Warren Murphy - Profit Motive

And then he felt the weight on him lightening.

And he heard Chiun's voice calling.

"Remo, where are you? Identify yourself."

"Here, Chiun."

"That won't do," Chiun said. "Identify yourself. Say something stupid."

Meanwhile, Remo felt the bodies on him growing lighter, then he felt a pair of powerful hands grab him by the neck and thrust deeply into his side, and he started to rise from the ground, and he shouted, "Hey, Chiun. Me. Stop."

Chiun dropped him heavily on the ground and turned to look at him, his hands on his hips.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" Chiun asked. "Just look at this mess."

Remo glanced around. Five of the men who at-227

tacked him would attack no more. They lay sprawled in the parking lot, fifteen feet away from Remo's car, their limbs outflung in the indignity of death. The three men nearest the car started to move to their feet. They held knives.

"I don't know," Chiun said. "I thought you were one of a kind. I never knew this country was filled with so much ugliness. I have to rethink my decision to stay in this land of big-noses."

The first man was on his feet, and from Chiun's blind side, he lunged with his knife toward the Oriental. Without turning, Chiun backhanded him with his left hand, and the man went sailing over the hood of Remo's car to land in a lump on the hard pavement of the parking lot.

"Tell me, Remo," said Chiun, "is there a special farm where things like you are bred? Does someone really want to produce such creatures in number?"

The other two men stopped against Remo's car, looked around at the bodies surrounding him and Chiun, then jumped into their car and drove off.

"Now you did it," Remo said.

"I did not do it. I did not spawn these things," Chiun said.

"I mean you let them get away. They're gone now."

"Can they be gone off the earth where their ugliness will never be seen again?"

"Oh, well, the hell with it," Remo said. "It was a good idea to have you waiting here in case it was a trap."

"And the trap worked. I was forced to look at those hideous visages," Chiun said. "Oh, the fiend. I will never be the same."

"Let's knock off the ugly routine," Remo said. "I think we'll go back to see Reva and see if she knows more than she's telling us."

"We will not have to encounter any more such apparitions as these, will we?" Chiun asked.

Reva's office was empty, and Remo broke open her 228

desk and began to look through her papers. But there was only airline confirmation of a flight to Newark. He looked up to see Chiun with his fingertips pressed against the wall behind the leather sofa.

"This wall is humming," Chiun said.

"That's the computer in the next room," Remo said.

"Does it work all night?" Chiun asked.

"That's a heating unit," Remo said smugly. "It's on all the time." But after he said it, he heard the sound and felt the wall himself. There were more vibrations coming through it than he had felt in the computor room earlier.

"Let's go see," he said.

Chiun looked at the computer and said, "This is a big one of these."

"Yes," said Remo. Idly he glanced at the top of the machine. The two cones were rotating in sweeping circles. Remo moved away from Chiun to the far end of the computer's face, but the sensors ignored him and focused on Chiun.

"This thing is sending waves at me," Chiun said.

'Those are sensors," Remo said.

"What do they sense"

"I don't know," Remo said.

"You are a big help." Chiun stepped along the front of the machine, and Remo saw the cones swivel to follow the tiny Korean.

At the far end of the computer, Chiun saw a large power switch mounted on the wall. Over it, there was a printed legend: DANGER. DO NOT CUT POWER. COMPUTER MAY BE DAMAGED.

"That, is strange," Chiun said as he stood at the desk and Remo walked back to the machine.

"What is?"

"Why do they have a switch there to turn off the machine if th,ey do not want you to turn off the machine?"

"Damned if I know," Remo said. "More big think from the big thinkers."

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Remo was opening the front panels on the computer when the telephone rang. And rang again.

"Chiun, get that, will you?" Remo said.

"I do not get telephone calls," Chiun said.

"Please," said Remo.

"Well." Remo heard him Hit the receiver and say, "It is the Master of Sinanju you have the honor of addressing. Describe yourself so I may decide if you are worthy of such honor."

It was a big computer for such a little office, Remo thought. In all of Bleem International, there were only three desks for workers, including Reva Bleem.

He saw Chiun silently holding the telephone to his ear but nodding vigorously. Then Chiun mumbled softly as Remo looked toward the power switch next to the machine. On impulse, he pulled the switch off.

The machine's humming stopped.

Remo heard Chiun say, "Speak up, I can't hear you." Then Chiun said, "Are you still there?" He looked toward Remo. "Remo, I think this idiot has hanged himself on me."

"Hung up," Remo said.

He tossed the power switch back on, and the computer hummed back to life.

"Oh. There you are," Chiun said into the phone. "Well, that is all very interesting, but I cannot do it. No. No. Definitely not." He paused and said finally, "Thank you. I am glad you are alive too. Nice talking to you again." Then he hung up the phone.

"Who was it?" Remo asked.

"It was for me."

"Who was calling you?"

"Some nice person who likes me," Chiun said.

"How do you know that?"

"He told me. It is too bad that he has something wrong with his throat. I do not think he will live long."

"This is very important, Chiun. Tell me about the call, please."

"All right, you nosy thing. But remember, this call was for me. This person said hail to the Master of

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Sinanju whose awesome excellence is appreciated wherever in the world there are men to speak of bravery and wisdom and dignity." "Yeah. Besides that."

"Then he told me he knew I was underpaid for all I had to put up with," Chiun said. "And?"

"And he offered me a million dollars if I would sneak up behind you and club you over the skull." "What?" said Remo.

"That is what he said. Then his voice gave out. It just kind of slowed down and died. And then a moment later, it came back, and I told him I couldn't do it."

"That was nice of you, Chiun." Chiun shrugged. "He was talking about money, Remo, not about gold. At any rate, I explained I have a contract, and he said he understood. And he said that he was glad I was still alive, and I told him that I was glad he was alive. Although, honestly, Remo, with that throat condition, I don't think he will be for long." "What did his voice sound like?" "It was pleasant and soft, not at all like yours." Remo picked up the telephone and heard nothing but a dial tone.

"Chiun, how did he know you were supposed to be dead and that you weren't? How did he know you were here? How did he know that I had my back to you and you could sneak up and club me?"

"Well, I didn't ask him everything," Chiun said. "Particularly minor details." Remo wheeled and looked at the machine. "Chiun, that's it." "What's it?"

"It's the computer. You were talking to the computer. That's how it knew. And when I was here earlier today, it was looking at me, and that's how it knew enough to recruit those eight guys who were dressed like me."

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"It had good taste when it talked to me," Chiun

said.

"I think Reva's friend is this computer. Not a real

person. This damned machine."

"Is it anaerobic?" Chiun asked.

Remo went to the wall switch and cut off the machine's power.

"I don't know,." he said. "But we're going to take some of its innards out and let Smitty figure it out."