrangement. Some of them were obvious. The moviemakers were a fairly affluent crowd of frequent flyers who might need black-market dol-lars and documents, from time to time. It was clear to me, as well, that the casting job was important to Lisa. On its own, that was reason enough for me to get involved. I liked her, and I was glad that she wanted to like me.

‘Good,’ Kalpana concluded, opening the door and stepping out to the car park. We walked back to the hotel foyer, each of us with sunglasses clamped to our eyes. We shook hands at the same spot where we’d met half an hour before.

‘Have your lunch,’ she said. ‘I’ll go back to the set. We’re in the ball-room. When you’re all done, follow the cables and you’ll find me. I’ll introduce you to the guys, and you can start right away. We need a few foreigners for tomorrow’s shoot, here. Two guys and two gals, yaar. Blonde, Sweden types, if you can find them. Hey-that was Kashmiri hash, na? We’ll get along just fine, Lin, you and me. Ciao#93; Ciao, baby.’

In the restaurant, Lisa and I heaped our plates high, and sat facing the sea to eat.

‘Kalpana’s okay’ she said between mouthfuls. ‘She’s sarcastic as all hell, sometimes, and she’s a real ambitious girl-don’t make any mistake about that-but she’s a straight talker and a real friend. When she told me about the casting job, I thought about you. I thought you might be able to… make something out of it…’

‘Thanks,’ I said, meeting her eye and trying to read her. ‘I appreciate the thought. Do you want to be partners in it with me?’

‘Yes,’ she answered quickly. ‘I was hoping… hoping you’d want to.’

‘We could work it out together,’ I suggested. ‘I don’t think I’ll have any trouble getting foreigners to work in the movies, but I don’t really want to do the rest of it. You could do that part, if you like. You could organise picking them up, looking after them on the set, and making the payments and all that. I’ll talk them into it, and you take it from there. I’d be glad to work with you, if you’re interested.’

She smiled. It was a good smile; the kind you like to keep.

‘I’d love to do it,’ she gushed, flushing pink with embarrassment under her tan. ‘I really need to do something, Lin, and I think I’m ready. When Kalpana ran this casting thing by me, I wanted to jump at it, but I was too nervous to take it on alone. Thanks.’

‘Don’t mention it. How’s it going with you and Abdullah?’

‘Mmmm,’ she mumbled, finishing a mouthful of food. ‘I’m not working, if you know what I mean, so that’s something. I’m not working at the Palace, and I’m not using. He gave me money. A lot of money. I don’t know where he got it. I don’t really care. It’s more money than I’ve ever seen in one bundle before in my whole life. It’s in this case, this metal case. He gave it to me, and asked me to look after it for him, and to spend it whenever I need it. It was real spooky, kinda like… I dunno… like his last will and testament, or something.’

I raised one eyebrow unconsciously in a quizzical expression. She caught the look, reflected a moment, and then responded.

‘I trust you, Lin. You’re the only guy in this city I do trust. Funny thing is, Abdullah’s the guy gave me the money and all, and I think I love him, in a kind of insane way, but I don’t trust him. Is that a horrible thing to say about the guy you live with?’

‘No.’

‘Do you trust him?’

‘With my life.’

‘Why?’

I hesitated, and then the words didn’t come. We finished our meal and sat back from the table, looking at the sea.

‘We’ve been through some things,’ I said after a while. ‘But it’s not just that. I trusted him before we did any of that. I don’t know what it is. A man trusts another man when he sees enough of himself in him, I guess. Or maybe when he sees the things he wishes he had in himself.’

We were silent for a time, each of us troubled, and stubbornly tempting fate in our own ways.

‘Are you ready?’ I asked her. She nodded in reply. ‘Let’s go to the movies.’