label. It said "Free Sample" on the front just under the yellow oval that
seemed to frame a snaggle-toothed mouth.
"I thought this was aspirin," Remo said, puzzled.
"It is," Smith said, taking the bottle. He popped two pills down dry. He
started coughing and Remo went to the water dispenser and came back with a
paper cup of spring water.
Page 19
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Here," he said. He noticed the same openmouthed symbol on the cup. "What is
this thing?" Remo asked, holding up the cup. "The Folcroft crest?"
Chiun craned his neck to see.
"It is a bat," he said. "Anyone can see that."
"I don't," Remo said. "Does this look like a bat to you, Smith?"
"No," Smith said, his cough subsiding.
"Anyone can see that it is a bat," Chiun said peevishly. "A bat inside a
yellow circle."
Remo looked again. "Oh, yeah. I see it now. It's kinda like an optical
illusion. I see it as a yellow oval with a black mouth in the middle."
"And I see it as a bat within a golden circle," said Chiun.
"I see a black blob in a yellow disk," Smith said, lemon voiced. "Now, may I
have my water? I assume it is for me."
"You know, Smith," Remo remarked, handing over the cup at last, "you have the
imagination of a snail."
"Thank you," said Harold W. Smith, who had been picked to head CURE for
precisely that reason-among others. He drained the cup and lifted bleary gray
eyes. His face was pale, with an undertinge of grayishness. He looked as
healthy as a beached flounder.
"Are you certain you intend to leave?" Smith asked gravely.
"My mind is made up. Chiun's too."
"Remo speaks for both of us," Chiun said firmly.
"I cannot stop you. Especially in my present state. But perhaps I can stop
these people from ruining our economy without you."
Remo frowned skeptically. "You? How?"
"When you were interrupting me, I was running a CURE offshoot, a shell
corporation called Nostrum, Incorporated. It was something I created after the
so-called Wall Street meltdown of 1987. You see, I suspected that that crash
was engineered, but I could not prove it. So I created Nostrum. It was
designed to shore up the market by buying key bluechip stocks during a future
panic-such as today's. I am pleased to say that it worked. Nostrum employees,
of course, have no idea they work for CURE."
"I know exactly how they feel," Remo snapped.
Smith cleared his throat. "Today's panic seems to have some of the same
earmarks of having been engineered," he went on. "I mention the confusion over
who started the initial sell-off-Tokyo or Hong Kong. They happened almost
simultaneously, but my analysis is that Hong Kong started it, and Tokyo
followed the trend. The difference is less than fifteen minutes, but is there.
Hong Kong claims that they received a Reuters report of the Tokyo sell-off
fifteen minutes before it actually began."
"I don't follow," Remo said vaguely. "High finance isn't my strong suit."
"The Reuters report was false," Smith said firmly. "Possibly even fabricated.
My task-the task I was about to give you-is to follow up on that. Find out how
Reuters could have reported an event that did not begin until fifteen minutes
after it transpired."
"I get it now," Remo said suddenly.
"You do?" Smith asked in surprise.
"Sure. It's from that dippy movie. Batman."
"What is?"
"The cup. The aspirin. They're Batman merchandise. Like the T-shirts and caps
I see everyone wearing these days. I hear they've made a couple of billion in
merchandising bucks on this little design alone."
"They did?" Chiun asked, suddenly interested.
"Sure. They slap this thing on everything from baseball caps to soft-drink
cups and they get a royalty each time. A nickel here, a dime there, but it
adds up."
"Billions?" Chiun's voice was awestruck.
"Yeah. Now that we're unemployed, maybe you can figure out a way to
merchandise Sinanju the same way. We'll never have to work again."
"Billions!" Chiun said feverishly. "Think of it, Remo. The symbol of the House
Page 20
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
of Sinanju on every coin in the world. We will be billionaires."
"Forget it, Little Father. The sign of Sinanju is a trapezoid bisected by a
slash. It just doesn't cut it."
"And this does!" Chiun shrilled. "A mere bat, which, if you look at it wrong,
looks like a broken-toothed mouth?"
"It's not the bat that people are buying, it is what it symbolizes. Batman.
He's a guy who goes around-"
"Yes, yes. I have seen that insipid TV show."
"The TV show is history. This is the new Batman. He kicks ass. Kids love
him."
"How anyone could love a man who dresses like a winged rodent is beyond me,"
Chiun said dismissively.
"Trust me. Or better yet, rent the video. But enough of all this. Smitty, this
is it. I'd say it's been fun, but that was before you booby-trapped my
house."
"I do not share Remo's bitterness," Chiun said loftily. "I forgive you for
such minor transgressions. It is your failure to bequeath me Cheeta Ching that
I find unconscionable. But this sad ending to our association lies on your
head. Had you fulfilled the terms of our last contract, I would be bound to
service."
"I understand," Smith said, spinning his wheelchair toward a green file
cabinet. He pulled a folder from a lower drawer. "Before you go," he added, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]