"It is?" Bruno asked, dumbfounded.
"This is designed for a seventy-eight-rpm computer. You have the thirty-three-and-one-third kind."
Chiun held the shiny black hard disk up to the light triumphantly.
"Do they work that way?" asked Bruno doubtfully.
"It is a professional secret," said Chiun conspiratorially. " I am only revealing this to you because you have been abused by Remo the Terrible."
"What do we do?" asked Bruno, straightening up.
"I must secure the proper record."
"You don't have one with you?"
"Alas, no. I was misinformed by my employer as to the true nature of the problem. I must return to Idiocy right away. "
"You mean IDC."
"I mean what I mean. For I am Chiun, world's greatest repairer of computers such as this."
"I'd better check with the boss."
The Master of Sinanju nodded. "I must treat with your master. So this is good."
Bruno went to a door and knocked once.
"What?" a raspy voice growled.
"The Jap figured out what's wrong with the box."
"Is it fuggin' fixed?"
"No. He's gotta take a part back. Says we got a seventy-eight when we shoulda had a thirty-three and a third. Like on a record player." "That don't mean nothin' to me.'
"It's like records. You know."
The door opened.
"Is that right?" asked Carmine Imbruglia, for the first time hearing something about computers that made sense.
"You the Jap?" he demanded, staring at the Master of Sinanju.
"I am Chiun," said Chiun frostily. He raised the hard discus. "And this is the source of all your vexing problems." Chiun looked more closely at the one known as the boss. "You are a moneylender?" he asked.
"What's it to you?"
"You remind me of a moneylender. Such as lived in Roman days. "
"You need a loan? I can front you a few bucks. Six for five. "
"No, I need only a conveyance from whence I came."
"What's that in American?" asked Carmine suspiciously.
"I must return to my employer, who will replace this faulty record."
"That ain't the hard disk, is it?"
"No. "
"That's good, because I ain't lettin' the hard disk outta my sight," said Carmine firmly. "I told them that before. It stays here. "
"You are very wise," said Chiun blandly.
"Just to be safe, I want you to show me the hard disk, okay?"
"Why?"
"I'm from Brookyn, right? I don't know nothing from computers. You show me and I'll let you go get the right record."
"Very well," said the Master of Sinanju. He peered into the open aperture, saying, "It is that silver object there."
Don Carmine Imbruglia blinked into the aperture like a gorilla into a hole in a tree.
"That little silver dingus?" he asked, surprise in his raspy voice.
"The very same."
Don Carmine squinted his piggish eyes. His brutish face scrunched up like a fist.
"So that's what it looks like. All this trouble over that little thing. It looks like a little washer. Who knew?"
"It is the way with these machines," said Chiun firmly.
Carmine straightened.
"Okay, you done good. About time, too. Bruno, you take this little Jap genius back to the airport. Give him anything he wants. Then you stay there until he gets back. You understand?"
"Got it, boss."
"When this is over," said Don Carmine to the Master of Sinanju, " I wanna talk to you about maybe doin' a little work for me on the side. Savvy?"
"On what side?" asked Chiun curiously.
"On my side."