The Jesus Clone by Raymond Leonard

Author:Raymond Leonard [Leonard, Raymond]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Raymond Leonard
Published: 2011-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

On the drive back from the airport, Lynn started to have second thoughts. Maybe Billy had been right, and the two of them should have gone to Ivan Chagall’s apartment. But it was too late to change her plans. Billy was already winging his way back to New York, blind to anything but his personal walkman. Then a more mundane thought struck her – what clothes should she wear tonight? If she was going to meet the Queen of England, she’d wear her Sunday best, but if Ivan Chagall really was Christ’s clone, he was much more important than a mere monarch. And what would she say when she met him – how much did he know of his real past – and was the whole Benson story so much moonshine anyway? But one thing was certain, come what may, that evening she was going to visit number 612 Kulinich Rise.

*****

Lynn left the hotel after dinner and caught the Metro for what turned out to be a distinctly working-class area of Moscow. As she made her way along the dimly lit streets, she complimented herself on her final choice of clothes – warm and functional – exactly in keeping with meeting a people’s poet. Every few minutes, Lynn stopped and thumbed an English guide to Moscow. It would have been simple to have taken a cab to Ivan Chagall’s apartment, but Natasha’s natural caution had somehow penetrated her own thinking. And anyway, she wasn’t willing to chance blowing the story when she was so close to success. Lynn edged her way to where five tower blocks dominated the skyline. She walked to the third tower, double-checked the name on the entrance arch, Kulinich Rise, and entered the building.

The apartments were numbered according to the floor they were on, placing Ivan Chagall firmly on the sixth floor. Lynn found the elevator, but someone had chalked the message ‘Not Working’ across the door. She checked that the sign was correct, took a deep breath, and began her ascent of the stairs. Her foot had barely touched the third step, when a gruff voice shouted, ‘What do you want here?’

A fat, unshaven man in shirt sleeves was peering from the door next to the elevator. From his aggressive face, Lynn realised that he must be the block’s upravdom. The man approved by the party to act as janitor, odd-job man, and informer on the tenants.

He eyed Lynn up and down, ‘Well-what do you want?’ he repeated.

Lynn tried to sound Russian as she answered, ‘Just visiting a friend.’

‘What friend?’

‘Ivan Chagall.’

‘Oh him,’ the man sneered. He made a brief note in a log book and then pointed to the stairs, ‘Floor 6’.

Lynn resumed her upward journey. And on each step she wondered if she was climbing a tower block to interview Christ’s clone, or merely to meet a third rate Russian poet? If the upravdom’s reaction was anything to go by, disciples might be thin on the ground.

When she finally reached the sixth floor, Lynn paused long enough to regain her breath, then made her way around the balcony.

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