He went through the clouds. Everyone went through the clouds. And no one was stopping him. There was a lever to his right. He pushed it forward. The plane went faster. Whee.
"Dale, what the hell's goin' on there?" asked the flight engineer.
"Nothing," said Colonel Armbruster. "Leave me alone. "
"I'm not bothering you. What's going on?"
"Nothing's going on. I'm not doing anything wrong."
"Nobody said you were. We're in a power dive. Why are we in a power dive?"
"It's nice."
"Dale? What the hell's going on?"
"My plane," said Colonel Armbruster. At a thousand feet the copilot came sliding back into the cabin, trying to get to the control. The last thing he heard before the shattering crash was the captain fighting him away, with a childlike scream. "Mine!"
The jet called Air Force One plowed into an Ohio parking lot at five hundred miles an hour. There wasn't ten feet of anything left connected. What had once been human life had to be collected in little plastic bags no bigger than the one that was now burned up along with the letter in the explosion.
Remo, Chiun, and Daphne Bloom arrived in Los Angeles an hour before the crash. Daphne was enthralled. "We're here. In the home of the founder of Poweressence. Don't you feel the positiveness of it? The force of the great 'yes' transcending all?"
"No," said Remo.
"You are most wise, child," said Chiun in English, and then in Korean.
"Even in India there aren't people that stupid. And India has got more gods than rice."
"This is California, little father. They have more gods than rice also," said Remo in Korean.
"I love the beauty of your language. Is that the Sinanju religion you were talking of?"
"No," said Remo.
"Yes," said Chiun.
"What a beautiful dichotomy," said Daphne.
"Have you ever met Dolomo or Kathy Bowen?" asked Remo.
"We saw recordings of Himself several times. But Kathy regularly visits the temples. And she has one in her own home. She attributes her success to Poweressence unlocking her life forces."
"Is she high up in the organization?"
"She knows the Dolomos personally. She has dinner with them. She is a personal friend of Rubin Dolomo himself. Can anyone help but be successful being near them?"
"Does she help people who are going to be tried? Ever hear anything about that?" asked Remo.
"Oh yes. She was the one who announced on her show Amazing Humanity that people who have suffered hopeless cases have suddenly with the help of Poweressence been freed of evil and negative forces. And it was so. The people were freed. They escaped the persecution of the government."
"Not all," said Remo.
"Every one," said Daphne.
"What about the Dolomos themselves?"
"Because they are closer to the forces of goodness, they have to face the greatest forces of evil. The United States government has to persecute them, because the government is evil."
"How did you come to that conclusion?"
"If the government weren't evil, why would they persecute the Dolomos?"
"Maybe they don't think that an alligator in a swimming pool is nearly as proper as a letter to the editor."
"Oh, that."
"You think alligators are good?"
"You don't understand. You just believe the partial story from a slanted media. That alligator was attracted by the evil of the columnist. But I suppose you don't have enough understanding to see that."
"I hope I never do," said Remo. "Where does Kathy Bowen live?"
"California, right near here," said Daphne.
"Where else," said Remo.
Daphne Bloom assured Remo and Chiun that she knew Kathy Bowen personally. She had met her three times and had gotten her autographed picture twice. She had never missed a show of Amazing Humanity.
Kathy Bowen personally interviewed all the people who wanted to be on the show. Anyone could get on if they could do something no one else could do, said Daphne.
It took a half-hour to get out of the airport traffic of Los Angeles airport and ten minutes to get to the Poweressence temple-studio of Kathy Bowen. Her ice-blond looks and clear blue eyes with delicate features stared out of every window of the temple-studio.
To the left of the entranceway, like a gospel reading of the day in front of a church, was a large billboard. It had a message from Kathy Bowen herself. It read:
"Love, Light, Compassion, and death to the President of the United States."
Inside was a line of people waiting to be interviewed at a desk. At the head of the line someone was saying that Ms. Bowen would see everyone in their turn. Ms. Bowen loved humanity. Ms. Bowen felt truly in touch with humanity. But the humanity had to stay in line. And the humanity should not make noise or eat anything in the temple-studio itself.
"Her presence is truly positive," said Daphne Bloom, glowing.
Ahead of Remo and Chiun and Daphne Bloom was a boy who talked to frogs, a quadriplegic who could spit his name in ink against a bedpan, and a grandmother who liked to sit on ice with no clothes on.
Only the grandmother was rejected from Amazing Humanity because no one could figure out a way to dramatize nudity on ice gracefully. And besides, sitting lacked the kind of action the producers of Amazing Humanity liked. Everyone selected, of course, would get to meet Ms. Bowen and sign, in her presence, the release guaranteeing that the guest would not sue on grounds of public ridicule or injury.
When Remo, Chiun, and Daphne Bloom reached the producer's desk, they were asked what they did.
"I don't know what she does," said Remo, nodding to Daphne, "but we do everything."