But Remo was not prepared for Chiun's enraged response.
"How dare you talk to me of that drivel, when the one who has given you all you know, all you hold that makes you what you are, has been vilified in your presence?"
"I didn't hear it. What did Smith say? Did I miss something?"
"Did you miss something?" squeaked Chiun. He could not even bear to look at Remo anymore.
"Yeah. What did I miss? What's wrong?" asked Remo.
"What is wrong? What is wrong?" asked Chiun, his voice rising to a squeaky crescendo.
Smith did not understand their Korean dialect. He had tried to study Korean once just to find out what the two were saying in his presence, but he discovered that many of the terms used in Sinanju were not in a Korean dictionary because they were so archaic. It was as if a time capsule had captured a language four thousand, five hundred years old and had kept it pure.
Still, even though he did not understand what they were talking about, it seemed to him that they were being a bit too emotional for a discussion about the Constitution of the United States, especially since it was Smith's opinion that Chiun believed the Constitution was some form of American poem, like a religious chant that everyone said and did not really believe in.
"That's what I said. What is wrong?" Remo snarled.
"He asks what is wrong. Did you not hear the venom from Smith's own lips? Did you hear what he said?"
"He was talking about the Constitution, which you don't think means anything to begin with."
"He said to a Master of Sinanju that a Master of Sinanju could be more effective. That is what he said."
"More effective in his context, protecting America through secrecy. Protecting the things of America that are valuable. Like the rights of people. "
"What about the rights of a Master of Sinanju, respected lo these thousands of years in courts and palaces? Gloried from Samarkand to St. Petersburg. Honored by Ming and Claudian dynasties. What about the rights of the man you call 'little father,' the one you have just heard degraded with your own ears? Do these rights mean nothing?"
"You don't understand what Smith meant. He wasn't talking about your skills . . ."
"I understand. I understand that when you take insults and disrespect from a pupil, then you can expect it from the world. You have allowed me to be shamed in front of . . . of a white."
"You don't like it from any color, so why do you pick on white?"
"You're white. You're all white. You've always been white. You stick together, don't you?"
"Little father, I love you. But Smitty doesn't even understand enough to know he insulted you. Believe me. If he had, I would have spoken up. I would never let anyone insult you."
"Then let's work for a sane emperor. Or a tyrant. This is a rare time in history. Tyrants and kings are regaining their power. Look at Korea itself, once thought lost to communism in the north, which proved to be only an ugly mask for a beautiful kingly dynasty transferred from father to son. Communism is on the rise all over. And that means tyrannies, if not kingships. This could well be the glory age of assassins. Let us leave this insulting churl with the face of a lemon."
"I love my country, too, little father," said Remo. "I'm sorry. I do. I just don't care about money."
"A wound to a father's heart."
"I'm sorry," said Remo. And the conversation over, Remo turned back to English and back to Smith.
"Well, that was a spirited discussion on our legal system, wasn't it?" said Smith.
"Yeah," said Remo. His voice felt hoarse, not because of the volume he had used but because of the emotion that had come upon him. He honestly did feel torn now between Sinanju and America. Once he thought he could make them work in harmony, each serving the other. Now he realized this was impossible. East was East. And West was West.
"Your Constitution rings with the beauty of your greatest poets, its words such harmony of the soul that flowers blush in shame," said Chiun. "Now I fully understand that wonderful document."
"Good, I think you do," said Smith. "I think he does in a deeper way than I might have imagined. Don't you think so, Remo?"
"Sure," said Remo curtly.
"Well, because we are a nation of laws, the legal system is crucial. As cumbersome and as difficult as it is, it is the one key protection we have from ourselves, from rapacious politicians and bureaucrats, from the powerful harming the weak, do you see?"
Remo stared out the window into the darkness. Chiun examined his hands. Smith continued.
"Because there are so many lawsuits nowadays, and because the judgments have become so high, costs of producing things have gone up. We're losing some of our finest surgeons because they refuse to pay the high insurance premiums. Obstetricians are so racked by lawsuits their malpractice insurance sometimes comes to three-quarters of their income; many are leaving the profession. Industries are being threatened with shutdown."
Smith paused. Remo said, "Un-huh," and then examined his nails. Chiun said just about the same thing but it came out as a laudation of Smith's wisdom. Then Chiun looked out the window.
"And we have found one particular law firm to be the biggest problem in this area. They have raised ambulance-chasing to a science. I'm sure they're behind many of the terrible tragedies they jump on, but we can't prove it."
"You want us to eliminate them?" said Remo.
"No. This is a legal problem. You can't go around killing lawyers. What we must do is remove them from within the system. We have to get legal proof to get them disbarred and thrown in jail. Once they are ruined it will act as an example to other ambulance chasers, or at least cut down the number of industry-threatening negligence cases."
"Just a minute. I know you have thousands of little gnomes everywhere, all of them feeding information into your computers without them knowing about it. Why can't you do it with that law firm?"
"We have," said Smith. "And everyone has died-not just died, but died in an accident. A shower suddenly spits out scalding water at a secretary with a heart problem. She dies. A junior lawyer working undercover for one of the government agencies has his roof collapse on him, killing him. Now, the roof suffered what appeared to be normal decay in the joists. And this shower had always lacked protection against spurts of extra-hot water. So we can't prove a thing."
"So?" said Remo.
"So we want people to gather evidence who can't be killed by accidents."
"I can be killed by an accident," said Remo.
"Theoretically, I suppose, yes," said Smith.
"It's not a theoretical life, Smitty."
In Korean, Chiun said, "Charge him a higher price and say yes. It is all the same nonsense when you are working for a lunatic."
"All right. Where do we begin?" said Remo in English.
"There's been an accident in Gupta, India. We're sure Palmer, Rizzuto are behind it. Go there. See if you can figure out how they did it, and see if you can link it to those shysters. Rizzuto was on hand a little bit too early and seems to have the ear of the prime minister."
"India?" said Chiun. "Ah, the Moguls. The grandeur of the rajahs. India has always been a second home to the House of Sinanju."
"Be careful, Remo," said Smith. "We don't know how these guys work. They even have programs that seem to foil our computers. They can conduct conversations we can't break into. And they seem to be able to cause accidents at will. They can make anything not work."
"So can I," said Remo.
"On purpose," said Smith.