"Dorma! Get a window open and throw something out!"
"But the windows don't open."
"Kick the glass out! Anything!"
The crash of glass came a moment later.
"Listen for it to hit the ground."
"I am."
"Anything?"
"No."
"Keep listening."
"It should have shattered by now."
Then the lights winked out.
"Great!" chortled Randal Rumpp. "It worked! It worked! My deal is still on! I'll be back on top yet!"
He dug out his attache case and extracted his portable cellular phone. It took but a moment to reprogram it to ring when his private number was called. He felt empowered again. He was on a roll. Nothing was going to stop him now.
Chapter 17
The first thing Cheeta Ching wanted to do upon disembarking from the churning BCN helicopter was to liberate the Rumpp Tower. She announced this in a triumphant screech that made everyone else reach for their eardrums.
"Nobody goes in until Cheeta Ching, superanchorwoman of our age, has done her duty!"
"So?" Remo asked. "What are you waiting for?"
Cheeta turned to her cameraman. "Is there enough tape left?"
The cameraman popped the cassette port, looked at the cartridge, and shook his head.
"Then load up a fresh one," Cheeta said impatiently. "I want every dramatic moment immortalized on half-inch tape."
"Oh, for crying out loud," Remo burst out, "just let's all go into the building, okay?"
"Not on your miserable life!" Cheeta flared. "Grandfather, please don't let him ruin my story."
"Remo, behave."
"Watch it, Little Father," Remo warned, "or I'll tell everybody how old you really are."
"I am not a day older than eighty!" Chiun screeched, in a voice whose tone clearly suggested that he had seen eighty a long time ago. In truth, the Master of Sinanju was more than a century old, a fact that he was sensitive about, inasmuch as he had never officially celebrated it. Somehow, by the logic of Chiun's ancestral tradition, this lapse denied him the right to claim that august achievement.
"Do not be ashamed of your advanced age," intoned Delpha Rohmer, "for in age there is wisdom. The druids knew this."
"Weren't they men?" Remo said.
"Warlocks. Male witches, which absolved them of the sins of ordinary men."
"Bulldookey."
Remo folded his arms while Cheeta and the cameraman fiddled with the videocam. Cheeta took possession of the old tape while the cameraman reloaded. That gave Remo an idea.
"Want me to hold that for you?" he asked helpfully. "So it won't get lost?"
"Sure, thanks," Cheeta said, handing it over her shoulder absently.
Remo reached out for the tape, a wicked smile on his cruel lips.
Suddenly, Cheeta let out a screech and her hand snapped back. Remo's reflexes ordinarily would have been equal to snatching it from her easily, but Cheeta's ungodly sudden screech had tripped his defensive reflexes and he had faded back from the horrific sound.
"Something wrong?" Remo asked innocently.
"Last time I let you near one of my cameras, a very important tape turned up missing. Mysteriously missing."
"Missing usually is mysterious," Remo agreed.
"I will be glad to safeguard the artifact," Delpha offered.
Cheeta hesitated. Then, saying, "I know I can trust a fellow woman," turned it over to Delpha, who promptly warmed the cartridge by slipping it down her swelling cleavage.
"It will be safe here," she intoned.
"Especially if it picks up traces of your animal repulsion," Remo said unhappily.
"You mean 'attraction,' " Delpha corrected.
"Let's split the difference and say 'aroma,' " Remo said.
The videocam reloaded, Cheeta Ching fluffed her raven-black hair. Strands of it clung to her fingers like a sticky spider web, and she pulled a small can of industrial-strength hair varnish and created a halo around her head. It not only tamed her hair but kept her thick pancake makeup from flaking off her flat cheeks.
She squared her padded shoulders and started for the entrance, saying, "BCN anchor chair, here I come. "
Remo turned to Chiun. "So we just watch?"
"Emperor Smith instructed me to investigate and report on all I beheld."
Remo shrugged. "I guess that means watch. There are worse ways to spend Halloween Eve."
Cheeta got halfway to the door when one of her spiked heels struck a pebble. She stumbled, caught herself, and said, "Oh, damn. I gotta start over."