He had quickly ducked from the room and placed a few quiet calls back to Washington. When the call came back, it was not for MacCleary, but for MacArthur.

The general seemed as surprised as Conn at who was on the other end of the line.

"Yes, Mr. President," MacArthur said.

Conn got a clear enough picture from that part of the conversation he was able to hear.

Apparently while commanding America's European forces in World War II, Eisenhower had heard a rumor that the head of this insignificant little speck of a Korean fishing village was somehow-either by direct or indirect means-responsible for Hitler's death. Anxious not to suffer the same fate, the President not only commanded that MacArthur steer clear of Sinanju, he ordered that a gift of gold be delivered to the village, compliments of the United States.

Conrad MacCleary accepted the job as delivery boy for the gold. By now his curiosity was more than piqued. Under cover of darkness, he led a small team through enemy territory to the small North Korean village of Sinanju.

When he arrived with the gold, Conn was disappointed to find the Master was gone. According to the villagers, the head of the village and his young pupil were off somewhere training. Conn had left the gold along with a promise from General MacArthur that no tanks would approach Sinanju.

Although disappointed that he had missed out on meeting this mysterious Master, this time Conn didn't let the matter drop. After all, reputation alone had not just preserved a worthless little fishing village, but had also inspired an American president to send a payoff to a mud-smeared Korean backwater.

The first thing MacCleary did when he got back to the States, was to do some digging into what made this Sinanju and its Master so special.

He was surprised at what he turned up. Sinanju was some sort of training ground for the martial arts. The references were spotty and undetailed, but there were a lot of them.