"Destroyer - 025 - Sweet Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Murphy Warren)

"I deny us this," Remo said.

"I will never forget this, Remo. First you lie to me about electricity and then you will not let me have a house which is little enough to ask, considering all I have done for you," Chiun said.

"Why that house, Chiun?" asked Remo who felt himself sinking into an endless pit of explanation and counter-explanation. "Why is that house so important to you?"

"I don't care about the house," Chiun said. "It is what one can do there. I have seen this maker of automobilesЕ"

"Ah, geez, Chiun."

"You go back on that explanation, too?"

Remo remained silent.

"I have seen this automobile maker beckon merely and I have seen Barbra Streisand come to this big ugly white house in electrical Washington. This I have seen. And I, I could stand in the glorious palaces of noble Sinanju and beckon until my fingers turn to dust and Barbra Streisand would not come."

"So, we're back to Barbra Streisand."

"Yes," said Chiun.

"Well, let's forget Barbra Streisand and let's forget the White House. I just want a plain house. To live in."

"It must be a perfect house," Chiun said. "To match you. Would a beauty wrap herself in rags?"

"All right. Enough," Remo said. "I've been graumed all day and now I've figured out what it is. I want to be like other people."

Chiun shook his head in sad bewilderment. "I have heard of the cat who would be king. But I never heard of a king who would be a cat. I have given you Sinanju, and now you want to be like other people? Like you were? Eating meat, sleeping the day away, groveling and miserable? This is what you want?"

"No, Chiun. I just want a house. Like yours in Sinanju," Remo lied, because he regarded Chiun's home in Sinanju as the ugliest thing ever built in the world.

"I understand," Chiun said. "It is good to have a beautiful house."

Remo nodded. He felt warmed and comforted by Chiun's understanding of his feelings.

"And someday we can invite Barbra Streisand to visit," Chiun said brightly.

"Right, right, right, right, right," said Remo in exasperation.

"Don't forget it," Chiun said. "Five rights do not allow a wrong. Heh, heh, heh."

The telephone rang an hour later, after Remo and Chiun had dined on rice and fish and Chiun had "done the dishes" by sailing the plates out the open window into the Boston night, where they produced seventeen unconfirmed U.F.O. sightings, and the formation of a new committee, the Boston League for Astronomical Truth whose first act was to print stationery so they could mail a fund-raising letter.

The caller was Smith.

"Hello, Doctor Smith," Remo said politely. "I'm so glad you called."

"Remo," Smith began, then checked himself. "Wait'a minute," he said. " 'Doctor Smith?' "

"That's right. The good, wise Doctor Smith," Remo said.