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Fool's Gold — Hachette UK ebook edition
Hachette UK ebook edition

The DestroyerBook 521983

Fool's Gold

When a professor of ancient languages translates a plaque in a North Carolina cave as a clue to an immense gold deposit, CURE assigns Remo and Chiun to protect her and follow the trail. Their search crosses the Yucatan and Bombay, while a British family of assassins and an unexpected Hollywood leak complicate the investigation.

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Terri Pomfret reads a plaque in the Albemarle Caves as evidence that ancient Hamidian traders moved a mountain of gold. After her guide and bodyguard Bruno are killed, CURE assigns Remo Williams and Chiun to protect her. Remo kills the Malaise brothers on St. Maarten while CURE’s network transfer is disrupted and its records leak to screenwriter Barry Schweid. Neville Lord Wissex sells a fabricated treasure hunt to Hamidia’s Moombasa; his knife fighters and snipers fail to capture Terri. The trio follows successive plaques from the Yucatan to Bombay and Spain. Chiun recognizes that the plaques were made with the same modern chisel, while Wissex kidnaps Terri and lures the pair to Mesoro Hill.

Remo and Chiun defeat Wissex, and Moombasa’s artillery accidentally reveals gold under the hill. Separately, Smith restores CURE’s files and takes possession of Schweid’s screenplays after dealing with producers Hank Bindle and Bruce Marmelstein.

Sources for this summary

Characters & places

Spoilers

Full articles

Characters 43

Places 48

Organizations 16

Groups 8

People 1

Lore 6

Chapter summaries18 chapters · spoilers

  1. Chapter 1

    Terri translates the plaque, then discovers her cave guide’s murdered body and escapes. The government later recruits her to return with Bruno, who is killed by a knife fighter after she completes the inscription; Neville Lord Wissex is shown directing this attack.

  2. Chapter 2

    Remo kills the Malaise brothers on St. Maarten as part of CURE’s network move. A storm disrupts the records transfer; Barry Schweid’s computer receives information that he and producers Bindle and Marmelstein mistake for a screenplay opportunity.

  3. Chapter 3

    Wissex persuades Hamidia’s Moombasa to fund an operation to locate the alleged ancient gold mountain. Remo, Chiun, and Terri return to the caves; Terri corrects her reading and places the next clues in the Yucatan.

  4. Chapter 4

    Schweid sees CURE material in his computer and tries to fashion it into a screenplay. Bindle and Marmelstein steer his Hamlet treatment toward familiar Hollywood formulas.

  5. Chapter 5

    Wissex hires Walid ibn Hassan and other snipers after the earlier knife fighters fail. The trio reaches a Chocatl village whose people have been killed. Remo eliminates the sniper group and kills Walid with Walid’s own rifle; the chapter alternates with the producers’ screenplay discussion.

  6. Chapter 6

    The chapter intercuts Wissex’s concern over the failed Yucatan operation and Pimsy’s attributed warning about Master Wang with the trio’s return to St. Maarten. There, Wissex’s agent asks about Chiun’s kimono and is marked by the House of Sinanju; Smith is trying to recover CURE’s missing records.

  7. Chapter 7

    Wissex’s adviser Tonaka Hamamota traps the trio inside Gint’s temple with explosives. They survive the blast and kill Hamamota.

  8. Chapter 8

    Smith receives a garbled message from an unknown source and decides to resume transmitting CURE’s records continuously. Schweid and Marmelstein continue treating the leaked information as entertainment-industry material.

  9. Chapter 9

    Terri translates the Bombay plaque as saying the gold went to Spain. Wissex pretends to abandon the operation before assigning Commander Spencer to pursue the trio.

  10. Chapter 10

    Smith reflects on CURE and his relationship with Remo and Chiun. Barry Schweid telephones with an offer to sell Smith the screenplay, while neither understands the other’s business language.

  11. Chapter 11

    Neville reports losses at a House of Wissex meeting. Despite Pimsy’s warning, the directors approve sending Commander Spencer after Remo and Chiun; Spencer prepares his weapons.

  12. Chapter 12

    Remo contacts Smith from Bombay and says the group is going to Spain. On the connecting flight, a stewardess approaches Remo, who tells her to keep her hands to herself; she slides down the wall to the floor, and Remo jokes that he touched a nerve, but the narration does not confirm a technique. Smith realizes that a screenwriter has used CURE records.

  13. Chapter 13

    Spencer uses a double and a doctor disguise to pass Heathrow security and board the Air Espana flight. Separately, Schweid negotiates with Smith for the screenplay and accepts $190,000, eight gross points, and a free rewrite; he later realizes the solo bargaining cost him $60,000 and two points.

  14. Chapter 14

    In Madrid, Chiun recognizes repeated engraver marks as proof that the plaques were made together rather than in ancient times. Spencer attacks during the bullfight; a bull kills him after Remo and Chiun survive his weapons.

  15. Chapter 15

    Bindle and Marmelstein become Schweid’s negotiators. Chiun tells Remo about Master Puk, who claimed to have found a mountain of gold in South America but returned with no treasure and was remembered as a liar.

  16. Chapter 16

    Terri falls for Neville Wissex, who reveals himself as her captor and transports her by yacht and helicopter to Mesoro Hill. Remo and Chiun learn where she was taken and refuse Smith’s request to leave her behind.

  17. Chapter 17

    Chiun uses a diversion to reach the hilltop while Remo draws Wissex’s attention. Chiun evades gunfire; Remo kills Wissex. A shell exposes gold beneath Mesoro Hill, and Terri escapes with Remo and Chiun as Moombasa’s forces bombard the site.

  18. Chapter 18

    Smith secretly backs up CURE’s records through Schweid’s computer, then tells Schweid that Bindle and Marmelstein mean to steal his screenplay. Remo breaks their desk and Smith takes the scripts, including Loves of an Assassin.

Other mentions59 names & references

Editions & covers

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Edition · cover shown

Hachette UK

2015-05-07

ISBN 9780751558944

Edition details

References & notes

Sources 24 references
  • witness:00000150:ch01:p0029
  • witness:00000150:ch01:p0040
  • witness:00000150:ch01:p0105
  • witness:00000150:ch03:p0121
  • witness:00000150:ch07:p0076
  • witness:00000150:ch01:p0079
  • witness:00000150:ch02:p0145
  • witness:00000150:ch05:p0251
  • witness:00000150:ch07:p0266
  • witness:00000150:ch09:p0028
  • witness:00000150:ch14:p0123
  • witness:00000150:ch16:p0096
  • witness:00000150:ch17:p0132
  • witness:00000150:ch17:p0162
  • witness:00000150:ch18:p0014
  • witness:00000150:ch18:p0054
Edition and source notes

Names are the bibliography’s title-level “written by” attribution key, not a verified edition byline. credited_authors is null because no first-edition cover/title page was checked. A creator name in the general franchise metadata must not be treated as proof of sole drafting.

registration-declared first publication: 1983-05-20. CPRS record field is the registrant/depositor-reported first-publication date, not independent retail/on-sale verification; no print copy inspected. Source

Fool’s Gold:

Publisher's description: Hachette supplies only its general series overview here; it characterizes the novels as action-led stories mixing comedy and mysticism.

Presidential clues

Current U.S. President: historical identity unresolved.

The unnamed U.S. President who authorizes Terri’s protection

The U.S. President is said to personally authorize an exceptionally secret protection for Terri Pomfret. The source does not show him, name him, or identify his administration. Personal observed name: none; only an office/title reference appears.

  • A government agent says the head of the department knows only that “the President” authorized the protection (ch01:p0104).
  • A second agent identifies the office as the President of the United States and says the authorization is personal (ch01:p0105).
  • The source supplies an office/title only and no personally identifying name.

unresolved

No identifying personal name or secure story-year clue appears. Do not infer a real President from copyright/publication context. The text does not say this is the same officeholder as the President who founded CURE in Smith’s retrospective.

The unnamed President who established CURE

John F. Kennedy

  • Smith remembers the desperate President who asked him to establish the organization (ch08:p0009).
  • Smith says he was selected by a President he disliked and accepted because the President said he was uniquely qualified (ch10:p0003).
  • The source supplies an office/title only and no personally identifying name.

strong cross-book inference; unnamed in this book

This book leaves the founding President unnamed. Book 26 explicitly names John Kennedy / John F. Kennedy as CURE’s founder; the contextual match supports a cross-book inference, not a directly observed name or identification of the current protection authorizer.

Moombasa Garcia y Benitez, President for Life of Hamidia

Generalissimo Moombasa Garcia y Benitez

  • Wissex addresses Moombasa as President for Life (ch03:p0029).
  • The narrator identifies him by full name and title (ch03:p0064).

fictional character; no real-world identity proposed

Hamidia and Moombasa are fictional within the novel; the title is part of the source characterization, not a real-world officeholder clue.

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