They parked in front of the warehouse and headed in the side door.
The Nazi doctor watched the two men glide into the building. Their shapes were ghostly on the thermal monitor. Four other spectral images registered elsewhere in the building.
Tapping away at the keyboard, von Breslau entered the final elementary commands into two of the shapes. All was ready for the final trap.
He found that the Dynamic Interface System allowed him to operate most men simply. It was a matter of entering the proper commands beforehand. Rokossovsky had been easy to program. But he remembered Newton mentioning the difficulty he had had at first controlling the Sinanju masters. He had needed an entire team to control one man.
That wouldn't matter to von Breslau. He didn't need to manipulate them at first, only to stop them.
That, he was told by Newton, was relatively easy.
He saw the spectral outlines of Lothar Holz and his assistant.
Von Breslau would soon send a message ordering the young man to attack Holz. He would wait until Holz was cornered.
That Holz deserved to die wasn't even in question.
Any fool who lied to Adolf Kluge had earned death.
But his death wouldn't be entirely in vain.
Von Breslau planned to follow through on part of Lothar Holz's plan. Once the men from Sinanju were frozen like statues, he would download the information from one of them into the computer. Copies of the files would be brought back with him to the village for study and further testing.
But he had one final debt to repay. Before he left, he would enter one last command. He would use the Dynamic Interface System to order the young one to kill the Master of Sinanju.
Tapping his tongue excitedly against his loose dentures, von Breslau watched the two men advance.
IT WAS THE SAME building. Remo had no doubt.
He and Chiun saw the marks on the dirty floor where they had left the three bound ambassadors.
Rokossovsky was dead. Sir Geoffrey Hyde-Black and Helena Eckert were gone, as well.
Remo sensed movement to one side of the building. There was a staircase running up to a second floor. The Master of Sinanju indicated the direction with a bony, upturned chin. Remo nodded. He and Chiun made their way toward the stairs.
As they made their stealthy way across the floor, Remo suddenly felt the telltale itchiness at the base of his skull—the controlling signal of the Dynamic Interface System. He glanced at Chiun. The Master of Sinanju was obviously experiencing the same sensation.
But this time, Remo knew that it was different.
The command that until now had allowed the system operators to control their actions was somehow faulty.
This time, they could still move.
Chiun smiled tightly, patting that area of his robe where the strange object from Smith was hidden.
They headed for the stairs.
The rotted staircase ended at a broad landing that overlooked the main warehouse space far below. A single narrow hallway led away from the top step. It ended at a broken, grimy window far away. The hall was flanked on both sides by ancient office doors.
Some were broken off their hinges, but most were surprisingly well preserved.
At the entrance to the hallway, Remo hesitated.
There were four occupants. He couldn't tell exactly where two of them were—he could only place them farther down the hall—but the second pair was nearby.
He could also sense that their breathing was too perfect for normal humans. It was almost Sinanju.
Remo turned to warn Chiun of the danger. The instant his guard was down, the first door on the left exploded out into the hallway.
Secretary of State Helena Eckert flew through the air toward Remo, one bare foot tucked up beneath her ample thigh. The other was aimed precisely at Remo's head. He spun to meet her just in time.
Remo caught the ambassador by the ball of her foot. He flipped her up and over. The mailbox-shaped woman landed on the long balcony with a heavy thump.
Immediately she sprang to her feet, holding her hands out before her in a classic Sinanju attack pose.
It was one used by beginners, a throwback to the times when Sinanju masters competed in public contests. Remo could see her fleshy knuckle dimples as she brandished her hands menacingly.
With a hellish growl, the Acting Ambassador lunged at Remo.
Behind Remo, Chiun had his own problem to deal with.
The door on the right had sprung open a split second after Acting Ambassador Eckert had flown through the one on the left. From the open doorway, Sir Geoffrey Hyde-Black had launched a rapid series of deadly multiple thrusts against the Master of Sinanju.
Chiun had avoided each of the first half-dozen fists with relative ease. The seventh nearly registered. It was on the eighth that the Master of Sinanju wrapped his delicate hand around the forearm of the British ambassador and yanked the man out into the hallway.
Sir Geoffrey crashed into the opposite wall. The water-stained particleboard wall collapsed under his weight, buckling in half. Sir Geoffrey rolled with the wall and sprang back to his feet. He immediately launched another attack against Chiun.
The Master of Sinanju pulled his hand back for a killing blow.
Still battling Helena Eckert, Remo caught the flash of a kimono sleeve from out of the corner of his eye.
'Don't kill him, Little Father!' Remo shouted.
Chiun appeared angry. 'Would you suggest I let him kill me?' he asked impatiently.
'Just immobilize him,' Remo called.
Helena Eckert's foot lashed out, and Remo ducked away from it.
Chiun let out an angry hiss of air. The British ambassador threw out another malletlike fist. The Master of Sinanju grabbed Sir Geoffrey by the bicep and spun the man around like a top. His hand clamped down on Sir Geoffrey's neck. The man froze stiff as a board. The instant he did so, Chiun heard a groan from behind. When he turned, he saw that Remo had the American ambassador in an identical embrace.
Carrying Helena Eckert like an overfilled bag of groceries, Remo crossed over to Chiun. He had an unhappy expression on his face.
'What do we do with these now, O wise one?'
Chiun asked hotly. 'For if we let them go, they will be made to attack us once more.'
'Wait a minute, Chiun,' Remo said in a hushed tone. He cocked an ear to one side, listening down the hall. 'Do you hear something funny?'
At the rear of the building, Lothar Holz heard Remo shout to the Master of Sinanju.
His assistant stood nearby. Closer, it seemed, than usual.
The shaking had become almost unbearable. Holz pressed his fingers against the earpiece.
'They're here!' he whispered into the small transceiver. 'You were supposed to tell me if they were coming!'
Von Breslau didn't reply. The earpiece remained silent.
Holz glanced around desperately. He had to get out. He couldn't be caught here.
Luckily the rear rooms all opened onto the fire escape. He'd get down to the van. He could not allow these men to capture him.
Quickly he turned toward the rear door. He was just fast enough to see his assistant flash from out of his peripheral vision.
The man's fist moved lightning fast, in a direct line for his face.
He was astonished by what happened next.
Lothar Holz looked on, bewildered, almost a spectator to the actions of his own body. The first Sinanju- enforced blow landed with a squishy thud.
One minute before, von Breslau had been fussing impatiently with the equipment in the van.
He couldn't get a lock on the Sinanju men. He had tried, but the Dynamic Interface System stubbornly refused
