"Can— can you breathe okay?" Amanda asked.
The voice that answered was no longer thin and high, but a sinister baritone. It said:
"Be silent, stupid woman. You have failed miserably."
"But... I tried," Amanda wailed.
"And failed. There is no excuse. I should not have entrusted such responsibility to a mere woman."
"Mere... But you said that—"
"I said be silent!"
And Amanda began to cry.
* * *
"Stop this vehicle, Remo," the Master of Sinanju demanded.
"Now? Chiun, we've got to catch these people before they get to the city."
"I no longer wish to sit back here with this Russian pervert," Chiun spat.
"Then climb over the seat."
"I will not climb over the seat like a child. Stop this car so that one may change his seat with dignity."
Remo braked the car. Chiun, gathering his robes about him, stepped out of the back and took the seat next to Remo, who got going again.
"Oklahoma City is about to be blown to chalk dust, and you have to change seats," Remo complained.
Chiun sniffed. "Emperor Smith may have entrusted this Russian prisoner to my keeping, but that does not mean I am forced to listen to a recitation of his filthy habits."
"What filthy habits?" Remo asked, eyeing Pavel Zarnitsa in the rearview mirror. Zarnitsa looked sheepish sitting all by himself.
"His filthy eating habits," Chiun told him.
Pavel, hearing this, leaned forward eagerly and protested. "I have not filthy habits," he insisted. "I was simply discussing my appreciation for that wonderful American delicacy, the taco."
Chiun made a disgusted noise.
"Tacos?" Remo said in surprise.
"Yes, they are some horrible food made with meat and spices," Chiun explained to Remo.
"I know what they are," Remo said. "I just never heard anyone call them a delicacy before."
"Well, they are not. And if this Russian's description is accurate, they are not even food." Chiun lowered his voice. "He told me that when he eats one, his nose runs and his stomach burns. He told me those were the reasons he likes to eat them," Chiun confided.
"I am hungry," Pavel complained. "If we find the warhead soon, could we stop for tacos?"
"I will kill this Russian before I will allow myself to be a witness to his perverted acts," Chiun said loudly enough for Pavel to hear.
The sun began to rise, flooding the eastern sky with hot red light. It was a pretty sight, but it made Remo think of a nuclear explosion in slow motion, so he drove faster.
* * *
The truck with the warhead was where it was supposed to be. Parked in front of FOES headquarters, it might have been any unmarked delivery van except for the black blots on each side where the nuclear radiation symbols had been painted out.
The two people who had driven the weapon-carrying van jumped out of the truck with relief when Amanda and the others joined them.
"We've got trouble," Amanda told them both in a grim voice. "The World Master says to ditch the FOES van somewhere. Anywhere. It's known."
The driver nodded and took the van down the street, and came back on foot several minutes later.
"Good," Amanda said. "Now everyone get inside and wait in the office."
Amanda got back into the car, biting her lip. It was growing light now, and the air had that early morning coolness that Amanda loved as a child but hardly ever experienced anymore.
"They still accept your orders. Good," the World Master said.
Amanda did not face him. Instead, she spoke with her face averted, as if to deny his existence at the same time that she held a conversation with him.
"That Remo will be following us," Amanda said.
"Yes. He is dangerous. Very dangerous. The old Oriental is not. He believes whatever I tell him. But we must deal with this Remo for our plan to succeed."
"You— you still intend to detonate the warhead," Amanda said flatly.
"It is the only way now. For the American people to be made to call for the removal of all nuclear weapons, it will take an unforgettable demonstration. This will take time. I cannot activate the warhead without time and tools."
"Broken Arrow?" Amanda asked, holding back tears.
"Yes, the location I have told you about. It is fortunate that I had prepared this place for an emergency such as this. You know where it will be found from the description I gave you. Order the others to drive the warhead to that location."
"What— what about me?"
"You will remain here, waiting. This Remo will arrive soon. It will be your job to let him locate you. Once that is done, you will convince him that the warhead is in this city and that you will lead him to it. When he is off his guard, you will kill him. Are these instructions clear to you, Preparation Group Leader Bull?"
The voice, so different from the one Amanda had been used to taking orders from, sounded macabre and cynical asking that question. But Amanda answered as she always had.
"Yes, I understand that part. What about the Oriental?"
"Kill him, too."
"That man who said he was claiming your ship for his government— the one with the accent. What about him?" Amanda asked woodenly.
The World Master paused for so long before he answered that Amanda was about to repeat the question.
"If Pavel Zarnitsa is with them, then he must die, too. For he may have ruined everything."
?Chapter Sixteen
It was all up to her now, Amanda told herself as she stared out the window of FOES headquarters and watched the van carrying the warhead disappear from sight. She felt ill, and the illness was nothing less than a raw fear, but she steeled herself. There were doubts and questions in her mind. There were things that didn't add up anymore, and seemed as if they could never add up. It was possible that the World Master had lied to her about certain things— lied to them all, in fact. There was no escaping that.
But he was still the World Master, Amanda believed. He was still the emissary of a wonderful civilization from far beyond the stars, come to bring peace to this war-torn planet. If he had lied at times, or if his methods seemed harsh, then it was only because his goal was so important. It was justifiable, Amanda told herself. Yes, when it came to saving the Earth from self-destruction, then the end truly justified the means.
Even if that meant obliterating Oklahoma City when the time came.
She had been foolish to doubt the World Master. Why, hadn't he told her that he would be leaving for his Broken Arrow headquarters by himself? Through a method of travel that didn't involve cars or any other vehicles? Yes, that was what he had said. And there on the street below sat the car in which Amanda had left him sitting. See? He didn't need it to get where he was going.
"Teleportation," Amanda said aloud. "I'll bet he's going by teleportation. Sure! If they can do it on 'Star Trek,' they can do it on—"
Amanda's voice choked off. Below, the huddled figure of the World Master surreptitiously left the back of the car and slipped into the driver's seat.
The car left the curb, dragging a long worm of exhaust in its trail.
* * *
"If you don't know where to look," Pavel Zarnitsa was saying, "how are you going to find the nuclear device before it goes off?"
"I know where to look," Remo said, as they drove through the streets of Oklahoma City. "It's somewhere in this town."
"This is not a small place," Pavel pointed out.
"We'll find it," Remo insisted.
"How?" Chiun whispered to him. "We'll find it," Remo repeated unconvincingly.
"Try the ENEMIES office," Chiun suggested.
"FOES. Not ENEMIES. FOES."
Chiun shrugged. "There is a difference?"
Remo parked in front of the Stigman Building, where the offices of the Flying Object Evaluation Center were. He was tired of visiting the place, and it was probably a waste of time, but he had no other logical place to look for a warhead. As the Russian had rightly said, Oklahoma City was a big place.