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The Destroyer#107Feast or FamineThe DestroyerBook 1071997
Feast or Famine
- Writer
- Will Murray
- Series creators
- Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir
After a sudden death following a free candy, CURE operatives Remo Williams and Chiun investigate a chain of strange bee-related deaths and unexplained crop damage. Reporter Tammy Terrill builds a killer-bee story while beekeeper and entomologist Helwig X. Wurmlinger becomes a possible suspect. As the attacks spread, the investigators must determine what the apparent insects are and whether the cases are connected.
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Geneticist Doyal T. Rand dies after taking a free guarana candy, and later deaths appear connected to bees. Remo Williams and Chiun investigate for CURE while reporter Tammy Terrill shapes a killer-bee story. Strange intelligent insects attack people and selectively damage crops; an anti-government militia led by Mearl Streep attacks Wurmlinger’s property and is killed by an unseen buzzing force. Remo and Chiun find a microscopic one-eyed organism; Wurmlinger and Chiun give the same captured specimen different names, and Smith later identifies the tiny organisms as machines, though the text does not fully explain their relationship to the invisible crop-destroying force. Roache’s examination of a separate death’s-head insect finds Mylar wings, a mechanical body and a toxin-filled needle stinger; his possible camera identification is tentative.
At a comic-book convention, Remo traces a lead to Peter Pym and destroys the nanobees stored in his hotel room. Pym is later revealed through Smith’s account of his diaries as a UCLA nanoscientist who created the artificial bees. Pym is stung by Africanized honeybees, cannot find his EpiPen and dies; Remo later displays the injector he removed. During Tammy’s live interview, the bee emissary’s voice stops and she accidentally swallows the insect. A week later, Smith reports no further attacks and says investigators’ recovered equipment and insects have been destroyed, but the source does not establish that every device everywhere was recovered. Remo leaves with Jean Rice; Chiun is absent, and Remo’s speculation about him and the housekeeper is not confirmed.
Characters & places
SpoilersFull articles
- ChiunCharacter
- CUREOrganization
- Folcroft SanatoriumPlace
- Harold W. SmithCharacter
- House of SinanjuGroup
- Remo WilliamsCharacter
- SinanjuPlace
- Sinanju (martial tradition)Lore
Characters 37
- Andy Funkhauser
- B. Eugene Roache
- Bizarre Bee-Master
- Bosko Boder
- Chiun
- Clyde Smoot
- Death Yellowjacket
- Doyal T. Rand
- Edward E. Eishied
- General Tanko Draskovic
- Gideon Krombold
- Gordon Garret
- Grandmother Mulberry
- Harold W. Smith
- Heather Noto
- Helwig X. Wurmlinger
- Irv Ray
- Jean Rice
- Lemuel Quirk
- Loma
- Lyndon D’Arcy
- Master Kokmul
- Master Pyo
- Mearl Streep
- Morris Baggot
- Norman Schiff
- Perry Noto
- Peter Pym
- Remo Williams
- Remy Asticot
- Steve Starko
- Tammy Terrill
- Tammy’s unnamed cameraman
- Togo Nozoki
- Unnamed incumbent U.S. President
- Unnamed President associated with CURE’s creation
- Unnamed successor U.S. President
Places 11
Organizations 5
Groups 1
Lore 1
Chapter summaries
Chapter 1
Rand accepts a free guarana candy from a street vendor and dies in Manhattan; EMTs and Medical Examiner Quirk find his brain and eyes liquefied or missing, with cause unknown.
Chapter 2
Smith sends Remo to kill General Tanko. A wanted poster names Bosko Boder as a Sarajevo taxi driver, but its description is vague; Remo kills a cabdriver called Bosko before killing Tanko at his house. The narration does not conclusively establish that the cabdriver and the poster’s Bosko Boder are the same man.
Chapter 3
Smith and the unnamed incumbent U.S. President discuss Tanko’s assassination; Smith recalls a separate unnamed young President creating CURE in June 1963 and being killed during its early months.
Chapter 4
Perry and Heather Noto remake their restaurant as La Maison Punaise; chef Remy Asticot and the owners die amid the apparent insect attacks, as does Los Angeles coroner Togo Nozoki.
Chapter 5
Remo returns from Sarajevo to Castle Sinanju and meets the unnamed housekeeper; he and Chiun discuss his completed Tanko assignment and the housekeeper’s uncertain name.
Chapter 6
Tammy Terrill investigates Rand’s death and the Hornets-capped candy vendor; Funkhauser offers a mob-hit theory while she and her cameraman pursue a possible bee connection.
Chapter 7
Tammy visits the morgue, where a new medical examiner autopsies his predecessor, found dead that morning; tiny insect fragments are found at the shoulder and identified as not a bee.
Chapter 8
Smith assigns Remo and Chiun to investigate Rand’s and the prior medical examiner’s deaths; Dr. Norman Schiff examines Rand and Quirk, while Chiun calls the fragment “the bee that is not.”
Chapter 9
Tammy researches a possible national killer-bee story at the New York Public Library and contacts Helwig X. Wurmlinger, who is flying to Los Angeles to examine a separate coroner death.
Chapter 10
On the flight to Los Angeles, stewardess Loma recognizes Remo from an earlier flight; Remo reflects on his diminished appeal, then dreams of stewardesses in bumblebee uniforms.
Chapter 11
Deputy coroner Gideon Krombold and Wurmlinger examine Togo Nozoki; Tammy arrives, and her cameraman dies after a large bee sting, while the bee survives Tammy’s blows.
Chapter 12
A death’s-head bee stings Tammy and Krombold; Krombold dies of anaphylaxis, Tammy survives, and the insect evades capture before dying in a camera bulb.
Chapter 13
Wurmlinger finds no bee remains after the camera-bulb incident and suggests it sought a bright light; Chiun continues to insist it was a “not-bee.”
Chapter 14
Smith considers Wurmlinger a possible suspect; Remo reports the Los Angeles deaths and a Sacramento Bee publisher’s death. Chiun retrieves a bee wing.
Chapter 15
A death’s-head bee follows Remo and Chiun toward the rental car, then boards the flight; the pilot and flight engineer are incapacitated.
Chapter 16
Remo lands the stricken flight at LAX; the bee stings him at the carotid artery, but he does not suffer the poison effects he fears.
Chapter 17
Gordon Garret watches a loud humming cloud destroy his young corn without wind; the phenomenon remains unexplained.
Chapter 18
Remo recovers from the bee sting while Chiun explains his “not-bee” distinction; the cause and agency behind the attacks remain unresolved.
Chapter 19
Smith discusses possible explanations for the attacks with visitors Remo and Chiun, including a serial killer and Wurmlinger; these are working hypotheses.
Chapter 20
FBI profiler Edward E. Eishied receives Smith’s request for an independent psychological profile of the unknown subject.
Chapter 21
Tammy follows Wurmlinger to Brownsville after police question and release them in Los Angeles.
Chapter 22
Remo returns to Castle Sinanju, meets Jean, who identifies herself as Jean Rice and says she won the lottery, and Chiun jokingly declares them married; the exchange establishes no legal marriage.
Chapter 23
Smith receives an initial FBI profile based on scant clues and recognizes that it is speculative rather than an identification.
Chapter 24
Jean recounts a tarot reading that predicted a wealthy beach encounter with a dark-haired man; the reading is her account, not independently verified.
Chapter 25
The chapter recounts Mearl Streep’s farm background and his turn toward anti-government militia organizing after the flood, as he urges fellow farmers to resist what he alleges are government actions. These are his conspiratorial beliefs.
Chapter 26
A skull-marked bee remains at Smith’s Folcroft window despite DEET, prompting him to summon Remo.
Chapter 27
Tammy and her cameraman investigate Wurmlinger’s unusual mud-dome lab and hear a humming from within.
Chapter 28
At Folcroft, Smith records a captured bee’s tiny sounds; playback renders English threats from a drone claiming service to a King of Bees and Bee-Master. Chiun drowns the bee.
Chapter 29
Wurmlinger finds his European honeybee hives affected by mites and foulbrood; Tammy broadcasts unsupported claims tying him and USDA to death bees, which Mearl’s militia accepts.
Chapter 30
Mearl and the militia watch Tammy’s report and redirect their convoy toward Wurmlinger’s Maryland lab, acting on conspiratorial beliefs.
Chapter 31
Remo and Chiun inspect the corn damage. In their conversation, Chiun tells a Sinanju legend about Master Kokmul and successor Master Pyo; the historical account is explicitly his lore.
Chapter 32
Mearl Streep’s militia attacks Wurmlinger’s property; a death’s-head bee appears and an unseen buzzing force kills militia members, including Streep and Gordon Garret.
Chapter 33
An unnamed Iowa farmer says only Super Yellow Dent fields were damaged and infers pests came from Washington; Remo relays observations to Smith.
Chapter 34
B. Eugene Roache identifies a California bee as a new species with a wasp-like stinger; its wing scorches near a desk lamp.
Chapter 35
Remo and Chiun find militia bodies with eyes and tongues missing at Wurmlinger’s lab. A speaking bee claims to serve Bee-Master and to have killed the militia; Wurmlinger denies being the fictional figure.
Chapter 36
An invisible buzzing force attacks Wurmlinger’s house and disintegrates its door; Chiun holds Wurmlinger at risk, after which the creatures retreat.
Chapter 37
Wurmlinger admits experimental eye-gene transfer and prosthetic insect-limb work, but denies being Bee-Master; he and Remo/Chiun disagree about whether bees can speak.
Chapter 38
Smith receives reports of pest-resistant crop damage and speaks with the unnamed incumbent President, who awaits the investigation and has not heard the speaking-bee claims.
Chapter 39
A bee approaches Tammy, identifies itself as a Bee-Master drone and threatens her unless she interviews Bee-Master; she accepts for career reasons.
Chapter 40
Remo tells Wurmlinger he is not Bee-Master; Remo and Chiun take the slide with the tiny specimen, and Remo later reports that Wurmlinger is not their suspect.
Chapter 41
FBI profiler Eishied sends Smith a deliberately fabricated profile pointing to “P.P.” based on his childhood comic-book memory; Remo recognizes the Bee-Master reference.
Chapter 42
Smith says the captured tiny organism can enter ears and attack brains; he also reports selective citrus attacks, while Remo and Chiun identify Eishied’s “P.P.” prank as Peter Pym.
Chapter 43
A yellow-jacket-costumed man enters Times Square and dies amid invisible buzzing; Officer Funkhauser finds his tongue and eyes missing.
Chapter 44
Roache reports that the death’s-head bee has a circled-T trademark on its wing; Smith infers it was genetically created.
Chapter 45
Remo and Chiun identify the dead Times Square costume wearer as a convention attendee dressed as Death Yellowjacket; a hotel clerk identifies a separate black-clad man as Mr. Pym, whom Remo suspects is Peter Pym.
Chapter 46
Roache reports dissecting the bee and finding Mylar wings, a machine-made body, neurotoxin reservoir and possible camera; Smith calls it a nanobee and infers radio control.
Chapter 47
Peter Pym wins the Bee-Master costume contest, then is stung repeatedly by Africanized honeybees and dies after failing to find his EpiPen. Remo later displays the injector he removed. During Tammy’s live interview, the bee emissary dies and Tammy accidentally swallows it.
Chapter 48
A week later Smith reports that Peter Pym’s diaries identify him as the UCLA nanoscientist behind the artificial bees; he says there have been no further attacks and that investigators’ recovered equipment and insects were destroyed. Remo leaves with Jean, while Chiun’s location remains unknown. Remo’s speculation about Chiun and the housekeeper is unconfirmed.
Editions & covers
Audio
Audio adaptation
graphicaudio.netReferences & notes
Sources 35 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/feast-or-famine/9780751560565
- spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.aspx?id=472
- www.graphicaudio.net/destroyer-107-feast-or-famine.html
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Edition and source notes
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.
Feast or Famine:
Publisher's description: Pesticide-resistant insects devastate Midwestern farms while Remo faces both the swarms and a militia convinced they are part of a plot.
Presidential clues
Current U.S. President: historical identity unresolved.
Unnamed contemporary U.S. President
Incumbent U.S. President who discusses the Tanko assassination with Smith and later receives reports about crop and bee attacks.
- Smith discusses Tanko’s death and U.S. displeasure with the President (ch03:p0011–0020).
- He receives crop/bee attack reporting and awaits Smith’s findings (ch38:p0021–0043).
- Smith later says he informed the President that the threat was over (ch48:p0014).
- No personal name or external identity is given.
unresolved
The source uses office/title and gives no personal name or uniquely identifying biography.
Unnamed former President associated with CURE founding
John F. Kennedy (qualified historical comparison; not named in the source)
- Smith dates his private meeting with a young, vigorous President who was soon to die a martyr to June 1963 (ch03:p0022).
- Smith says the President had seen combat in the Pacific during World War II (ch03:p0025).
- Smith says the founder was killed during CURE’s early months (ch03:p0042).
- These clues strongly fit John F. Kennedy, but the novel never gives the observed personal name.
strong textual compatibility; not source-confirmed
Smith supplies multiple historically identifying clues but does not state the President’s name. Keep the textual identity unnamed; this qualified historical comparison is not an observed name or independently verified within the novel.
Unnamed successor President
Lyndon B. Johnson (qualified historical comparison; not named in the source)
- Smith says CURE’s founder was killed early in the agency’s life and that the successor continued the program after an abrupt, bloody accession (ch03:p0042–0043).
- This is compatible with Lyndon B. Johnson, but no name is stated.
qualified historical compatibility; unresolved
Smith says the successor took power in an abrupt, bloody ascension and continued CURE but does not provide a personal name. This is a textual clue for later historical review, not an observed identity.
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