"Who's that?"
"Nobody you need to worry about," said Remo.
"He sounds Korean." "It is good that you fear Koreans. For we are a mighty race."
"You—you sound like an American," the seaman said.
"I am," said Remo. "Now listen. Don't worry about what my friend is saying. What happened to the sub?"
"I don't know. One minute we were flying along, and the next we were going evasive. We all heard the depth charges. Then we broke the surface, and the North Koreans poured in to take away our guns. I was locked in a storage room."
"You're sure it was North Koreans?"
"Who else would jump a U.S. sub in open water?"
"You're not on open water," said Remo. "You're off North Korea."
"Oh, God," the seaman sobbed. "I just want to go home."
"You will never see your home again unless you cease lying," Chiun warned.
"I'm not lying. I swear."
"Prove it."
"Look, there's others down there."
"What?"
"On the other side of my compartment I heard tapping. It was strong before, but it got faint in the last few hours. But I couldn't get the door open to see."
"They saw what you saw?" Remo said sharply.
"Yes."
Remo addressed the Master of Sinanju. "Chiun, I'm going back down. You take this guy back to the village."
"Why can he not swim back? He is a sailor." "Because it's dark, it's cold, and he's spent a day without food and water in a very small space and little air. Now cut the crap and let's go."
"I will not be spoken to that way."
"Fine. But I'm going down into that sub again, and it's going to be very dangerous."
"Yes," the Master of Sinanju said coldly. "For any who laid hands on the gold of Sinanju."
In the end they both went back to shore. Chiun because he refused to run unimportant errands, and Remo when he calmed down enough to realize that a mass rescue would be futile without boats to receive the rescued. "Why do we have to rob banks to make money?" Chip Craft asked Friend as the white walls returned to their mahogany splendor and his desk rematerialized at his feet. "We're at the top of our business. Already we've practically forced IDC into receivership. Other companies are following our lead and turning into virtual corporations."
"To make a profit," said Friend.
"We're making a fortune as it is. Legally."
"I do not differentiate between a legal fortune and an illegal one."
"You may not, but I do. We could go to jail."
"No."
"No?"
"No."
"You mean it's foolproof?"
"It is not foolproof, but we will not go to jail."
"That's different."
"Only you can be jailed. I am a program, existing on a Very Large Scale Integration microchip, and in the event I am placed in jeopardy, I can transfer my programming to any compatible chip I can locate in the net."
"That's great for you, but what about me?" "You may resign if you choose."
"Resign? I'm the Man with the Microchip Mind. I can't resign. What would XL do? What would I do?"
"You are the Man with the Microchip Mind, but I am the microchip mastermind. Every idea that you have implemented came from me. Every rung on the corporate ladder you have climbed was cleared by me."
"You arranged for all these guys to ship out?"
"Except for Eugene Morrow."
"He's the one who died in the elevator accident."
"An accident I arranged," said Friend.
"You?"
"The elevator was controlled by computer. I merely triggered a glitch in its software, resulting in the elevator cage going into free-fall."
Chip Craft jumped out of his seat. "You murdered Gene!"
"I murdered Gene for you, Chip."
"I didn't ask you to do that," Chip said thickly.
"Did you ever question your meteoric rise to CEO of XL?"
"No. It seemed too good to question."