Meantime, far more important issues had been in play. It hadn’t been all about me and what I wanted. When I thought I’d been making a bid for self-sufficiency, I had only drawn attention to myself. And by extension to him—and to the statue. For the first time I began to feel implicated.

‘Where do we go from here?’ I wanted to get this conversation back on track.

‘Wait for the Sangye Menla Buddha to turn up,’ Dalberg returned evenly. ‘A few days, if it comes by road. If the end buyer is in a hurry, the statue probably arrived on the same plane as you. I’ve already been in touch with a few people at the airport. They’re monitoring things closely.

So much for the obsolete network.

‘Can we somehow get it stopped before it goes anywhere else?’

‘Only if the Government of Bhutan requested. And they’re hardly going to take action based on a tip-off from me.’ His expression was pointed. ‘But I can arrange to have it tracked.’

‘Can we be sure the statue won’t be sent somewhere instead of Kathmandu—like Delhi?’

‘Unlikely,’ he shrugged. ‘Apart from anything else, the Khampas will probably want to top up their commission.’

From the way he said it, I realized he was being ironic.

‘Help themselves – ’ he responded to my perplexed expression, ‘ – to whatever might be inside it. The older the statue, the more likely they’ll strike lucky.’

My heart began pounding. In the distant past, rare jewels and gold were placed inside statues as part of the consecration ceremony. If the Sangye Menla statue was asset stripped, what would become of the terma?

‘They’ll get a local craftsman to open it?’

‘That’s the standard procedure.’ The scrutiny in those dark, brooding eyes had intensified. It seemed as though he was testing me in some way.

‘Where would that happen?’

‘An airport warehouse. There’s about a dozen artisans from Patan who could work on a statue of this distinction without leaving behind any trace.’

Did this mean I was going to have to chase after not one object but two? Alarmed as I was by what he’d said, I had no intention of telling him about the terma. His knowing manner disturbed me.

‘Somebody in Patan must know?’ I said.

‘Undoubtedly,’ he nodded once. ‘But no one could admit to such vandalism without ruining their reputation. Besides, trying to track down that kind of information in a place like Patan—’ he flicked his fingertips outwards in a scattering gesture. ‘It would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.’

Chapter Four

Kathmandu

As soon as I got to my hotel in nearby Thamel a short while later, I sat on my bed, sending a message to Geshe-la. I updated him on what Dalberg had told me, explaining how it was more than likely the precious terma had been removed from the statue. Who could tell what would become of it?