"Charlie Chan - 7405 - The Temple Of The Golden Horde" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chan Charlie)

"She came to us very sick, and we have helped her along the path of recovery," the tiny Princess said, "but she has far to travel, is still confused, and must not be disturbed."
Carleton Sedgwick said, "She has hallucinations, Inspector; sees visions that scare the hell out of her. That's what happened tonight. She had a spell, escaped from the sanctuary house, and I was chasing her when she attacked you."
"Now she must rest," Madame Li said, "return to the peace of the sanctuary. Come, child."
The woman bent to raise the kneeling girl. For an instant, Angela seemed to resist, her eyes fixed only on the Khan. She trembled, shrank away, and her high voice was shaking:
"The... demons... I saw the... demons..."
The Khan nodded, smiled gently, "But they are gone, the demons. You are safe, you are one with The Golden Horde. You must return to the oneness of our love. Go now, my child."
"One," she said. "Yes. Peace."
She stood, smiling now, and seemed to walk in a trance, inside a glass bubble, toward the Temple portal. Madame Li was beside her, and Sedgwick just behind her. The Khan and Chan came last. They all walked across the dark, misty grounds to the largest of the two ordinary buildings. It was a square building of yellow stucco, two-stories high, with all its windows barred. There was light on the first floor.
Inside, the lobby looked like a hospital or rest home lobby. Madame Li turned the tall girl over to a burly man and a big, heavy woman, both wearing kimonos decorated with some of the same magical symbols from the Temple. They escorted the girl away down a corridor behind a locked, barred gate.
"We will go to my office, Inspector Chan," The Khan said.
They went out and crossed under the dark trees to the third building. Smaller, it was also yellow stucco, two stories high, but without the bars on the windows. The Khan's office was more like a small chapel, lit by flickering candles and full of the smell of some clean, forest-like incense. There were no chairs or couches, nothing but thick rugs and cushions on the floor, and a low Japanese-style desk a few inches high. The Khan sat cross-legged behind his desk, and waved Chan to sit facing him on a cushion in the same Oriental manner. Madame Li and Sedgwick reclined on cushions across the dim room. Sedgwick did not seem comfortable, his long legs unaccustomed to sitting Oriental fashion.
"So," the Khan said, smiled sadly, "you have come, of course, to speak of Benny, of his accident. It weighs on us all, a thing difficult to understand. I have communed with the spirits, but as yet they have given no answer."
"You do not think it was an accident?" Chan said quickly.
"In Western eyes, perhaps it was what you call an accident. But to us, Inspector, there are no accidents. All is in the realm of the spirits, all is the will of some spirit. It is for us to try to understand the will of the spirits, accept the event."
"The girl, Angela Smith, spoke of demons pursuing one who had violated the sacred scroll carried by Benny Chan. Perhaps she has seen something? Saw Benny Chan do something?"
Madame Li snapped, "Angela is lost in visions out of time!"
"Hallucinations, Mr. Chan," Carleton Sedgwick said. "Maybe Benny's accident set her off, scared her, gave her nightmares."
"A deluded girl frightened by the accident?" Chan said.
"That's it," Sedgwick agreed.
"No!" the Khan said suddenly. They all looked at the thin shaman. His eyes burned. "The demons are real, Inspector. The demon spirits of evil! Angela saw real demons!"
The Khan's eyes seemed to glow in the flickering candlelight of the exotic room heavy with incense.
"There are no accidents, and Angela saw demons. I know that; it is my calling to know," the thin, intense man said. "She has been granted a vision of the demons who caused Benny to die."
"A vision?" Chan said, frowned at the Khan. "I am confused, Mr. Li. Did Angela Smith see demons pursue Benny Chan, or did she only have a vision of seeing demons?"
"There is no difference," the Khan said. "Demons do not live as we, do not have time and space as we. To see demons in a vision of sleep is the same as seeing demons awake in the night."
"Was she there when Benny fell into the sea?"
"She was there, and she was in her room. If she saw the demons she was there no matter where she had been in flesh."
Madame Li said, "He does not understand our faith, great Khan. For him Angela saw or dreamed." She looked at Chan. "For the Khan, Mr. Chan, flesh and spirit are one. A vision, a dream, a hallucination are all as real as touch. But in your terms, no. Angela was not there, and there are no demons."
"There are demons," the Khan said, "and they pursued poor Benny. How else would a man who feared water drown? It was known that Benny would not go near water, only a demon could have made him go where he could drown. That is truth!"
Carleton Sedgwick laughed; "It's not a truth an American cop is going to believe. They don't arrest visions. Not that I ever heard."
"Yet it is the truth," the Khan said quietly. His deep eyes looked now at Chan. "Around all things of this world are the spirits of good and evil. Around great things are very strong spirits. Benny Chan carried from Honolulu the sacred scroll of Batu Khan, and its spirits and demons came with it. You know of the sacred scrolls of The Golden Horde, Inspector Chan?"
"Some knowledge," Chan said.
The thin, intense man seemed lost in a trance in the dim, incensed room. "The scrolls are sacred to us; we have lived by their words of contemplation and love, the words of soldiers who had come through the fires of violence to peace. But we have had only copies. A scholar in Hawaii, a benefactor, agreed to lend us the originals. Four came to us, carried by Benny Chan. The fifth was on its way when Benny disappeared."
The Khan shook his head sadly. "They are powerful things, the scrolls, with powerful spirits - and powerful demons. The demons wish to keep the scrolls from our Temple, so destroyed Benny Chan. But he was true to his trust, and the scroll was not destroyed. Soon, we will have it."
The Khan finished and fell silent. No one spoke.
"They are valuable, the scrolls?" Chan said at last.
But the Khan didn't answer. He sat on his cushion behind the low desk and slowly began to rock back and forth, his mouth open and chanting some slow song in Mongol words. Madame Li spoke from the corner.
"He cannot hear you now, Inspector. He is in his trance, at his devotions. But I will answer. The value of the scrolls is beyond price and it is also nothing at all. No one could sell the scrolls because none would buy them. Each scroll is unique, known to every scholar of Russian or Chinese history."
"There are those who steal for other rewards than money," Chan said. "Simply to own what is unique."
"But no one tried to steal the scroll," Carleton Sedgwick said. "The police have it, found it where poor Benny dropped it. If someone wanted to steal the scroll, they wouldn't have left it on the beach."
"It would not seem so," Chan agreed, watched Madame Li and Sedgwick. "Death of Benny Chan appear not caused by valuable scroll. Yet I have observed a sudden interest in Benny's sister and in myself after contact by his sister."
"Interest, Mr. Chan?" Madame Li said. "What interest do you mean?"
"Unknown men follow both Benny's sister and myself in San Francisco. Unknown men who tried very hard to remain unknown and unseen."
Chan spoke casually, but his hooded eyes had been watching Madame Li and Sedgwick the whole time. For a split second, the lawyer seemed startled. A flash of reaction, no more, and gone just as quickly. Madame Li sat impassive.
"You have no knowledge of who these men could be?" the tiny Snow Princess said.
"Not at the moment," Chan admitted. "Is it possible that you would know some explanation?"
"No, Inspector, we do not," Madame Li said.
"Unless they're some more of Li Po's demons," Sedgwick said.
Chan smiled. "Ah, perhaps so. Perhaps the same imaginary demons seen by Angela Smith, and the same demons that forced a man afraid of water to drown."
"There are forces and shadows on this earth we mortals do not know, Mr. Chan," Madame Li said.
"But also forces and shadows known only too well - forces of fear and greed," Chan said quietly. He bowed briefly. "I'll not disturb you further tonight."