Randal Rumpp was slammed into the big picture window behind him.
"You," said the cold voice of the dead-eyed man, "have caused enough trouble."
"Urkkk."
"What?"
"I made it all up!" Rumpp said breathlessly. "I didn't make any of this happen! I lied! You can't liquidate my ass over a lie!"
"That's the biz, sweetheart," said the man, as he gave Randal Rumpp a harder push. The back of his sandy head banged the wobbly glass.
"But I didn't-" Randal Rumpp attempted to say. The hand constricted, choking off the words. Randal Rumpp wanted to tell the man that it had all been a scam. That he had not caused any of this to happen. He had just taken advantage of events to engage in a little creative restructuring of his debt load.
But the man wasn't listening. He was using his free hand to manipulate Randal's Rummp's helpless limbs. He forced Rumpp's left arm against his side, his palm flat with his thigh so they formed a straight standing line. Then he crooked Rumpp's right arm at the elbow and set his fist on his hip. Lastly, he made his right leg stick out straight at an angle from his pelvic bone.
Randal Rumpp's couldn't see what he was doing, but when the man was done Rumpp was standing on one leg, frozen in the awkward pose.
"Guys like you," the dead-eyed man was saying, "used to have the courtesy to jump out of their offices when things went bad."
The man's hand rose. Randal Rumpp's polished shoes left the floor.
Then he was being forced out through the bronze solar window glass. It made a sudden crack, but strangely didn't shatter as it should have.
Randal Rumpp flew twenty feet straight out, and saw why.
His nerve-stiffened body had punched out a perfect silhouette. It was in the shape of a six-foot letter R.
Rumpp smiled. It was perfect. A classy touch. The guy was a real pro. He wanted to salute the guy on his taste, but his arms were still stiff and gravity was starting to exert its inexorable influence.
As the ground zoomed up to meet him, Randal Rumpp's life flashed before his eyes. It was such a kick to relive it all that he completely forgot about his predicament-until he went splat on the sidewalk in front of the mangled letters RUMPP TOWER.
Remo Williams waited until the pulpy sound had reached his ears before turning to check on Chiun's progress.
The Master of Sinanju was using a delicate sandal toe to kick apart the cherry wood desk that dominated the cathedral-like office.
"Missed, huh?" Remo asked.
"The fiend resorted to his machine trickery again."
"Well, I got mine."
Chiun sniffed. "The unimportant one."
"The big cheese. Rumpp was the big cheese," Remo said, picking up the fallen receiver.
He put it to his ear. The line was still open. He heard voices shouting and screeching in confusion at the other end.
"Here, check this out."
The Master of Sinanju snatched the handset from Remo's grasp and listened, fuming.
He made a face.
"Pah! It is nothing," he snapped.
"What makes you say that?"
"It is only Japanese complaining."
"Just the same," Remo said. "Let's take this phone to Smitty."
"Yes," Chiun said bitterly. "Let us take the evidence of our ineptitude to Mad Harold. No doubt he will wish us beheaded for our miserable failure."
A relentless pounding continued to come from down the hall. Remo indicated it with his head.
"Think you can keep it down, until we can slip out of the building the same back way we got in?"
"Who could detect us over that racket?"
Harold Smith was very interested in the telephone. He looked up from his shabby oak desk at Folcroft Sanitarium later that day, his gray, pinched face thoughtful.
The cellular unit had been partially disassembled and was now connected to his computer system.
"According to the memory chip," he said, "the last number dialed was that of the Nishitsu Corporation in Osaka."
"Nishitsu?" Remo said. "Weren't they the ones behind that crazy invasion of Yuma, Arizona, a few years ago?"
Smith nodded. "A rogue operation. Or so it was claimed. But recall, Remo, that before that we had intelligence on an event at Nishitsu Osaka which was laid at the KGB's doorstep."
"Right. You thought that the suit was a Japanese invention, and that was how the Soviets got hold of it.
Smith nodded. "No doubt Rumpp was attempting to gain more information on the suit from Nishitsu. When you and Chiun burst in, the Krahseevah simply hit the redial button."
"And faxed himself to Nishitsu. Damn!"
"Not necessarily, Remo."
Remo and Chiun looked interested.
"Then where did he go?" Remo asked.
"Recall that prior to this, the Krahseevah traveled through fiber-optic cables and short-distance cellular transmissions. In order to reach Osaka, he would have to be uplinked to an orbiting communications satellite and relayed back to a ground station. It is not clear that his atomic structure would retain its integrity during such an extreme transfer."
"You mean he might have had his molecules scrambled?"
"It's possible."
Remo folded his arms. "Last time, you were sure he was never going to come back to haunt us again."
"And I am not certain of his fate this time. But it is a possibility."
"Yes," said Chiun. "That must be what happened."
"Since when did you become the technology expert?" Remo asked dryly.
Chiun surreptitiously kicked Remo in the ankle. Remo went silent. Chiun went on.
"Obviously the Russian fiend is no more," he said firmly. "And since we dispatched the schemer Rumpp, this assignment has been successfully accomplished and all glory and credit is ours."
"I imagine that it has," Smith allowed.
"And contract negotiations may continue," Chiun added.
"Er, yes," Smith said carefully.
Chiun beamed. "Then I suggest we begin now."
"If you do not mind, I have a few loose ends to tie up."
"What could be more important than contract negotiations?"
"Briefing the President."
"Yes. Do that. And be certain to speak our names prominently and often."
"Of course, Master Chiun."
"You know, there's one thing I still don't get," Remo said slowly.
The others looked at him.
"Who were those Russians?"
"That is a good point," said Smith. "You had no chance to interrogate them?"
"Yeah. The head guy said he was shit."
"He did?"
"So I obliged him."
"No," Chiun interjected, "he said he was 'shield.' "
Remo frowned. "I thought I heard the other word."
"Your mind is a sewer," Chiun sniffed.
"One moment." Smith turned to his ever-present computer terminal and called up his Russian lexicon file base.
"The only Russian word that transliterates into that term is Shchit."
"That's the word I heard. What's it mean?" asked Remo.
Smith looked up, his face puzzled.
"Shield."
"Means nothing to me."
Smith switched to another file. Keys rattled. "There is no such Russian organization on file, past or present."
"Maybe they're new, Smitty." Smith's lemony face grew more bitter. "I believe I will create an active file under that name. Strange things are happening over there now. If there is a new Russian group or organization known as 'Shield,' it may be a problem for the future."
"Emperor, what will be the fate of the mighty building of the schemer Rumpp?"
"It has been condemned. Demolition experts are going to wire it with shaped charges and implode it into rubble."
Chiun nodded. "It will be an improvement."
Remo said, "One last thing, Smitty."
"What is that?"
"Those people who fell into the ground when the Rumpp Tower first spectralized. What happened to them?"
"Officially, they will be counted among the missing."