Warren Murphy: Lords of the Earth

Remo and Chiun started forward but Barry shouted to them.

"No closer," he said. "I can handle this."

His body seemed to grow rigid and then his eyes apparently lost their focus and gazed off into a distance no one could see.

"Remo, Chiun. Help him," Smith snapped.

Remo ignored him. "He's doing that thing again," he said to Chiun. "The cosmic-power thing."

Chiun merely watched the battle unfolding before him.

As Ndo reached Barry and stretched his arms out to encircle him, Barry darted low, under the arms, stuck out his foot and sent the IHAEO officer sprawling on the ground. He thumped Ndo on the side of the head with one chubby fist.

"Dammit if that kid's not all right," Remo said. "Instant Sinanju."

"There is no instant Sinanju," Chiuri said and moved forward toward Barry.

Ndo was on his feet again, circling around Barry. The little fat man had dropped the blue blanket as he turned, keeping his face toward Ndo.

Then, almost visibly, the strength seemed to drain from him. He was staring at the ground where Ndo's stomping feet had stepped on the blanket.

The young man paused. Chiun called out, "Here. Ndo. Here." But before Ndo could move, Barry dove forward to the ground to try to pick up ... what?

"He's going for that damned blanket," Remo snarled.

Chiun ran forward to stop him but he was too late. One blow was enough. Ndo caught Barry between the shoulder blades with a powerful down-crashing fist and broke the young scientist's back with a sound like the snap of a dry twig. Barry dropped into the dust as if all the bones in his body had suddenly vanished.

He seemed to try to crawl forward a few inches. His hand dug into the dust. And then his face thunked down onto the ground.

Chiun was on Ndo, his arms and legs invisible inside the kimono he wore, the flowing and swirling of the garment making his movements look gentle and almost slow. But there were the sounds. The thud and thud of blows to Ndo, the crack and crack as bones snapped, and then the African lay in a heap, his sightless eyes staring upward at the sun, his hands twitching in the final reflex of death.

Remo bent over to Barry as Smith ran up to them. "Why did you stop, kid?" Remo asked. "You had him and then you stopped."

Chiun knelt on the other side of Barry Schweid, who offered a pained little grin.

He opened the palm of his hand. Inside was trapped a red-winged fly. The insect was not moving.

"I saw this on the ground near Ndo. I jumped to catch it so it wouldn't get away and bite anybody else. Wasted my time," Barry said. "It was already dead."

"We're going to get you to a hospital," Smith said. He knelt in the dust alongside Barry's head.

Barry shook his head weakly: "I don't think so," he said. "Death is something tangible, something you can feel. Did you know that?" he asked, his scholar's mind still fascinated by the workings of his own organism, even in its last moments of life. "Will you write that down somewhere?"

Smith nodded, not trusting himself to speak, and Remo said, "Where does it hurt, kid? I can take the pain away." He realized that it was death he could not conquer.

"It doesn't hurt anymore. Not at all." He glanced toward Chiun and smiled again. "You understood what I was doing. It was the same thing I did in the lab, harnessing the cosmic energy. The same thing you do with the breathing. I had it, but then when I went for the fly, I lost it. Why'd that happen?"

"I do not know, my son," Chiun said.

"You said it was breathing. I was breathing right," Barry said. He closed his eyes for a moment in a wince of pain, then opened them again, searching Chiun's face for an answer.

"You breathed correctly," Chiun said softly. "But breathing is only one part of it. You did not have the training to sustain it. The power comes from the breathing. That is correct. But keeping that power comes from training, from knowing you have that power and that you can use it." He held both hands over his chest. "It comes from in here. But not from the lungs, from inside the heart. And from here." He raised his hands to touch his forehead. "Tell me. Was there not a moment when you worried that the power would leave you?"

Barry tried to nod and grimaced with the pain. "When I saw the fly. I wondered if I would be fast enough or strong enough to get it."

"That was the moment of your weakness," Chiun said. "In that moment, when first you doubted it, the power left you."

"I was so close," Barry said.

"You would have been a fine pupil," Chiun said. "You had wisdom and courage. You lacked only the confidence of knowing you could do it. That is the true secret of Sinanju: that a man can overcome any obstacle if he knows in his heart that he must and in his mind that he can," Chiun said.

"You think I could have been a good student?" Barry asked.

"Yes," Chiun said. "You would have been my best."

"Thank you," said Sehweid. His eyes rolled up in his head and he saw Smith kneeling behind him. "Thank you, Harold, for everything."

"And thank you, Barry."

"You're the closest thing I ever had to a friend, Harold."

"I feel that way too, Barry," Smith said.

Barry Schweid smiled once and died. Forgotten in the courageous moments of his final battle and death was the little piece of blue blanket which lay in the Uwendan dust.

Schweid's body was in the rear seat of the limousine that had belonged to Amabasa Francois Ndo.

"The jeep's gone," Remo said. "No telling where Perriweather is now. Do you think he's got more flies?"

Smith nodded. "He must have. Many more. I'm sure they've bred by now. He's got enough to carry out his threat."

"Then we've lost," Remo said.

"It looks that way," Smith said.

"I'm sorry," Remo said. "He could be anywhere by now."

"I know."

"Chiun and I will stay around to look for him, but I wouldn't hold out too much hope if I were you."

"I won't," Smith said. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to take Barry's body to the American embassy near the airport. They can arrange to ship it home. We'll bury him back in the States."

"That's a good idea," Remo said.

Smith nodded and stepped into the car. "Good-bye, Master of Sinanju," he said. "Goodbye, Remo."

"Good-bye," Remo said.

Chiun was silent as Smith drove away.

Chapter 21

"Well, if the world's all going back to the Stone Age, this is a good place to be, I guess," said Remo.

"How quick you white things are to surrender," Chiun said.

"Perriweather could be miles away by now," Remo said.

"He could be," Chiun said. "And he might be close by. Should one give up without considering the possibility?"

"All right. We'll keep following the jeep tracks," Remo said without conviction. They were moving along a narrow path through the brush, just wide enough to accommodate Perriweather's vehicle.

"And what of the curious condition of the red-winged fly?" Chiun said over his shoulder, without turning, as he continued to race along the path.

"What curious condition? The fly's dead," Remo said.

"That is its curious condition," Chiun said.

"If you say so, Little Father," said Remo, who had no idea what Chiun was talking about.

"Silence," Chiun commanded. "Do you hear it?" Remo listened but heard nothing. He looked back toward Chiun, but the old Korean was no longer there. Remo looked up and saw Chiun skittering up the side of a tall tree, as quickly as a squirrel: The Master of Sinanju paused for a moment at the top, then slid down smoothly. As he reached the ground, Remo heard the sound. It was an automobile engine.

Chiun ran off through the brush with Remo following.

"You saw him?" Remo said.

"He is over there." Chiun waved vaguely in the direction they were running. "The dirt road must curl around through the jungle and joins with another road ahead. We can reach him."