The Cloud Maker

Jack’s hand reached out, hovering just above it.

‘Is that what I think it is?’

‘The Kalak Tantra,’ Luca said, watching the expression on Jack’s face change.

‘So Sally was wrong. It does exist,’ he murmured. Jack looked up into Luca’s eyes. Aside from everything else, the book corroborated so much of what his nephew had said.

‘Shara obviously trusts you,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘It was a big risk to give a foreigner this book.’

Luca nodded. Then, shutting the book, he got up from his chair and returned the Kalak Tantra to his satchel. He then picked up the other book. It was much smaller: a slim, leather-bound journal, laced together with twine.

‘I need you to do something for me, Jack,’ he said, handing it over to him. ‘Give this to my father. It’s my diary and a complete account of what happened. Maybe then he’ll understand.’

Jack tried to push it away. ‘You give it to him yourself,’ he said, a frown appearing on his forehead. ‘I know what your father is like, but it would be so much better coming from you.’

Luca shook his head, swinging the satchel over his shoulder.

‘I can’t. I’ve got to go and see someone first.’

As he tried to leave, Jack grabbed hold of his arm.

‘You will be all right, won’t you, Luca?’

For the first time in their whole meeting, a smile crept across Luca’s face. He gently pulled his uncle’s hand from his arm.

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I think I will. You take care of yourself, Jack.’

With that, he walked out of the dusty study, leaving his uncle staring at the book in his hands.

For a while after that, Jack jumped whenever the phone rang, but it was never Luca. Against his better instincts, he left a few messages on Luca’s phone but never received any response. It struck him that, as ever, Luca would let him know when he needed him, but as the weeks passed with still no word, he decided that he should try and track him down.

He discovered that soon after leaving his uncle, Luca had sold his flat, drawing the entire sum of money in a cashier’s cheque. He had then gone to Bill’s house, spending several hours with Cathy and the kids, before handing over the cheque and leaving once again.

After that, he seemed to vanish.

Some days, Jack sits in his study looking at a satellite map of the Himalayas and thinks he knows where his nephew is. On others, he’s not so sure.

But then again, it was always like that with Luca.

Author’s Note

The real eleventh Panchen Lama

After the death of the tenth Panchen Lama in 1989, the search for his reincarnation soon became mired in political controversy.

Despite the current Dalai Lama recognising a small boy of only six years old called Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the rightful successor in 1995, the Chinese authorities immediately arrested the head of the search committee under charges of treason and had the boy and his family removed from Tibet.

A new search committee was then promptly installed who ‘chose’ Gyancain Norbu as the next Panchen Lama. He still holds this position to this day.

No one has seen or knows the whereabouts of the six-year-old boy, while the Chinese authorities claim to have taken him for ‘reasons of his own security’. Even now, in 2009, no humanitarian groups have been allowed to verify whether he is alive or not.

The Author

Patrick Woodhead has been professionally exploring for the last eight years. He has scaled unclimbed mountains in Kyrgyzstan, Tibet and Antarctica, kayaked through the unchartered tributaries in the Amazon and skied over 4,000 km across Antarctica. He is also the founder of White Desert (www.whitedesert.com), the first luxury safari company in Antarctica and divides his time between London and South Africa.