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Judgment Day — Hachette UK ebook edition
Hachette UK ebook edition

The DestroyerBook 141974

Judgment Day

As a powerful International Data Corporation executive moves to exploit Folcroft’s secret information network, Remo loses his usual contact with CURE director Harold Smith and notices that the new assignments are strange. Remo and Chiun face an uncertain change in their service to CURE while the agency’s future comes into question.

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IDC vice president Blake Corbish buys a secluded home near Bolinas and takes over Folcroft, the headquarters of CURE, after drugging director Harold Smith with a poisoned pen and torturing him in the home’s lead-lined shelter. He believes CURE’s information network can help IDC dominate its competitors and later make him President of the United States. Remo, meanwhile, kills Detroit drug supplier Arnold Jordan (formerly Angelo Giordano), destroys a heroin shipment, and kills an IDC programmer. In Miami, he discovers that his line to Smith is now answered by Corbish, who claims Smith has suffered a breakdown and appoints himself director. Smith escapes the shelter and travels across the country under assumed names.

Remo returns to Folcroft with Chiun; Corbish offers the House of Sinanju its gold tribute and persuades Remo to keep working for him. Corbish asks Remo to kill T. L. Broon, chairman of IDC; Remo infiltrates the guarded Darien estate and kills Broon, taking his briefcase. Broon’s daughter Holly learns about CURE and then about Corbish’s role in her father’s death. Corbish and Holly maneuver over IDC’s presidency; Smith calls Holly and warns her, while she tries to stop Corbish. Corbish kills Holly at the family’s Sound-side camp and plans to kill Smith and Remo. Smith manipulates Corbish’s CURE records with false tips, evades a hired Pittsburgh fixer, and arranges to meet Remo in Washington.

Remo and Chiun visit the unnamed President at the White House, who confirms that Smith remains the legitimate head of CURE. Smith frees himself after Remo and Chiun leave, flies to Kennedy Airport, and makes his way back to Folcroft by boat. He confronts Corbish, learns Holly is dead, and kills him with a straight pen. Smith orders Remo and Chiun to remove Corbish’s body, but Remo realizes the guards will not let him leave without his badge; the text ends before they leave or show CURE’s operations restored.

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Characters & places

Spoilers

Full articles

Characters 25

Places 39

Organizations 17

Groups 7

People 1

Lore 2

Chapter summaries21 chapters · spoilers

  1. Chapter 1

    IDC executive Blake Corbish purchases a secluded Bolinas house and cabin, then travels east after his employer assigns him to seize CURE’s computer operation at Folcroft. He learns that CURE’s secret network is a source of power and plans to torture its director, Dr. Harold Smith.

  2. Chapter 2

    Remo Williams visits Detroit-area drug supplier Arnold Jordan, learns the location of a 55-kilo heroin shipment, burns the protected house holding it and kills an IDC programmer. He cannot reach Smith through the usual phone line and worries that Smith may be in danger.

  3. Chapter 3

    Corbish drugs Smith with a pen, abducts him to the lead-lined shelter near Bolinas and tortures him for information. Smith describes CURE and its one-man enforcement arm, but Corbish eventually uses the information to assume control of Folcroft.

  4. Chapter 4

    In Miami, Remo and Chiun argue over Smith’s absence and the change in their work. Remo’s scheduled Folcroft call is answered by Corbish, who identifies himself as director and claims Smith is on vacation; Remo suspects the systems have been compromised.

  5. Chapter 5

    Remo tells Chiun he still wants to serve CURE. Chiun debates the meaning of service to a new emperor. Meanwhile, Smith survives Corbish’s torture, frees himself from the shelter, and begins making his way out of the Bolinas house.

  6. Chapter 6

    Corbish finds Smith escaped, though he believes the injured director is unlikely to reach Remo. He bribes and coerces officials through CURE’s records, becomes IDC’s senior vice president for policy planning, and continues to imagine national power. Smith reaches a hospital and calls Remo’s Miami hotel.

  7. Chapter 7

    Remo and Chiun infiltrate the newly fortified Folcroft. Corbish claims Smith had a nervous breakdown and left, blames Remo for failing to kill him, and asks Remo to continue working for CURE. Chiun secures the House’s gold tribute; Remo agrees to give Corbish a chance.

  8. Chapter 8

    Corbish seeks to take over IDC and directs Remo to kill chairman T. L. Broon at his guarded Darien estate. Remo infiltrates the house, kills Broon and takes his briefcase. Holly Broon, his daughter, contacts Corbish to discuss the succession.

  9. Chapter 9

    Corbish learns that Remo returned with Broon’s briefcase. Smith, still injured, arrives at a Minneapolis bank under the name William Cudahy Densen, withdraws funds and buys supplies to continue evading Corbish.

  10. Chapter 10

    Holly presses Corbish about his plans for CURE and IDC. Smith calls Corbish from Cleveland, asks him to give up the operation, and threatens to kill him. Corbish uses the phone-tracing system to send FBI agents after Smith, who evades them.

  11. Chapter 11

    Corbish tells Holly that CURE is a secret government agency and that he is pursuing its former director, Smith. Holly agrees to cooperate in Corbish’s rise at IDC, while privately planning to use CURE for her own ambitions.

  12. Chapter 12

    Corbish assigns Remo to find Smith and gives him an access badge. Remo destroys the badge and leaves with Chiun for Cleveland. Smith, outside Cincinnati, tries unsuccessfully to contact the President through the White House switchboard and plans a meeting with Remo.

  13. Chapter 13

    Smith sends Remo a telegram from Cincinnati asking when he will hit a home run. Corbish suggests Dayton, but Remo sees that the telegram came from Cincinnati and heads there. Smith reads news of Broon’s death and recognizes Remo’s role.

  14. Chapter 14

    Corbish contracts Pittsburgh fixer Patsy Moriarty to kill Smith. Moriarty finds Smith at the Happy Haven Motel under the name Fred Finlayson; Smith escapes concealed in a laundry cart, runs Moriarty down with his car and takes the gun.

  15. Chapter 15

    Smith phones Holly and tells her Corbish ordered her father’s death. Holly recognizes Smith, decides Corbish must be stopped, and Smith concludes she knows too much and may also have to die.

  16. Chapter 16

    Holly visits Corbish at Folcroft, sees Remo and recognizes him as her father’s killer. Corbish orders Remo to kill Smith after the fixer’s death. Holly postpones the IDC board meeting; Corbish prepares compromising files on board members, not knowing Smith has inserted false tips.

  17. Chapter 17

    Holly invites Remo to her Darien home and shoots at him after confronting him with Smith’s claim. Remo disarms her, and she tells him Smith called. Remo interprets Smith’s “home run” telegram as a direction to the Smith home, where Mrs. Smith sends him to Washington.

  18. Chapter 18

    On the flight to Washington, Chiun presents his manuscript, Chiun’s Mad Emperor. Remo and Chiun check into the Lafayette Hotel under aliases; Smith calls and arranges to meet Remo at the Windsor Park Hotel. Chiun accompanies Remo despite his conflicting orders.

  19. Chapter 19

    Smith stages a fake dynamite rig and asks Remo to consult the one authority who can settle CURE’s leadership. Holly tries to kill Corbish at the family’s Sound-side camp; he kills her, hides her body and decides to eliminate Smith and Remo. Smith frees himself and returns to Folcroft.

  20. Chapter 20

    Remo and Chiun enter the White House and ask the unnamed President whether he removed Smith and appointed Corbish. The President confirms Smith remains CURE’s head. They leave the White House and decide not to kill Smith; Smith has already escaped the fake dynamite ruse, flown to Kennedy Airport and made his way back to Folcroft by boat.

  21. Chapter 21

    Smith returns to Folcroft through the kitchen, confronts Corbish and learns Holly is dead. Remo and Chiun arrive; Smith kills Corbish with a straight pen and orders Remo to remove the body. Remo cannot leave through the guarded entrance without his badge.

Other mentions29 names & references

Editions & covers

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Edition · cover shown

Hachette UK

2014-08-21

ISBN 9780751558104

Edition details

References & notes

Sources 32 references
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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.

Judgment Day:

Publisher's description: CURE’s leadership changes abruptly when a new director tells Remo that Harold Smith has been removed.

Presidential clues

Current U.S. President: historical identity unresolved.

The unnamed President who asks Smith to create CURE

An unnamed young President asks Harold Smith to lead an extralegal agency and persuades him to accept after Smith raises constitutional objections.

  • Smith addresses him as “Mr. President.”
  • The narrative calls him a young President and says the population was 180 million.
  • He says the Constitution may need to be violated to preserve the country, and Smith agrees to establish CURE.
  • No personal name, party, term, exact year or further biographical identifier is supplied.

high that the source depicts an unnamed U.S. President at CURE’s creation; none for a specific person

Keep this earlier founding President separate from the present-story incumbent, who is a distinct narrative officeholder. The source supplies no name, term or exact year.

The unnamed President who confirms Smith’s CURE authority

The President occupies the White House and confirms to Remo that Smith remains the head of CURE.

  • Smith attempts to reach the President through the White House and describes a direct line to the President’s bedroom.
  • Remo visits the sleeping President with Chiun, first asks whether he removed Smith, then explicitly asks whether Smith is still CURE’s head. The President answers yes to the latter question. The President subsequently interprets the visit as a dream; the narration does not settle that interpretation.
  • The President recalls a prior encounter with CURE’s enforcement arm but provides no name, party, term or date.

high that the scene depicts the incumbent U.S. President and confirms Smith’s authority; none for a specific person

This present-story incumbent is distinct from the unnamed young President who founded CURE in the earlier flashback. The source supplies no name, party, term or date.

President Roosevelt, as mentioned by Smith

Franklin D. Roosevelt

  • The source says “President Roosevelt” but gives no first name, term or date.
  • The reference occurs in a hypothetical analogy about Einstein, telephone communication and the Nazis.

Strong historical-referent inference from the Einstein/Nazi atomic-research analogy and the FDR Library’s archival account; the source supplies only President Roosevelt.

The expanded historical identity is an inference supported by an external archival source. The analogy does not identify the story’s incumbent or date the novel’s action.

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