"Why do you use amateurs in the first place anyway?"
"Sometimes, Anselmo, one has no choice. You are stuck with your allies, no matter how temporary."
"I see," said Anselmo.
"That's why I really like dealing with you, though," Perriweather said. "There's only one thing wrong with the two of you."
"What's that?"
"You both have nice hair. Why do you wash it so much?"
"You mean it takes the life out of it?"
"No. Removes the food," said Perriweather.
As always, Anselmo and Myron found Perriweather's plans were perfect. They were able to get into the nuclear storage facility with absolute ease and escape with the two packages, one containing the weapon and the other the timing detonator.
They met Nathan and Gloria Muswasser at a town house outside Washington. Nathan's father owned it. The fine plastered walls were covered with liberation posters. They called for freeing the oppressed, for saving animals. There was a special call for freeing blacks.
Apparently this had already been achieved because the entire neighborhood was free of blacks.
"Youse got to be careful of these things," Anselmo said. "And you shouldn't set it off until these two guys is in the lab."
"Which two guys?" Gloria asked.
Anselmo showed them the photograph of the Oriental and the white.
"How will we know they are in there?"
"We'll tell you."
"All right. Seems simple. Fair enough," Gloria said. "Now to the important part. Who gets the credit?"
"No credit. We don't deal in credit. But we already been paid."
"Wait a minute. We're going to be doing the lab, maybe two hundred people, the surrounding suburbs, add at least ten to fifteen thousand people there ... Nathan, remember we've got to try to figure out a way to get the pets out of the area if we can. We're really talking about fifteen thousand people. Maybe twenty. "
Anselmo shuddered at the potential death toll. Even Myron's dull brain registered a glimmer of horror. "So we want to know," Gloria said, "just where you stand on the credit."
"We been paid."
"I'm talking about taking credit for the bombing."
"What?" said both men in unison.
"Credit. We may have twenty thousand dead here. Who gets credit for it?"
"You mean blame?"
"That's unprogressive. I am talking about credit for the act. Publicity."
"If it's okay with you, girlie, you can have all the credit," Anselmo said.
"We'll give you alternate credit. We can say you assisted us. But the main cause is ours. The SLA takes full credit for this one."
"You don't even have to mention us, girlie."
"You sure now? We may be going as high as twenty-five thousand deaths here. You don't want any part of it?"
"No, no. That's okay," Myron said. "In fact, don't mention us at all. Ever. Never. No way."
"That's downright selfless of you," Gloria said. "Nathan, I like these people."
"Then why are they doing it?" Nathan said. He looked at Anselmo. "If you're not getting credit, why steal a bomb? Why all the trouble?"
"We get paid, kid," Anselmo said. "You're doing it for the money?"
"Damned right."
"Why go to all this trouble for money? I mean, where is your daddy?" Nathan asked.
Myron and Anselmo looked at each other again. "Nathan means you could get the money from your fathers," Gloria said.
"You don't know our fathers," said Myron.
"Never mind. You're sure you don't even want an 'assisted by' and then your names?"
"No. We don't want anything," Myron said.
"And be sure," Anselmo said, "that you don't set that thing off until we say so, okay?"
"Sure. Maybe we don't understand all your reasons, but I want you to know I sense solidarity with you. That we are all part of the same struggle," Nathan said.
"Sure. But don't set that thing off until we say so."
Chapter 10
"Must we stay in this rat cage again?" Chiun asked.
"Sorry, Little Father," Remo said. "But until we find out what's going on with these labs, we stay here."
"Easy enough for you to say, fat white thing. There is so much suet on your body that you can be comfortable sleeping on hard floors. But I? I am delicate. My frail body requires real rest."
"You're as delicate as granite," Remo said.
"Don't worry, Chiun," said Dara Worthington.