Well, Sheriff Wade Wyatt, befitting his grandeur as a human being, had been the kind of man who would tolerate a great deal before cracking down. But not Brace Cole, who was now the acting sheriff of San Aquino County, pending an election within sixty days for Wade Wyatt's unexpired term. Brace Cole was not about to let that Blomberg get away with it.
Wade Wyatt's holster hung from the bedpost and Brace Cole went over to it, then removed the .44 calibre revolver. He spun the cylinder to make sure the gun was loaded, then fingered the notches on the gun butt.
"Sheriff," he said to Wyatt's intestine-packed face, "We're going to put another notch on your gun."
Then he went out into the midnight of San Aquino County. He had not noticed the printed note on the floor near the bed, which read: "Double-crossing American pigs. Now you pay."
Across the town, Remo sat on the blue suede sofa in his living room, talking to Smith. Chiun, still wearing his black robe, sat on the dining room floor, staring through the glass windows toward the dimly-lit pool area.
"The Mafia's out of the game," Remo said. "I don't think they'll be back. But now I've got to get the girls. Quake's assistants."
"Why did they do it, do you think?5
"Who knows? They talk like radicals. More country-haters? Or maybe they just like money. Oh, speaking of money. We got yours back."
"Thank God for small favours," Smith said. "You had better get the girls before they do something dangerous."
"I will," Remo said. "We're going now."
He hung up and said, "C'mon, Chiun, let's go."
The old man rose to his feet and followed Remo out the front door. They drove from their circular driveway only four minutes before acting Sheriff Brace Cole arrived.
When he saw his prey had vanished, he broadcast a bulletin over his police radio:
"Notice to all departments in the San Aquino area. Watch for a red hardtop, rental plates, being driven by one Remo Blomberg. He may be accompanied by a little Chink. Both are wanted for suspicion of murder. They are dangerous; should be considered armed and approached with caution."
Remo parked his car up in the parking area of the Richter Institute, in a corner away from casual sight. It had been a quick trip. He had been racing at full speed when a state squad car got behind him and gave him the siren, but Remo lost the trooper by dousing his lights and skidding into the turnoff to the institute. He glanced back down toward the road. There was no one following him.
He and Chiun walked down a rickety flight of wooden stairs that led to the twins' trailer. The Volkswagen bus was not there. Remo and Chiun went into the trailer, to wait in the dark for the girls.
If they were going to make a quake, a big one, they'd make it someplace near here, he told himself, hoping he was right, hoping they had not just fled. This was the spot where the fault was locked, where the greatest pressure was and where their water-laser would have to be set to rip off California.
Rip off California? How many? Thirteen million people? And how many would die? A million? Two million? How many would lose their homes and their roots? Their businesses?
A million corpses. Lay them out and they'd reach halfway across the country.
Remo heard a motor, the tinny sound of a four-cylinder engine, then doors closing, then voices. He slumped down in his chair.
"The lying, thieving government. They must have had somebody follow Wyatt and steal the money." That would be Jill. "Well, now they'll pay for it."
"I don't think so." That was Jacki. "I think the big pig tried to keep the money for himself."
There was a giggle, then Jacki said, "Did you see the look on his face when we let him have the water-laser? Poor bastard. He didn't even get a chance to dip his wick." She giggled again.
They were standing now outside the trailer. "But I'd feel better if we had gotten a chance to use it on Remo. What did he do to us anyway?" Jill asked.
"I don't know," Jacki answered. "That never happened before. But I think that stupid deputy will take care of Remo. Particularly since we called him and told him that we saw Blomberg leaving Wyatt's house. When he finds Wyatt dead, he'll take care of Remo."
"Maybe," Jill said. "C'mon. We're going to set this equipment and then get out of here before the state blows. Pig government."
Remo heard footsteps walking away from the trailer, crunching twigs and leaves underfoot. He rose and peered through a window. Under the bright light of the California moon, he saw the two girls, each carrying a water-laser, walking away from the trailer, up along the edge of the fault, toward the spot where Remo knew the two drill shafts stuck up from the ground. "Let's go, Chum," he whispered.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I think it will be beneficial to wait. You go."
Remo shrugged and stepped lightly down from the trailer. What was on Chiun's inscrutable mind now? There was something.
Then Remo, still clad in black, slid silently through the night, following the twins,
They were twenty feet ahead of him. When they came to a large clearing, they stopped. They got to work immediately, beginning to hook the water-lasers together, to double their power. Then they lugged them over to the shaft that jutted up from the ground, and began to fasten the coupling to the shaft.
Remo stepped out into the clearing.
"Hi, girls," he said cheerily.
They froze in position, squatting over the equipment.
"Remo," they hissed in unison.
"Yup. It was so good today, I thought I'd come back for more."
One of the girls stood up. In profile, he could tell it was Jill.
She walked slowly toward Remo, her arms extended as if in greeting. "We've thought of nothing else," she said. She licked her lips and in the moonlight, they glistened black and white. Now she was at Remo; she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her breasts up close into him.
"You know what I think?" Remo said softly.
"What?" her tongue asked his ear.
"You would have made a great bull dyke."
He pushed her back and she fell to the ground. Jacki was still bent over the water-lasers and Remo headed for her. Then an explosion ripped the air. Remo was knocked off his feet. He felt a searing pain burn into his shoulder.
A voice roared over a portable bullhorn.
"Remo Blomberg! I know you're down there. This is acting Sheriff Brace Cole. You're under arrest for the murder of Sheriff Wade Wyatt. Now come on up from there or the next grenade'll land right in your lap."
Remo was stunned. The grenade had barely missed him, and he could feel a trickle of blood running down his left arm from a fragment in his shoulder.
He shook his head to clear it, then saw Jacki stand up and away from the water-lasers. The familiar thumping had started.
"Too late, pig," she said. "This whole state is going."