Kathmandu

by Luke Richardson

  Chapter 89

  Tired tourists pulled themselves through the door advertised by the bare bulb as the night wore on. The journey was hard, but to someone travelling the world, the harder it is to find something, the better it is when you do.

  Regaining consciousness on the floor of the kitchen, the smaller of the two brothers rubbed his neck where the dish had connected, stood on shaky legs, and made his way towards the restaurant where a commotion of voices boomed.

  “We’ve been robbed,” he said, looking around to see his brother lying on the floor. He was just about conscious, although dazed and confused.

  “We will contact the police tomorrow, do not worry,” he said, urging anxious diners back to their seats. Service needed to continue, they couldn’t have this sort of attention.

  Helping his brother to his feet, they swayed together into the kitchen.

  The customers would forget. Those that didn’t would put it down to one of those great travelling stories. The brothers would ask around for the man tomorrow. They knew people in the city. They would find him and deal with him.

  The larger of the two rubbed the swelling red mark on the back of his head. It was lucky that whoever hit him didn’t get the angle right.

  Chapter 90

  Faith and Zain sat on the platform of Paddington Station. Zain was tired, it had been a busy day. They’d caught the train from their home in Basingstoke this morning for an appointment at the passport office. Zain was five, and Faith, his mother, wanted a passport for the country she had lived in for nearly fifteen years. It was an expensive process and had taken her years of saving to accrue the necessary money to even complete the application. She’d even had to take the day off work, which cost her a much-needed day’s salary. It would be worth it though, when Zain was settled in the place he knew as home.

  As the train slid into the platform, a handful of people tumbled out. It was quiet coming into London, but Faith knew it would be busy going the other way. People waited, most reading on their phones, some looking into nothing, all ignoring each other. Seeing the train stop, they surged forward. Faith couldn’t keep up as Zain held her hand tightly. They watched the crowd pass. They would wait, there would be enough space for all of them.

  Walking to the far end of the platform where it seemed less busy, Faith lifted Zain up the step and across the gap. It was quiet here and they both found seats. Zain closed his eyes on the manic city. It had been his first time in London. Faith wished she could have made it special, taken him to the places they only knew from pictures. She had not been to the capital for at least ten years, rarely escaping the cycle of work and family commitments.

  The carriage was almost empty. Only one other traveller, a large man, sat at the other end of the car.

  Stockwell settled into first class for the train journey home. It had been a frustrating day in the House of Lords. Although he was mostly retired from parliamentary life, he still went in when the socialists were trying to sneak something through. Today had been one such occasion. They were voting on a bill to give disabled people the money they needed to make their lives as comfortable as possible. It was a preposterous idea. How much was that likely to cost? Settling into the seat he stewed over it angrily.

  Why are people in this government hell bent on bankrupting the country?

  The doors hissed closed and the train started to glide from the platform. It rocked across the sixteen lines leading out of the station and settled into the tracks towards Reading, where Stockwell had parked the Bentley.

  At the other end of the carriage, a lady stared at London streaming past beyond the window. She was pretty, Stockwell thought, her smile at the passing city contrasting her dark skin. A small boy slept against her arm.

  Stockwell thought of Allissa’s mother and felt an anger build up inside him. The fact that this was still haunting him after all these years frustrated him incredibly. She was the one who had made these issues, she’d chosen her path. The world wouldn’t see it that way, though. That’s why he’d had things silenced.

  The woman at the end of the train was attractive, there was no dispute about that. Stockwell leaned back into the seat and knitted his fingers together on his lap. The way the light patterned across her face, her quick eyes taking in the outside world, her baggy jumper hugging tightly across her chest. At this last observation he crossed his legs.

  This was an opportunity. He was not the sort of man to let a beautiful woman go unnoticed. Standing up, he patted down his suit and straightened his tie. He would use the excuse that he was simply passing on the way to the toilet.

  “Afternoon, I’ve just been down for parliamentary business today,” he boomed, nodding in courtesy.

  Her reply was sharp and accented, which Stockwell liked incredibly.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said in an artificial whisper. “My son is asleep and I don’t want to wake him.”

  Stockwell reddened, as much in embarrassment as anger.

  Faith returned to looking out of the window. London was a funny-looking city, with many random buildings, as though dropped without plan or logic. She looked now into the back of a row of houses, people’s lives on display.

  Ten minutes later, a lady wearing the uniform of the train company passed through the carriage. She was not checking tickets, perhaps assuming they’d been checked at the station gates. As she passed, Stockwell caught her eye.

  “I don’t think that lady has a ticket to be in first class,” he said when she was close enough to hear. She considered him for a moment.

  “She’s not doing anyone any harm. It’s really busy back there and her son’s asleep.”

  “Listen, I am a member of parliament and I want you to check that lady’s ticket.”

  “Excuse me, sir,” she replied. This was getting better. “You might be the prince of Timbuktu, but you’re on my train and that lady there’s wee boy is asleep. I’m not moving them.”

  For the second time Stockwell reddened, this time through anger. The world was changing, and he didn’t like it.

  Chapter 91

  Outside the Teku Guesthouse, Leo and Tau sat in the taxi waiting for Allissa to pack some belongings. Each hoped that after the call they’d made Stockwell’s man would be on the way to the restaurant. Even so, the pair felt the need to be vigilant, watching every parked and passing car closely for signs of an observer.

  A car crawled past, its bright lights filling the road and the square towards the guesthouse before disappearing again. Leo and Tau watched it suspiciously. As the light faded back to the lurid orange of the city, Tau continued to explain to the taxi driver what they wanted to do. They would employ him for the next two days. That’s how long it would take to get where they were going and for him to drive back. But everything would need to be top secret. He couldn’t tell anyone, before or after.

  Leo, looking out at the road, scrutinising every passing pedestrian and vehicle, thought he should feel some kind of shock after the events of the day. He’d never seen that sort of violence, he’d never even thought of it, but tonight he’d been the one holding the dish and bringing it down across the back of the waiter’s head. He re-ran the moment through his mind. The feeling of the cold metal in his sweating palm. The pressure as he let it fall through the air. The watching diners’ silent intake of breath. The waiter crumbling and folding to the floor.

  Allissa reappeared, walking across the square with a small backpack. Leo watched as she walked away from the guesthouse, her home, with nothing more than a look of nonchalance. It was, Leo thought, as though this were just another journey, just another day where she had to drop everything and leave at a moment’s notice. He couldn’t help but admire her confidence.

  The taxi driver got out of the car and helped Allissa slot her bag into the tiny space behind the rear seats. They still had to get Tau and Leo’s bags to fit – it was going to be a squeeze.

  Back at the hotel, Leo packed quickly. The same hands which had held the dis
h, which had felt the sickening vibration as it connected with the skull of the waiter, folded and packed the few items he’d used since they’d been there.

  “You did the right thing,” Allissa said, as if sensing his feeling. “I knew you would, I’d have done the same.”

  “I can’t stop thinking about it,” Leo replied. “Feeling the jolt. I know it was the right thing to do and I know he killed people, but I don’t want him to be dead.”

  “He won’t be, I’m sure,” Allissa said, turning from the window through which the city glowed orange. In silhouette, Allissa’s expression was neither a smile nor a frown. Leo felt an honesty between them as their eyes connected. He broke away and looked down at his hands, his left holding the wrist of his right.

  “I think my father underestimated you,” Allissa said, reaching over and taking his hand.

  It was the first time Leo had felt the warm touch of another person’s hand in a long time. It fitted naturally in his. He looked up again at Allissa, neither saying anything.

  Footsteps echoed from somewhere in the hotel. One voice called and another answered. Time was moving on, they really should be going, but for the briefest of moments, Leo felt a completion he’d not for a long while.

  “We’ve got to go,” Tau said, stepping into the room without knocking. “You got everything?”

  Leo stuttered.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” Allissa said, passing Leo and following Tau out of the room. At the door she turned to look back at him. She smiled, he was sure of it. Or maybe it was just the night.

  Leo stuffed the backpack with the final t-shirt and an unused hoodie before pulling it closed and lifting it onto his back. As the bag brushed across the hairs on the back of his neck, he felt them tingle with excitement.

  Stopping at the door, he looked around the room. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror by the door he thought he looked different, the long, shaggy hair now blending into the baggy t-shirt above skin which had started to bronze. He looked like any one of the travellers who pulsed through the city.

  Switching off the light, he made for the stairs.

  Out in the street, the taxi driver loaded their bags into the boot of the tiny car. It must have been thirty years old and with each bag the suspension sagged further. Leo wondered whether it would make the journey.

  Tau got in the front. He wanted to make sure the driver took them where they needed to go. He’d already loaded the navigation into his phone and plugged it into the charging block the driver had taped against the radio. The journey to Pokhara was two hundred kilometres and would take them many hours.

  Allissa got in the back, followed by Leo. Finally, getting the boot to catch, the driver got in, the suspension reducing by another inch.

  Tau said something in Nepalese as the driver turned the ignition and the car sputtered to life. The driver replied and touched the head of a small elephant icon on the dashboard, around which two garlands of brightly coloured flowers hung.

  Pulling out onto the empty road, Leo looked at Allissa who watched the guesthouse fade into the darkness. He knew it had been her home for a time, but now, again, she was being forced to move on.

  All were too absorbed in leaving the city to notice another car, fifty yards behind, light up and edge behind them on the empty road as the taxi pulled away.

  Chapter 92

  Green had always used local help as often as possible. When trying to find people, knowledge of a city was crucial. Although cities were laid out around solid objects like buildings, streets, bridges, rivers and mountains, people flowed through them in organic and unpredictable ways. To an outsider, why someone would travel halfway across the city, down the tiny alleyway he was now being led, to have a meal in a particular restaurant was beyond him. They’d passed numerous restaurants already, each offering similar food for travellers. Why did they have to go here?

  “Down there,” said his guide, a short Nepalese man whose quick steps Green felt like he’d been following for a month.

  “Where?” Green said, stopping and squinting into the darkness. “I don’t see…”

  “Look close,” the guide replied. “You see the light? Hangs above the door.”

  “That’s the restaurant?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well come on then, let’s go and see if they’re there,” Green said, indicating forward with his right arm.

  “No, I am not going in there,” the small man said, his white teeth gleaming in the darkness. “That is no good restaurant.”

  “We’re only going to look, we ate an hour ago.”

  “No,” the guide asserted. “Not good restaurant. You go.”

  Green, in a huff of frustration, glared at the small man who shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He didn’t have time for this.

  Striding out down the darkened alley towards the restaurant, towering buildings reducing the sky to a dirty strip of orange, Green pushed the small man’s comments from his mind.

  Not good restaurant.

  It was just a restaurant, a restaurant like any other. Green had come all this way, so if the answer lay behind that door, he was going to go and find it.

  Pausing at the door, Green looked up at the bulb. It rocked imperceptibly on its wire, like tendons beneath skin.

  There is something creepy about this place, he thought before shaking his head, telling himself to get a grip, and pushing open the door.

  The first thing Green noticed as the door swung open was the noise. Two dozen people ate, drank and talked loudly. The next was the wet heat of the cooking, which tumbled out into the night, and then the smell of rich spices, onions, garlic. Standing at the door, Green breathed in the smell as he scanned the restaurant. Carefully looking at each person in turn, he ran them through his description of Allissa. No one stood out to him. Moving further into the restaurant to get a better view, he continued to search. The call had said this is where she would be, but he couldn’t see her anywhere.

  A waiter dressed in black emerged from a door at the back of the room. He carried two large sizzling dishes to the table in the far corner. As the waiter turned, Green caught his eye – he would ask if he had seen Allissa.

  Green pulled out his phone, unlocked it and scrolled for Allissa’s picture ready to show the waiter. As Green selected the picture, one he had found of Allissa walking in the British countryside, the phone rang. An unrecognised Nepali number scrolled across the screen. Green answered and held the phone to his ear. There was a voice, but it was distant. The noise in the restaurant was too loud to hear clearly.

  “Hold on,” he said, “I’ll go outside.”

  As the door closed behind him the air was again cool and quiet. Somewhere up the lane his guide waited in the shadows.

  “I’ve seen them, they’re just leaving,” said a heavily-accented voice, crackling down the line. “They got into taxi with bags, looks like they’re leaving town.”

  “Okay, follow them,” Green said, thinking quickly. “Do not lose them. I’ll get in a taxi and catch up with you.”

  Green turned his back on the restaurant and moved as quickly as the thin, debris-strewn alleyway would allow. The waiter might have information, but a hot lead took priority. He could come back if needed.

  “Taxi. Quick as possible!” Green shouted ahead to the guide, who didn’t hide his relief that they were leaving.

  As the pair hurried off towards the main road, they passed a group of men coming the other way. Green paid them no attention, their number deceived by the darkness.

  The group didn’t pause as they reached the crossroads, the leaders heading straight for the hanging bulb illuminating the dark door.

  “Police! Don’t move!” the leader shouted as he pushed into the restaurant, his colleagues entering behind him and fanning out to block any exit.

  It would take the police a while to understand what was really going on in the restaurant. They’d soon find the bag that Tau had dropped next to the wardrobe in the
kitchen, but first their attention would be drawn to the waiters, bloody and bruised – and on the floor of the kitchen, a human arm.

  Chapter 93

  The road from Kathmandu to Pokhara, despite being well travelled, is a treacherous one. The dusty surface snakes across mountains, down valleys, and through forests. Many times it clings precariously to the side of cliffs with nothing to break the fall.

  Fortunately for Allissa, Tau and Leo, the road at night was quiet. Bloated trucks lay dormant in any available space, their windscreens covered to give the sleeping drivers some privacy. They would start their plodding journey again at first light.

  It’s unusual to make the journey at night. It’s dangerous enough in the day with the unpredictable road and perilous drops, but for Allissa, Tau and Leo, it was essential.

  For the first half an hour the city rolled past silently. Dark windows were closed to the outside world as the hardworking residents got a few hour’s rest. Eventually, the buildings and the lights started to fade as the areas of darkness between them grew. Soon, the dim yellow headlights of the taxi were the only things they could see.

  The driver dropped down a gear to accelerate towards a hill, his driving style still that of the now-invisible swarm of daytime Kathmandu. Tau reassured him that they didn’t need to rush. At first, he didn’t seem to understand, then he laid off the pressure, sat back slightly in his chair and took a more sedentary pace. The engine even calmed from its usual scream of protest to a compliant, productive hum.

  In the back, Leo and Allissa dozed. The lights of the city which had drawn their attention had been replaced by the absolute darkness through which the taxi wallowed. Only the occasional lights of other cars pricked their eyes as they passed, inches from their own.

  After an hour, the driver slowed as they pulled through a collection of houses that bathed the road in orange. Tau, who himself was losing focus, the exhaustion of the day catching up on him, looked at the driver.