Death Sentence

Naomi Vanderkloot interprets newspaper and witness accounts of a thick-wristed, dead-eyed man as evidence of a next stage in human evolution; a National Enquirer story based on her interview reaches Harold W. Smith, who suffers a heart attack. Remo, whose memories Smith later says were altered under Project RESTORE, believes he spent twenty years on Florida death row, while prison records and executioner Harold Haines indicate he had already been executed at Trenton. Remo escapes shortly before Florida is due to execute him again. Chiun returns to find Smith gravely ill and Norvell Ransome directing Folcroft. Ransome orders Naomi killed and misleads Chiun about Remo; Chiun instead incapacitates Naomi without killing her, reunites with Remo, and takes him to Folcroft.

Ransome explains RESTORE, then freezes Remo and Chiun. Dr. Dooley helps Smith recover; Smith’s telephone trap electrocutes Ransome, whose death Smith later reports to the President as accidental. Smith orders Chiun to kill Dooley as a security risk despite Dooley’s assistance. Smith’s memory equipment restores Remo’s recollections. Remo initially quits CURE, then pauses that decision after learning that Smith’s files expose the Florida governor. The story shows Naomi being taken to the memory-altering room; a later tabloid account says she has lost five years and attributes that loss to aliens. Haines tries to shoot himself, then spends what the narration calls the last evening of his life wiring his easy chair to a generator; the book does not depict the chair’s use. Remo and Chiun leave Folcroft in an uneasy relationship with Smith and CURE.