"That's right," shouted Hank Bindle. "We know a winner when somebody reads it to us."
"I'll give you six hundred thousand and twenty-two points," Smith said.
Before Schweid could answer, Marmelstein yelled, "Chickenfeed. We'll top it. You're not going to screw our friend Barry with these pittances of offers."
"That's right," said Hank Bindle. "No pitnesses of offers."
Smith said, "Barry, listen to me and think for a moment. Six hundred thousand dollars. And twenty-two points of the gross. And I'll have the six hundred thousand dollars in your hands in
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forty-eight hours. In a certified check. All yours. That's cash. Not a promise. You want to turn that down?"
Marmelstein shouted, "Are you inferring that our word is no good? That our credit's bad?"
"Yeah. Don't you ever infer that," warned Bindle.
"Well," said Barry Schweid. His voice was hesitant.
"You're not conning him like that, Smith," said Marmelstein. "You think you're talking to some greenhorn? Barry Schweid is one of the most brilliant writers in Hollywood. What he did for us on Teeth and On Silver Lake was absolute genius. What's six hundred thousand dollars to him?"
"Wait a minute," Barry told Marmelstein. "Six hundred thousand is a lot of money."
"A pitness," Bindle said.
"We'll top it," Marmelstein said. "Goodbye, Smith. We've got nothing more to talk about. You've insulted Barry so much he can never work with you."
Smith heard the phone click off in his ear. So that was that. He thought the whole thing had been a simple mistake and he would be able to buy CURE's records back from Barry Schweid. But now, with these other two in it, things had changed. Schweid was no longer just an annoyance, he was a menace. The three of them had become Remo Williams' next assignment.
Remo.
Where was Remo?
Why hadn't he called?
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The telephone rang again and Smith answered.
"Smith, this is Bruce Marmelstein."
"I thought we were done talking," Smith said.
"No, that was just for Schweid's benefit. He's a schmuck. You really want this movie?"
"Yes."
"Six hundred thousand dollars worth?" asked Marmelstein.
"Yes, I'll pay that."
"We'll save you a hundred thou. You've got a deal at 500,000 dollars. But it goes to us. That's Universal Bindle Marmelstein Mammoth Global Magnificent Productions."
"You don't own it. It's Schweid's property," Smith said.
"That doesn't matter. Tonight we'll tell him our deal fell through. We lost our backers. We'll get him to sell it to us cheap and tomorrow we'll give it to you."
"That's wonderful," Smith said.
"Good," said Marmelstein. "We're going to do the best Hammer let you ever saw."
"Hamlet?" asked Smith.
"Right. The immortal Barf of Afton. Hammerkt. Am I saying it right?"
"You're saying it fine," Smith said.
"Who needs Schweid to write Hammerkt? Everybody can write Hammerkt" said Marmelstein. "You'll have a movie to be proud of. 'Mr. Smith presents Hammerlock, a Universal Bindle Marmelstein Mammoth Global Magnificent Production.' You'll love it."
"I can't wait," Smith said.
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"You'll hear from us," Bruce Marmelstein said. "And you'll hear from me," Smith said as he replaced the phone in the darkened office.
"It happened just a few years ago," Chiun said. "About the time that Columbus was stumbling all over your country."
"Chiun, that was 500 years ago."
"Yes. So it was not long ago and there was a master then and his name was Puk. You may not believe this, Remo, but sometimes the Masters of Sinanju have not been nice. And sometimes they have not been flawless. Some have not been perfect human beings, even though you find that hard to believe."
"I'm absolutely devastated by the news," Remo said.
"As well you might be, it being so alien to your experience," Chiun said. "At any rate, this master, whose name was Puk, left the village of Sinanju one day without explanation. He told none of the villagers where he was going and none could guess.
"He was gone three years. Three years without report and without sustenance to the village and many babies were sent home to the sea then. In the old days, Remo, when we could not feed our babies, we "
"I know, Chiun," said Remo. "You drowned them and called it sending them home to the sea. I've heard it hundreds of times."
"Please don't interrupt," Chiun said. "Then one day, Puk returned to our village. He was filled with wondrous tales of the faraway land he had
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visited. It was in a place no one had ever heard of, in what you now call South America, and he told of the wonderful battles he had fought and how he had brought honor to Sinanju. And most of all, he told of how the country he had visited had a mountain of gold.
" 'So where is this bounty?' the villagers cried, and Puk said 'It is coming.' But it did not come and Puk found himself an outcast in his village with none believing him."