The bad news was that Remo was dead. "What?"
"He's just stopped breathing. He didn't want a doctor. He didn't want help. He refused it, right up until the end." This from the woman who was living with him in that room.
"Does he have a pulse?"
"I don't know how to take a pulse."
"Do you have a mirror?" said Smith.
"What do you want me to do with a mirror?"
"Do you have one?"
"A pocket mirror?"
"Exactly."
"Yes. I have one in my purse."
"Take the mirror and put it to his nose and mouth."
"To see if it collects moisture. That means he's breathing."
"Yes," said Smith.
He waited in the office, drumming his fingers against the tabletop, wondering what they all had run into, wondering if what some people said about the stars were true. This was too much bad luck not to be caused by some other power.
It seemed to take forever for her to get back. Finally she was on the phone.
"He's dead," she sobbed.
Chapter 11
Smith of course was insane. Chiun had always known that but he tried to reason with him.
"Yes, you have told me that he is dead. And what can I say but that when one refuses to honor the ancestors properly, one pays the price."
"The whole organization is in trouble. You're our last resort."
"It is the lack of respect for ancestors that is the problem in the world. Respect the ancestors, and you respect what is good and decent in all civilizations."
"Can you help?"
"The power, strength, dignity, and honor of the House of Sinanju are eternally at the call of your hand, to render glory," said Ghiun. Then he hung up. It was time to see Remo.
He heard the phone ringing as he prepared to leave the room he had rented but he did not answer it. He was sure it was Smith again.
At the entrance of the hotel, one of the servants of the building beckoned Chiun. He said there was someone trying to reach him desperately.
On the chance that it was the girl Remo was staying with, Chiun picked up the telephone. But it was Smith. "I think we may have been cut off, and I phoned the lobby to see if you were in. They said you were on your way out. Look, we have a problem. I can't talk on this phone. Can you make a phone contact again?"
"With praise for your glory on my lips forever," said Chiun, and hung up, heading for the door.
Remo's motel was not far away. It had happened sooner than he had expected; but then Remo had advanced so much in Sinanju that it was difficult to tell where Sinanju left off and Remo began until he became insulting. Then of course, he was white.
The woman in Remo's motel room was distraught. A doctor sat by the bed. He shook his head as he removed the stethoscope from Remo's chest.
Remo lay still on the bed, his eyes shut, his chest bare, wearing only boxer shorts. His body was still. The pendant hung by the chain from his neck but now rested by his ear.
"I'm afraid it is too late," said the doctor.
"Get this white out of here," Chiun told Remo's woman, Consuelo.
"He's the doctor."
"He is not a doctor. He knows neither yin nor yang. Where are his herbs? Where is the age to show wisdom? He is only forty years old at most."
"Remo is dead," said Consuelo.
"Get him out," said Chiun. Did he have to do everything himself?
"Your friend is dead," said the doctor.
"You know nothing of death. What do you know of death? Who have you killed on purpose?"
"Well, I am going to have to file a report."
Chiun dismissed that with a hand. If the boyish doctor wished his own authorities to know how big a fool he was, this was not Chiun's problem.
When the doctor had left, Chiun told Consuelo Remo was not dead.
"Then if he is not dead, what is his problem? He sure as hell looks dead. He has no pulse. He does not breathe. The doctor says he's dead."
"His problem is stubbornness," said Chiun. He pointed to the pendant lying beside Remo's ear. "Remove that," he said.
"What good will removing a curse do now?" asked Consuelo. It was too late. Didn't this old Oriental know that?
"Remove it," said Chiun.
"All right. It doesn't matter anymore. He was a nice guy," said Consuelo. She felt an urge to kiss Remo's forehead as a way of saying good-bye, perhaps cover him, as a fitting way to let a corpse rest. Instead she eased the chain of the pendant up over his chin and then over his head, until she had it in her hands. She offered it to the Oriental, who stepped quickly away in horror. It was faster than a step. It was a movement away to the other side of the room, and the shuffle seemed to follow him.
"Don't bring it near me. Move it away. It's cursed."
"Oh, c'mon," said Consuelo.
"Out of here. Out. Get it out."