Warren Murphy - Last Call

When Remo told him he had just eaten the main course, the premier said he would not give up the Balkans for anything, not even a piece of bread.

Finally they settled for foot-long hot dogs, and Disneyworld got the rights to build a Black Sea resort and an option on the Urals.

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The Urals did not entitle the Russians to arcade games or dessert.

The premier missed the noon parade of Pluto and Donald Duck and Mickey and Minnie because the contingent was stuck in Future World and could not get over to the main plaza in time. The parade was free, there being no charge for eyesight.

About 1 P.M., Nina confessed that she had the feeling they were looking at the same thing over and over again, with different colored paint.

"There's a trick to telling one exhibit from another," Vassily Karbenko said. "If they have already clipped your ticket book, you've been there, I think."

One of the KGB men on the Paddlewheeler ride wanted to shoot real bullets into the imitation fort to see if anything would happen. Karbenko told him no because he might need his bullets to get out of there if they ran out of money.

Remo said to Chiun, "No sign of any trouble yet."

Chiun looked at his Mickey Mouse wristwatch.

"You have forgotten the lesson of the Great Ung," he said.

"Instantly," Remo agreed.

"Idiot," Chiun said.

Nina wanted a doll from It's a Small Small World, and got one on the premier's promise to conclude a SALT agreement as soon as possible. By now, Nina had a large shopping bag filled with souvenirs.

When they passed the haunted house, there was a sign on the front of the building announcing it was closed for the day.

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But a well-tanned young man motioned them to the entrance.

"We've just finished making some improvements inside," he said. "We'd like you to test out the house as our guests. Before we open it to the public."

"You mean free?" the premier asked.

The young man nodded.

"You do not want the Ukraine?"

The man shook his head.

"Our submarine fleet? No cutback in missile construction?" the premier asked suspiciously.

"Free," the young man said.

"Let's go," the premier said. He whispered to Karbenko, "Lenin was right. Given time, the capitalist system will break down."

The heavy door clanged shut behind them as they entered the haunted house. Two of the KGB men led the way as they walked single-file down a long dark corridor.

Remo walked in front of the premier and Nina and Chiun followed them.

Up ahead, there was a faint light at the end of the long dark tunnel, and then they were standing in a large oak-panelled room with oil portraits of men in nineteenth-century garb mounted high up on the walls.

A recorded voice announced that they were going back through time, to another dimension, and as the voice spoke the paintings around the tops of the walls began to change their visage and the men in them seemed to grow younger.

Vassily Karbenko was gone.

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The electronic voice intoned, "And now, when the secret panel opens, move through the chamber of the past."

There was a faint hissing sound as one of the oaken walls began to slide to the right, revealing another passageway.

Chiun led Nina and the premier through the opening. The four KGB men followed. Remo turned his back and ran back down the dark passageway toward the front entrance.

For ordinary eyes, it would have been almost impossible to see in the corridor. But for Remo, there was no such thing as darkness; there was only less light and more light, and the eye adjusted accordingly. Once all men had seen this way, but now after thousands and thousands of years of laziness, the eye muscle had lost its tone and the eye surfaces their sensitivity, and men had adopted the habit of being blind in the dark. Only a few animals had retained their ability to see at night, and the darkness belonged to them. It belonged to Remo, too.

Flush against one of the wooden panels on the corridor walls, he saw a pushbutton. He pressed

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it, and the panel hinged back and opened into a small room.

Vassily Karbenko lay on the floor of the room. Blood stained the front of his light blue shirt. His own gun lay in a corner of the room.

Remo knelt over him and Karbenko slowly opened his eyes. He recognized Remo and tried to smile. Blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Hiya, pal," he said.

"Who did it?" Remo asked.

"Stantington's men. That was one of them at the entrance way who let us in," he said. "My own fault. I should have known."

"Don't worry," Remo said. "I'll get help."

"Too late," Karbenko said. "Is the premier all right?"

"He's okay," Remo said. "And I'll keep him that way."

"I know," said Karbenko. He tried to smile again, but the small facial movement caused him pain. His voice came in a slight whisper and his breath in a heavy gasp.

"Sorry I didn't meet you sooner," Remo said. "We could have been a helluva team."

Karbenko shook his head.

"No," he said. "Too many miles between us. If Stantington didn't get me today, it would've been you. You'd have to do it later on 'cause I knew too much about you people."

Remo started to protest, then stopped. Karbenko was right, he realized. He remembered the scene in Smith's office. Smith had told him to protect the premier. He had said that was all ...

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"for now." But later, he would have sent Remo after Karbenko.

"Don't feel bad," Karbenko said. "That's the business we're in." He opened his mouth to speak again but a thick gush of bloody ooze welled up in his mouth. He tried to swallow, could not, and then his head lolled off to the side, his eyes still open, staring at the wall.

Remo stood up. He nodded down at the Russian spy. He felt a curious emotion toward the man, an affection he did not often experience. It was respect and he had thought it no longer lived in him.

"That's the biz, pardner," he said. He turned back to the corridor, to follow the premier, to make sure he was kept alive.

The lights in the chamber of the past had been turned out. But Remo knew where the hidden door was, and he jammed his fingertips like the points of screwdrivers into the wood and yanked it to the left. There was a whooshing sound as his power was pitted against a hydraulic door lock. The whoosh turned into a total expulsion of air from the device and as the air rushed out, the machine's pressure against the door ended, and the oaken panel slammed to the left, crashing into the innards of the door, with a wood-cracking sound.

A twisting corridor stretched out in front of him. Remo went down it at full speed. After twenty yards, the corridor twisted off to the left and opened onto a miniature railroad platform.

Chiun stood on the edge of the platform alone. He looked up as Remo approached.

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"Karbenko is dead," Remo said.

Chiun nodded. "He was a good man," he said.

"Where's the premier?"

"He is with the four security men."

Just then a small train appeared at one end of the track and picking up speed, it began to move past them. The four KGB men were on it.

"Where is the premier ?" Remo called.

"In the back car," one of the men responded as the train moved quickly past them. The car with the guards vanished into the tunnel. Remo and Chiun looked toward the other end. The last car of the train came by them. The premier and Nina were not on it.

"They must have changed their minds," Remo said.

"Fool," hissed Chiun. He ran to the far end of the platform. A fiberglass wall, molded to look like the stones of a dungeon, separated the train "station" from the small boarding area.

As Remo raced up behind Chiun, he saw the small man leap into the air, and then come down against the wall. His hands flailed out in explosive fury, and the fiberglass splintered and parted, and in the same forward motion, without his feet ever hitting the floor, Chiun was through the rip in the wall. Remo followed him at a dive.