"On what charge?" Remo wanted to know.
"The murder of your own Vice-President, asasino!"
"It was self-defense," the Master of Sinanju said haughtily. " I challenge you to prove differently."
"I will not have to," Odio retorted. "Here in my country, a man is judged guilty until proved innocent. As you will be if I take you into custody."
Remo pulled himself away from the window.
" If?" he asked shortly.
"It is possible an arrangement could be reached," Odio said smoothly.
Officer Lupe Mazatl spoke up. "What did I tell you about this hombre? The DFS all drink from the same little jug."
"Silencio, woman!" Odio spat. He turned to Remo. " I would trade you your freedom for a certain thing I require. "
"How much?" Remo asked in contempt. He reached into his pocket.
"Oh, it is not a matter of money, but intelligence."
"He thinks you are the Wizard of Ooze Remo," Chiun sniffed. "Do not give him your brain, under any circumstance."
"No, no," Odio said. " I desire information. That is all. "
Remo pulled his hand from his pocket. "Yeah?"
"The whereabouts of your presidente."
"What makes you think I know that?" Remo asked suspiciously.
"I know that he is in Mexico," Odio said with ill-disguised pride.
"So you were listening in," Remo said.
"Si.'
"On my conversation with Smith?" Remo prodded.
"Si. with Smith. Your CIA agent contact, no doubt. The DFS has a working relationship with the CIA. Smith is a muy popular name at the CIA. I myself have met many CIA Smiths."
"Good guess," Remo said, his eyes narrowing. His glance flicked to the Master of Sinanju. Chiun nodded imperceptibly.
Remo smiled easily. "Okay. I don't want to be thrown into a Mexican jail. I hear conditions are pretty terrible-unless you're a drug dealer and can afford a bridal suite."
"You are an intelligent gringo," Odio said, his tense expression relaxing. "Now I give you my word. Provide me with the information and I will set you free. But you must leave the country immediately.
"Sure thing," Remo said casually. "He's right behind you. In the closet."
Comandante Oscar Odio's eyes went wide with surprise. Eagerly he turned to give the order to search the closet to his borrowed DFS unit.
His mouth opened. His arm raised. The arm froze and his mouth locked, as a stiffened finger stabbed at the nape of his neck, shattering vertebrae like ice cubes. The disintegrating bone severed his spinal cord so swiftly that Comandante Oscar Odio had only time to exhale the first breathy consonant of his order. His brain died before his face hit the rug.
The others failed to see the blow that felled him. They were too busy dying. The Master of Sinanju crushed a convenient kidney with one fist and jellied testicles with a high-kicking sandaled foot.
Remo waded in to help, pitching one DFS agent out the shattered window and lifting another off his feet bodily. He threw that one toward the door, where the remaining DFS agents had Officer Mazatl in custody.
"Duck!" Remo said quickly.
"Que?" they said in unison.
"Too late," Remo said as the flying body bowled Officer Lupe Mazatl and her captors out into the hall.
Remo leapt after them, and quickly crushed the DFS men's windpipes with the heel of one Italian loafer. He gave Officer Mazatl a hand, bringing her to her feet with a smooth retraction of his arm.
"You killed them all," Officer Lupe Mazatl said in a dazed voice.
"And on our worst day, too," Remo said. He plunged back into the room, where the Master of Sinanju was opening the closet. It was empty.
"Too bad," Remo said, looking in. "I had my hopes he'd have been stashed there."
"You killed five DFS officers with your bare hands," Officer Mazatl said, her voice tight and sick.
"They knew too much," Remo said. "Come on. We've got to go to Plan B."
"What is Plan B?" Lupe wanted to know as she was pulled by one hand out the door and to the elevators.
"Be prepared to improvise," Remo said bitterly. "First we check the Vice-President. Maybe he has something on him that'll help."
"Such as?"
"A safe-deposit-box key or a bus-terminal-locker tag," Remo growled unhappily. "I don't know. Look, I just had the Vice-President of the United States attack me and then take a header out an open window. I'm having a terrible day."
"Do not worry," Chiun put it. "I will vouch for you with Smith. None of this would have happened had Smith not sent us after ferocious geese."
"That's going to mean a lot, if we don't locate the President," Remo said sourly.
The elevator brought them to the lobby, where they were greeted by two DFS officers with drawn pistols.
The officers said, "Alto!" and Remo returned their greeting by cracking their pelvises with a swift upkick to each man.
He left them writhing on the floor, not exactly dead, but in no mood to celebrate life.
The lobby was free of other human encumbrances. In fact, it was deserted.
"It is not like one such as Odio not to have the lobby guarded by more men than those two," Lupe said as they made for the main entrance.