"What happens if there's another attack when we're down there?" Remo wanted to know.
Smith said nothing for a long moment. Finally he admitted, "I do not know."
"I know," Chiun said brightly.
Remo and Smith turned to look at his beaming countenance.
"What?" Remo wanted to know.
"Yes, tell us," Smith prompted.
"Nothing," Chiun said.
"How do you know that?" Smith asked.
"Because this is always the way with these things."
"What things?" Remo and Smith spoke together. Their blending voices harmonized like a flute and a can opener. "Sieges."
"What do you mean?" This from Smith.
"It is very simple," Chiun said, placing his long-nailed fingers into his ballooning sleeves. "Two stones have fallen."
"Stones. Where do you get 'stones'?" Remo demanded.
"They did not go boom, correct?"
"True," Smith admitted slowly.
"Then they are stones. Or might as well be stones. They are certainly not anything dangerous, or they would have exploded."
"Keep talking," Smith prompted.
"What we are witnessing is a form of warfare not seen in many centuries. The siege engine."
"Never heard of it," Remo said.
"I think he means the catapult."
"Yes, exactly. That is the other name for it. The Romans used it often. It was sometimes successful, but more often not. It worked in this fashion. An army encircles a fort or city, cutting off supplies. The besiegers then bring up the siege engines. They load them first with big stones and try to knock down the walls. Sometimes they send many smaller stones into the city itself to dishearten the population. Once in a while, they strike something, a person or a house. But rarely does this happen. Europeans used the siege engine to terrify, not to destroy. Much like your present-day atomic missiles."
"I've never thought of it quite in those terms," Smith said. "But who would do this? And where is their encircling army?"
"Wait a minute!" Remo said. "I don't buy this. Catapults. From where?"
"Our information is that the KKV came in from over the Atlantic. That makes any nation from Great Britain to Russia a suspect."
"No catapult could lob a rock over the Atlantic."
"True," Smith admitted. "But Master Chiun's comparison is basically sound. I would like him to continue." Remo folded his arms. Grinning with satisfaction, Chiun continued. His voice grew deep and resonant. He enjoyed counseling his emperor.
"I do not know where the army is. Perhaps it is in transit. Perhaps it will not be sent until the siege is fully under way. But I do know this. The method is the method of the siege. The purpose to demoralize. And the reality, that few if any of these projectiles will hit their intended target-or anything of consequence at all. For Europeans are the architects of the siege and there is one thing that is always true of Europeans."
Smith leaned forward eagerly. "Yes?"
Chiun raised a wise finger. "They are terrible shots."
Smith blinked rapidly. His dryish face wrinkling in disappointment, he settled back in his chair.
"We cannot count on these KKV's continuing to miss their targets," he said seriously.
"No. They will first run out of big rocks. Then little stones. Then they will be reduced to pebble flinging. Then they will go away."
"So what are we supposed to do in Washington, Smitty? Stand around with our hands in our pockets? Or maybe we raise our arms to catch the next one when it falls? I think we should be looking for the people behind this instead."
"That should not be difficult," Chiun said with assurance. They looked at him again.
"Go on," Smith said, hope dawning again on his face.
"Whom has your government annoyed recently?"
"What do you mean?"
"Nations do not lay siege to achieve conquest or to make war. They lay siege to punish, as I have said. Look for a jealous prince who believes that he has reason to vent his wrath upon your President."
"That's a long list," Remo said. "Every third country in the world hates us-with or without good reason."
"Such anger as is evidenced in these two attacks is motivated by passion. Look for a man with passion."
"And no sense. He's obviously forgetting that he's lobbing rocks at the only nation in history ever to nuke another in anger."
"Without any way to trace the origin of these KKV's, the perpetrator is relatively safe," Smith admitted. "I think you are correct, Remo. Your job should be to seek out and eliminate this threat at the source. But until we have a fix on that source, I want you both in Washington. Perhaps you and Chiun could examine the impact sites. Maybe you can learn something of value."
"Not me," Remo said firmly. "One rock looks like another to me."
"Including the one that sits on your shoulders," Chiun said with disdain.
Chapter 15
Over the objections of his top advisers, the President of the United States went on the air to reassure the nation. "The situation is under control," the President said from the podium in the East Room of the White House. Representatives from all the major networks were seated in front of him. The room was packed. The glare of television cameras was intense. The very air smelled hot. It was the first news conference of the new administration. For that reason alone, it would have been covered with intense scrutiny. But the fact that the President had been absent from the Oval Office the previous day, his first in office, had sparked a wave of rumors.
"What situation?" asked a reporter.
The President was aghast. He had spoken only the first sentence of what was to have been a ten-minute prepared text, and already they were flinging questions at him. He wondered if he should hush the man or just keep reading. "Yes, what situation?" seconded another reporter.
The President decided to dispense with the prepared text.