The Sky Is Falling

At Chemical Concepts of Massachusetts, marketing director Reemer Bolt pushes commercialization while Dr. Kathleen O’Donnell designs and tests a fictional fluorocarbon beam generator that opens temporary ozone windows. Tests near Salem in New Hampshire, Malden in England, and later the Egyptian Sahara harm animals, disable electronics or glass sand, and are misread by Soviet Field Marshal Alexei Zemyatin as U.S. weapons tests. Smith sends Remo to investigate. In Britain Remo encounters MI-12 obstruction, a fictitious Source intelligence network compromised by Philliston, and reaches the Tower of London, where he rescues O’Donnell from KGB custody after killing Dimitri and other attackers.

O’Donnell withholds her own knowledge of the machine’s risks, gives Remo a false company lead, and takes him to San Gauta to confront Generalissimo Eckman-Ramirez, who hired her; the source does not establish that she knows the lead is false. Under pain and with O’Donnell prompting him, he claims to have sold the generator to Hanoi; Remo kills him, and the novel leaves the purported sale unconfirmed. Chiun returns to Sinanju after thieves steal the House’s treasure. He recovers a set of Alexander tribute coins auctioned in Paris and returns them to the village; the remaining treasure is still missing.

Cang initially directs Chiun’s suspicion toward the Pope, but Chiun reasons by the end of Chapter 8 that Cang is the thief; the dying Cang later confirms the deduction and reveals where he hid the treasure. In Moscow, the KGB follows Remo and sends Furtseva’s “blood faces” to kill him in Hanoi; Remo defeats them. Meanwhile Bolt’s car-painting test disables every vehicle’s electronics, and he pivots to glass production after discovering a market glut. After Remo leaves her, O’Donnell returns to Chemical Concepts, rigs two generators, and threatens the U.S. Northeast with a “doughnut” arc. Zemyatin deploys crude raw-button nuclear missiles and reads U.S. tests as preparation for an attack.

The President sends McDonald Pease to Moscow with U.S. missile-defense plans; the Soviets kill him and exploit a 48-hour delay before the raw-button missiles’ scheduled launch. Smith reveals Remo as the “weapon”; Remo parachutes into Moscow and forces Soviet leaders to sign statements. Zemyatin accompanies Remo to Massachusetts after they learn of O’Donnell’s two-beam threat. Cang, dying after taking poison, sends Chiun to the same site with information about the generator in exchange for a partial recovery of Sinanju treasure. O’Donnell demands Remo and is killed; Remo and Chiun destroy the generators. Zemyatin orders the raw-button missiles stood down, and Smith relays satellite confirmation; Remo then kills Zemyatin.

Chiun recovers only a silver statue, and Remo refuses to claim uncertain Korean ancestry. After “THE END,” a separate “Aftermath” coda says Bolt becomes president of a major corporation and Philliston receives a new assignment from the Source.