Failing Marks td-114 Read online

  "How-?" Herman asked, incredulous.

  He never finished his question. At that moment, the sound of gunfire erupted outside the ancient stone temple.

  THEY HAD FOLLOWED the ravine until it cut up by the upper guard shack. Remo and Chiun preceded Heidi up the hill. She was stunned by how easily they took out the dozen men stationed near the small shed.

  The IV village sprouted out of the leveled mountaintop where the ruins of an ancient city had once stood. The priceless architecture of a culture long dead had been demolished for the comfort of the band of fugitive Nazis.

  Looming far above the village was Estomago de Diablo-the name given to the huge old temple that was the focal point of the entire area. The massive stone structure stared down protectively over the orderly little houses from its separate mountain peak.

  "Dollars to doughnuts the head guy's in there," Remo said, pointing to the temple.

  Focused on the temple, they ran toward the first line of neat Bavarian-style houses...

  ... and into a hail of machine-gun fire. "Crappity crap-crap-crap," Remo groused.

  As a cluster of frantic IV soldiers ran toward them down the street shooting madly-the three of them quickly ducked down an alley. Bullets ripped against the wall nearest them.

  Remo quickly plucked Heidi from the path. Kicking open the door of the nearest house, he tossed her to the floor. "Stay put," he commanded, slamming the door tightly shut.

  Remo and Chiun whirled on the soldiers.

  The men ran into view at the mouth of the alley. Remo recognized their shared face immediately; he'd encountered the same face at the airport, as well as at the first two guard shacks.

  "Not him again," Remo complained.

  "Do not get distracted," Chiun warned the instant before the men opened fire.

  Chiun leaped high to the left, Remo to the right. Hitting the eaves of the roofs with one foot, they pushed off and forward. They formed an invisible X as their paths nearly crossed in the air above the blazing gunfire.

  The heads of the baffled soldiers slipped below them as both Masters of Sinanju flew over. Twisting in midair, they dropped down behind the startled IV troops.

  Before the shock could even register, Remo and Chiun launched themselves forward.

  A few guns fired feeble bursts of lead into the clear blue sky as Chiun ripped through the men. Diet-and-exercise-hardened fingernails clawed vicious strips through chest muscle and bone. Kneecaps shattered. Skulls collapsed.

  Remo had torn into the crowd from the other side, spinning like a top on one foot, barely seeming to change position. As he swirled, an arm or foot would fly out of the twisting blur. In their wake, streaks of blood erupted from corrupted throats and chests.

  In a matter of seconds, the attackers were dead. "I'll get Heidi," Remo said quickly.

  Racing back to the house where he had left her, he flung open the door. She was nowhere in sight. A quick search of the one-story structure found the house empty and the front door on the far side of the house ajar.

  "Double crap," Remo complained. He ran back to meet Chiun. "Heidi's gone," he said, arriving back at the carnage in the alley.

  "We cannot search for her now," Chiun stated.

  Remo shook his head. "She can't say I didn't warn her," he agreed.

  Together, they ran back out onto the tidy village road.

  KLUGE HAD BECOME more animated as he watched the men from Sinanju slaughter his soldiers as easily as lesser mortals might step on an anthill. IV was still his home. He would do everything he could to preserve it.

  "Have them pull back to the field," he ordered Herman.

  "Is that wise?" Herman asked.

  "Do it!" Kluge shouted. There was an angry spark in his eyes, a spark that had been absent ever since the dark days in Paris several months ago.

  Herman obediently gave the order into his headset.

  Kluge watched Remo and Chiun advance through the vacant streets of the village. Unseen by the Masters of Sinanju, the defenders of IV began backing along streets closer to the temple. On Kluge's order, they were retreating to the large open field with its trampled vegetable and flower gardens.

  It seemed ridiculous. An entire army in retreat because of two unarmed men.

  "Is the other system operational?" Herman nodded. "Tested this morning."

  "I want it ready to switch over to manual if automated tracking fails," Kluge warned.

  "At your command, Herr Kluge."

  Kluge saw that Herman was sweating. He had been so calm during the whole time leading up to this crisis. Herman had never thought there was a crisis. The fool.

  Kluge turned his attention back to the monitors. Remo and Chiun continued their relentless advance. As he watched them move stealthily through the streets, his eyes strayed to a single red button on his control console. Unlabeled, it was covered by a clear plastic lid.

  Unseen by Herman, Kluge flipped the plastic cover open.

  And prayed.

  "NOW, THERE'S SOMETHING you don't see every day," Remo commented. He nodded to the army of identical soldiers arranged in the field before the ancient stone fortress.

  Although the men were lined up to fire, they didn't do so when Remo and Chiun cleared the last of the quaint little gingerbread houses.

  "There is something else here," Chiun declared, concerned.

  "Not more mines," Remo said. He had been stomping his foot occasionally to get a crude sonic reading of the land up ahead. As far as he could tell, there were no land mines.

  The field was to their right. To their left, a stretch of rocky terrain dropped down after a few yards, only to come back into sight a little farther beyond. Continuing only briefly, it disappeared for good a short way farther on. Somewhere far below the last appearance of the rocky ridge was the road.

  The army continued to stand down as they approached.

  "Gee, you think it's a trap?" Remo asked sarcastically.

  Chiun was peering at the uneven mound of stone to their left. Remo followed the elderly Korean's line of sight.

  He immediately saw the thick metal barrel jutting from the stone. Beyond this was another. And a third, fourth and fifth. Each of the weird gun muzzles was aimed down the path. Directly at Remo and Chiun.

  "Oh, great," was all Remo had time to say before the muzzles hidden in the rock flashed to life. All five of them exploded in a deafeningly violent, unified blast.

  They weren't controlled by human hands, so Remo hadn't felt the telltale sign of men about to shoot. Before he had properly prepared for an attack, the air was suddenly alive with burning lead fragments.

  More rounds screamed at him in that one instant than at any other single time in his life. His senses were strained to overloading as he flung himself to a protective outcropping of rock beside the road.

  The outcropping did not shelter him for long. As soon as he had hunkered down behind the great black stones, the blond-haired IV soldiers in the field aross the road broke their cease-fire. As one, they opened fire on Remo.

  He slid down behind the rocks, pushing himself low behind a small lip. Bullets whizzed like angry hornets above his head, ricocheting off rocks and whizzing into the distance.

  Remo was a sitting duck.

  He didn't know where Chiun had gone to when the automated weapons had begun firing. Remo only hoped that the Master of Sinanju was faring better than him.

  CHIUN HAD DONE much the same thing as Remo when the guns had begun their automatic firing. Unlike Remo, however, he had the fortune of landing in a crevice that was the sole blind spot of the nearest machine gun.

  As the men in the field opened fire on Remo, Chiun quickly scampered around the far side of the large finger of rock behind which he had taken refuge.

  He came out close to the nearest gun. It continued firing relentlessly, deafeningly down the path. But though it tracked from side to side with relative ease, it had more difficulty moving up and down.

  Out on the road once more, Chiun
ducked below the barrage of lead. He skittered crab-like to the left, coming up between the first two weapons.

  They were altered versions of the GEC Minigun. Each was capable of firing 6000 rounds per minute. The pockmarked road was testament to the effectiveness of the weapons.

  Racing up alongside the automated guns, Chiun ducked in behind. With two slaps from one longnailed hand, Chiun broke the heavy guns loose from their moorings. Two sharp kicks sent them spinning over in the direction of the small army.

  The firing guns swept across the advancing mob of blond-haired men. Crumpling bodies spit streaks of crimson across the lush green field.

  There was no defense against the remorseless attack of the automated guns. Some tried to run. Most didn't have the time to even consider the option. In seconds, the grisly deed was done.

  As the bullet-riddled bodies fell, Chiun worked to disable the remaining three guns. By the time he had reduced them to pieces and returned to the road, the first two weapons had grown silent.

  He climbed down to the path. The dying echoes of machine-gun fire sighed forlornly against the distant peaks of the Andes, fading to an eerie silence.

  The entire IV army lay dead on the road. Not one man had survived the fierce gunfire.

  Across the road from the nearest dozen bodies, Remo came out from his protective outcropping of rock. He ran up to meet the Master of Sinanju, his face growing more severe as he beheld the breadth of the carnage. He paused next to Chiun, looking up at the ancient temple.

  "Let's finish this," he said, hollow of voice.

  They turned to the huge stone fortress.

  The road ended at a long stone bridge, a remarkable piece of ancient construction spanning the two peaks of the IV complex.

  Remo and Chiun were nearly to the bridge when an odd expression crossed the face of the younger Master of Sinanju.

  "Wait a sec," Remo said, stopping abruptly. His bare forearm barred Chiun's path.

  Chiun frowned even as he stopped beside his pupil. "What is it?" he asked impatiently.

  Remo squinted at the bridge, uncertainty clouding his features. "Didn't you feel-?"

  He never finished the question.

  A powerful rumble rose from beneath their feet. The vibrations were different from those of land mines or machine guns. This was something muffled and heavy.

  And as both men watched, each one knowing now what Remo had heard, the bridge before them began to collapse.

  The carefully buried charges tore huge slabs of the bridge away. The massive chunks of rock tumbled in slow motion to the ravine floor more than a half mile below.

  The wide gap the crashing stone left behind was too great for even a Master of Sinanju to traverse.

  ADOLF KLUGE removed his finger from the single red button. He turned to Herman.

  "We should go," he said. His face was stone. Herman seemed shell-shocked. He nodded numbly to the IV leader. Together, they left the monitor room, heading farther into the bowels of the ancient temple.

  REMO RAN back to the village in order to find something to bridge the gap left by the collapsed bridge. He returned after a few moments with a long extension ladder.

  Extending the ladder fully, Remo lowered it across the ravine.

  Unmindful of the dizzying height, he and Chiun raced across the aluminum ladder and into the temple.

  Remo was surprised when they encountered no resistance inside the huge, drafty fortress. He commented on this to the Master of Sinanju.

  "This Kluge is wise," Chiun said knowingly as they raced through the cool stone corridors, "Fearful for his life, a prince would ordinarily surround himself with guards. He realized that his greatest safety lay in sending his entire legion against us."

  "Fat lot of good it did him," Remo commented. They found the monitor room, which had been abandoned. Remo immediately identified the pungent odor of nervous sweat.

  "That way," he said, pointing to a narrow hallway off the large stone room.

  He and Chiun ran through the cramped space and into a much larger chamber.

  This had been the main sacrificial room for the priests of the ancient temple. A rock stairway led up the side of a huge pyramid-shaped stone structure in the center of the room. The sacrificial pit.

  Obviously the previous occupants of the temple hadn't limited themselves to animal oblations. Cracked, brownish human skulls lined the ancient rock steps.

  "I love what they've done with the place," Remo said dryly.

  "Shh," Chiun hissed. He was listening intently to something distant.

  Remo cocked an ear. He heard the sound, as well. It was very faint. And hollow.

  Exchanging glances, Remo and Chiun flew side by side up the stairs to the sacrificial pit.

  They found what they had expected at the top. There was a deep black hole in which the dead victims of the temple priests had been dumped. Far below-much farther than the floor of the chamber itself--could be seen the reflective glow of dull yellow light.

  A steel ladder was attached to the interior stone wall of the pit. Obviously a new addition since the IV occupation of the village.

  The noise they had both heard grew fainter as they climbed over the edge of the pit. Propping their hands against either metal side of the ladder, they slid down to the bottom of the pit.

  The vertical shaft stabbed deep into the bowels of the mountain. The wide stone floor at the base was rimmed with shattered yellowed bones. Remo and Chiun touched softly to the floor amid the dusty, headless skeletons.

  A horizontal shaft ran off from one side of the pit. They followed the ancient escape route down a gradually declining tunnel. Emerging into sunlight a few moments later, they found themselves on a hollowed, level plateau, rimmed on nearly all sides by mountains. Only a narrow path appeared to lead down to the valley below.

  But it was not the path that would have carried Adolf Kluge to safety.

  The noise they had heard from inside was so indistinct by now as to be only a mocking memory. Remo's jaw clenched in helpless rage as his gaze settled on the well-tended and empty helipad that had been constructed on the plateau.

  As the echoes of the helicopter's rotor blades faded, Remo became aware of another noise coming from behind them. He didn't even turn around as Heidi Stolpe burst, panting, from the mouth of the long tunnel.

  "Where have you been?" he snarled. He was still staring up at the empty sky.

  "Hiding," she said, breathless. She adjusted her backpack. "There was a soldier in the house you threw me into. I barely escaped with my life."

  "You're not the only one," Remo said.

  Heidi also detected the faint sound of the helicopter. As she strained to hear, the sound was swallowed up by the mountains. Kluge was gone.

  Wordlessly Remo wheeled back around to the tunnel's circular black mouth. As he did so, there was an angry rumble from within the dark cave.

  The explosions came one right after another. The bombs had been placed midway up the length of the tunnel. As they were detonated from some remote location-presumably the helicopter-their force ripped apart the long rock cavern.

  With a shudder of earth, the tunnel collapsed, sealing them outside the quickest route back to the IV village. A thick cloud of dust belched out in a massive mocking blast onto the elevated rock face on which they all stood.

  "Perfect," Remo snapped.

  It would take forever to climb back up the side of the cliff. The path was out of the question. The valley circled too far around the broad bases of several converging mountains. That route could take days. And there was the matter of Heidi. Remo looked dully at her.

  "Um..." she said. She looked first to the path, then to the rocky cliff face.

  Chiun had turned away in disgust. He was already scaling the mountain face up toward the flat rear wall of the huge temple.

  Heidi smiled wanly. "Could you...?" Sheepishly she pointed up toward Chiun.

  Remo considered leaving her there. But his conscience got the bet
ter of him. "Let's go," Remo said with a deep sigh. Hefting Heidi up over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, he stepped over to the sheer rock face.

  Trailing the Master of Sinanju, Remo began the tedious climb back up to the top of the mountain.

  OVER THE COURSE of the next three days, Remo and Chiun searched for Adolf Kluge in vain. The trail was cold.

  Heidi left for parts unknown. The Master of Sinanju eventually hunkered down in their hotel in Uruguay, refusing to involve himself in yet another wild-goose chase.

  Smith had no luck finding the fugitive head of IV with the CURE computers. Eventually, he admitted defeat.

  With great reluctance, Harold Smith ordered Remo and Chiun home.

  Chapter 10

  When Keijo Suk accepted the money with a promise of more, he didn't know it was all the man had left in the world. He immediately deposited the large sum of cash in one of Berlin's many impressive Western banks.

  If Suk had so chosen, he could have left it at that. The man who had given him the money had a desperate, hunted look about him. His clothes were disheveled, his hair unkempt. It looked as if he hadn't slept in days. Dark semicircles rimmed his watery blue eyes. If Suk had kept the cash without performing the requested service, he doubted the man would be able to do much to stop him. But the man had surprised him.

  "You will not be able to take so much with you back to your country," he had said.

  Suk only nodded. Already he had decided in his head which bank the money would go into.

  "You will likely leave it here," the man continued.

  Again, Suk silently agreed.

  "If you attempt to keep the money without supplying me with that for which I have retained you, I will turn you over to the authorities of your country. I am certain they will want to know how you came to have so much in an illegal bank account."

  The look in the man's sleepless eyes convinced Suk that he was telling the truth.

  Suk decided to abandon his plan to cheat the man of his money. Besides, he had been assured that there was much more to be had if he performed but one small service. When Suk returned for the balance, he wouldn't leave the West again. He would live like a king for the rest of his life.