"And Yee pointed beyond him into the night sky.
" 'That,' she said.
" 'The moon? No one can give you the moon. It is impossible. You are trying to trick me.'
" 'I will settle for a piece of the moon. A piece no bigger than my fist. Is this so much to ask?'
"Shang was beside himself for days. He did not sleep, he did not eat, for he was in love and at length he decided that if he wished to keep Yee as his wife, he must try.
"What a dork," Remo said.
"Silence," Chiun commanded. "So one clear night with a walking stick and a pack on his pack, Master Shang set out to walk to the moon. He walked north, beyond Korea, beyond the colder lands above Korea, always keeping the moon before him. He reasoned that where the moon set would be his goal. For wherever the moon went by day, he would find it.
"Master Shang walked and walked until he ran out of land on which to walk, and so he made for himself a boat and betook himself north in that boat. He ran out of food, he ran out of water to drink. There were strange animals in the water and bears who swam and were the color of snow.
"Finally, Master Shang, sick with hunger, sailed into a cold sea where the sun never set. He thought himself dead and doomed to sail the Void through eternity. Until his boat reached a strange land.
"Now this land was white, with mountains of snow. Everywhere there was snow and under it rock. The days passed and still the sun did not set but only hung low in the tired sky. There was no moon in the sky. Shang waited for days but it did not appear. And it was then that the Master of Sinanju knew that he had reached his goal."
Chiun lowered his voice to a respectful hush. "And so the legend tells us, he had walked to the moon.
"Master Shang ate the meat of the white swimming bear and broke off a rock the size of Yee's fist from a mountain of the moon. And with extra meat in his ration pouch, he sailed back from the land of the moon.
"When, months later, he returned to the village of Sinanju, he told Yee, 'I have brought you a rock of the moon. I have kept my promise.'
"And Yee accepted the rock and his story, although she cried because she knew she would never see her homeland again. Her days were not long after this and in the end, Master Shang was stricken by grief and he too died. But not in shame, for he had done a wondrous thing. And to remind future Masters of the lesson of Shang, the rock you hold in your hands, Remo, has been passed from generation to generation."
Chiun smiled benignly.
"Do you understand, Remo?"
"Chiun, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but Shang didn't walk to the moon."
Chiun looked at Remo with an unhappy glare. "You do not understand," he said sadly.
"He walked to the North Pole," Remo said. "The white swimming bears were polar bears. And at the North Pole, the sun doesn't set for six months every year. That's why it never got dark," Remo said.
"You disappoint me, Remo," said Chiun, taking away the rock of Master Shang. "I will have to keep this until you have learned the lesson of Shang. It is sad."
"All right. Time out," Remo said. "Answer me this. If Shang did walk to the moon, why isn't he considered a great Master? Answer me that. After all, it's not everybody who can walk to the moon."
"Shang is not greatly honored for a simple reason," said Chiun evenly. "He married a Chinese and this is just not done. Had he not partly atoned by walking to the moon, he would have been totally stricken from the records of Sinanju."
The telephone rang and Chiun said, "It is Emperor Smith."
"How do you know?"
"It is simple. I am here. You are here. Smith is not here. Therefore, it is Smith."
"Very good," Remo said. "What else can you foresee?" Chiun put his fingers to his temples and closed his eyes as if peering into the future.
"I can see who will answer the phone," he said.
"Yeah? Who?"
"You, Remo."
"How do you know that?"
"It is simple," said Chiun, opening his eyes. "Because I am not going to. Heh, heh. Because I am not going to."
"Very funny," said Remo and walked across the room to answer the telephone.
"All right, Smitty. It's your dime," he said pleasantly.
"Remo?" Smith's voice was sharp. "I was calling Chiun."
"So you got me. Don't sound so disappointed. Chiun's not answering phones at the moment."
"What are you doing in Detroit? Where were you at two o'clock this afternoon?"
"With Chiun, at some car exhibition. Smitty, did you know there's a guy running around calling himself by my name?"
"Let me speak with Chiun, Remo," Smith said.
Remo tossed the phone to Chiun, who snatched it from the air and announced, "Hail, Emperor Smith. Your fears are groundless for Remo is with me and all is well."
Remo listened to Chiun's side of the conversation patiently. Normally, even from across a room, he could hear both sides of a phone call, but Chiun had the earpiece so tightly pressed against his head that Remo could not hear anything but the old man's voice.
"I cannot explain," Chiun said. "Not now. Rest assured, all will be rectified in time. Yes. No more carriagemakers will die. You have the word of the Master of Sinanju and you need no other assurances," Chiun said curtly, then hung up.
"What was that all about?" Remo asked.
"Emperor's business," Chiun said.
"Are we back to that again? Come on, Chiun. Tell me what's going on."
Chiun waved for Remo to sit and Remo lowered himself reluctantly to the floor.
"My son, you trust the Master who made you whole, do you not?"
"You know I do," Remo said.
"Then I call upon you to listen to that trust. Emperor Smith wants you to return to Folcroft. Do this. I will join you in a day. Two at most. Trust me, Remo. There are some things you should not yet know. This is one of them."
Remo sighed. "I will do as you say."
"Good," said Chiun. "Now go. I have much to do."
"I hope Smith thanked you for saving those two guys' lives today when that gunman opened fire," Remo said.
"Thanks are not necessary. It is part of my mission."
"And what's the other part?"
Chiun silently rose and placed the moon rock back into one of his steamer trunks.
He would not answer, Remo knew, so he walked to the door, but in the doorway, paused.
"Chiun. That guy with my name? Is he the reason you and Smith are so upset?"
"No," said Chiun, although it hurt him to lie to his pupil. But it was as he said. There were some things that Remo was better off not knowing.
Chapter 12
The President was disturbed; Smith could tell by his language.
"What the heck is going on, Smith? You assured me that Drake Mangan would be protected and he's dead. Now somebody tries to kill Revell and Millis too."
"We had protection there," said Smith. "Something's just gone wrong."
"Gone wrong? You're not supposed to have anything go wrong. How is that possible?"
"I'm not sure," Smith said.
The President's voice was cracking. "Not sure? Are you telling me that you can't control your people? I hope you're not telling me that because I'm tempted to give you a certain order. You know the one I mean."
"That is your decision, sir," said Smith, "but I think it would be a mistake at this time. And I've been assured that no more Detroit executives will be lost."
"They don't grow on trees," said the President. "We've lost Mangan and I don't want to lose any more."
"If you have no specific orders for me, Mr. President, I must return to monitoring the situation."
There was a heavy silence over the safe line to Washington and for a long moment, Smith thought that the order to disband was coming. Instead, the President said, "Well, okay, Smith. Do your best. What the heck. Nobody got killed today so I guess that's something and who knows, tomorrow might be better. It usually is."