"Hey," Remo said in a suddenly cocky voice. "We're all pros up here."
"No," returned Smith. "You should have run out of oxygen seven minutes ago."
Grabbing at the folded remote manipulator arm of the shuttle, Remo found an oxygen-supply port and plugged his suit in. Air began to flow into his suit.
"Tell them to close the payload doors and light this thing up," he shouted down to Harold Smith. "And tell Chiun I'm coming home."
A relieved Harold Smith said, "Roger," and the com link was terminated as the darkness created by the closing clamshell doors swallowed Remo Williams.
A thought struck him for the first time.
"Hey! I'm an astronaut now. How about that?"
WHEN MAJOR-GENERAL Iyona Stankevitch presented himself, the Cosmic Secret KGB file and his bottle of vodka to the defense minister of Russia, the general took both, started to read one and sampled the other as he read.
When he was done, he looked up from his desk with glowering eyes.
"You are to be congratulated, Stankevitch."
"Thank you. But this is no time for such pleasantries. I have performed my duty, and now you must perform yours."
Nodding, the defense minister buzzed his guards, who appeared instantly.
"Take this dolt out and have him shot."
Through a bleary haze, Stankevitch heard the harsh words and actually comprehended them.
"What? Why?" he sputtered.
"Had you brought this to me earlier, we would all be dead now. It is fortunate that it lands upon my desk after the crisis has passed, and not before."
"But-but Zemyatin gave clear instructions if this superweapon was ever deployed again ...."
"The crisis is over. And so is your life."
As he was dragged out of the Kremlin office, the defense minister's mocking words followed Iyona Stankevitch. "And thank you for the vodka. It was very thoughtful."
Stankevitch realized in that cold moment that the old Red Russia still lived. In a curious way, it pleased him to know this just before the people's bullets punished his vital organs ... .
Chapter 46
It was a week later, and the Master of Sinanju was seated in the bell tower of Castle Sinanju, goose quill poised over a parchment scroll weighted to the floor with four jade buttons.
"Describe the beast's eyes, my son. Were they fearsome?"
"It didn't have eyes. It looked like a giant aluminum umbrella."
"ParaSol. We know this. But future generations will be ignorant of the mundanity of the menace. Salbyol prophesied a sun dragon. I must describe a sun dragon for the edification of future Masters."
"It didn't have eyes or a tail. And I'm sick of talking about it."
"Then I will employ my awesome imagination to full effect," said Chiun, touching quill to parchment.
"You do that," said Remo.
The taboret phone rang. Remo ignored it.
"It is Smith," said Chiun, redipping his quill.
"I'm not talking to him. He hung me out to dry."
"He is still your emperor. You must speak with him."
"He can kiss my asteroid"
Finally, after 378 consecutive rings, Remo relented.
"If you're selling something, or are named Smith, cross your legs or risk the family jewels."
"Remo, I have discovered something interesting."
"Lose it."
"I have completed my deep background search on Reemer Bolt."
"So what?"
"Eleven years ago, Bolt was employed by Chemical Concepts of Massachusetts, the company that developed the fluorocarbon gun that nearly brought the planet to the brink last time."
"You're kidding!"
"My information is that he was marketing director. When I dealt with the ChemCon employees responsible for the ozone crisis of 1985, I overlooked him. It would appear that history repeated itself."
"So he really was a loose end?"
"No longer," said Smith.
Remo grunted. "Anything else?"
"There are reports out of Russia of a shadowy group of disgrunted ex-KGB operatives attempting to consolidate power."
"Shield?"
"They are being called Felix by ITAR-TASS. The name derives from Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret-police apparatus."
"More loose ends," Remo groaned.
"We will watch them closely."
"Before you go, and you are going," said Remo, "whatever happened to that photographer who was dragged off by men in black on TV?"
"Travis Rust has been released unharmed."
"Who had him?"
"FORTEC."
"Why'd they snatch him?" asked Remo.
"Recall that Chiun slew one of their investigators at the BioBubble site. When the body was discovered, FORTEC thought they had a serious alien threat on their hands."
"They did. They just didn't know it. So long, Smith."
And Remo hung up. "How's it coming?" he asked Chiun, who was busily scratching out slashing characters on his scroll.
"I have decided the sun dragon possesses smooth silver skin, and not scales."
"It was silver."
"And three thousand years from now, it will trouble the House no more because the Reigning Master of Sinanju slew it without mercy," added Chiun.
"Wait a minute! I was the guy who risked his neck up there."
Chiun smiled thinly. "And I am the Master who is inscribing the truth for the Master who will carry on three thousand years hence."
With that, the Master of Sinanju signed the scroll with his name and sat back, his face serene with the knowledge that he would one day be remembered as the first Master to venture into the Void and return alive. As well as the first Korean in space.
All rumors to the contrary.