The light went on; illuminating the walls. Here and there were hung lithographs and reproductions of studies and paintings. The subjects were all of a single theme. The female form.
"Looks like you have a one-track mind," said Remo, looking around admiringly.
"You are speaking nonsense. These are reproductions of works of fine art. Have you no culture?"
"I don't see any equal opportunity for men."
"A nude man is a vulgar sight. A woman's unclothed form is pleasing to both sexes," Kinga said.
"I kinda like what I see," Remo admitted.
"You are very uncouth, barging into my flat and-"
"Tough. You're pretty rude yourself, coming to this country to spy."
"I am not spy."
"You are not Hungarian, either."
"I will speak the truth. I am half-Hungarian. My paternal parent was Russian. I am ashamed of this because there was a rape involved in my conception. It is very painful to admit this, but it is nonetheless true."
"Let's skip the personal history," said Remo, cutting in. "Who do you work for?"
"I am free-lance. The highest bidders command my allegiance. No other."
"Liar," said Chiun.
"I speak the truth. And now that you have read my instructions, I would like to erase them, please. They are no longer of consequence now that you have seen them."
This time it was the elderly Korean who arrested her reaching hands. But his touch was not steel, but acid. Needles dipped in acid. Injecting Kinga with a deadly venom that burned along the nerves until her lush body lay on the floor quivering.
"Who do you work for, Russian?" the Korean voice demanded through the mounting pain.
"I cannot tell," Kinga gasped through clenching teeth. She tongued a cyanide pill out of a hollow wisdom tooth. The maneuver was surreptitious in the extreme. But it didn't go unnoticed.
The pain redoubled, and her tongue shot out. The pill fell to the rug, and a sandal crushed it utterly, then returned to exerting pressure on her head.
Kinga could hold it back no longer. "FSK! FSK! I am FSK! My control is Stankevitch, FSK!"
Remo turned to the Master of Sinanju. "What's the FSK?"
"I do not know," said Chiun. "But I do know that I am done with this would-be slayer of me."
"She couldn't kill you if she had a neutron bomb tucked in her bra."
"That is not the point," said Chiun, bringing a black sandal down on Kinga Zongar's disheveled head. The heel touched the side of her head, paused, then dipped a quarter inch.
Kinga Zongar's head burst like an erupting melon.
"Chiun! For crying out loud, that was my date."
"You have terrible taste in women," sniffed Chiun, scuffing his sole clean against the carpet.
"She was going to be the first date I've had in I don't know how many years. I didn't even get to first base."
"Nor would you have. She does not love men, only women."
Looking around the room again, Remo said, "I guess you're right. But I gotta admit it was nice having a conversation with a woman who didn't lust after me."
"There are other lesbians, if that is your desire," said Chiun.
"Not funny," said Remo, picking up the telephone and calling Harold Smith by the simple expedient of depressing the 1 button until an automatic relay embedded in the telephone system routed the call to Folcroft Sanitarium via Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.
"Remo?" Smith asked.
"Who else?"
"I have run up against a blank wall."
"On the Russian angle?"
"No, on Kinga Zongar. According to my research, she does not exist prior to 1988."
"Well, she's not going to get past 1996 either."
Smith's voice grew sharp. "What do you mean?"
"Chiun just wasted her."
"With cause?"
"We tracked her back to her apartment, where she got a computer message from someone writing what Chiun says is Russian."
"It is Russian, as was the woman," Chiun piped up.
"Whoever gives Kinga her orders, they ordered her to hit Chiun. They figured out who he was."
"It is obvious who I am, even to Russians," said Chiun.
Turning the phone away from the Master of Sinanju, Remo told Smith, "I'd read you the message on the screen, but it's full of backward N's and R's and upside-down letters I don't recognize."
"Where are you?"
"Kinga's apartment. I think it's going to be available by the first of the year if you're interested," Remo added dryly.
"One moment. I am tracing your call."