"Leave that to me. Let's go."
Remo offered Nancy his hand. Immediately, King pulled her away.
"Butt out! This is my rescue. Stick with me, Nancy."
"Remo, I would appreciate any help that separates me from this toady," Nancy said tightly.
"You got it," Remo said. He reached out and took King by the throat, squeezed, and King came to his feet with his teeth clenched and an obedient expression in his sharp face. Even his eyes looked clenched.
"Whatever you want me to do," he croaked. "I'll do it."
"That's a smart attitude, because your spine feels unusually brittle today."
"I thought so, too," King said unhappily.
"Just stay with me," Remo said, guiding them along.
"My camera crew!" King said, stopping. "We can't leave them!"
"Since when did he become a humanitarian?" Remo asked Nancy.
"Since he entrusted the videotapes of the expedition to the camera people."
"Oh," said Remo.
"This way! This way!" King yelled, waving his arms to get the crew's attention.
The video team was dispersed about the stage and below. They pushed their way to King's side.
"Everybody all right?" Nancy asked.
"Never mind that!" King snapped. "Are the packages safe?"
"Yes, Skip," said the chief of PR.
"Call me Mr. King when the cameras are off! Got that?"
Remo led them to the side of the stage, through a loosely packed part of the crowd. The tear gas was beginning to thin, but the water cannon were hosing everything in sight. The ground was wet and muddy. The security police were laughing and knocking down anyone still on their feet, the high-pressure streams pushing them into shacks and other immovable objects.
Remo brought them to one of the giant cranes. He climbed it and took the edge of his hand to the base of the framework. Metal snapped and parted. Slowly, the crane began to lean drunkenly.
As if looking through a surveyor's transit, Remo sighted through the skeletal framework. He gauged where the derrick might fall, pounded in the lattice at one side, and took another sighting.
Satisfied, he gave a hard, two-handed push.
With a squeaking screech, the derrick began to fall.
Remo yelled, "Timber!"
But it was the sound of the derrick's tortured framework that made everyone in its shadow look up and break in all directions like ants in an earthquake.
The derrick crushed two water trucks that happened to be in the way, forming a bridge to the waiting wingship.
Remo helped Nancy up onto girderwork. King scrambled up, on his own. The video crew took up the rear.
They worked their way along and dropped off at the end. That put them within sprinting distance of the pontoon bridge to the wingship. The crowd, chased by security police, were busy fleeing in both directions along the waterfront, leaving the area clear.
"How's that for service!" Remo asked.
"Wonderful," Nancy said. She turned. King had managed to ingest a mouthful of pepper gas. He was coughing uncontrollably and squinting blindly through his pain.
"Here, let me help you," she said sympathetically.
"Are you crazy! What if there are government cameras running! How will it look-Skip King being helped by a girl?"
"Stumble along on your own, then," Nancy snapped, stepping onto the pontoon bridge.
They reached the side hatch and King ducked into the rest room. The strenuous sound of his retching and heaving came for several noisy minutes.
Captain Relish took command.
"Everyone to their assigned seats," he announced. "The pilot is getting ready to launch this bird."
"I'm staying with Old Jack," Nancy said.
"Not a good idea," Captain Relish said.
"Maybe not, but it's my idea." She started aft.
"I'll help you count toes," Remo said.
Captain Relish got in Remo's way. "Sorry, sir. You're not part of the team. I can't let you aboard without authorization."
"Think again. I just saved everyone's butt."
"Mr. King will have to authorize this." The sound of running water abruptly stopped in the rest room. "Throw him off the plane!" King shouted. Then heaved some more.
"Try and make me," Remo told Captain Relish.
At that moment, the Master of Sinanju appeared in the doorway through which Nancy was heading.
"Remo, I am not staying on this vehicle, which cannot possibly fly," he said coldly.
"Damn."
"Nor will I continue to consort with these ingrates."