Master's Challenge

The novel opens with Wang’s legend of the Master’s Trial. Ancion, Emrys, Jilda and Kiree travel to Sinanju; Remo reluctantly agrees to enter the contest after Chiun and H’si T’ang explain the tradition and risks of refusal. Separately, Remo frees hostages from the Managuan Liberation Front at the Versailles Arms while Smith investigates a plot against the unnamed U.S. President. A White House bomb explodes during Smith’s first red-phone call with the President, who survives; after a second threat, Smith advises him to leave the country and he agrees. Smith follows the plot through the Earth Goodness Society: Robin Feldmar proposed the group’s idea and advised its strategy, while Mildred Pensoitte leads it publicly.

Mildred later admits she killed Robin and is ‘B,’ or Bunny; Smith shoots her when she attacks him. A CURE computer traces a Du Lac connection to the Cuban KGB office, and Smith infers Soviet involvement before clearing the President’s return. In the Trial, Ancion spares Remo but dies when his bola rebounds from a rock into his chest; Remo’s reflex strike kills Kiree, and he grieves. Remo meets Jilda and Emrys in Wales; they reject the Trial, and Griffith joins them. The Dutchman, Jeremiah Purcell, was trained by Nuihc to kill Chiun. Purcell sexually assaults and kills an unnamed Russian woman, then reaches Sinanju.

He kills Emrys and appears to kill Chiun, who survives. Remo overcomes Purcell in their final fight, but Purcell escapes through a tunnel to the sea. H’si T’ang dies; in the next chapter his spirit speaks through Griffith, says the boy’s mind and soul remain his own, and heals Remo and Jilda. Jilda leaves Remo to raise Griffith in Wales; Chiun later tells Remo she is pregnant. Remo chooses to return with Chiun because Purcell remains dangerous and Remo believes he must continue his Sinanju training. The novel ends with Remo alone, looking at Gullikona in the sky.