Chiun gestured with his hands. “Then the waters of Ayounde are populated with these waiting no-no-buts.”
“It would still feel good to make sure that all of them in this lab are permanently killed,” Remo said.
Chiun raised his eyebrows. “This would give you solace?”
“I just feel like burning stuff up. Yeah, I guess that means I would be solaced. Besides, the doc deserves better than just rotting here until somebody comes to clean him up.” He nodded at the frosty corpse of Dr. Alcieni.
Mark Howard saw the connection monitor blink off. He swore, an almost silent hiss, and began tapping out commands to reestablish the connection.
“Don’t bother, Mark,” Dr. Smith said. “The phone was likely destroyed. Remo would not want to bear any more from us.”
“What is he thinking?” Howard asked. “This is no time to be out of touch.”
“Make no mistake, Remo will thoroughly destroy the lab and its contents. He will not allow any of the nanobots to survive. He’s probably thinking we would ask him—I would ask him—to preserve samples.”
Mark looked at the old man behind the big desk. “Would you have?”
“Only for a very compelling reason,” Smith said. “But Remo doesn’t want to be reminded about my orders regarding the colonial governor of Ayounde.”
Mark nodded. “You knew he would ignore them.”
“I assumed he probably would,” Smith agreed. “But there was a more important and compelling need to send him than to not. We have ascertained that it was nanotechnology at work in Ayounde, and we can assume it was nanotechnology stolen somehow from Loch Tweed Castle. That may be the link we need to trace the masterminds behind this mess.” Smith sighed. “Let’s try to accomplish that before we have repercussions from whatever Remo is about to do.”
Mark Howard looked curious. “Do you know what he’s planning?”
“He’s probably not
They watched the College of Natural Sciences become engulfed in flame, giving a clean end to Dr. Alcieni and all the other unfortunates who had died within those walls.
It was made all the more strange by the lack of response from the city around it. There should have been fire trucks wailing and people gathering, but there was only stillness. The sound of the burning College of Natural Science was like the crackle of a campfire.
A small band of brave looters appeared for a moment, watched the blaze and returned to the task of removing jewelry from the corpses. It was best to get that job accomplished now, before the hard-core decay set in. Later on they’d get to work on the shops and homes.
“The mariner’s helicopter comes to the park over there,” Chiun said, pointing in the opposite direction from which Remo was now headed. “Alas, you go now to disobey the Emperor who pays you in gold. You are as a predictable as a schoolboy who cannot be cured of smoking tobacco. What mischief are you headed for now, Remo Williams?”
“You already guessed it. I’m going to have a few cigarettes before Uncle Sam comes to get us.”
“You go to the mansion of the colonial governor to exact some sort of vengeance.”
“Maybe. You can wait in the park,” Remo answered. “I saw some nice benches there—just move the bodies.” By this time he was a block away, but he didn’t need to raise his voice to be heard. Especially in this hauntingly silent city, their voices carried to the well-tuned ears of the Sinanju Masters. Remo expected he would soon hear the virtually silent padding of Chiun’s sandals accompanying his own footsteps, and he wasn’t disappointed. It occurred to Remo that, although he wasn’t exactly the man in charge when it came to all things Sinanju, he was learning how to better turn the screws on Chiun.
“Do not think that you have berated me into accompanying you, Remo.”
“You going to try to stop me, then?”
“Not exactly,” Chiun said. “That is to say, yes, I am going to try to stop you.”
“Fat chance.”
“I shall accomplish this by appealing to your sense of duty, as the Reigning Master of Sinanju.”
“Uh-huh.” Remo walked faster, but he would never be able to outpace Chiun.
“Consider that the recolonizers may be the natural evolution of governments around the world, Remo,” Chiun said. “It would appear to me that there are those in the Western world who are becoming enlightened. There are those who have the backbone to help forge a new government that might actually endure.”
“What do you mean?” Remo demanded.
“What I mean is simple enough. An empire must be dominated by an emperor. A dictatorship will always be stronger than any democracy. Look at the mess that has been made of your own nation of North America—it is because there is no one in charge, with power enough. You have one face after another, spouting identical slogans devoid of meaning.”
“We’ve had some okay presidents,” Remo said.
“You have had many presidents—so many that some were bound to be less reprehensible than others. None of them took the reins of power firmly in hand and held on to them,” Chiun complained.
