"Leo Frankowski - Copernicks Rebellion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Frankowski Leo)

him when he was your age. Come over to the house sometime and I'll
show you pictures of the two of us when we were in college."
"I'd like that, sir."
"Why, you even smoke Pall Malls and drink Jim Beam like he does.
Now tell me, isn't that part of it a little bit of an act? You just figure that
if he was the best lobbyist in Washington, everything he did must have
been right, huh?"
Von Bork just smiled. "Well, I'll allow that nothing succeeds like
success. Just don't go laying it on too thick, and you'll come along just
fine."
"I'll try to, sir. It's an odd business."
"Well, you hear a lot of grumbling about paid lobbyists, but I think
that they do a lot of good around here."
"Indeed, sir?"
"Yes indeed. You see, son, my colleagues and I have to know what
folks are thinking. We need information channels from all sorts of
people, and your gang provides us with a lot of those."
"Even if they're biased?"
 "Son, every channel is biased. Everybody has an ax to grind. At least
with a lobbyist, you know what he's pulling for, and you can make
allowances."
"I'll bear that in mind, sir."
"Will you quit 'sirring' me? My friends call me Moe."
"Thanks, Moe."
"You're welcome, Lou. Now, what are you doing with your
granddad's company?"
"Mostly trying to pick up the pieces. Trying to get to know the
people and so on."
"It was kind of sudden, the way he just up and quit. The way he
explained it to me, just before he left, was that retiring was like quitting
smoking. You got to go cold turkey. Still, he should have at least
introduced you around."
"Well, maybe. Or maybe the best way to learn how to swim is just to
jump in."
"Well, son, I think that I might be able to give you a swimming lesson
or two. You come over to Daisey's party tomorrow, and I'll introduce
you around."
"I'd really appreciate that, Moe."
"No trouble at all. I owed old Lou a few favors, and I might as well
pay them back to you. Now how about the other half of the business?
Were you able to keep many of his old clients?"
"About half of them. I've got Markoff Industries, the Michigan Milk
Producers, and Copernicus, Inc."
"Well, that's a fine start for a young man in your business. Go soft on
Copernicus, though. Heiny Copernick didn't make any friends with that
stink he raised about his rejuvenation research program."
"He was funding it with his own money, wasn't he? Why shut him
down?"
 "Whoa, now! Nobody said that he had to stop his research. Just like
nobody said that the government had to keep on buying equipment from