Finally he shook his head. "All right, all right, we'll go look at this thing. But let's skip the rest of the tour, shall we?"
"It is unbelievable," Anna whispered, touching the huge red letters as they brushed past them.
"It's nothing," Remo said. "In the sixties, kids would spray graffiti letters twice that size. Right-side-up, upside-down, and inside-out. They called it pop art, but I think they were all on drugs or something."
"American teenagers would write USA, would they not?"
"Probably members of the Socialist Workers' Party," Remo said. "This is about their speed."
They emerged at the end of the building. A door led off to one side, back in the direction of the car track. "Probably leads to the exit," Remo said.
"The man in the booth may be there," said Anna. "And the satellite. I am sure he is making the machinery attack us."
Remo turned to Chiun. "What do you think, Little Father?"
Chiun listened. "I hear no heartbeats. just water dripping. "
"Then let's go," Remo said, reaching for the doorknob.
"No!" said Anna Chutesov. "Let me go first."
"Why?"
"It is too late for me. But you have not been affected. I will go first."
"Affected?" Remo said.
"The woman speaks wisdom," said Chiun. "She will go first."
Remo shrugged. "Then she goes first. But let's pick up the pace. I haven't got all day."
Anna unlatched the safety to her automatic, gripped the door with her other hand, and set herself. The door flew open and she was through it in a smooth leap. Her heels clicked on the opposite side.
"See anything?" Remo asked.
"No," Anna said in a small voice. "It is gone. Gone."
Remo went to step over the threshold, but Chiun tugged him back by the sleeve.
"I am next. I will tell you if it is safe."
The Master of Sinanju sniffed the air carefully before venturing forth. Remo waited. He knew that sniffing the air was the last resort of a Master of Sinanju when facing the unknown. It was a legacy from the days when Masters traveled through faraway lands, often encountering unknown carnivores along the way.
Chiun went through. In a moment he called for Remo to follow.
Remo found Chiun and Anna staring at the ceiling. Strutwork dangled brokenly. It was clear that something, not long ago, had hung from the ceiling, but had been twisted loose.
"There was something there, all right," Remo admitted.
"See?" Anna said triumphantly. "I told you. And there, that is the booth where the man with the sinister voice called to me."
"What did he say to you?" Remo asked.
"He said, 'Have a nice day.'"
"Gosh, that's sinister, all right," Remo said. "I'll ask Smitty to put out an all-points bulletin. Charge him with inciting to have a pleasant day. He could get twenty years for that."
"It was the way he said it," Anna insisted.
Remo stepped over to the grimy booth and rubbed his fingers against the glass. Some gunk came off in his hands, but the other side was just as dirty and he couldn't see clearly.
"Funny," he said. "This place is as new as a penny, all except for the dirt on this thing."
"The owner's booth," Anna told him. "He did not wish to be seen, the fiend."
"The demon car washer," Remo said. "I don't buy it."
"How do you explain the machines that attacked us?"
"Malfunction," said Remo.
"And the booby traps?"
"The owner has a thing against trespassers," said Remo, less confidently.
"Fool," said Anna Chutesov. But even her scorn did not faze Remo Williams.
Remo pulled back his hand and hit the glass with an open palm. The glass shivered, hung in place as spiderweb cracks radiated from the point of impact, and then fell in shards so fine it was as if the glass had turned to sugar.
There was a control board on the other side, Remo saw, and the entire booth appeared to be occupied by it. There was no space in which a human being could sit. Indeed, no seat. Just a steel well lined with cables and connective devices.
"You say there was somebody in this booth?" Remo asked.
"I saw his shadowed outline through the glass," Anna insisted.
"Have a look," Remo offered.
Anna stepped carefully. When she saw that the confines of the booth could contain a human being only if he had no lower body, she turned a pale greenish white and stumbled off to a corner, where she sank to the ground, unmindful of the grease stains her clothing soaked up.
Remo yanked handfuls of thick cable until they snapped apart. The sound of the frantic machinery ceased immediately. He turned to Chiun.
"Did you see the outline too, Little Father?"
"Would you think me mad if I said yes?" asked Chiun.
"No."