"Destroyer 012 - Slave Safari.pdb" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Remo)

Remo reached out a hand for the manuscript. "Just want to review it myself," he said.

Even under an assumed name, Remo felt embarrassed by the story. Busati, he quickly surmised, was a country. According to what he was supposed to have written, Busati was forging new forms of socialism after throwing off colonialist chains, under the guidance of President General Dada "Big Daddy" Obode. Any report of tribal friction was an invention of the neo-colonialistic fascist imperialistic powers who feared the enlightened progressive leadership of the Saviour of Busati, General Obode, who brought electricity to the villages, ended crime in the capital and had made the first major inroads against poverty in Busati since the white man had first enslaved the little nation. Why this capitalist fear of Obode? Because his brilliance threatened to undermine the substructure of racist oppressive Western government and all Western nations quaked before the glory of his brilliance.

The article was called "An Unbiased View of Busati." Remo returned the manuscript

"You're rather an interesting fellow, Mr. Mueller," the man said. "We looked into your background and, frankly, we found nothing at all. Not a thing. Not even fingerprints. Now a traveler of your stature should have prints in someone's file. Do you mind telling us why not."

"Yes," said Remo. He turned to Chiun. "What's for dinner?"

"I have not decided," said Chiun.

"Of course, your background is your business," said the man with the briefcase. "We just wish to employ you at great profit to yourself. Very great."

"Duck would be good," said Remo, "if you cooked it right."

"We had duck last night," said Chiun.

"I'm here to make you an offer you can't refuse," said the man with the briefcase, smiling a wide row of very even white teeth.

"What?" said Remo.

"An offer you can't refuse."

"I'm refusing it," said Remo.

"Can you refuse $2,000 a week?"

"Sure," said Remo.

"Are you willing to see your stories turned down by every magazine in the country? It would not be hard for you to get a reputation as an unreliable nut, and then who would print your stories?"

'Who cares?" Remo said. He thought of the article he was supposed to have written. If that was sanity, he wondered what magazines thought insanity was.

"Come now, Mr. Mueller. I represent the Lippincott Foundation. Surely you've heard of us. A year's contract with us for one hundred thousand dollars could make an ambitious young man like you. You'd have the Lippincott family behind you forever."

Remo looked at the man and thought deeply for a moment.

"So what's wrong with duck two days hi a row?" he asked Chiun.

"Nothing is wrong with duck two days in a row. There is just nothing very right with it two days in a row," said Chiun.

"Mr. Mueller, I'm talking to you."

"I know," said Remo. "Why don't you stop?"'

"Mr. Mueller, if that's who you are, we have vital interests in Busati. We want only an introduction to the leadership of that country. We cannot use formal diplomatic channels because all whites and Asians have been expelled from the country. Just an introduction, that's all we want from you. It might take you only a day, or just a few hours. For that, you would be a wealthy man. For not doing that, you will be a ruined man. Now what is your answer?"

"Right or wrong, duck," said Remo.