"Cease crying. Continue."
Amanda swallowed. Somehow the darkness made her feel worse than she had been feeling. It seemed to enwrap her.
"I told him the warhead was in the city, but— he tricked me. He found out the truth. I couldn't kill him— I tried to, but I couldn't— but I got away. I managed to get away somehow."
"I expected that," the voice intoned.
"You did?"
"Of course. You were no match for this Remo. I expected him to lead or follow you here. This is where I will defeat him, for this place is designed to defeat any intruder."
"What about the warhead? Where is it?"
"The warhead has been activated and positioned. It will detonate in the city of Tulsa within three hours."
"Good, I guess," Amanda said sickly. "What about the others? Are they here?"
"Their usefulness has been fulfilled. Preparation Group Two has been rewarded. Just as Preparation Group One was..."
"Dead?" Amanda asked weakly. "All of them?"
"All that remains is their brave leader," the World Master said ironically. And he laughed like a ghoul.
* * *
Remo waited for Amanda to disappear into the strange blue structure before he left the car, which he had parked in the early morning sunlight at the edge of the abandoned oil field.
"I am coming," Chiun said, stepping out of the car, too.
"No," Remo said. "You've got to stay with the Russian. Smith's orders, remember?"
Chiun shook his head firmly. "Emperor Smith's orders are that I am responsible for him. That does not mean I am to be his babysitter."
"We can't take him with us," Remo said. He was worried that Chiun might complicate matters when it came to a showdown with the World Master.
"We will lock him in the trunk," Chiun said, dragging Pavel Zarnitsa out of the back seat.
"I protest," Pavel said.
"Me, too," Remo said. "He might escape."
"Then I will incapacitate his legs so he cannot escape," Chiun returned. "It is important that I accompany you, Remo. I have unfinished business."
"That's what I was afraid of," Remo grumbled. He turned to the Russian. "What'll it be? The trunk or your kneecaps?"
"I think I will be very comfortable in the trunk," Pavel said through a forced smile as they put him in the trunk.
There wasn't much cover near the round building. Remo and Chiun moved along the oil rigs until they were as close as they could get without being exposed. Remo, seeing no activity, began to move forward.
"Wait," said Chiun. "It is a maze. I recognize the form."
"So?" said Remo. "There's the door, and I don't see any guards. Let's rush it."
"Yes," Chiun snapped. "Let us rush the door. Let us blunder to our deaths now, while there is still daylight. Why should we wait and carefully plan our attack when we can go impatiently to our deaths and end this terrible suspense?"
"All right, all right," Remo said. "I'm listening."
Chiun sat down amid the wild grass and placidly waited until Remo, heaving a sigh of exasperation, sat beside him. Chiun gestured toward the blue building.
"Behold this structure, Remo," he said. "What does it say to you?"
"Say? It doesn't say anything."
"Wrong. Nothing in the universe is silent. All things have voices." Chiun pulled a long blade of grass from the earth and held it up so that Remo could see its roots. "This lowly blade of grass speaks to me. By the lack of dirt in its roots and by its yellow color, it tells me that if I had not plucked it and put it out of its misery, it would have withered away painfully."
"So?" Remo looked around him. The thought had occurred to him that this might be a grazing area and he hoped he hadn't stepped or sat in anything unpleasant.
"So this, dull one. That structure, by its very form, tells me that it is a maze designed to create difficulties for any who enter it. For it is a snail maze. There is only one entrance, one exit and one path, which winds around itself and ends in a central chamber."
"That doesn't sound like a maze to me," Remo said doubtfully. "A maze has a lot of passages and blind turns and things like that."
"That is a Western maze. A confused pattern designed by confused minds to confuse minds even more confused than they."
"Huh?" said Remo, who was suddenly confused himself.
"See?" smiled the Master of Sinanju, having proven his point by example. "A snail maze is an Eastern maze. Even the Russian would have recognized it. Now this is a pure maze. It is designed to force an intruder along a certain path, which is a spiral. The spiral path slows down the intruder so that he falls victim to traps or interception. Because there is no direct path, the intruder cannot by accident find a short cut. To one who is allowed safe passage or who knows the key, entrance is a simple matter. To intruders, it is often fatal."
"I think I get it," Remo said. "This maze is designed to protect the man in its center."
"Yes. It is he who controls the traps set along the path."
"The World Master," Remo said. "He's probably got the warhead in that central chamber, too. Little Father, you know it is important to recover that warhead."
Chiun nodded.
"It may be that we will have to fight this World Master..." Remo said hesitantly.
Chiun looked momentarily uncomfortable. "Once," he said, "there was a Master named Huk, who was summoned to the court of a king of Assyria."
"Come on, Chiun," Remo interrupted. "We're wide open here. Do we have to go into a legend now?"
"No, insolent one. We can squander the lesson of Huk, if your American genius has enabled you to understand what lies within the snail maze."
Remo folded his arms and was silent.
"Now, this king of Assyria was greatly worried. For he had heard rumors that a neighboring king was preparing to make war against him. A great warrior was the Assyrian king, and he possessed a mighty army which feared no enemy. But the reputation of this enemy king was great, for none had ever seen him, and it was rumored that he was not like other men. This king lived in a fortress composed of seven concentric rings surrounding his throne room. Each ring had its own guards, and each ring had a single advisor who controlled his ring. When someone wished to bring a message to this king, it was first given to the advisor who controlled the outermost ring, who passed the message to the next ring, until it had gone through all seven rings. Only the advisor of the innermost ring was allowed to deal directly with this king. For beheading was the penalty for any who set eyes upon him. Only he knew what his king looked like, and it was from him that the rumors about the king came. And these tales likewise passed through the ring until when they reached the ears of the king's subjects, they made the king seem to be more like a god than a man.