Warren Murphy
Warren Murphy lives in New Jersey. He has been a newspaperman, a sequin polisher and a political consultant. His hobbies are mathematics, chess, martial arts, opera, politics, gambling and sloth. Occasionally married, he is the father of four children.
He tells how the Destroyer series got started:
"The first Destroyer was written in my attic in 1963. It finally got published in 1971 and was an overnight success. In those days, Dick Sapir was my co-author and partner. He retired from the Destroyers a couple of years ago and took his name off the books when he decided he didn't want anybody to know he knew me. I helped him make this decision by locking him in my cellar for eight days without water.
"Nevertheless, he still hangs around. Various characters that appear in these pages are Dick's. Occasionally, he writes sections when someone or something annoys him. Anyone who knows him knows that this guarantees a certain frequency of appearance.
"We used to get a lot of letters, and answer them, but then Dick took over answering them and lost all the letters and forgot to pay the rent on our post office box. He said he was sorry.
"In answer to the questions we get asked most: there really is a Sinanju in North Korea, but I wouldn't want to live there. There really isn't a Remo and Chiun, but there ought to be. Loud radios are the most important problem facing America. The Destroyer is soon to be a major motion picture. We will keep writing them forever."
HANDIWORK OF HORROR
Barney moved before Estomago could restrain him. With one leap, he hurled himself toward De Culo and placed an expert kick at his head. But the president ducked in time and took the blow in the meaty part of his back. Still, it staggered him and he reeled crazily into the corner of the room. Barney didn't have another chance. Estomago's magnum was drawn and lodged inside his mouth before he could rise from the spot on the floor where he had fallen.
"Take the American scum away," De Culo said, doubled over from the pain in his back. Estomago yanked Barney to his feet.
"Wait," De Culo shouted as the two men reached the door. "There is one more thing I wish to give our guest. A welcoming gift." His eyes vicious, he stumbled over to the desk and threw open a drawer. "I was saving this for later, but I think that now would be perfectly appropriate."
He reached deep into the drawer and pulled out something soft and ashen. He tossed toward Barney. It hit him on the cheek, feeling like a cold leather bag, then dropped to the floor.
And there, at his feet, rested Denise's severed hand, its thin gold wedding band still encircling the third finger.
"Your wife wouldn't take the ring off," De Culo spat. "So we took it off for her. Get him out of my sight."
Dazed, Barney allowed himself to be dragged out of the room where De Culo's laughter grew louder and louder, where the little hand with its cheap ring lay on the floor.
ATTENTION: SCHOOLS AND CORPORATIONS PINNACLE Books are available at quantity discounts with bulk purchases for educational, business or special promotional use. For further details, please write to: SPECIAL SALES MANAGER, Pinnacle Books, Inc., 1430 Broadway, New York, NY 10018.
WRITE FOR OUR FREE CATALOG If there is a Pinnacle Book you want-and you cannot find it locally-it is available from us simply by sending the title and price plus 750 to cover mailing and handling costs to:
Pinnacle Books, Inc.
Reader Service Department
1430 Broadway
New York, NY 10018 Please allow 6 weeks for delivery.
Check here if you want to receive our catalog
regularly.
PINNACLE BOOKS
NEW YORK
For Molly Cochran
and the House of Sinanju,
P.O. Box 1454, Secaucus, NJ. 07094
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
DESTROYER #44: BALANCE OF POWER
Copyright © 1981 by Richard Sapir 'and Warren Murphy
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof hi any form.
An original Pinnacle Books edition, published for the first time anywhere.
First printing, June 1981
ISBN: 0-523-40718-1
Cover illustration by Hector Garrido
Printed In the United States of America
PINNACLE BOOKS, INC.
New York, New York 10018
FORWARD
Warren Murphy lives in New Jersey. He has been a newspaperman, a sequin polisher and a political consultant. His hobbies are mathematics, chess, martial arts, opera, politics, gambling, and sloth. Occasionally married, he is the father of four children.
"Dick used to write the first half of books and I would write the second half. When he was mad at me, he would just send me 95 pages without a clue on how the book might be resolved. He would never write more than 95 pages. He stopped at the bottom of page 95 no matter what. Once, he stopped in the middle of a hyphenated word.
v
"We used to get a lot of letters and answer them, but then Dick took over answering them and lost all the letters and forgot to pay the rent on our post office box. He said he was sorry.
vi
AFTERWORD
What have they done to Richard Sapir? And why is only Warren Murphy's picture on the cover? These and other vital questions are casting gloom over the tenth anniversary of the Destroyer.
By Richard Sapir
Why am I asking these questions? Because none of you did. For a year now, my byline has failed to appear on Destroyer, on the more than 20 million copies sold. These mind-wrenching questions have crossed exactly one other mind besides mine. And I say to the fine, sweet, noble lady: "Thank you, Mom."
The tragic fact is none of you have missed me. Sales have increased. Readership has jumped. Complimentary letters abound.
Warren Murphy, whose name now appears alone, has not even gotten a phone call in the middle of the night, perhaps saying: "You scum bag. Where's Dick Sapir? You're nothing without him."
Warren claims his phone is as quiet as a midnight kiss over a baby's crib. I know this is not so, but professional ethics forbid me from revealing my source. Just for your information, however, let it be known that he gulped and was stuck for an answer and wanted to know who the caller was.
Well, Warren, I will tell you who it was. It was your conscience.
Enough of that. I am not a bellyacher. But where
vii
were your letters to me? Where was the begging I so richly deserved? Is a simple grovel too much to ask?
Did one of you possibly consider that you had done something wrong? Did you think you were the cause of my leaving?
Where was a simple act of contrition? All I got was a wedding invitation from an old friend now living in Colorado . . . and that was three months late and said nothing about my leaving the series. Just had some printed nonsense about his daughter getting married.
So I am gone.
And you don't care.
Well, I don't care that you don't care. In fact, I never cared that you didn't care. I was just somewhat taken aback by the depths of your not caring, its broad base and cross-community penetration.
But why should I be surprised at this time?
In the ten years that my name appeared on the series, did one of you ever dedicate your lives to me? Where were the hallelujahs? What about a Richard Sapir festival? I would have settled for nude photos and obscene propositions.
But getting back to the so-called joyous tenth anniversary-I am above it all. And I'll tell you something else. I may come back for a book or two with or without your outcry. And I still contribute significantly, and if it weren't for my father's patience, the series never would have been bought, and I buy all the typewriter paper, and Warren's typewriter has a missing key, and he can't quit smoking and I have.
And I know he went out with Geri a few years ago, and I don't believe nothing happened.
-Richard Sapir
For the special anniversary issue which didn't carry his picture or anything nice about him.
viii
PUERTA DEL REY, HISPANIA
(Associated Press International)
A man claiming to be an agent of the United States CIA held an antic press conference here yesterday and said the CIA was working on an overthrow of the Hispanian regime.
The man, who was taken into custody minutes later, was identified by General Robar Estomago, head of the Hispanian National Security Council, as Bernard C. Daniels, an escaped mental patient. He had no ...
widez2