Terror Squad

During a hijacking by the Revolutionary Liberation Front of Free Palestine, the attackers kill cancer researcher Isadore Geleth and infant Kevin Miller and rape Kevin’s mother, Kathy; a later attack shows that terrorists have acquired striking but brittle competence. CURE director Harold W. Smith sends Remo Williams to Los Angeles, where Remo works with FBI agent Donald Peterson to stop a Utah plane hijacking and learns the hijackers’ stated names: the woman first claims Kahlala Waled, then gives Leronia Smith after he challenges her, while the third man continues to give the name Mustafa El Faquar; the novel does not confirm which of those names is genuine.

Remo follows their training clue to Patton College, where he meets Joan Hacker, a radical student who calls herself Starlight. She has helped the hijackers and is being drawn deeper into the operation by a small man later identified as Nuihc. Chiun recognizes the staged fat, thin and dead-animal warnings as signs from a Sinanju rival and tells Remo he may leave America’s service. Joan coerces former SS captain Oskar Gruenwald into trying to kill Remo and Chiun; Remo kills Gruenwald after learning who recruited him. Joan also draws in Rodney Pintwhistle, who secretly chooses not to betray Remo and Chiun. The plot broadens through People United to Fight Fascism and an intended attack on Teterboro Airport, while Smith deploys CURE personnel under cover.

Remo learns that three negotiators are meeting at Hotel Caribou and assumes they are the next targets; Chiun secretly saves them from three assassins before Remo can arrive. Joan warns that the UN delegates will be attacked and gives Remo the clue that leads him to the Museum of Natural History. There Nuihc, Chiun’s nephew and a rival trained in Sinanju, says that the terrorism, airport plot and apparent attack on the treaty negotiators were staged to separate the two masters and kill them. The apparent attack at the UN is really aimed at Chiun, while Nuihc expects to defeat Remo at the museum. Chiun kills the UN attackers and heads for the museum; Remo defeats Nuihc in a fight across a suspended whale exhibit.

Chiun arrives alive, but Nuihc escapes after Joan frees him and he fatally wounds her. The UN diplomats survive and the nations unanimously approve the antiterrorism pact. Remo and Chiun postpone pursuit of Nuihc to keep their promised Brooklyn visit, while the closing scene shows Kathy Miller choosing to turn toward life after the loss of her son.