Bloody Tourists

An unnamed tester doses Arby Maple with experimental GUTX in Bunsen, Mississippi, and directs him toward violence; the same coded testing practice and distinctive Mont Blanc pen later associate the anonymous tester with Greg Grom, though the source never explicitly names the man in that opening scene. In Nashville, Remo investigates contaminated drugs and further violent episodes, including a deadly Grom experiment at the Big Stomp. CURE sends Remo and Chiun after the Union Island delegation; a CURE-origin account says an unnamed young U.S. President founded the agency and recruited Harold W. Smith, but does not name that President. On Union Island, Grom and tourism minister Dawn Summens use natural and synthetic GUTX and suggestion to influence visitors, staff, and political allies as Grom pursues island independence.

Grom’s early synthetic tests produce side effects; he later believes a new batch avoids violent reactions, but the book distinguishes his belief from confirmed results. Remo and Chiun survive the Road Sharks and the Smoking Hogs, whom Grom’s intermediary hires to attack them, and follow the tour to Union Island. Dawn has her own political ambitions and tries to resist Grom’s control. Her charcoal and medicines are an attempt to counter expected toxin exposure; they do not prevent Grom from abusing her. Dawn later attacks Amelia Powlik, who is badly burned but survives and is taken to hospital. Remo interrupts Grom’s established routine of dosing resort breakfast potatoes by confiscating and throwing the batches into the sea; at Turquoise Seas he incapacitates drugged staff without killing them, then escapes a knife-wielding party crowd with Chiun.

Dawn steals the museum’s last preserved octopus specimen and later becomes paralyzed after touching it while still affected by GUTX. Remo kills the rapidly deteriorating mob, reasoning that they cannot be saved. He alone throws Grom’s final poison cache into the sea and pushes Grom from a helicopter; the source reports no later outcome for him. Responders leave Dawn conscious and paralyzed at the museum after Amelia is taken to hospital. Dawn’s later treatment, recovery, or death is not reported.