On the floor near her was the male SVR agent she had brought along to help. The man had not fared as well as Petrovina. His skull had been fractured in several places. The body was rolled toward the wall.
When the door burst open, Petrovina looked up with fear. Her face quickly collapsed into relief. Chiun cut the ropes at her ankles and wrists with his long fingernails while Remo removed her gag. "Jack James!" she exhaled the instant the gag was loose. "He is alive!"
"Not for much longer," Remo replied coldly. "You know where he is? This place is deserted."
"He has gone to the Vaporizer site," Petrovina said, scrambling to her feet. "He was keeping me alive for his pleasure later on. I heard his plans. He will claim to give them a demonstration, but he intends to murder them all."
"Murder who?" Remo asked.
"Every leader in the world who is in Mayana," she answered. "World will be thrown into chaos. Governments will collapse. Panic could destabilize entire continents." There was a look of terrified urgency on her face.
"Every leader in the world, you say?" Remo asked, sitting down on the closed toilet lid.
"Yes," Petrovina replied sharply. "Hurry." She was edging anxiously for the door.
"Don't rush me," said Remo. "I'm thinking."
Chapter 29
From the window of the Vaporizer control shed, Jack James watched the frightened little men who thought they ruled the world. As the caps popped off the fully functioning upper level of the device and the lights of doom glowed brighter, the men and women tore at the walls. They screamed and climbed over one another in blind panic.
The walls were too smooth. There were no handholds. Thanks to distance and the weird soundproofing quality of the frictionless walls, their yelling wouldn't be heard by their staffs and the press gathered out in the parking lot.
Their cell phones had been confiscated. They'd been told that the devices could interfere with the operation of the Vaporizer. Trusting, wicked fools.
As the little men ran around in fear, James smiled. The sheep were scattering.
The history of this day would be written in blood on scrolls for wicked mankind. They would call it Judgment Day. The day that he, Jack James-Almighty Jack James-punished the evildoers for their sins and washed clean the face of the earth. It was the Flood, the rapture, the expulsion from Paradise.
All the sins of the world were concentrated in the hands of these, the stewards of this modern Sodom. With a calm that chilled the cold air-conditioned room, Jack James glanced down at the control monitor. The power levels were nearly at maximum. Only a few minutes more.
He was glad he had told them to simplify the Vaporizer commands. At the moment he was the only one there who could operate the device.
In the corner of the room lay Mike Sears.
When he realized what the executive president of Mayana had in store for the crew of the Novgorod, the Milquetoast American scientist had grown a backbone. It hadn't been enough to withstand the mighty rod of persuasion.
James's precious cane hung on the edge of a table. He had kept it throughout his years in exile. Through a life of adversity and persecution.
Blood dribbled down from the scientist's forehead. Sears was unconscious. For his disloyalty, James would finish him off when this was over. Just a few minutes more.
James sat down in Sears's well-worn chair to await the end. As he watched, the last of the little lights continued to come to life. Just as the very first light had been brought into existence on that first long-ago day, the day Almighty Jack James created the heavens and the earth.
THE ROAD UP to the Vaporizer was jammed with abandoned cars. Buses were being used to cart reporters and lesser dignitaries to the site. When Remo and Chiun arrived with Petrovina, they found that only VIP limos were being allowed past the yellow sawhorses.
"They took my purse with my diplomatic identification back at presidential palace," Petrovina said, frustrated. "Have you ID?"
Remo was hardly listening as he glanced around. "My dog ate it," he said.
"There is no way we will get in," Petrovina said.
"I hope you are listening to this, Remo," Chiun said. "You who would invite all manner of Russian trailer trucks to drive into your bed should realize that if you make a baby with this one, it will inherit not only its mother's mustache and swollen ankles, it will get that optimism for which all Russians are famous."
Remo was looking down the road. "Not all Russians are bad, Little Father," he said absently. "Anna was okay."
Face tight, Petrovina glanced sharply at Remo. "That's right," Chiun said. "Drive the knife deeper into your poor old father's dying heart."
A limousine was driving up from New Briton. It had diplomatic plates. One of the attendees of the Globe Summit was arriving late for the Vaporizer test.
When the car drew past them, Remo reached over and popped open a rear door while Chiun opened the driver's door.
Remo found himself looking into the familiar bushy-bearded face of the president of Communist Cuba.
Remo had met the man years before. There was a flash of recognition. When he opened his mouth to scream, his cigar flopped out, scattering burning ash on his drab fatigues.
"Glad we don't need a reintroduction," Remo said. "C'mon, Fuzzy, move it o muerte."
Unseen by the roadblocks up ahead, Remo dragged the Cuban leader out of the car, stuffing him in the trunk.
By the time he got in the back seat, Chiun had already persuaded the driver to continue without question. The Cuban behind the wheel was driving with one hand. The other arm hung limp at his side. He gritted his teeth against the pain.
They kept the tinted windows rolled up tight. Remo, Chiun and Petrovina were waved through the roadblocks and onto the main grounds. At the site they abandoned the limo, racing for the fenced-in Vaporizer.
The two Masters of Sinanju could already feel the thrum of power from the machine. It was the same buildup they'd felt during the test two days previous. "It's close to going off," Remo warned.
Luckily the rest of the dignitaries and reporters had been herded into the visitors' center. There were only a few guards and security personnel near the main gate. When they saw the small trio racing toward them, the men drew guns.
There was no time to argue. Remo and Chiun swept into their midst, fingers and palms putting to sleep all who came at them. As the men toppled left and right, Remo yelled over his shoulder at Petrovina.
"Get to the control booth! Try to shut it down!" She nodded, scooping up the pistol of a fallen Secret Service agent. She ran through the open gate and up the narrow, fenced-in corridor that separated the main driveway from the exterior Vaporizer wall.
Remo and Chiun quickly removed the remaining guards. The last man had not yet hit the ground when they were flying through the fence to the Vaporizer wall. Near the bin with the protective boots waited Jack James's disciples.
Only eight of the twelve remained. They had been ordered to hold their ground and not let anyone inside.
"The Lord shall punish the wicked!" one man shouted as the group assembled around Remo and Chiun, weapons drawn.
"Show of hands for whoever has heard enough of that crapola," Remo said. One hand rose. It, as well as the arm that went with it, was no longer attached to its owner.
Remo tossed the arm to the ground, taking out the one-armed gunman with a sweeping toe. He and Chiun flew through the rest. When the last disciple had fallen, the two Masters of Sinanju raced to the sealed Vaporizer door.
They could feel the hum coming through the black wall.