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Hachette UK
Edition details
The Destroyer#16Oil SlickThe DestroyerBook 161974
Oil Slick
- Writer
- Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir
After U.S. energy researchers are murdered, Smith sends Remo to protect another scientist and identify who is behind the attacks. As an oil crisis puts pressure on the United States, Remo’s investigation leads him to Lobynia.
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A series of attacks on American energy researchers and Baraka’s oil embargo draw Remo to Lobynia. Nuihc later tells Baraka that he arranged the murders, embargo, and false messages to lure Remo and Chiun into his challenge. Remo uncovers Oxonoco president Clayton Clogg’s scheme to divert Lobynian oil through a sham offshore operation. Clogg’s red-haired agent kills Jessie Jenkins after she refuses to reveal information about Remo; Remo captures the agent, and Nuihc later kills him. Remo sends Clogg and eight Oxonoco men across the desert in a rigged vehicle, intending to leave them to die. After Nuihc kills Baraka, Remo coerces successor Jaafar Ali Amin to end the embargo and invite King Adras into a new government.
Chiun confronts Nuihc at the oil fields and ruptures the equipment, sending Nuihc away in the gusher. The book does not confirm Nuihc’s fate; Chiun returns to Remo unharmed.
Characters & places
SpoilersFull articles
- As the Planet RevolvesWork
- ChiunCharacter
- CUREOrganization
- Folcroft SanatoriumPlace
- Harold W. SmithCharacter
- House of SinanjuGroup
- NuihcCharacter
- Remo WilliamsCharacter
- SinanjuPlace
- Sinanju (martial tradition)Lore
Characters 21
Places 28
- Baghdad
- Berkeley
- Chicago
- Dapoli
- Denver
- Egypt
- Folcroft Sanatorium
- France
- Israel
- Jersey City
- Kennedy Airport
- King Adras palace
- Lobynia
- Lobynian Arms
- Lobynian oil fields
- Long Island Sound
- Mecca
- Mediterranean
- Mountains of the Moon
- New York City
- Revolutionary Triumph Building
- Rye, New York
- Saudi Arabia
- Sinanju
- Switzerland
- Tel Aviv
- Tunisia
- United States
Organizations 11
Groups 1
People 1
Lore 4
Works 1
Chapter summaries
Chapter 1
A prologue links a prehistoric oil deposit to modern industry. In Lobynia, Colonel Muammar Baraka leads a revolt after King Adras is deposed; Adras invokes an ancestral assassin legend, which Baraka dismisses.
Chapter 2
Remo reaches a new understanding of his training and identity in Denver. The chapter recalls his recruitment, training under Chiun, and CURE’s secret constitutional rationale.
Chapter 3
Fake FBI agents Mobley and Philbin kill engineering professor Marvin Ravelstein, whose shale process could make building materials and oil; the investigation links his death to the earlier Erik Johnson case.
Chapter 4
Remo arrives after a bomb destroys the Berkeley science building and kills five people. He takes an empty towel dispenser from the building, then kills the fake FBI men Mobley and Philbin; the poisoned Mobley says their employer may have said “Sinanju.”
Chapter 5
Baraka questions French intelligence aide Alphonse Jaurin about payments connected to Mobley and Philbin. Jaurin calls them death benefits for men who died working for Lobynia; Baraka accuses Jaurin of using his country as a scapegoat for a French plot, then kills him. Baraka recalls his promise to protect Lobynian water from oil extraction.
Chapter 6
Two women hired to claim Mobley and Philbin’s bodies describe an unseen Korean employer and repeat the “fat and thin” clue. The FBI and CIA each assume the other is handling the case; Smith remains uncertain whether a foreign government or oil company is behind the murders.
Chapter 7
Nuihc reveals to Baraka that he killed the commandos, caused the fake agents’ deaths, and is using Lobynian oil as bait to draw Remo and Chiun to him.
Chapter 8
Baraka announces the cutoff of Lobynian oil to the United States. Chiun leaves for Lobynia because of an ancestral contract tied to King Adras; Remo follows. Smith’s hunch that Baraka or Oxonoco may be behind the murders remains unconfirmed at this point.
Chapter 9
Remo and Chiun travel under cover identities, meet Jessie Jenkins and Father Harrigan, and learn that Clogg is also pursuing the supposed oil substitute.
Chapter 10
Nuihc identifies Remo Goldberg and Chiun as the two visitors he has been waiting for and tells Baraka not to move against them. The conference delegates arrive under armed guard and are marched toward Dapoli; Chiun arranges rooms at the Lobynian Arms.
Chapter 11
At a ceremony for a dozen dead commandos, Baraka blames Israel; Nuihc warns him not to touch Remo and Chiun, who disappear from the crowd.
Chapter 12
Chiun writes Baraka demanding abdication. Remo deduces from Smith’s knowledge of his supposed invention that Jessie Jenkins is a U.S. operative; after the intelligence minister refuses to deliver the letter, Remo gives it to Jessie.
Chapter 13
Jessie delivers Chiun’s letter directly to Baraka, who consults Nuihc. Nuihc identifies Chiun as the Master of Sinanju and tells Baraka to do nothing while he prepares to confront the two men.
Chapter 14
Chiun says he delivered his own and Remo’s notes to Baraka; Baraka later brings both to Nuihc after Chiun’s palace incursion. Remo separately offers Clogg his supposed oil-substitute formula, and Clogg considers a cash purchase.
Chapter 15
Chiun leads conference delegates in a chant for King Adras. In the desert, Clogg proposes secretly diverting Lobynian oil to Oxonoco; Baraka agrees to let a Clogg operative enter the conference compound and tacitly permits an “accident” involving Remo.
Chapter 16
Remo leaves the guarded compound with Jessie. Clogg’s red-haired agent attacks and mortally wounds her after she refuses to reveal information about Remo. Remo subdues the agent and leaves him in a heated dry-cleaning press; Nuihc later frees, questions, and kills him.
Chapter 17
Remo finds Clogg and his armed Oxonoco crew preparing the pipeline plan, disables their cars, and forces them to walk through the desert before sending them out into the sands in a rigged vehicle.
Chapter 18
Nuihc tells Baraka that he arranged the researcher killings and oil embargo to lure Remo and Chiun, then kills him. After Smith orders Remo home, Remo compels Jaafar Ali Amin to announce an end to the embargo and an invitation to King Adras to join a new government. Chiun leaves to meet Nuihc at the oil fields.
Chapter 19
At the oil depot, Chiun faces Nuihc, who invokes the rule against the Master killing a villager. Chiun ruptures a tank and then an oil tower; the gusher carries Nuihc away and pours over him. The text does not say whether Nuihc survives. Chiun walks back to the road, where Remo finds him unharmed.
Editions & covers
Explore cover historyReferences & notes
Sources 29 references
- stopyourekillingme.com/D_Authors/Destroyer.html
- www.fantasticfiction.com/series/destroyer
- www.warrenmurphy.com/index.php?page=books
- sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/murphy_warren
- sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sapir_richard_ben
- www.45cat.com/book/title/created-the-destroyer
- www.hachette.co.uk/titles/warren-murphy-5/oil-slick/9780751558128
- spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.aspx?id=472
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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.
Oil Slick:
Publisher's description: After a coup disrupts the US oil supply, an American scientist develops a workaround that may address the resulting energy crisis.
Presidential clues
No current or succession assessment is available; other retained presidential references remain in context.
The unnamed President who created CURE
A generic young U.S. President who created CURE and framed its constitutional rationale. The book supplies no name or calendar year.
- The narration says public knowledge of CURE would admit that the United States Constitution did not work.
- It attributes “Violate the constitution to save the constitution” to the young President who created CURE.
high for the narrative role and creation claim; none for a named identity or continuity with the later-mentioned President
This recap alone establishes no specific real-world identity, calendar year, or founding interval. Publication date is not story date; separate cross-book comparisons remain historical interpretations.
The unnamed U.S. President who knows of CURE
The generic U.S. President included with Harold W. Smith and Remo among the three people who know what CURE is and does. No individual President is named or depicted.
- The narration says only three men know what CURE is and does: “the president,” the head of CURE, and Remo.
high for generic role; none for identity or continuity with the CURE founder in ch02:p0027
The text does not establish whether this officeholder is the same person as CURE’s founder. No name, calendar date, administration, appearance or biographical details are supplied.
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