"I'm innocent," Swindell said hastily.
"Are you sure?" Remo asked.
"Swear to God I am."
Connors Swindell sat up. He grinned the grin that had moved a million units during the last two decades. It always made people feel good.
And while his accusers were basking in his feel-good smile, Connors Swindell slipped his sopping handkerchief to his mouth and nose and went for his Waterman.
He got it out lickety-split. Thumbing the cap off, he pointed it at the skinny guy and the old Oriental. He pressed the ink trigger.
Nothing happened.
"Where's the gas?" he asked, dumbfounded.
"Coming out you at both ends," Remo Williams said, snatching up the pen. He showed the yellow fluid in the ink reservoir to Chiun. "What do you think, Chiun?"
The Master of Sinanju looked from the Waterman to Swindell's profusely sweating face. "I think my judgment is vindicated. I knew he was an impostor from the first. Let this be a lesson to you, Remo."
"I don't get it," Swindell muttered thickly.
Remo showed him the hollow end of the pen. Swindell tried to draw back, but Remo took him by the hair and put his nose to the pen tip.
"It was simple," he said. "You uncapped the pen. Then you pressed the trigger."
"I know that. I was there."
"In between, I squeezed the needle flat. No bad stuff can come out now."
"That's flat impossible!" Swindell complained. "No one's that quick."
"Sue me," Remo said, shoving him flat on his back.
The Master of Sinanju interrupted. "Should we not dispose of this neutral device before we attend to these criminals?" he asked Remo.
"What's the rush?" Remo said. "We have five days before it goes off."
Sky Bluel jumped. "Five days?"
"Yeah, it's set for five days," Remo said. "Right, Kranish?"
Looking hollow-eyed, Barry Kranish spoke for the first time. "I have nothing to say until someone reads me my rights," he said thickly.
"Five days," Sky Bluel repeated. "The timer doesn't have a five-day setting." "What?" Kranish said. "I pressed five."
"How long ago?" Sky Bluel asked, her voice climbing in horror.
"I don't know. Hours ago." Kranish's voice was distracted.
"Let me see," Sky said, rushing to the device. She had to examine it only a second or two.
"Evacuate!" she shrieked. "We have to evacuate! It's going off in twenty minutes!"
"What!" Kranish said. He rushed for the door. Remo tripped him, holding him down on the rug with a foot to the back of the lawyer's neck. Kranish struggled like a pinned scorpion.
"Can you disarm it?" Remo asked Sky Bluel.
"Not the mechanism," Sky said in a miserable voice. "The only chance is to remove the plastique charges. "
"Is there enough time?"
"There is if I had the key," Sky moaned. "Which I don't."
"Why the hell not?" Remo shouted.
"Yeah, why the hell not?" Kranish echoed. Remo shut him up with a sudden pressure to his spinal column.
"I think it got lost when the other guy tried to kidnap me."
"Any other way of disarming it?"
"I could try, but there may not be enough time. And if it goes off, everybody for miles around will be killed."
Remo and Chiun exchanged glances. Remo's was anxious. The Master of Sinanju's face registered a cold acceptance of fate.
"What if we drive it out into the desert?" Remo asked Sky.
"That might save the town, but not us."
"I vote we leave it and head for the hills," Swindell piped up. Chiun silenced him with a smack from the flat of his hand.
Remo turned to Sky. "Are you game to defuse it with me?"
Sky Bluel swallowed. "It's my responsibility," she said simply.
"Chiun. We don't need you on this one."
Chiun lifted his bearded chin stubbornly. "I am coming."
"Look, I've got no time to argue with you," Remo said tensely. "We're going back out there. You stay with Swindell."
"Good idea," Connors Swindell said with relief.
Chiun reached out and lifted Connors Swindell off the bed. "No," he intoned. "Those who made this mess must be prepared to clean it up or suffer the consequences."
"All right, let's go," Remo said savagely. "There isn't time to argue." He gathered up the bomb, carrying it down in the elevator and to the waiting car.
Remo drove.
"Is there any other road into the desert that doesn't take us by the Condome?" Remo asked Swindell.
"No, that's the only one. You can drop me off if you want."
"No chance," Remo growled, flooring the gas.
He put Palm Springs behind him. In the back seat, Sky Bluel, Barry Kranish, and Connors Swindell sat, the neutron bomb distributed among their laps. Remo thought that would give them extra motivation.
"Maybe if I unscrew the electronics," Sky was saying. "Anyone have a screwdriver?"
No one did. "How about a dime?" Swindell asked, plumbing his pockets for change.
Sky used the dime. She got one screw loose. "That's one." She did not sound encouraged.
"What's the timer say?" Remo asked.
"It says sixteen minutes and three seconds," Sky said. "I'm not sure I'm going to get this done in time. "
"Let's all bail out here," Swindell suggested. "Dump the thing in the sand and skedaddle back to town. What say?"
"Can we make it?" Remo asked Sky.
"We might, but Palm Springs is still in the kill zone. Oh, why did I build this thing?"
"Because you're stupid," Remo said, pushing the gas pedal into the floorboards.
"Remo," Chiun said solemnly.
"What?"
"I see only one chance for any of us."
"I'm listening."
"One of us must carry the device into the desert, alone. While the other drives in the opposite direction to safety."
"Ridiculous," Sky snapped. "You'd have to run faster than a car to do that!"
"I'll do it," Remo offered.
"No," Chiun said in a resigned tone. "You are the future of Sinanju, Remo. I am only its past. The line must continue. So I must do this."
Remo braked. "Cut the martyr act, Chiun. It's old. You're good, sure, but you're not as fast as me. I'm younger, stronger, and I can get further faster. So stuff your silly Korean pride and face reality. I'm the only one for this job, and we both know it."
Stung, the Master of Sinanju said nothing for several long moments.
"So, that is how you feel about me," he said softly.
"Facts are facts," Remo said impatiently, jumping from the car. Opening the passenger door, he reached in for the neutron device.
He wasn't caught entirely unawares. Remo did sense the minuscule pressure of Chiun's hand pushing air ahead of it as it struck the base of his skull and turned his world black.
The Master of Sinanju pushed Remo into the back with one hand. The other pulled Sky Bluel from the same seat.
"You will drive," he told her. "And drive swiftly. For my son must live."
"This is crazy," Sky said. "There must be another way."
"There was. But it died when you built this device. Go."
Chin trembling, Sky Bluel got behind the wheel. "Good luck," she said weakly.
The car made a skittering circle in the road and headed back to town, leaving the Master of Sinanju holding the neutron bomb in his spindly arms.
Chiun looked down at the foreign instrument. His hazel eyes glanced at the digital timer. It now read 00:05:57. Then 00:05:56.
Lifting his eyes, he sought the place where the desert Condome had been. He drew in an energizing breath.
In that direction, Chiun began running. His sandals whetted the road. He picked up speed, and his purple kimono began to stream behind him with the gathering force of his momentum.