"Destroyer 036 - Power Play.pdb" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Remo)

"He had time to go to his victim and remove the knife. All he had to do was to twist it and his victim would be dead and his mission accomplished. But he did not do that. He just removed the knife and fled. Why?"
Remo shrugged.
"Really, Remo. Sometimes you are very dense."
"I'm glad now it's only sometimes. Usually you tell me I'm always very dense."
"Have it your own way," Chiun said. "Remo, you are always very dense and never more so than now."
"All right. You tell me."
"Yes," said Chiun. "I do not think he meant to kill Wesley Pruiss, because otherwise he would have. And I think he had a reason for taking his knife."
"Not to leave fingerprints behind," Remo said.
"He could have just wiped the handle," said Chiun. "He took the knife so we would not see it. Why?"
"Who cares?"
"You should. He took it because it probably identifies him."
"Probably had one of those little tags printed on the handle: 'If found, drop in nearest mailbox. Norman Knifethrower will guarantee postage.'"
Chiun ignored him. He stood up straight and took a pose, left foot in front of his right, almost as if he were fencing an imaginary opponent. He rocked back and forth, transferring his weight from foot to foot. There was only silence in the flat as Remo watched.
"Remo," Chiun said. "Stand here."
He stepped aside as Remo walked over and stood.
"Now, rock from side to side."
Remo did as ordered. The floorboards squeaked beneath his feet.
Chiun sighed. "I have seen enough," he said. "It is time for us to leave."
"So who killed cock robin?" Remo asked.
"I will explain it all to you when you are capable of absorbing what I tell you. But let me warn you. We are facing a very dangerous man, very formidable. His skill is not greatly different from ours."
"You can tell all that by listening to the floor boards not squeak?"
"Everything hands over its secrets to one who demands them," Chiun said. "I can tell you something more too," he added as he started for the kitchen door. Remo blew out the kerosene lamp and followed him.
"Yeah? What's that?" Remo asked.
"The assassin will wear a thick black leather belt. The back of the belt will be filled with knives, knives with red leather handles. And near the bloodguard of each knife will be imprinted the outline of a rearing stallion."
And then he was walking down the stairs, shaking his head slowly from side to side. But when Remo caught up to him, Chiun would say no more. He said he wished to think.


There were two calls at the motel that night for Remo.
The first was Smith, who was dismayed when Remo told him that Wesley Pruiss was talking about dropping the solar energy project.
"We can't let that happen," Smith said dourly.
"It won't," Remo said. "Ruby back yet?"
"Not for another week."
"Tell her I got a new job for her if she wants it," Remo said.
"What is that?" Smith asked suspiciously.
"I know a guy. I can get her in as a Grossie Girl."
The second telephone call came from Theodosia.
"You know," she told Remo, "you're not as dumb as you look."
"I know," said Remo. "It's one of my crosses in life, people thinking I'm just another pretty- face."
"Anyway, I'm working on Wesley. I'll get him to change his mind on the solar power."
"I know you will," Remo said. "When?"
"Can you start in the morning?" she asked.
"Be there," Remo promised.


The early morning sun turned Furlong County into a picture postcard. It shone gold off the roofs of the small, neat buildings and almost whitened the fields of early wheat. The small fishing lakes glinted metallically, looking like pits of piled up diamonds. As the sun came over the trees, it sparkled off the dew the night had deposited on the practice putting green in front of the Furlong Country Club.
Pruiss was in the middle of the green, lying in a hospital bed. The imprints of its wheels had pressed deep into the tightly packed grass of the green.
The three bodyguards stood at three different points around the green, facing away from Pruiss. The mercenary colonel and small arms expert were carrying their favorite weapons. The karate man was carrying sirakens, the pointed silver throwing stars, and prowled nervously back and forth over about three feet of the green's perimeter.
Theodosia stood alongside Pruiss's bed, next to a dark-skinned man wearing a jeweled Nehru jacket and a turban with a red stone in the front of it.
As Remo and Chiun approached, the man grabbed the bottom of Pruiss's bed and rolled it around so that the rapidly-rising sun shone directly in Pruiss's eyes.
The mercenary colonel did not notice Remo and Chiun until they were standing next to him. His hand moved to the trigger guard on his gun.