Survival Course

A Pan-American drug summit in Bogota draws the unnamed U.S. President into a journey that ends when Air Force One crashes in the Sierra Madre Oriental. The flight appears to act on its own before failing. After the crash, the President is captured alive by Abu Al-Kalbin’s terrorist crew, while the aircraft’s materials assemble into an assimilating machine that builds a humanlike body from wreckage and a face selected from a photograph. It rescues the President, who calls it “Dan,” then moves him by train and Bimbo Bread truck through Mexico. Remo and Chiun, initially working on Smith’s report that the President died, follow the evidence with FJP officer Guadalupe Mazatl.

NTSB investigator Bill Holland finds unexplained mutilations and a missing body; the White House chief of staff and Cabinet consider forcing the actual Vice-President to resign before acknowledging succession. The machine’s VP-like appearance leads Remo and Chiun to suspect the actual Vice-President, although Smith confirms the real incumbent is in the United States. A Mexico City hotel encounter reveals mechanical traits in the double, which escapes and later speaks to Chiun as a bronze statue of Josip Broz Tito. An anomalous cockpit recording alerts Smith that the machine is Mr. Cordons/Gordons, a survival-driven assimilator from earlier CURE history. Remo and Chiun arrange to meet it at Teotihuacan; Smith authorizes negotiation and says the President’s death is a last resort if capture by the cartel becomes likely.

Gordons steals the Coatlicue statue from Mexico City’s anthropology museum. El Padrino reaches Mexico, captures Lupe and forces her to disclose the video and the machine’s identity. At the Pyramid of the Sun, Gordons offers to return the President in exchange for safety and the actual Vice-Presidency. El Padrino tries to take the President; Lupe persuades Gordons to reveal the President’s location, inside a hollow King Kong figure atop the Banana boutique, hoping the others’ actions will expose their intentions. El Padrino signals Embutes to kill her after hearing the disclosure. Chiun tricks Gordons while it transfers its brain, sending the Coatlicue form down the pyramid; it breaks into pieces and crushes El Padrino.

Remo and Chiun recover the President, who mistakes them for “Dan.” The actual Vice-President joins him for the flight to Bogota. Smith confirms their safe arrival and an official crash account attributes the accident to “circadian desynchronosis.” Smith believes Gordons may be dead and directs Remo and Chiun to leave the restored Coatlicue alone. The final museum scene shows the statue unveiled after restoration, with curator Rodrigo Lujan privately thanking Mother Coatlicue; Gordons’ survival remains unresolved.