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Hachette UK
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The Destroyer#112Brain StormThe DestroyerBook 1121998
Brain Storm
- Writer
- James Mullaney
- Series creators
- Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir
At a PlattDeutsche demonstration in a New York bank, Harold W. Smith’s unusual response attracts the company’s attention. Its brain-interface technology draws CURE and Remo into a struggle over copied memories, involuntary control and the transfer of Sinanju techniques.
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Andy Frost sees a staged PlattDeutsche bank demonstration that immobilizes the crowd while Harold W. Smith remains able to move. The company copies Smith’s neural data and learns from it; Holz’s group then uses the Dynamic Interface System to control Remo and Chiun, abduct UN delegates, and transfer copied Sinanju physical techniques into test subjects. The uncontrolled transfers kill several subjects, including Pendrake and Fischer. Smith’s Air Force signal-jamming plan temporarily disables the system, but Holz and von Breslau continue experiments and capture the Masters again. Remo and Chiun eventually free the kidnapped ambassadors. At the warehouse, Remo believes Holz’s assistant has killed Holz, while Chiun doubts the identification; the warehouse victim’s identity is not established.
Von Breslau escapes with copied files. Remo and Chiun later capture von Breslau and leave him trapped in a hotel chimney; the narrator reports that his body is discovered there six months later. In the final scene, Holz confronts Smith over Smith’s killing of his grandfather, Menk, and Remo kills Holz.
Characters & places
SpoilersFull articles
- Adolf KlugeCharacter
- ChiunCharacter
- CUREOrganization
- Folcroft SanatoriumPlace
- Harold W. SmithCharacter
- House of SinanjuGroup
- IVOrganization
- Maude SmithCharacter
- Mrs. MikulkaCharacter
- Remo WilliamsCharacter
- SinanjuPlace
- Sinanju (martial tradition)Lore
Characters 32
- Aaron Solon
- Adolf Kluge
- Andy Frost
- Arkady Rokossovsky
- Bootsy
- Brion
- Chiun
- Curt Newton
- David Leib
- Dominic Scubisci
- Don Anselmo Scubisci
- Ernst
- Gert Higgins
- Gladys Finkle
- Guillermo Murietta
- Harold W. Smith
- Heinrich Kolb
- Helena Eckert
- Josef Menk
- Leonard Zabik
- Lothar Holz
- Maude Smith
- Mervin Fischer
- Mindy
- Mrs. Mikulka
- Remo Williams
- Ron Stern
- Sir Geoffrey Hyde-Black
- Tony Scubisci
- Unnamed blond assistant to Holz
- Vicki
- Zach Pendrake
Places 9
Organizations 8
Groups 1
Lore 3
Chapter summaries
Chapter 1
Andy Frost witnesses PlattDeutsche’s staged bank demonstration: the interface immobilizes patrons, while Smith remains able to move and drops the robbery money at Frost’s desk before leaving.
Chapter 2
Remo confronts Don Anselmo’s younger brother over Guillermo Murietta. After gunmen attack the restaurant, Remo takes Dominic to the kitchen and kills him by holding him under boiling pasta; Anselmo escapes.
Chapter 3
Smith studies PlattDeutsche’s system and contracts. The narrator’s backstory says an unnamed young president founded CURE and was later killed by an assassin.
Chapter 4
In Quincy, Remo and Chiun discuss the Dominic assignment and Remo asks for time off. Smith resists while the Don Anselmo threat remains.
Chapter 5
Newton and Holz discuss the bank test and Smith’s unusual neural data; the lab identifies Smith but cannot determine his first name, while Newton reports a blocked region.
Chapter 6
A flashback shows the OSS agent Harold Smith held and tortured by Gestapo Captain Josef Menk, with Ernst as torturer. In the present, Smith connects the recalled helplessness to the interface signal but dismisses a real connection.
Chapter 7
Smith and Maude discuss his brief appearance in bank news. Holz arrives at breakfast and explains the system copied Smith’s brain data; he whispers that he knows Sinanju, alarming Smith.
Chapter 8
Smith summons Remo to Folcroft, where Holz’s remote signal immobilizes Remo and causes involuntary movement. Newton’s team struggles with the unusual neural pattern before achieving control.
Chapter 9
Chiun arrives and fights signal-controlled Remo; after breaking Holz’s earpiece without ending control, he carries Smith beyond the interface range.
Chapter 10
In an Argentine mountain village, Heinrich Kolb is asked by Adolf Kluge to travel to New York. The narrative identifies him as Dr. Erich von Breslau, the “Butcher of Treblinka,” and links IV to PlattDeutsche.
Chapter 11
Holz pressures Fischer to copy selected Sinanju physical data into volunteer Zach Pendrake. Pendrake gains strength, kills Fischer with a strike through the chest, then dies from the overload.
Chapter 12
After Smith and Chiun return to Folcroft, Smith traces Remo to Edison. Chiun destroys the van’s broadcast link, kills the operators, and returns one surviving programmer for questioning; Smith learns of hidden PlattDeutsche owners and von Breslau.
Chapter 13
Von Breslau travels from South America on a commercial flight and speaks with attendants Bootsy, Mindy and Brion before meeting Holz at JFK.
Chapter 14
At Folcroft, Chiun and Remo discuss their captivity and the signal. Smith orders them to attack Holz and the Edison facility, while continuing to search for von Breslau.
Chapter 15
Newton challenges Holz for excluding him, learns of the bodies of Fischer and Pendrake, and consents to work with von Breslau after Holz alludes to a past accident and threatens his research/career.
Chapter 16
Remo and Chiun enter the Edison compound. Newton and von Breslau test copied skills on an accountant; Chiun interrupts. The system recaptures both Masters, and Holz directs further tests.
Chapter 17
A flashback shows Holz’s postwar childhood and his family’s Nazi associations. After his father dies, an unnamed old IV associate supports him; Holz later advances at PlattDeutsche and plans to use the interface for IV.
Chapter 18
Smith recalls shooting Menk on Usedom and, in the present, infers a strategy from the bank scene. He orders an E-3A Sentry diversion and arms himself while Holz’s assistant retrieves the van.
Chapter 19
The narrative introduces British Ambassador Sir Geoffrey Hyde-Black, Russian Ambassador Arkady Rokossovsky and U.S. Secretary of State Helena Eckert. Holz’s interface-controlled Remo and Chiun capture the three and take them to Edison.
Chapter 20
At Edison, Smith’s Air Force diversion interrupts the interface. Remo and Chiun begin to recover; Holz’s assistant attacks Smith and the gunshot kills Newton. Remo wounds the assistant with a thrown pen; Holz and the others flee.
Chapter 21
Kluge orders Holz back to IV, but Holz refuses. Smith tells Remo and Chiun that he dismantled Edison equipment and deleted their files; Chiun retained a list of eight test subjects.
Chapter 22
The pair finds Leonard Zabik and Aaron Solon dead, hears about other deceased test subjects, and finds David Leib dying after a transfer; Leib says the breathing felt right. Smith then reports an ambassador has been found.
Chapter 23
News reports say the Russian ambassador jumped from the Empire State Building; a witness translates his pleas about voices. The private narrative says Holz programmed the act, and von Breslau plans to take copied files to IV and orders the assistant to kill Holz.
Chapter 24
Smith tells the pair that PlattDeutsche owns a nearby warehouse where Holz may have taken the surviving ambassadors. He gives them small electronic disks he hopes will interfere with the signal.
Chapter 25
Von Breslau orders Holz’s assistant to kill Holz. At the warehouse, Remo assumes the repeatedly struck bloody body is Holz; Chiun studies the body and doubts Remo’s identification. The chapter does not identify the victim.
Chapter 26
Von Breslau prepares copies of the data for shipment, but Remo and Chiun take him to a hotel chimney and leave him trapped. The narrator says his body is found six months later. Smith identifies his pacemaker as a possible reason the interface signal did not immobilize him.
Chapter 27
Holz confronts Smith over Smith’s killing of Josef Menk, his grandfather. Chiun protects Smith; Remo fights Holz and kills him with a strike to the temple, then carries the body away.
Editions & covers
Audio
Audio adaptation
graphicaudio.netReferences & notes
Sources 25 references
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destroyer_(novel_series)
- stopyourekillingme.com/D_Authors/Destroyer.html
- destroyer-books.com/bibliography.php
- www.hachette.co.uk/titles/richard-sapir/brain-storm/9780751560619
- spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.aspx?id=472
- www.graphicaudio.net/destroyer-112-brain-storm.html
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Edition and source notes
Corpus begins at indexed Chapter 1; promotional Preface/title matter is separate paratext and not included in the 3,046 body blocks.
Unidentified EPUB-derived English transcription; OPF declares language ru although narrative text is English. Matching HTML has identical extracted paragraphs and is not an independent witness.
The title-level bibliography supplies this writer attribution. credited_authors is null pending title-page/cover verification; do not infer that marketed creator names drafted this volume.
Brain Storm:
Publisher's description: A new interface copies Smith’s neural files and places CURE’s secrets—and its agents—under an outside force’s control.
Presidential clues
Current U.S. President: historical identity unresolved.
Unnamed CURE-founding U.S. President
John F. Kennedy (qualified historical-series compatibility hypothesis; not named in this passage)
- Narrator says CURE was created by a young President who later died by an assassin’s bullet (ch03:p0004).
- Smith is said to have spent the bulk of the past four decades working for CURE; this supplies series chronology context but not the President’s personal name or an explicit year (ch03:p0004).
- The source does not name the founder. John F. Kennedy is a qualified series-context comparison only.
unresolved; strong qualified compatibility inference
The narrator identifies only a young President who founded CURE and was later killed by an assassin’s bullet. In the series context this strongly fits John F. Kennedy, but the passage gives no name or date and this remains a qualified historical-series inference rather than source-observed identity.
Unnamed U.S. President
current U.S. President referenced by the Secretary of State
- Helena Eckert says the President personally phoned her about oil rights, a sunken boat, missing inspectors and Lobynia (ch19:p0089).
- No personal name or explicit story date is stated in these passages.
unresolved
The novel gives no personal name or date for the current President in the identified scenes. Helena Eckert says the President phoned her about the Lobynia issue; no additional historical identity is supplied.
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