“Ah, so. That is the excuse he will use to seize the throne,” Chiun said to Remo in Korean, and to Smith in English, “Most wise.”
“He's not going to take any throne,” Remo answered. “He had you here because he couldn't kill the President himself. He wanted you to do it. Then he would demolish the organization and kill himself.”
“On the eve of his enthronement?” asked Chiun, so incredulous that he forgot to speak in Korean.
“I've told you this, you just don't want to know, Little Father,” said Remo.
“I have since worked out a way to defend against an intrusion of that sort,” said Smith. “The question is, how fit are you?”
“I'd be vulnerable to that solution.”
“You stay here. Can you do what is necessary if the President is stricken by the Dolomos?”
“You mean can I kill him?”
“Yes.”
“Sure,” said Remo.
“No problem there?”
“It's the right move, Smitty.”
“Yes. I suppose so,” said Smith. “Maybe I'm getting old. I couldn't do it.”
“He couldn't do anything, the crazy lunatic,” Chiun said in Korean, and in English added, “Benevolence is of course the signal character of a great ruler.”
“Chiun, with Remo here we can send you. We need to free a group of passengers being held prisoner on an island, and make sure, above all make sure we get control of a formula created by two people, Rubin and Beatrice Dolomo. Get them too while you're at it.”
“Another stupid shopping list from the lunatic in residence,” Chiun said to Remo in Korean, and in English told Smith, “We fly with the speed of your very words.”
“No. Remo has to stay here.”
“Then we shall guard your honor with our lives.”
“No. I want one to do one thing and the other to do another.”
“Both shall do both simultaneously and add to your glory in greater power than a single leaf on a single branch.”
“We have got to have Remo here to do what must be done and you in Harbor Island to do what you must do.”
“Ah,” said Chiun. “I understand. Remo and I will be off to Harbor Island immediately.”
“Smitty, he's not going to let me be anywhere alone in my condition. So give up on that plan of splitting us,” said Remo.
“Why did you say such a thing to Smith?” asked Chiun in Korean, and in the same language Remo answered:
“Because it's true.”
“So?”
“So if we all know what we are doing we don't have to play games.”
“Treating an emperor properly is not a game. Woe be to the assassin who always tells his emperor the truth.”
And in English Remo said to Smith:
“You've got to choose.”
“All right. I have something worked out here if the President is stricken. Go to Harbor Island. But stay in contact. The phone system there is shaky. We'll give you a communications device that links you with a satellite. This whole thing is going to be tricky. I want control from here. I care about the hostages, I want to get the Dolomos, but that stuff is a nightmare.”
“What is it exactly?” asked Remo.
“They're finding out now. The real problem is that some of it won't break down with time.”
“So bury it.”
“In what place that won't be near a water system?
“We’ve got the situation at the Dolomo estate contained, but it is a nightmare if ever they start mass- producing the stuff.”
“So we should get the stuff first?”
“I don't know. That's why we want you with the communicator,” said Smith.
Before they left, Smith wanted to see the President and personally assure him they were going through with this.
“He's been attacked all over the country. Only the people are with him. He's a stand-up guy and he should know that he's got help.”
“And of course, while we are there, if he should fall and suffer an accident...?” suggested Chiun.
“No,” said Smith.
“Not now, then,” said Chiun.
In the Oval Office, Remo Williams promised his President that nothing would stop him.
“I'm an American,” said Remo. “And I don't like to see my country trashed.”
“No. Just the Dolomos. Don't do anything to the press,” said the President.
The President kept avoiding Chiun's eyes. Remo guessed that he knew it had been Chiun who was supposed to kill him.
Chiun saw the President's reaction. This could mean that the lunatic Smith had actually told the current emperor of his plans. Nothing was beyond the insanity of these whites whom Remo continued beyond all reason to serve.
“For the first time I feel like we are in control of the situation,” said the President.
“Whites are never in control of the situation. They are the situation.” This, of course, in Korean.
* * *
Remo and Chiun entered Harbor Island, now being openly talked of as Alarkin or Free Alarkin or Liberated Alarkin. The people doing the talking were newsmen. Some of them were reporting right from the boat. Remo and Chiun avoided the cameras.
One announcer talked of how weak Alarkin had made America, how it had exposed not only America's weakness but also America's intolerance of religious minorities to the world.
“The feeling of many of the hijacked passengers is that while they disagree with hijacking, they have come to learn the pain and persecution suffered by the Powies. They have seen American ships and American guns surround the tiny nation of Alarkin, once Harbor Island. They understand how Poweressence devotees can find themselves in American jails, and they have no wonder that America is a target for those who do not have aircraft carriers or nuclear bombs, but only their own lives. These lives the Powies used in what some in the West might call terrorism. But to the weak and oppressed it is a chance to risk everything against the powerful for the sake of loved ones in American jails. After all, they ask, why not trade one innocent captive for another, and they refer to Kathy Bowen, seized by armed American law-enforcement officers and put behind bars.”
When the announcer finished, he took off his makeup and looked around for applause.
Remo looked to Chiun. “That's not reporting, that's propaganda.”
“Why do you care? I don't understand anything about the crazy whites of your country.”
“Somebody is supposed to try to tell the truth. These guys color everything.”
“Who doesn't?” asked Chiun. “If you are dissatisfied with these, hire your own.”
Even before they reached the dock, two other reporters gave reports to their television cameras on whether the press was a factor in the story. Their conclusion was that the press, considering its handicaps, was doing as well as it could. There was a reporter on the boat who was doing a story for a journalism magazine on criticism of the media, and he was coming to a conclusion that the critics were biased and narrow-minded and that the press had done an outstanding job.
“Am I wrong?” he asked the television newsmen and the reporters.
They all thought he was basically right.
“Good, because I am going back with the boat. I don't have to actually go onto the island to get the story if I have it now.”
