"We been paid."
"I'm talking about taking credit for the bombing."
"What?" said both men in unison.
"Credit. We may have twenty thousand dead here. Who gets credit for it?"
"You mean blame?"
"That's unprogressive. I am talking about credit for the act. Publicity."
"If it's okay with you, girlie, you can have all the credit," Anselmo said.
"We'll give you alternate credit. We can say you assisted us. But the main cause is ours. The SLA takes full credit for this one."
"You don't even have to mention us, girlie."
"You sure now? We may be going as high as twenty-five thousand deaths here. You don't want any part of it?"
"No, no. That's okay," Myron said. "In fact, don't mention us at all. Ever. Never. No way."
"That's downright selfless of you," Gloria said. "Nathan, I like these people."
"Then why are they doing it?" Nathan said. He looked at Anselmo. "If you're not getting credit, why steal a bomb? Why all the trouble?"
"We get paid, kid," Anselmo said. "You're doing it for the money?"
"Damned right."
"Why go to all this trouble for money? I mean, where is your daddy?" Nathan asked.
Myron and Anselmo looked at each other again. "Nathan means you could get the money from your fathers," Gloria said.
"You don't know our fathers," said Myron.
"Never mind. You're sure you don't even want an 'assisted by' and then your names?"
"No. We don't want anything," Myron said.
"And be sure," Anselmo said, "that you don't set that thing off until we say so, okay?"
"Sure. Maybe we don't understand all your reasons, but I want you to know I sense solidarity with you. That we are all part of the same struggle," Nathan said.
"Sure. But don't set that thing off until we say so."
Chapter 10
"Must we stay in this rat cage again?" Chiun asked.
"Sorry, Little Father," Remo said. "But until we find out what's going on with these labs, we stay here."
"Easy enough for you to say, fat white thing. There is so much suet on your body that you can be comfortable sleeping on hard floors. But I? I am delicate. My frail body requires real rest."
"You're as delicate as granite," Remo said.
"Don't worry, Chiun," said Dara Worthington.
"You know that I am reduced to spending my life with him and you tell me not to worry?" Chiun said.
"No, it's just that we have rooms here in the laboratory complex. I'll get them to fix one up for you. A real bedroom. One for you too," she said to Remo.
"A real bedroom?" Chiun asked, and Dara nodded. "With a television set?"
"Yes."
"Would it have one of those tape-playing machines?" Chiun asked.
"As a matter of fact, yes."
"Would you by any chance have a complete set of tapes from the show As the Planet Revolves?" Chiun asked.
"Afraid not," she said. "That show hasn't been on the air for ten years."
"Savages," Chiun mumbled in Korean to Remo. "You whites are all savages and philistines."
"She's doing the best she can, Chiun," Remo answered in Korean. "Why don't you just get off everybody's back for a while?"
Chiun raised himself to his full height. "That is a despicable thing to say, even for you," he said in Korean.
"I didn't think it was so bad," Remo said.
"I will not speak to you again until you apologize."
"Hell will freeze over first," Remo said.
"What language is that?" Dara said. "What are you two saying?"
"That was real language," Chiun said. "Unlike the dog barkings that pass for language in this vile land."
"Chiun was just thanking you for the offer of the bedroom," Remo said.
"You're welcome, Dr. Chiun," Dara said with a large smile.
In Korean again, Chiun grumbled: "The woman is too stupid even to insult. Like all whites."
"Are you talking to me?" Remo asked.
Chiun folded his arms and turned his back on Remo.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but being ignored will never hurt me," Remo said.
"Stop teasing that sweet man," Dara said.
She settled them into adjoining rooms in one of the wings of the IHAEO building.
Remo was lying on his back on the small cot, looking up at the ceiling, when there was a faint tap on the door.
He called out and Dara entered.
"I just wanted to see if you were comfortable," she said.
"I'm fine."
She came into the room, shyly at first, but when Remo said nothing, she strode forward and sat on a chair next to his bed.
"I guess I'm still crashing from everything that happened today," she said. "It was glorious and it was awful too."
"I know," Remo said. "I always feel that way about transatlantic flights."
"I don't mean that," she said. She leaned over toward him. "I mean what we did with the Ung beetle. That was glorious and it will live forever. But then, oh, those poor men, when those apes attacked. It was awful."
Remo said nothing and Dara lowered her face toward his so she was staring evenly into his eyes. Her breasts brushed across his chest. She wore no brassiere. "Wasn't it awful?"
"That's the tits," he said. "I mean, the truth. It was awful."
"I never saw such crazed animals," she said.
"Umm" Remo said. He liked the feel of her against him.
"There are no bad animals, you know. Something made them that way."
"Um," Remo said.
"I'm glad you were there to protect me," Dara said.
"Umm," Remo said.
"What could have caused that?" she asked.
"Ummm."
"What kind of an answer is that?"
"I mean, I'll look into it in the morning," Remo said.
"But what do you think?" she persisted.
What Remo thought was that the only way he was going to keep her quiet was to do something physical, so he put his arms around her and pulled her body down onto his. She instantly glued her mouth to his in a long tender kiss.
"I've been thinking of that all day," she said.
"I know," Remo said, reaching over and pulling the chain that turned off the small night lamp.
The FBI no longer guarded the laboratories so the only security was a tired old guard inside a wooden shack at the front gate.
Anselmo and Myron drove up in their white Cadillac and Anselmo lowered the driver's window. "What can I do for you?" the guard said.
Anselmo held up a white box that was on the front seat alongside him.
"Pizza delivery," he said.
"Pretty fancy pizza wagon," the guard said, nodding at the Cadillac limousine.
"Well, I usually got a big pizza slice an top of the car, but I take it off at night. The kids, you know."
"Yeah, kids are bastards, ain't they?" the guard said.
"Sure are."
"Go ahead through," the guard said. "You can park in the lot up there."
"We're looking for Dr. Remo and Dr. Chiun. You know where they are?"
The guard looked at a list on a clipboard. "They came in earlier with everybody else and they didn't sign out. But I don't know what lab they're in."
"But they're in there, right?"
"Have to be," the guard said. "No way out except past me, and no one's gone out tonight."
"Maybe they're sleeping," Anselmo said.
"Maybe," the guard said.
"Maybe I won't disturb them. I'll tell you what. You take the pizza and we'll let them rest."
"Does it have anchovies?" the guard asked.
"No. Just extra cheese and pepperoni," Anselmo said.
"I like anchovies best," the guard said.
"The next time, I bring you one with anchovies," Anselmo promised.
"Won't those two doctors be mad?" the guard asked.
"Not as mad as they're gonna be later," Anselmo said. He shoved the pizza into the guard's hands, put the Cadillac in reverse and slid away.