"Dibdin, Michael - Aurelio Zen 02 - Vendetta UC - part 01" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dibdin Michael)

believe that this beach, these rocks, those plashing
wavelets were not part of a natural coastline, but a swim-
ming pool five kilometres inland. As for the members of
the group sitting around the table in the shadow of a huge
green and blue parasol, toying with iced drinks, packs of
cards and magazines full of games and puzzles, they were
fairly typical of anyone who might have been found at the
villa on any given day during July and August that sum-
mer. Besides Oscar and his wife there were only four
guests: Burolo assiduously preserved the mystique of the
villa by restricting the number of visitors, thus increasing
their sense of being privileged intimates. His excuse was
that the household was not able to cope with huge parties.
Despite the tall tales of resident slave communities,
Oscar's staff was in fact limited to an elderly caretaker and
wife, together with a young man who had come with the
lions and also helped to look after the garden. Oscar made
much of being a self-made man with no wish for
ostentatious display. 'I am what I am,' he declared, 'a
simple builder and nothing more.' The truth was that he
had realized that it was easier to dominate and manipulate
small groups than large ones. The video made this very
clear. In every scene, inside or out, it was the host himself
who was invariably the focus of attention. Lounging on his
personalized beach in silver shorts and a clashing pink and
blue silk shirt, his head exaggerated in size as though by a
caricaturist's pen, Oscar looked like the love child of the
Michelin man and an overweight gorilla. One of his
unsuccessful rivals had remarked that anyone who still
doubted the theory of evolution obviously hadn't met
Oscar Burolo. But it was a waste of time trying to be witty
at Oscar's expense. He promptly took up the story, telling
it himself with great relish, and concluding, 'Which is why
I've survived and Roberto's gone to the wall, like the
dinosaur he is!' Oscar the ebullient, the irrepressible Oscar!
Nothing could touch him, or so it seemed.
Such was the spell cast by Burolo that it was only by an
effort of attention that one became aware of the others
present. The slightly saturnine man with thinning grey
hair and a wedge-shaped face sitting to Oscar's left was a
Sicilian architect named Vianello who had collaborated
with Burolo Construction on the plans for a new electricity
generating station at Rieti. Unfortunately their tender
had been rejected on technical grounds -- a previously
unheard-of eventuality -- and the contract had gone to
another firm. Dottor Vianello was wearing an immaculate
pale cream cotton suit and a slightly strained smile, pos-
sibly due to the fact that he was having to listen to Oscar's
wife's account of an abortive shopping trip to Olbia. Rita
Burolo had once been an exceptionally attractive woman,