"I don't understand that yet, but you can read it. But leave the papers in the same order. Daddy's fussy."

Leave them in the same order. Her father might die for those papers because he was fussy and left them in the same order. Remo felt sick.

But he forced himself to think of millions of people and their lives. He stretched thousands out on roads, smiling, holding hands, every home in America, every family, every crowd. And he knew that if the word came, he would do his duty and kill-even if it was the glorious, brilliant Nils Brewster, and even though his death would shatter this delicious child, Stephanie.

It was Remo's good fortune that he soon met Nils Brewster, and the meeting made his possible assignment a great deal easier.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Nils Brewster was not dressed in chains as he had been for his nude portrait. He wore a short-sleeved blue shirt, chinos and sneakers. His hair flew about his head like tornado-whipped tumbleweed.

Stephanie had gone off to tell her mother about the new director of security, and had left Remo in the only large building in the compound that might have housed a laboratory. It did not. It was an auditorium, now filled with people crowded around tables.

The first thing Doctor Brewster said to Remo was: "Shhhhh."

"I'm Remo Pelham, the new. ..."

"I know, I know. Shhhhhh.'"

He turned and Remo followed. It was a chess tournament Remo would learn later that Brewster Forum had not only a chess tournament, but a chess instructor, a tennis pro, a golf pro, a singing teacher, a karate instructor, a musical conductor, its own little newspaper-published for the twenty-three people who could understand what was going on in the forum, including to Remo's awesome shock, a Russian-and a sky-diving coach.