"They said that Robert Redford is out in Colorado making speeches about Sun Day."
"Good for him. Everything needs a little encouragement once in a while."
"And Paul Newman is practicing to race an automobile in Florida."
"Ummmmmm," said Remo, watching the television pictures of the Nazi house on Greens Farms Road.
"Why are they not here?" Chiun demanded.
"I don't know, Chiun," Remo said.
"Why have I been here for months eating seafood soup that I hate, waiting to see them?" Chiun asked.
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"Don't know," Remo said.
"I have been deceived."
"It's a deceitful world."
"Only this part of it," Chiun said. "Only the white part of it. This would never happen in Sinanju."
"Nothing happens in Sinanju," Remo said.
"If I ever see Newman and Redford, I will peel them like grapes," Chiun said.
"Serve them right."
"Even worse," Chiun said. "I will not let them star in my epic."
"That'll teach them."
"I'll get someone else," Chiun said.
"Good," said Remo.
"I'll get Brando and Pacino," Chiun said.
"Good for you. Don't take this lying down."
"I won't. Oh, the perfidy of it all," Chiun said.
"That's show biz," Remo said.
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CHAPTER THREE
Dr. Rocco Giovanni walked into the attached garage of his small house in Rome and opened the trunk of his Fiat. He noticed the car's dark blue paint starting to purple, and he hoped he could get another year out of it before it turned so bizarre a color he would have to get the auto repainted.
Inside the trunk was a leather doctor's bag. It was old and beaten. The black leather, despite careful and frequent oiling by Dr. Giovanni, had begun to crack and there were thin tan lines on the bag where the leather's innards had begun to show. The bag had been a gift to him when he graduated medical school almost twenty years earlier and he had carried it with pride ever since.
It was the bag he carried on those three days a week when he worked in the clinic for the poor he had built in one of Rome's worst slums. He slammed the trunk lid shut.
Inside the car, he started the motor, listened to it cough hesitantly, then with obvious reluctance come to life.
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He breathed the small sigh of relief he always breathed when the car started.
He pressed the button that activated the garage door and as he put the car in reverse, he glanced up casually at the wall in front of the car. Then he put the gear shift back in neutral.
A red light was blinking on the wall. Doctor Giovanni's first thought, after twenty years, was: So that's what it looks like when it comes on. He had never see it lit before.
He watched. The red light flashed once, long, then two shorter flashes, then three even shorter flashes. There was a pause, then it repeated the one-two-three sequence.
He watched the light for a full minute until he was sure in his own mind that it was flashing in a clear, unmistakable pattern. He realized his hands were clenched tight on the steering wheel and he forced himself to relax his grip.
Finally he sighed and turned off the car's motor.
He removed the key, got out, and put his old leather bag back into the trunk.
Then he walked over to a shiny new Ferrari, which sat in the other half of the garage. From its trunk, he took another doctor's bag, this one rich brown cordovan, highly polished and glistening in the dim overhead light of the garage. It was a bag he replaced every six months, even though in such a brief period of time, it had not even begun to show signs of wear. It was just that his wealthy patients expected that everything about him should be new and rich. Only the
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poor trusted a doctor with holes in the soles of his shoes, and only because they had to.
Dr. Giovanni started the car's engine, which roared powerfully to instant life. He let the car idle as he went back into the house.
His wife, Rosanna, looked up surprised as he came back into the kitchen.
"What'd you forget now, Rocco?" she asked. She smiled at him from the kitchen sink where she was rinsing dishes before putting them in the automatic dishwasher.
"This," he said. He came close behind her and kissed her lightly on the neck. His arms went around her trim body and squeezed her lovingly.
"You already kissed me goodbye," she protested mildly. "You horny thing."
"Do you know how much I love you ?" he asked.
"Sometimes I get the hint," she said. She turned and he took her in his arms and kissed her hard on the mouth.
"I love you forever," he said.
"And I love you, too," she said. "And if your patients weren't waiting, I'd show you how much."