The Leopard Read Online Free PDF Page A

Aren’t some of them in … er, Luzon?’
    ‘Not bad. There are eighteen volcanoes in all, and three of them are in Luzon. I wanted to go up Mount Mayon. Two and a half thousand metres. A stratovolcano.’
    ‘Volcano with steep sides formed by layer upon layer of lava after an eruption.’
    Harry stopped chewing and looked at her. ‘Any eruptions in modern times?’
    ‘Loads. Thirty?’
    ‘Records say forty-seven since 1616. Last one in 2002. Can be held to account for at least three thousand murders.’
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘The pressure built up.’
    ‘I mean to you.’
    ‘I’m talking about me.’ She fancied she saw a hint of a smile. ‘I exploded and started drinking on the plane. I was ordered off in Hong Kong.’
    ‘There are several flights to Manila.’
    ‘I realised that apart from volcanoes Manila has nothing that Hong Kong doesn’t have.’
    ‘Such as?’
    ‘Such as distance from Norway.’
    Kaja nodded. She had read the reports on the Snowman case.
    ‘And most importantly,’ he said, pointing with a chopstick, ‘Hong Kong’s got Li Yuan’s glass noodles. Try them. That’s reason enough to apply for citizenship.’
    ‘That and opium?’
    It was not her style to be so direct, but she knew she would have to swallow her natural shyness. This was her one shot at achieving what she had come to do.
    He shrugged and concentrated on the noodles.
    ‘Do you smoke opium regularly?’
    ‘Irregularly.’
    ‘And why do you do that?’
    He answered with food in his mouth. ‘So that I don’t drink. I’m an alkie. There, for example, is another advantage of Hong Kong compared with Manila. Lower sentences for dope. And cleaner prisons.’
    ‘I knew about your alcoholism, but are you a drug addict?’
    ‘Define drug addict.’
    ‘Do you have to take drugs?’
    ‘No, but I want to.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘To numb the senses. This sounds like a job interview for a job I don’t want, Solness. Have you ever smoked opium?’
    Kaja shook her head. She had tried marijuana a few times backpacking around South America but had not been particularly fond of it.
    ‘But the Chinese have. Two hundred years ago the British imported opium from India to improve the trade balance. They turned half of China into junkies just like that.’ He flicked the fingers of his free hand. ‘And when, sensibly enough, the Chinese authorities banned opium, the British went to war for their right to drug China into submission. Imagine Colombia bombing New York because the Americans confiscated a bit of cocaine on the border.’
    ‘What’s your point?’
    ‘I see it as my duty, as a European, to smoke some of the shit we have imported into this country.’
    Kaja could hear herself laughing. She really needed to get some sleep.
    ‘I was tailing you when you did the deal,’ she said. ‘I saw how you do it. There was money in the bottle when you put it down. And opium afterwards. Isn’t that right?’
    ‘Mm,’ Harry said with a mouth full of noodles. ‘Have you worked at the Narc Unit?’
    She shook her head. ‘Why the baby’s bottle?’
    Harry stretched his arms above his head. The soup bowl in front of him was empty. ‘Opium stinks something awful. If you’ve got a ball of it in your pocket or in foil, the narco dogs can sniff you out even in a huge crowd. There is no money back on baby’s bottles, so no chance of some kid or some drunk nicking it during a handover. That has happened.’
    Kaja nodded slowly. He had started to relax, it was just a question of persisting. Anyone who hasn’t spoken their mother tongue for a while gets chatty when they meet a compatriot. It’s natural. Keep going.
    ‘You like horses?’
    He was chewing on a toothpick. ‘Not really. They’re so bloody moody.’
    ‘But you like betting on them?’
    ‘I like it, but compulsive gambling is not one of my vices.’
    He smiled, and again it struck her how his smile transformed him, made him human, accessible, boyish. And she was reminded