"All right, then. Let's get Pakir and tell him how to beef up his security and maybe we can give the Emir the opportunity to do just that."
54 I 55
CHAPTER SEVEN
Remo's advice to Perce Pakir was simple. "Get dogs," he said. "You've just got too much island to cover. If you put dogs on both flanks of the island, it'll force an invader to come in through the middle. That way, your devices have a better chance of picking him up."
Pakir listened politely but without enthusiasm. His coolness didn't bother Remo. When they got back, he would pass his recommendation on to Smith and, whether he liked it or not, Perce Pakir would have dogs.
The Coast Guard launch returned to pick them up at the main dock at the shore side of the island to take them to the Brooklyn dock where the two hoodlums' bodies had been found.
Remo used the ship-to-shore telephone to reach Smith at his headquarters in Folcroft Sanitarium.
"How does it look?" Smith asked.
"Not bad," Remo said. "The chief of security there doesn't like us, but I told him to get dogs."
"That's Pakir," Smith said.
"Right."
'Til see they get dogs," Smith said.
"And who's the hoople there representing us?" Remo asked.
"That's Agent Randisi.' "FBI?" asked Remo.
56
"Yes."
"Check him out. He couldn't find his foot inside his shoe. He wasn't even around when we were discussing the security with Pakir."
"How is the big man?" Smith said.
Remo knew who he meant. "Impressive, but not long for this world. He'll die in bed."
"If he has to die, that's the way I'd prefer it," Smith said.
"Did you find out anything about the men on the dock?"
"They were shopping for an assassin to take out Romeo," Smith said. "It appears they found one."
"Any idea who?" Remo asked Smith.
"No," said Smith. "It might even have been an amateur. All the professionals seemed to have been frightened off. See what you can find."
"Okay, Smitty."
They were almost at their destination when Remo broke off the connection, and a few minutes later they were prowling the smelly, dirty pier.
"This looks like the spot, Chiun," said Remo.
"Look with more than your eyes, meat-eater," Chiun said. There were dark stains in the wood of the dock, apparently blood stains. Remo crouched down to look at them.
"I don't even know what we're looking for," Remo complained.
Chiun squatted next to him, looking over the area. He reached out with his hand and ran it over the stains.
"Something is stuck in the wood," he said.
Remo watched as Chiun's skillful fingers dug at the wood of the dock and lifted it free.
57
"There," said Chiun, holding his hand open to Remo.
"There what?" said Remo. All he could see was a black speck, a chip of something in Chiun's hand.
"Have you ever seen anything that black?" Chiun asked.
"Only the inside of a Chinaman's heart," Remo said.
"A worthy sentiment, but mistimed. Pay attention. Look at that chip of paint carefully."
"So it's very black," Remo said. He looked again. "Very, very black. And again, so what?"
"I have never seen anything so black," Chiun said. "This reflects no light at all."
"I really don't get what this is all about."
"Something that black would be invisible in the dark," Chiun said. "It would reflect nothing back to the eye. Does that answer your question?"
"You mean to tell me that we're dealing with a guy who has an invisible kind of paint? Somebody's painting himself invisible?"
"It is possible," Chiun said.
"Jesus," said Remo. "Smitty's going to love this one."
He had spent his life afraid of the dark, but now Elmo Wimpler knew that the light was his enemy. In the dark, in blackness, he was God, a King, ruler of all he surveyed. But in the light, he would be just another small man in a dark cloth suit. He would be a wimp again.
Never. Never again.
incredible feeling of power beyond anything he had ever felt before.
He would not give up that power. The power to do anything. To buy anything. To have any woman. To decide life and death for others.