“We broke up,” his son said, then grinned and winced as Nancy Fielding’s skull was magnetically pulled into the cinder-block wall. “She can’t last too much longer,” Jack added.
She hung there, then flew again at the two men, who allowed her to sail past as they maneuvered for the entrance. Every scrap of alloy that should have sliced into them was pushed away, or sidestepped, or just ignored.
“How are they doing that?” Jack demanded.
Jacob Fastbinder swallowed thickly when he was unfortunate enough to witness Nancy Fielding’s head become separated from the tangle of welded steel barbs that had been inserted in her skull. It was the steel that had been responding to the electromagnets. Without it, the cadaver flopped down and didn’t get up again.
“That’s what gives her get up and go,” Jack explained offhandedly. “Good grief, these dudes move fast—oh no, you don’t.”
Jacob Fastbinder knew the intruders were going to escape—he didn’t know how, but the shrapnel storm wasn’t stopping them; they were at the door.
“Charge!” JackFast exclaimed with manic delight, thrusting one fist in the air and slamming the other on a large opaque button.
Remo Williams heard something ugly come out of his own throat when the Nothingness swarmed over him.
The Nothingness hurt It was the worst agony of all. He didn’t know if he could take it, not this strong, not again.
The senses of a Master of Sinanju are heightened beyond what most humans would believe possible, and a Master is constantly aware of the hundreds of signals in his environment: sound and pressure and temperature and smell; the shifting pull of the earth and the moon; the weight of the atmosphere and the incalculably small deviations in pressure that come from a flying bullet or a speck of dust.
In the Nothingness, Remo had awareness but all his senses became useless, and if he could have screamed—or prayed for mercy…
Then it was over. He picked himself off the ground cautiously, unable to believe that he had not plunged into a Nothingness again permanently.
“Remo.” Chiun was coming to his feet, and relief showed on his ancient face—until the Nothingness came again. Remo was yanked back into his own special hell.
Then it was gone. He forced himself to his feet, grabbed Chiun and heaved them both toward the entrance. Chiun collapsed on the ground outside and fought to get onto his hands and knees.
It came again, sucked them into Nothingness, and Remo’s last thought was that he could not take it. He would rather die….
To his surprise, pain came a moment later. He was draped over the steel frame of the doorway where he had collapsed. He drew his legs up under him and pushed away. He didn’t care if he looked like a crippled frog, as long as it put distance between himself and the source of their suffering.
Chiun came to his feet but couldn’t stand straight. He and Remo propped each other up like a pair of drunks. They went a few paces before the Nothingness sucked at them again. It was behind them, weakened, and the Masters of Sinanju swayed blindly, then staggered on.
When they reach the car they could no longer feel the pulses. They stood breathing, looking at each other.
“Chiun?” Remo gasped when he could talk again.
“I am enfeebled, but improving. How has it affected you, Remo?”
Remo allowed his breath to fill his body and send back signals of damage. “When it comes. Little Father, I wish I was dead. Dying would be better than that, whatever it is.”
“You are too strong to succumb to such flights of fancy.” Chiun declared. “How are you now? Do you feel strong enough to throw rocks?”
“Definitely.”
“What are they doing now?” Jack Fast whined.
He was sure those two would get their circuits fried by the proton discharges, but the discharge couldn’t be sustained, and every time it stopped the two intruders managed to put distance between themselves and the discharge unit. Now they were in front of the museum, where they didn’t seem bothered by the discharge anymore.
“I think they are picking up gravel,” Fastbinder said.
“Oh no, don’t do that, you son of a guns!” Jack stood and grabbed the monitor as if he could shout at them. The pair tossed one rock each directly at the top of the museum sign and the stones became massive in the screen, like looming comets. It was so vivid that Jack Fast ducked and threw his arms over his head, but it was over in an instant. The computer window went black… Jack Fast shrugged sheepishly.
“You found their Achilles tendon after all, Jack,” Fastbinder said. “Zee proton drive did something to them. I saw it myself. You were right about that.”
