"That's no answer. Why learn something that has no value?"
"Have you never heard of knowledge for knowledge's sake? Learn this, Remo, and maybe someday you can write a book and tell your secrets and make much money."
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r
"I have all the money I need," Remo had said.
"That's right. Think only of yourself," Chiun had said, hinting at some possible dire need for money that Chiun might face someday, ignoring the fact that his house in the village of Sinanju was filled with jars of diamonds and emeralds and gold.
So Remo had mastered the three separate techniques. But in learning how, it had taken all the fun out of sex for hún. He found himself an orgasm counter, playing elaborate mental games, keeping track of how long it took this time, as opposed to the last time.
He decided on the twenty-seven step technique. It was quicker and more primitive' than the others, but Chiun had assured hún that white women would never know the difference. Remo couldn't tell; he couldn't remember anyone ever lasting beyond step thirteen.*
The left wrist was the starting point for all three methods. It required Remo's locating with his middle finger the woman's faint pulse and then gently keeping tune with the pulse; once he had the rhythm, he had to press his finger down on the wrist in increasingly faster taps, spurring that pulse and the heart to beat faster than it had been beating. If done correctly—and he always did it correctly—he could, by doing nothing more than touching the inside of a woman's left wrist, get her heartbeat up to 130 beats a minute.
Remo's problem was that he sometimes got bored and wanted to hurry along, skipping steps, getting it over with as soon as possible. But he couldn't do that tonight. He wanted to jellify Reva Bleem, and he wanted to make sure that she would take him to her leader. Reva purred and leaned over Remo and let the
* authors' note: Many people have expressed interest in the precise nature of the steps used by Remo to bring women to a state of erotic fulfillment The authors have decided not to reveal these techniques, however, because they have no interest in seeing half the world's population reduced to quivering, happy, mindless sex slaves. The knowledge of the techniques must remain safely with Chiun, Remo, and the authors. Sorry.
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tips of her breasts touch his chest, but she was careful not to move her wrist away from his hand. He could feel her heartbeat beginning to race. He went through steps two and three slowly, still feigning sleep, then went to step four with the small of Reva's back.
Step five was the inside of the left knee. Or was it the right knee? Remo thought about it for a moment, as Reva's fingertips traced along his body, up and down his belly, up and down his legs. No, he was sure. It was the inside of the left knee. All the techniques were symmetrical. One knee, then the other knee. One armpit and then the other armpit. One ankle, then the other ankle. But they all started on the left side, the heart's side of the body. That allowed women to be lifted erotically and then, by switching to the right side, allowed them down gently until Remo moved into the next pair of steps. It treated a woman like a yo-yo, and that was one of the things Remo resented about it. He didn't like treating women like yo-yos. He had liked sex more when he wasn't so good at it, when the outcome was sometimes in doubt, when he could await an honest answer to the question: "Was it good for you too?" Now it was always good for them, and that had made it no good for Remo. Maybe he would give up sex, he thought, as he let his supposedly sleeping fingers walk around to the back of Reva's left knee. Celibacy. It might be the wave of the future. Until the future ran out because there were no more children to bring about the future.
Remo threw his left arm over Reva and brought his face close to hers and said softly, "Ohhh, Reva." The woman was shuddering in response to Remo's touches, but she said to him, "Just lie still. I'll take care of everything."
"It's been such a day," he whined. Women liked whiners in bed.
"I know. It must have been terrible for you, having to do that to your own friend."
"Awful." Remo wondered if Chiun was listening. He could not hear the faint snores from the next tent.
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Probably Chiun was listening. The old voyeur. It would serve him right. "Of course, he deserved to die," Remo said. "He was nasty and narrow-minded. He was never nice to me, and he ignored everything I had done for him. He carped. He was so old and decrepit that I had to help him around some. Without me, he would have been nothing."
Remo heard a faint gasp in the next tent. Good. That would teach Chiun to eavesdrop.
"I knew when I saw you that only you would be able to do away with, him. Ohhhh, yes, do that," Reva said.
"I am doing that," Remo said.
"But if you're so strong, what can do away with you?"
"Nothing, I guess," said Remo. He added brightly, "Except love and respect. I've never had much of either. I'm an orphan, you know." That was a good touch, he thought. Women always rationalized making love to a man if he had had a troubled youth. It brought out the motherly side in them, and it also made them feel as if they weren't making love just out of horniness but out of compassion and concern.
"Are you happy he's gone?" Remo asked as he began to work the insides of her thighs. Reva's body was trembling.
"Yes," she said. "Yes."
"And the bacterium's destroyed?"
"Yes," she said. "Oh, yes, yes, yes."
"But there's more of it, isn't there?" Remo asked.
"Yes. A lot more. A lot more. All on St. Maar-ten's."
"Who developed it?" Remo asked.
"My friend. Oh, dear. My friend. I never . . . ohhhh..."
"What's your friend's name?" Remo asked. He was working the inside of the thigh now. He thought it was step eight. But it might be nine. He hoped he hadn't lost count. He didn't want to start all over again. .
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"I don't know. I never met him. He's just my friend. Can't this wait? Please? Do what you're doing."
"If you don't talk to me now, I'll stop what I'm doing," Remo said. The woman was shivering uncontrollably, as if she were soaking wet, naked, in the middle of an ice storm.
"No, no, no, no."
" 'Cause if I stop, there'll be no more of this ... or this." That was nine and ten. Or was it ten and eleven?
"Oh, no, don't stop. I don't know. I only talk to him on the phone. He helped me build my companies. He gave us the formula for Polypussides and for the rapid-breeder bacteria."
"And he really wanted the world's oil supply destroyed?" Remo said.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes."
"Why?"
"He said there's a big profit in it."
"Why didn't you just give the bacteria to the sheik?"
"He wanted me to wait until you and the old man either killed each other or came to work for him," she said. Her breath was was coming quickly now.
"Why?"
"He said there might be more profit in you two," she said.
Reva grabbed Remo's body now and pulled him to her, and Remo coupled with her even as she was spasming, and she turned her face from him and chewed on her lips and threw the back of her hand across her mouth to stifle a small scream.