He grabbed the rifle of the nearest soldier and pushed it up to the soldier's shoulder. "Fire that
177
weapon," he ordered. He pulled his automatic pistol from his holster.
"They gonna get the old man," Ruby said.
Remo looked at Chiun.
"Since I don't work for the President and I'm only here as a spectator, Chiun, what do you think?" he said.
"I think you are absolutely right," Chiun said.
And before Ruby could speak, Chiun and Remo had leaped from the ground and sliced their way through the heavy brush as if it were not there.
The soldiers had their rifles to their shoulders and were all aiming at Samedi. Estrada's finger was tightening on the trigger when Remo and Chiun hit the circle of salt.
Before Ruby's wondering eyes the bodies of khaki-clad soldiers began flying through the air. She saw Remo and Chiun moving through the seven men so slowly that it looked as if any one of the soldiers could have felled them just by swinging; his rifle. But where the soldiers grabbed, Chiun and Remo had just vacated. They moved strangely, fast without seeming to hurry, intensely without seeming to strain for power, and the air was filled with the thwacks of blows and the cracking of bones and the screaming of soldiers. The two men's hands were blurs.
In ten seconds it was over and the seven soldiers lay in the dirt, Major Estrada face-down, his hand still wrapped tightly around his pistol butt, but his trigger finger removed from his hand.
Now the zombies were around the lake and moving toward Remo and Chiun.
Remo saw them and said, "I wasn't exactly counting on this. Little Father. Quick. How do you kill the already dead?"
178
Before Chiun could answer, Samedi rose to his feet from the rock. He clapped his hands and the twenty men stopped as if they were automatons, all fired from a single power source that had just been turned off.
"Wowee," Ruby said. She rose up from the brush and joined Remo and Chiun in the roadway.
"How you do that? Hah? How you do that?" she asked Remo in a high screech.
"Ruby," Remo explained patiently, "shut up."
As Samedi came walking slowly around the lake of pitch men and women appeared on the plateau atop the hill, looking down, watching.
Generalissimo Corazon had sunk halfway into the tar, but with a mighty effort he turned himself half on his side, still holding onto the mung machine.
"You will never rule, Samedi," he shouted. "I have the power. Me. Corazon."
Samedi ignored him.
Corazon wrapped his arms around the mung machine, searching for the firing switch. He found it and squeezed. But the machine was aimed in the wrong direction. There was a sharp crack and then a green glow enveloped Generalissimo Corazon as the machine fired point-blank into his stomach, and he seemed illuminated for a split second before he turned into a green ooze that settled onto the surface of the lake. His cotton uniform vanished and all that was left to mark the remains of God for Life, Ruler Forever, President Eternal of All Baqia were his golden medals, which floated momentarily on the green puddle and then vanished into the lake of pitch as the mung machine sank under the surface with a sucking gulp that pulled down the medals, the nails
179
from his riding boots, and the green puddle that had been Corazon.
"Return," Samedi barked out and the twenty men with glazed eyes turned away and began to shuffle back toward the hillside, toward the village.
Samedi stopped in front of Ruby, Remo, and Chiun.
"Now what, child?" h£ asked Ruby.
"You be the leader," Ruby said. "It's up to you to run Baqia."
"I am old for leadership," Samedi said.
"A mere boy," said Chiun, his eyes on a level with Samedi's. "You have many years. And I am authorized by my employer, who is the President of the United States himself, because I do not work for minions, to tell you that the United States will give you all the help you need."
"Thank you," said Samedi. "But I don't even know where to start."
"Start by killing one hundred and fifty suspected traitors," Chiun said. "Why?" asked Samedi.
"It's good form. Everybody does it."
"We didn't get the machine," Ruby groused on the plane back to the States that night.
"Neither did anybody else," said Remo. "It's gone. Let's forget it."
"CIA crazy sometimes. I probably gonna get fired," Ruby said. "Gonna lose that check."
"Don't worry. Chiun'll put in a word for you with his employer. In case you're the only person in the world who hasn't heard it yet, he works for the President of the United States."
"No more," said Chiun.
180
"Oh?" asked Remo. "Why not? You mean you're coming back to join us peons working for Smith?"
"Why not?" said Chiun, his voice quivering with outrage. "Did you see my message of congratulations today when all was accomplished?"
"No," said Remo.
"Neither did I. I will not work for ingrates," Chiun said. "At least with Smith, you expect him to be a lunatic."
"True, Little Father. True. And what are you going to do, Ruby?"
"I going back to my wig factory and try to make ends meet. And then you gonna show me some of them tricks, like seeing the guns and rolling the dice and all."
Remo leaned close to her. "I'll tell you everything if you just go to bed with me."
Ruby laughed. "What I want with you? I already got a goldfish. You know," she said, "you ain't half-bad."
Remo smiled.
"No. You all bad," she said. "The old gentleman's going to show me."
"Forty percent," said Remo.
"Twenty," said Ruby.
"Thirty," said Chiun. "And I pay the dodo."
181
I he Uestroyer by Warren Murphy
Jemo Williams is the perfect weapon- a cold, calculating death. machine
developed by CURE, the world's most secret crime-fighting organization. Together with his mentor, Chiun, the oriental martial arts wizard/
The Destroyer makes the impossible missions possible.
Over 13 million copies sold!
D 40-235-X
.Created, The Destroyer
#1 $1.50
a 40-276-7
Death Check
#2 1.50
D 40-277-5
Chinese Puzzle
#3 1.50
D 40-278-3
Mafia Fix
#4 1.50
Q 40-279-1
Dr. Quake
#5 1.50
D 40-280-5
Death Therapy
#6 1.50
D 40-281-3
Union Bust
#7 1.50
D 40-282-1
Summit Chase
#8 1.50
D 40-283-X
Murder's Shield
#9 , 1.50
D 40-284-8
Terror Squad
#10 1.50
D 40-285-6
Kill or Cure
#11 1.50
D 40-286-4
Slave Safari
#12 1.50
D 40-287-2
Acid Rock
#13 1.50
D 40-288-0
Judgment Day
#14 1.50
D 40-289-9
Murder Ward
#15 1.50
D 40-290-2
Oil Slick
#16 1.50
D 40-291-0
Last War Dance
#17 1.50
D 40-292-9
Funny Money
#18 1.50
D 40-293-7
Holy Terror
#19 1.50
D 40-294-5
Assassins Play-Off
#20 1.50
D 40-295-3
Deadly Seeds
#21 1.50
D 40-296-1
Brain Drain
#22 1.50
D 40-297-X
Child's Play
#23 1.50
D 40-298-8
King's Curse
#24 1.50
D 40-236-8
Sweet Dreams
#25 1.50
Q 40-251-1
In Enemy Hands
#26 1.50
D 40-353-4
Last Temple
#27 1.50
a 40-416-6
Ship of Death
#28 1.50
O 40-342-9
Final Death