Golden Buddha Quotes
"It was a sea of order and substance centered in a country in chaos."
"Raising from his knees, the Dalai Lama walked over to a table and rang a bell."
"I learned as a general that you have to know how to pick your fights."
"Let them look all they wanted--most of the defenses were deserted."
"Doing good for profit," Cabrillo said with a wide grin. "That's our motto."
"It allows our corporation to pick its fights and to fund our charity projects."
"My country never forgets," he said, "and someday we will bring you back home."
"Their only link was the truck driver, but he could not provide any information to the Cuban security forces, even if he was captured and tortured."
"No sense in alerting any observers on the shore to a sudden departure."
"The ship's computer system read every inch of the channel and the buoy markers on the way in. Our escape course is plotted and programmed into the automatic pilot."
"If any of them Cuban missile launchers so much as hiccups, we'll take them out."
"Speed was the Oregon's crowning achievement, the thoroughbred heart of the vessel."
"Their officers could not believe that such a large ship was moving at such an incredible rate of speed."
"The Golden Buddha was not some canvas, dabbed with paint--it was the embodiment of reverence, crafted with love and respect."
"Money and gold can make men do strange things."
"Put him through," the billionaire said, smiling, "at once."
"Do you have someone who can date gold?" Spenser asked.
"If you try and screw me--I can be real unpleasant."
"The Oregon delivering fireworks," Hanley said quietly. "It seems so fitting."
"The true secret of the Golden Buddha is inside... a secret the Chinese would pay dearly for."
"For anticapitalists, they build a nice bank," Meadows said quietly.
"How come we never steal things that are hidden in the middle of nowhere?"
"Like your father, you are a fine man, Lang-ston, but in this case your information is faulty."
"The CIA would like to buy you dinner tonight," he said, smiling.
"So just remember, if you try and screw me--I can be real unpleasant."
"You bring the money," Spenser said, "and you get the Buddha."
"The north holds the key," the oracle said loudly. "We give the aggressors the land that once held Mongols, then they will go."
"Money's not a problem, old friend; this is coming from the top," Overholt said.
"That's why we get the big money," Cabrillo said.
"I remember you being kind of turned on," Ross said.
"These are not the goblets I ordered," she said as a worker carried a case into the tent and began to unpack them. "I ordered the ones with the gold lip--take these back."
"I'll call you when it's done," Cabrillo said.
"If I didn't need the money," the brunette said, "I'd make this trip one-way."
"Everything still looks good," Overholt said. "How is your crew coming?"
"We won't win any Grammys," Cabrillo said when the lights went dark, "but it should get us past any casual scrutiny."
"I've forgotten more about the rock lifestyle than most of you ever knew."
"Tax-free income enough so I can retire?" "Everyone's dream," the blond-haired man admitted.
"I have to go kill the pilot," the blond-haired man said lightly. "Just kidding," he said. "I have to pee."
"Oh, yes, sir," the Bhutanese owner said easily. "She has a strong heart."
"After this is over," Gannon said, "I want you to forget we ever met."
"That always puts a pall over the proceedings," Murphy said, laughing. "We're not going in to disable a nuclear warhead. We're just stealing some gold."
"Be careful with this, Mike," Murphy told him, "the blade has been dipped in a paralytic poison. If things turn to shit, you just have to nick someone and they'll go down."
"Don't worry, buddy, I'm going to be right next to you. If trouble breaks out, they have to get through me first."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Cabrillo said.
"I'll get you next time" to the attendant and slammed the door.
"Out of my way," she said as she swept past and headed for the kitchen.
"You look particularly lovely today, Miss Iselda," he said. "Flattery will get you zilch," Ross said.
"Hell of a deal," the second man said quietly, "hell of a deal."
"For a chef," he said quietly, "you make a hell of a spy."
"More than any one thing, the key to a successful robbery is stealth."
"By first light, he'd be on his way away from here, then he'd take a break from all the drinking."
"To peace and prosperity on this holy day. Let us all remember the sacrifices the few have made so that the many may find peace."
"Sometimes, if you know where to look, a person can realize that life is a well-orchestrated ballet."
"I always get Monet and Manet confused. But then, art is not my strong suit."
"Do you want me to take them back to the truck?"
"The dinner will be served now, and in a second the band will begin again."
"Damn, I figured we'd at least be out of the parking lot before someone caught on."
"The policeman is leaning against the front of his car, waiting for help."
"Whoever's stealing Buddhas tonight, they're well trained and well funded."
"Rhee's mind was back to normal. And he was as mad as a Dobei man."
"Whatever happens, they still have to spirit the icons out of the country."
"These guys are professionals. They won't hang around."
"The fire reached part of one of the buildings, but the fire department has got that under control."
"We're going to get some flack over this--I think it's best if I go to headquarters and coordinate efforts there."
"The actual Golden Buddha is currently in an underground storm sewer."
"We exist to make right from wrong. But along the way, we've learned how to make that a very lucrative enterprise."
"The water out the stern was not churning, as with most ships; instead, it seemed to be forming into concentric whirlpools that flattened the sea to the rear, as if a large container of glycerin had been poured overboard."
"Where did that come from?" Ching asked his electronics officer.
"It didn't show up on the sensors," the officer said. "Are you sure you saw it through the fog?"
"Sir," he said finally, "I'm not sure. What you see has been happening intermittently since we began the chase."
"So this system can make them appear or disappear as they decide?" Ching said incredulously.
"Chinese missiles used to sink Chinese ships?"
"The entire thrust of this operation was the retrieval of the Golden Buddha."
"I hate to say it, Juan," Hanley said, "but I wish the weather wasn't clearing."
"We don't know what the navy is sending," Hanley noted, "but we can safely assume there won't be surface ships involved."
"They launched cruise missiles from the Persian Gulf into downtown Baghdad," Cabrillo said, "so we can assume either missile or aircraft support."
"Not as accurate as ours," Hanley admitted, "but they can sink a ship."
"Too bad we can't ask for a time out," Huxley said, "so I can clean the water intake."
"We're going to do a fast turn and bunch up the three ships chasing us," Cabrillo said over a scrambled radio link.
"Do your best to hit them in the sterns," Cabrillo said. "If possible, we want to keep casualties to a minimum."
"A helicopter just attacked," the captain of the rapidly sinking harbor police boat shouted into a portable radio. "Our boat is sinking."
"We had to sink the vessel closest to us," he said. "But there's a corvette and a frigate still to contend with."
"We can retrieve our men and the object we came for and be back at full steam in five to ten minutes," he said.
"The ship was far from that," the admiral said loudly. "She shot the side out from under the hydrofoil as if it was a routine exercise."
"Life is a circle," the Dalai Lama said, "and someday you will see that."
"Now," he said kindly, "let my people feed you. You must be hungry from your long journey."
"Sometimes it all comes down to a few. A few minutes, a few strokes of luck, a few people."
"Back when I was with the KGB, I had quite a file on you."
"It doesn't take a team of psychologists to know you'll say yes."
"About half of the reserves in Kuwait, or around five percent of the world's known reserves."
"Even if it takes a river of grease, by Monday vote time they will be ours."
"The preliminary estimates place the reserves in the neighborhood of fifty billion barrels."
"Proceed as planned, and link me up with Seng."
"The weather was due to change to snow sometime in the next few hours. Other than that, all was the same."
"The fact is, a man who commits a crime is never free--even if it seems he pulled it off."
"The abiding knowledge of his infraction is never far from his mind and it weighs on his psyche, and holding it inside only makes it worse."
"Only the sociopath feels no remorse--the events happened to another, if they ever happened at all."
"Opposition against tyranny and oppression is an Andorran legacy."