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The Last Temple — Hachette UK ebook edition
Hachette UK ebook edition

The DestroyerBook 271977

The Last Temple

Swastika-shaped murders of Israelis lead Smith to fear a threat to Israel’s nuclear weapons. Remo and Chiun travel to Israel, where an immediate ambush and the evasive help of agent Zhava Fifer complicate their investigation.

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Ben Isaac Goldman tries to disclose a plot after fellow Israeli Ephraim Hegez is murdered, but Goldman and Ida Bernard are killed before a reporter arrives. Smith sends Remo and Chiun to investigate the danger to Israel’s nuclear arsenal. After an ambush, Israeli nuclear-security agent Zhava Fifer accompanies them; Remo’s first infiltration accidentally triggers the Sodom facility’s defenses. They rescue Zhava from commandos, and shared grief draws her and Remo together. Biology books connect the hotel attackers with Dr. Moishe Gavan, whom the conspirator has killed after obtaining his detonator. Deputy Tochala Delit is revealed as former SS officer Horst Vessel, leader of Nazis who infiltrated Israel under Jewish identities.

Helmut Dorfmann, impersonating the man he murdered, attacks Chiun and is killed. Smith’s Treblinka records and Delit’s own poem direct the agents to Sodom. Delit activates the bomb and confesses the killings. His betrayed superior Yoel Zabari strangles him; Chiun then breaks the bomb’s internal wiring, leaving the clock to reach zero harmlessly. Smith traces the security leak to the unnamed new president. Chiun diverts Remo along a desert trail to collect cave gold he calls an ancient debt from Herod, whose alleged skeleton Remo disputes.

Sources for this summary

Characters & places

Spoilers

Full articles

Characters 50

Places 80

Organizations 33

Groups 8

People 1

Lore 7

Works 2

Chapter summaries17 chapters · spoilers

  1. Chapter 1

    Goldman meets Ida Bernard, fears Hegez’s reported murder and calls the Washington Post. A killer arrives before reporter Woodman; Goldman and Ida are found mutilated into swastikas. Smith sees the report.

  2. Chapter 2

    Remo kills a French drug kingpin at the Eiffel Tower. Chiun protests replacement television tapes and drafts a threat to Norman Lear. Smith links the Israeli murders to nuclear danger and assigns an investigation.

  3. Chapter 3

    Yoel Zabari and deputy Delit discuss the arriving agents, whose mission a new American president disclosed to the ambassador. Zabari orders surveillance.

  4. Chapter 4

    Three armed men posing as escorts attack the agents. Remo kills two and Zhava Fifer shoots the survivor before he gives their organizer. She proposes a PLO link and evades questions about bombs.

  5. Chapter 5

    Zabari questions Zhava’s readiness after her bereavement. Delit says he can find no link among the deaths and attacks; Zabari orders continued checking.

  6. Chapter 6

    After hotel registration under Norman Lear names, Remo encounters young cheat Michael Arzu Ramban Rashi while seeking telephone tokens. Zhava helps with the operator. Smith identifies the Sodom sulphur plant as the weapons site. Remo retrieves the tokens by shaking the boy down and later throws him into a bush; the boy survives.

  7. Chapter 7

    Remo and Chiun reach the Sodom facility. Remo triggers infrared defenses, follows Chiun’s evasive guidance and draws a heat-seeking missile into its own truck by lowering his temperature.

  8. Chapter 8

    Bashmar and three commandos parachute into the Dead Sea and threaten Zhava with sexual assault. Remo and Chiun intervene; Zhava shoots Bashmar. On the return drive she recounts family losses and Chiun calms her. All four attackers die and the trio bury their bodies; the other deaths are not individually allocated to named rescuers.

  9. Chapter 9

    Former SS officer Horst Vessel meets physicist Fritz Barber, living as Dr. Moishe Gavan. Gavan supplies a bomb trigger; Vessel kills him and begins another swastika mutilation.

  10. Chapter 10

    Identical biology books in the attackers’ rooms lead to Gavan’s laboratory and mutilated body. Remo briefly suspects Zhava but recognizes her alibi. She reveals the nuclear-security agency; shared grief and Remo’s memories of Deborah lead to intimacy.

  11. Chapter 11

    Helmut Dorfmann, impersonating the man he murdered, goes to the Sheraton to kill the agents. His shots miss Chiun, who remarks on the disguise and recounts an unpaid German mission. Chiun kills him.

  12. Chapter 12

    Remo trades maxims with Zabari. Delit reinforces his claim that the attacks and mutilations are unconnected; the meeting ends for Remembrance Day obligations.

  13. Chapter 13

    At the memorial, Delit is identified as former Horst Vessel. He recalls the infiltrators’ Nazi identities and his destruction plan while the crowd honors the dead.

  14. Chapter 14

    Remo silences Artov with shoulder pressure, then packs Dorfmann’s body. Smith reports the Treblinka connection, and Remo uses the dead man’s ID to add the assumed Markowitz identity. Zhava realizes Delit also claimed camp history and agrees to meet at his house.

  15. Chapter 15

    Chiun translates Delit’s poem for Remo and admits editing his version; Zhava reads it and interprets the wind and desert clues as Sodom. She retrieves Zabari from his family, while Remo and Chiun run to the installation.

  16. Chapter 16

    Delit bars others from entry and activates the device. Remo and Chiun enter without tripping the minefield or infrared alarms; Chiun opens the reinforced barriers. Zabari knocks one guard unconscious, shoots one in the leg and orders Zhava to sideswipe the third without killing. At the bomb, Delit confesses; Zabari strangles him. Chiun removes wiring and the clock reaches zero without detonation.

  17. Chapter 17

    After Delit’s corpse is shot and dumped behind enemy lines, Smith traces the leak to the President and reports his apology. Ordered home, Remo instead accompanies Chiun along a desert trail after Chiun receives his tapes and watches him send the unstamped Lear letter with a false return address. A marked rock leads to a royal skeleton and gold; Chiun attributes them to Herod and a debt, Remo disputes the burial identification, and the gold is collected. No completed flight home or letter receipt is shown.

Other mentions82 names & references

Editions & covers

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Edition · cover shown

Hachette UK

2014-09-29

ISBN 9780751558234

Edition details

References & notes

Sources 32 references
  • witness:00000078:ch01:p0144
  • witness:00000078:ch02:p0179
  • witness:00000078:ch02:p0191
  • witness:00000078:ch04:p0075
  • witness:00000078:ch04:p0099
  • witness:00000078:ch07:p0090
  • witness:00000078:ch08:p0038
  • witness:00000078:ch10:p0148
  • witness:00000078:ch09:p0030
  • witness:00000078:ch09:p0044
  • witness:00000078:ch11:p0021
  • witness:00000078:ch11:p0061
  • witness:00000078:ch13:p0036
  • witness:00000078:ch15:p0040
  • witness:00000078:ch16:p0080
  • witness:00000078:ch16:p0100
  • witness:00000078:ch16:p0132
  • witness:00000078:ch16:p0135
  • witness:00000078:ch17:p0008
  • witness:00000078:ch17:p0046
  • witness:00000078:ch10:p0021
  • witness:00000078:ch15:p0030
  • witness:00000078:ch16:p0066
  • witness:00000078:ch17:p0051
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. Meyers directly names this numbered title among the Destroyer books he wrote in his January2012 interview. This supports his writing role, not sole authorship; contribution or rewrite scopes remain unknown.

The Last Temple:

Publisher's description: A murder warning points to former Nazis planning an attack on Israel’s nuclear arsenal.

Story timeframe

Coarse estimate from the assumed incumbent’s historical presidency. The term range is context, not a claim that the plot spans the term or that a particular event occurs at either endpoint.

Historical term dates: Source 1

Presidential clues

Presidential clues

Current U.S. President: retained hypothesis — Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter

Strong historical compatibility from the explicitly new incumbent and peanut apology, compared with Carter’s January 1977 accession and family peanut business. The book prints no Carter name; eating a peanut alone is not identifying proof.

The young CURE founder

Young president credited with creating CURE.

  • Young president founded CURE; no name or assassination account given.

role confirmed; identity unresolved

No attested personal name; publication metadata and other books cannot supply identity.

The unnamed incumbent

Jimmy Carter

  • Delit attributes disclosure to a new president at a state dinner.
  • Narrative reports apology and near choking on peanut.
  • No historical name asserted; clue remains separate from candidate identity.

Strong historical compatibility from the explicitly new incumbent and peanut apology, compared with Carter’s January 1977 accession and family peanut business. The book prints no Carter name; eating a peanut alone is not identifying proof.

This is a historical comparison, not an observed personal name. The source observation and its fictional acts remain separately scoped.

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