"Why should I?" Remo asked.
"I assumed that was the point of your call," Smith explained. "The story you have described is the Nibelungenlied. It is an epic German poem of around 1200 A.D."
"Chiun, you didn't tell me these people were German," Remo said off the phone.
"Forgive me, but I assumed in you a level of cultural erudition," Chiun's squeaky voice called from the distance. "Obviously an error on my part."
"I wouldn't get too full of myself," Remo grumbled. "That ain't exactly Masterpiece Theatre you've been watching to death lately."
"I found them," Smith interjected, drawing Remo's attention back to the phone.
"Everything?" Remo asked, surprised at the speed with which the CURE director had tracked the items.
"Just the coins," Smith said. "Following the German pattern, I thought to begin my search there. They were offered to a rare coin dealer in Berlin by a Korean cultural representative. The merchant was concerned that the coins might be stolen, so he brought in the authorities. When their authenticity was confirmed, the Korean was remanded to the custody of his embassy. With no explanation for how he came by them, he was sent back to North Korea to face disciplinary measures for their possession."
"Where are the coins?"
"They are being sent along with him. The Korean government requested them for use in the trial. With the cultural official's diplomatic immunity, they were useless to the Germans as evidence."
"What's his name and when does he arrive?" Remo asked.
"Keijo Suk," Smith said. "His plane lands in Pyongyang at three o'clock, your time."
"Thanks, smitty," Remo said. "I owe you one." He hung up the phone. "Did you get all that?" he asked, turning to the Master of Sinanju.
"I did," Chiun said. He was standing impatiently near the front door, arms tucked inside the folds of his kimono sleeves. "However, he did not mention the carving."
"They probably didn't think too much about it," Remo reasoned. "The coins would be more important to them. Anyway, it won't do any good to sit here and think about it. Let's shake a leg."
Remo headed for the door. When he pulled on the handle he was surprised to find that he had yanked into the house someone who had been grabbing the knob from the other side. The intruder tumbled forward into him.
Remo grabbed the toppling stranger by the shoulders, setting her on her feet. He was about to demand that she identify herself when he realized he recognized her face.
"Hello, Remo," said Heidi Stolpe. She smiled guiltily.
"I DID NOT MISLEAD you completely," Heidi promised.
They were racing along the highway away from Sinanju in a government car Remo had liberated earlier that day from the Pyongyang airport parking lot. Remo was behind the wheel. Heidi sat beside him in the front. Chiun had positioned himself like royalty in the center of the rear seat.
"I was in South America in search of fugitive Nazis," she continued.
"But that was only part of it," Remo said angrily. Frozen mud fields whipped past the speeding car.
"Not at first," she insisted. "But eventually, yes. You see, I am a descendant of Gunther, whose sister Kriemhild was married to Siegfried."
"Your relatives must have the stupidest-looking headstones in Nibelung," Rerno said. "Wherever the hell that is."
Heidi persisted. "I only recently became aware of the legend surrounding the treasure. My uncle died, and I inherited my family's castle in the Harz Mountains. In his personal belongings was Gunther's portion of the block carving. It has been in my family's possession for fifteen hundred years."
"This carving. It is in good condition?" Chiun asked from the back seat. He feigned disinterest.
"The map has survived intact," she said to him. Remo could tell that Chiun was intrigued. However, the Master of Sinanju was playing it cool.
"Still," Chiun ventured, "with only two sections we are no nearer the gold."
"Not two sections," Heidi said excitedly. "Three. "
"How is this possible?" Chiun asked with a frown.
"At the Four village in South America," Heidi explained. "While the two of you were chasing after Kluge through the tunnels, I searched through the things he left behind. One of the sections of the carving had been packed in a box but not taken with him. I suppose he did not think it crucial to whatever future he has planned for his group."
"Wait a minute," Remo said. "While we were risking our necks, you were on some frigging scavenger hunt?"
"I do not have to explain myself to you," Heidi sniffed.
"Damned lucky for you," Remo replied angrily.
"How did you know Kluge would have a map section?" Chiun asked, steering them back to the most important topic.
"I did not mention that?" she asked, surprised. "According to what I have learned, he is a direct descendant of Siegfried. The block has been in his family for as long as we have owned our respective sections."
"You used us," Remo said. "You knew about Kluge all along. You used us to get yourself safely into the village."
"There is still the final quarter," Chiun insisted, pointedly ignoring Remo. "Which, according to rumor, fell into the hands of the murderer Hagen."
"That piece will be difficult," Heidi said thoughtfully. "Through my uncle's records, I traced both Siegfried's and Hagen's descendants. The last of the family of Hagan died out around the time the Nazis came to power. His land and possessions were confiscated by order of Hitler. If there was a fourth surviving piece, it was lost back then."
Chiun sank back into his seat. The glimmer of hope threatened to fade from his hazel eyes. "Then we, too, are lost," he lamented.
"Not necessarily," Heidi stressed. "We have three out of four sections. It is possible that we could piece together enough of the map to locate the treasure."
"I suppose I don't have to remind you, Chiun, that she was in Sinanju to steal our piece of the map," Remo called over his shoulder.
Chiun stroked his thread of beard pensively. "She is enterprising," the Master of Sinanju offered. "It is an attractive trait. What did you have in mind, daughter of Gunther?"
"Whatever we recover will be split ninety/ten."
"That would be acceptable," Chiun nodded. Heidi seemed surprised. "I did not think you would agree to such an arrangement. According to my family record, the House of Sinanju is quite greedy."
"Give him a minute," Remo warned.
Chiun waved a magnanimous hand. "Ours is a reputation undeserved," Chiun proclaimed. "You have done much work. You have earned your ten percent."
"Bingo." Remo grinned.
"What?" Heidi demanded.
"It is a large sum, surely," Chiun said, considering. "Perhaps I should allow you only five. What do you think, Remo?"
"Don't get me in the middle of this," Remo said. Heidi was livid. Her porcelain skin had flushed red. "If anyone is getting five percent, it is you," she challenged.
"Are you mad, girl?" Chiun asked, shocked. "You did not believe I would allow you to steal nine-tenths of my money?"
"Your money?"
Chiun grew indignant. "The treasure is the rightful property of the House of Sinanju. If I so desired, I could keep the entire amount myself."
"Without my half of the map, your quarter is useless," Heidi reminded him.
"And without my quarter, your half is useless," Chiun countered.
Heidi fumed. "Seventy/thirty," she said eventually. "The seventy goes to me," she added quickly.
"That is ludicrous," Chiun huffed. "Sixty/forty. In the favor of Sinanju."
"No," Heidi insisted stubbornly.
"As an impartial observer who doesn't give a wet fart in a windbreaker about the gold, why not split it fifty/fifty?" Remo suggested.
"Outrageous," Chiun snapped.
"Out of the question," Heidi sniffed.
"In that case, you're both going to walk away with diddly. Just like your ancestors."