Pierre took the card –

“We actually prefer this.”

“We like the bounce effect.”

“Ah ha,” the P.M. laughed. “It’s like a big tick.”

There was movement in the house – lights were flicking on.

“It is possible,” Pierre said earnestly.

The P.M. wouldn’t have minded pursuing this a little further –

“Unfortunately my friend, human history would suggest that there is a huge gap between what is remotely possible and what is reasonably probable but… it’s been a long day… let’s not discuss it now Pierre.”

7.4

Midnight at the Harbour Bar was reserved for misfits. Respectable people, and certainly most Indians, were well asleep by then. Only the seedy, the disturbed and the insomniac prowled the Taj at this time of night.

Julia was determined to mask her annoyance –

“I feel way out of the loop here,” she admitted.

“You are,” Buck laughed.

She didn’t want to appear testy but she was genuinely annoyed by the urgency of it all – even this meeting. As far as she knew, Max was only due to arrive in India that evening. He was hardly likely to immediately renounce the world! In fact, from what Julia had read about him it was highly unlikely that he’d ever do it! To think otherwise was completely unrealistic! Anybody who’d read about sadhus knew that an overwhelming change like that couldn’t just happen overnight.

“You still haven’t read the brief have you?”