"I know. But I believe him anyway. And I believe Admiral Stantington when he says he knows
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nothing about this Project Omega. He knows nothing about anything. God must really love the Americans."
"There is no god," said Duvicevski.
"Our system makes one believe that. The Americans' survival makes one doubt it. By what else but godly intervention could you explain a country that never learns anything but survives anyway?"
"What do you mean?"
"When those terrorists kidnaped and killed that politician in Europe last year, do you know why the police and secret police couldn't find them?"
"No."
"Because the government had been under so much pressure from the left about civil liberties that it had destroyed all its intelligence files. So when the terrorists struck, no one was able to find them. And in New York City a few years ago, there was a tavern bombed by terrorists. A half-dozen people killed. You know why the bombers were never found ?"
"Why?" asked Duvicevski.
"Because the New York City police had destroyed all their intelligence files on terrorists because keeping them violated people's civil rights. So killers went loose."
"What has that got to do with anything?"
"Maybe nothing," said Karbenko. "Maybe everything. America never learns. There are so many examples of what bad intelligence or no intelligence can do and still this country panders to the so-called civil rights of people who would
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destroy the country itself. Stantington is destroying1 the CIA and the idiot thinks that he is serving America by doing it. That's why I say God must be on America's side. No other country could act so stupidly and survive."
"They are doing our work for us," Duvicevski said.
"No, they're not," said Karbenko. "Time will do our work for us. Given enough time, our system will prevail. All these lunatics like Stantington are doing is creating an unstable world. I know we will conquer a stable world. But an unstable world ... it may one day be ruled by the kangaroos."
Duvicevski pondered this a while before he said, "So you believe the President and Stantington."
"Yes," said Karbenko. "They are telling the truth as they know it. But the whole story is still a fabric of lies."
"What?"
"There is a man alive now who devised this Project Omega. He did it twenty years ago. Now you tell me how this man devised this program twenty years ago and just now, when it goes into effect, the targets just happen to be our current premier and our current ambassadors to London and Rome and Paris? How did he know twenty years ago who would be our premier ? Or our ambassadors? This man knows more than he tells and I do not believe him when he says that he does not know who the assassins are."
"Do you know who this man is?" asked Duvicevski.
"Yes."
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"And what do you plan to do?" the ambassador asked.
"I plan to question him myself."
"And?"
"And find out just what it is the varmint really knows," Karbenko said with a large smile.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
"I'll tell you, Smitty, you're running some operation here," Remo said. "World War III is getting underway all because of you and where are you? Out on a golf course and you leave Ruby around to run things."
The faintest flicker of an unaccustomed smile brightened Smith's face for a millisecond.
"Ruby is a prize," he said. "I don't know how I did this job all these years without a good number two."
"She's a number two all right," Remo said. "She's a shit. She spends all her time yelling at me."
"Not so loud, Remo," Smith said. "She'll hear you."
Remo glanced toward the closed door of the office, dreading the possibility that it might just burst open and Ruby would march in, assailing his eardrums with her earthmover voice.
"Yes, Remo, not so loud," said Chiun. "She might hear you."
Remo whispered. "I liked it better when it was just you," he said to Smith.
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"I didn't think I would ever hear you say that," Smith said.
"Emperor," Chiun said, "Remo has nothing but the highest regard for you. He often tells me this, that he would work for no one but you at these wages."
Smith recognized the start of a pitch for more money and interrupted quickly.
"You're both going to England," he said. "I want you to get in close and protect that Russian ambassador."
"I should think you'd be worrying about the Russian premier instead," Remo said.
"I am, but I can't get permission to send you to Russia," Smith said.
"And you have permission to send us to England?" Remo said.
"Not exactly. But I can get you to England."
"You can get us to Atlantic City, too," Remo said. "Why not send us there? They've got casino gambling now."
"Or Spain," Chiun said. "Spain is nice in the spring. And a Master of Sinanju has not been in Spain since the time of El Cid. I think the Spanish could probably use us well. The Spanish were always good."