"Just immobilize him," Remo called.
Helena Eckert's foot lashed out, and Remo ducked away from it.
Chiun let out an angry hiss of air. The British ambassador threw out another malletlike fist. The Master of Sinanju grabbed Sir Geoffrey by the bicep and spun the man around like a top. His hand clamped down on Sir Geoffrey's neck. The man froze stiff as a board. The instant he did so, Chiun heard a groan from behind. When he turned, he saw that Remo had the American ambassador in an identical embrace.
Carrying Helena Eckert like an overfilled bag of groceries, Remo crossed over to Chiun. He had an unhappy expression on his face.
"What do we do with these now, O wise one?"
Chiun asked hotly. "For if we let them go, they will be made to attack us once more."
"Wait a minute, Chiun," Remo said in a hushed tone. He cocked an ear to one side, listening down the hall. "Do you hear something funny?"
At the rear of the building, Lothar Holz heard Remo shout to the Master of Sinanju.
His assistant stood nearby. Closer, it seemed, than usual.
The shaking had become almost unbearable. Holz pressed his fingers against the earpiece.
"They're here!" he whispered into the small transceiver. "You were supposed to tell me if they were coming!"
Von Breslau didn't reply. The earpiece remained silent.
Holz glanced around desperately. He had to get out. He couldn't be caught here.
Luckily the rear rooms all opened onto the fire escape. He'd get down to the van. He could not allow these men to capture him.
Quickly he turned toward the rear door. He was just fast enough to see his assistant flash from out of his peripheral vision.
The man's fist moved lightning fast, in a direct line for his face.
He was astonished by what happened next.
Lothar Holz looked on, bewildered, almost a spectator to the actions of his own body. The first Sinanju-enforced blow landed with a squishy thud.
One minute before, von Breslau had been fussing impatiently with the equipment in the van.
He couldn't get a lock on the Sinanju men. He had tried, but the Dynamic Interface System stubbornly refused to work. He didn't understand the intricacies of the system. If it didn't work, it didn't work. He had gotten some information from the young one.
That would have to suffice.
He only wished he had been responsible for the death of the Master of Sinanju. But that could still happen. Even in his lifetime. He had the information that could be used to ultimately destroy the old Korean. In a year, perhaps two...
But first things first. He used the interface system to enter a command into the mind of one of the men in the building. It was to Holz's assistant. He told the man to kill Lothar Holz. Von Breslau waited what he felt was an appropriate amount of time and then cut the signals to both ambassadors. If the blond mute was still in the room when the Sinanju men got there, it was his own fault. And anyway, he was expendable; von Breslau was not.
This task accomplished, the good doctor climbed up into the cab of the mobile interface van and started the engine.
Helena Eckert suddenly became slack in Remo's arms. He placed her on the floor and glanced at Chiun. Sir Geoffrey Hyde-Black had gone as limp as a plate of boiled noodles. Chiun dropped the man as if he were diseased. All at once, Remo became aware of an engine roaring from the lot at the rear of the building.
Running to the window at the end of the hall, Remo was just in time to see the rear of the Dynamic Interface System's van clear the side of the building.
Its twisted rear door bounced roughly along with the rest of the frame through the potholed driveway, sending up plumes of sandy smoke. A second later, it reached the road. Engine flat out, the truck thun-dered off.
It was gone.
Remo stood near the door from which he had sensed movement a few moments before. There was nothing now.
He hoped Holz hadn't gotten away again.
Remo pushed open the door. In the middle of the untidy room, a body lay twisted on the floor.
The face was an unrecognizable pulp. It resembled a pile of raw hamburger. The blood-streaked hair was wrenched out by the roots. All that remained were patchy, mottled clumps. The entire head, hands and torso were soaked with blood.
Remo looked more closely. He saw it. The tiny radio earpiece Holz was so fond of wearing. He heard Chiun enter the room behind him.
"His assistant must have killed him," Remo said.
"These are Sinanju moves." His nose wrinkled.
"Carried to the extreme, though. What a mess." He stood.
It was probably understandable. By now, Holz's assistant would have been experiencing the final side effects of the Sinanju download. He had been in better physical shape than the other test subjects, but he wouldn't be able to hold on to it much longer than the rest. He had already begun experiencing the same savage physical outbursts some of the others had had at the end. His wild, mindless attack was proof. He could no longer stop himself.
The killing blows had been repeated over and over even after Holz must surely have died. It was totally unfocused.
Remo went over to the window. He saw the rusty old fire escape.
He must have escaped out the window. It didn't matter. Wherever he was, the young man would be dead by morning. Remo turned to leave.
Chiun was standing by the bloody body, looking on with a curiously musing expression.
"We'd better get the ambassadors out of here,"
Remo said with a sigh. "Maybe Smitty can do something to get that programming out of them."
He headed out into the hallway. Chiun didn't move. "You coming?" Remo asked impatiently at the door.
Turning away from the body, Chiun slowly trailed Remo out into the hall. His mouth was a somber frown.
26
Von Breslau registered at the hotel under the name Heinrich Kolb.
No one asked him why he had no luggage. All he carried with him was a large box tucked under one arm and a brown grocery bag that swung from his gnarled hand by its handles. When the bellboy offered to carry the items for him, the elderly man cheerily declined.
Alone in his room, he placed the box on the neatly made bed. He set the bag on the floor.
Kluge had made arrangements for him to leave the country tomorrow.
He had a 9:00 a.m. flight out of JFK.
Von Breslau had spent the better part of the afternoon and early evening copying files from the van computers onto diskettes. What he ended up with filled a container twice as large as a standard shoe box. This was the box he placed on the bed.
From the bag he took several items—scissors, brown paper, a marking pen and a roll of packing tape.
He arranged the diskettes snugly in the box, shoving a hotel hand towel in around the cargo to fill up the vacant space. Taking great care, he wrapped and taped the box for shipment. He did not address it.
That could wait until morning. When he called down for a cab he would have someone at the front desk mail the package for him.
Von Breslau left the box on the nightstand and undressed for bed.
He didn't know what time he awoke.
At first he thought he was dreaming. It was a sensation of floating—of gentle hands bearing him softly through the balmy evening air. But all at once, the air turned cold.
He tried to get his bearings.
He saw a green metal door opened behind him. It had no handle.
It was cold here. The wind whipped his sparse hair. Von Breslau shivered in his underwear.
Up, around...
He saw the chimneys. Like something out of his past. Fifty years before. Then they had belched a thick, acrid smoke—the smell of burning flesh weighing heavy in the frigid winter air. The chimneys he saw now were idle.
He floated in close to one, very close. He saw the rough surface of the grimy bricks. Then he was up.