"I'd appreciate you more if you hectored me less."
"I would hector you less if you appreciated me more."
"You first," said Remo.
And when neither thought the other was looking again, relaxed smiles touched their downturned lips. It was just like the old days.
Chapter Thirty-four
In his windowless office at CIA headquarters, Ray Foxworthy was bleary eyed from reading all the Intel intercepts crossing his desk. If half of them were to be believed, America was out in the cold while the rest of the world furiously developed some hitherto unknown technology with significant military applications.
The phone rang. He picked it up, one eye scanning a report out of India noting a weapon called Shiva-Urga. It was said to mean an incarnation of the Hindu deity Shiva in his most destructive form.
"Yeah?" he said absently.
"Chattaway. NRO. I could use some help, linguistically speaking."
"Are we NOIWONing here?"
"We will as soon as I nail down a few facts."
"What language?" Foxworthy asked.
"Korean."
"What do you need to know?" Foxworthy asked warily.
"The North Koreans have code-named their secret weapon Sinanju Chongal. I need to know what that means."
"What'll you trade for it?"
"This is national security!"
"And this is my ass if I don't have something to give the Pentagon—same as you."
"Okay, how about we say you came up with the original report, brought it to me, I went back to you on linguistics and we keep the DIA out of the picture entirely?"
"Sounds good to me. Sinanju, you said?"
"Spelled S-i-n-a-n-j-u. We already know 'Chongal' means 'scorpion.' "
"Back to you soonest." Foxworthy disconnected and stabbed an inside-line button.
A dry voice said, "Linguistics."
"Foxworthy. Korean."
An Asian voice came on. "Go ahead."
"Sinanju. What does it mean?"
"Exact pronunciation, please."
"The way I told it to you is the way I have it," Foxworthy snapped.
"Well, depending on how the syllables break, it might mean New Hors d'Oeuvres."
"Hors d'ouevres! As in canapes?"
"That's the closest English equivalent."
"Hors d'ouevres isn't English."
"The exact translation of 'anju' is 'something tasty to have with drinks. 'Sin' can mean 'new.' Now, if we assume it's not 'anju' as in hors d'ouevres,' but two separate words, then 'ju' means 'far.'"
"And you said 'sin' means 'new.'"
"Right."
"So we get New-blank-Far. What's does 'an' mean?"
"That's a long list, starting with a common Korean last name. Without knowing the exact pronunciation, this is as far as I'm willing to take this linguistic analysis."
"That'll do. No sense getting too deep in."
Hanging up, Foxworthy got back to Chattaway at the NRO. "There's some muddiness here, but 'sin' means 'new' and 'ju' is for 'far,' so we have New-something-Far Scorpion."
"Hmm. This is not good. New-something-Far Scorpion. Sounds long-range."
"Definitely long-range."
"Well, I guess we're on the NOIWON now."
The other intelligence agencies came on the line, and no one had anything to offer to the analysis as the NRO laid it out.
The JCS chair came on the line and said, "Thank you, gentlemen. This is all I need to know."
And everyone wondered what the JCS chair was going to do about the new North Korean threat that made the atomic bomb seem as dangerous as a runaway cheese wheel.
Chapter Thirty-five
Over a city whose airport control tower welcomed them to the true Macedonia, the Master of Sinanju looked down at a shining river and said, "They lie."
"What river is that?" Remo asked.
"The Ishm."