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The Destroyer#58Total RecallThe DestroyerBook 581984
When a fifteen-year-old charged with killing his parents is murdered soon after his release on bail, Remo and Chiun investigate a wave of juvenile killings across several cities. Their trail leads from Detroit’s auto plants to a church whose minister has unusual political contacts and an operation using children to sell drugs.
Billy Martin is charged with killing his parents, but before trial an unidentified caller pays lawyer Harvey Weems to post Billy’s high bail; three men kill Billy after his release. CURE sends Remo and Chiun to investigate juvenile murders in Detroit, New York, Los Angeles and New Orleans. They find clues linking the victims’ money and records to children selling drugs, and Remo learns that National Motors shipments go to the affected cities. Lorenzo Moorcock, a failed politician and minister, runs a heroin operation from the basement of his Church of Modern-day Beliefs. Iranian couriers transfer heroin to Mexican officials, who carry it to Detroit; Moorcock cuts it and uses children, including Billy and Walter Sterling, to sell and move it in cars.
Walter says his father Louis knowingly helped ship drugs; Wagner says foreman Jack Boffa was bought by the operation and killed Louis. Donald Wagner confesses that Moorcock ordered Billy killed after his arrest, that Wagner’s men arranged Weems’s bail and killed Billy, and that Jim Burger planted the bomb in Remo’s rental car. Remo rescues Walter from a murder attempt and kills Wagner; Chiun and Remo attack Moorcock’s church factory, where Chiun severely injures Moorcock and Remo burns the lab after the worshippers are evacuated. At National Motors Remo kills Boffa and sets fire to cars and drug-loaded carriers; Palmer later reports that fire crews arrive in time to prevent the carriers’ full tanks from exploding. The Detroit children talk to police. In the epilogue, Chiun kills the Iranian couriers and the three Mexican officials who plan to continue smuggling drugs.
Full articles
The narrator states that Billy bludgeoned his parents to death; Billy is charged and Judge Turner sets high bail after prosecutorial leverage. An unidentified caller pays Weems to bail Billy out. A young courier delivers cash, and three men kill Billy after he goes to the supplied address. The opening does not yet identify who ordered the murder; there is no trial.
Remo and Chiun reach retired chief Duncan Dinnard’s estate under Smith’s order. Remo kills Dinnard after handling the guards; the source also recounts Remo’s staged execution and CURE recruitment.
Remo interviews Detective Palmer, who says Billy was never tried and relays an informal admission/possible bargain. At Weems’s office, Remo and Chiun find blood and a body.
A neighbor describes the family’s cash and Billy’s arrest/death. Remo catches minister Lorenzo Moorcock in the house; a hidden cash stash is discovered, but its source remains unknown.
Remo interviews foreman Jack Boffa and workers about Allan Martin. Boffa reports no raise; car shipments to the murder cities emerge as a possible connection, not yet proof of a drug route.
Smith reports that adult drug arrests have fallen in three cities. Remo follows the teenage son of a National Motors worker into an apparent drug transaction with another boy, then finds the Church of Modern-day Beliefs nearby. The connection to the church is only circumstantial at this point.
Remo finds Danny the Man Lincoln and intervenes when Danny mistreats Laura. Danny describes an unnamed new operation run through children that is cutting into established drug sellers’ business.
Remo tells Smith he suspects the children are selling drugs under juvenile charges; Smith’s computer confirms the victims had recent money and police records. Six armed youths approach the hotel while other attackers surround Remo’s phone booth.
Chiun kills six attackers at the hotel. Remo disguises the bodies while Detective Palmer arrives; Palmer confirms Remo’s rental car contained a bomb and agrees to a working accommodation.
Smith reports Moorcock’s political donations and Mexican church contacts, and identifies Walter Sterling and father Louis. Remo finds cash/drugs in Walter’s room and discovers Louis dead at the plant.
Remo asks Danny to help locate Walter Sterling and broker a meeting with someone from the new operation. Danny agrees tentatively. Remo then visits Detective Palmer, who is angry that Remo left Louis Sterling’s homicide scene.
Moorcock hides Walter upstairs and speaks with Donald Wagner in the basement. The narration reveals Moorcock’s heroin-cutting factory, Iranian/Mexican supply chain and juvenile sellers; Moorcock orders the agents removed.
Cintron arrives at the church with his Mexican partners. Burger, acting on Wagner’s order, takes Walter toward the Detroit Auto Cemetery to kill him; three other armed men and three yard employees are present. Remo diverts Burger’s group by throwing cars, rescues Walter, and learns that Walter’s father knowingly helped ship drugs.
Remo and Chiun kill Wagner’s five armed men, then Remo forces Wagner to explain the Iran–Mexico supply chain, Billy’s setup, the car bomb and Boffa’s murder of Louis Sterling. Remo kills Wagner; the agents plan to raid the church and plant.
Remo sees drugs leave the church, then enters the basement lab with Chiun. They kill the guard and six workers in combat. Moorcock takes Mrs. Sterling hostage; Walter enters, Chiun disarms and severely injures Moorcock, and the family evacuates worshippers before Remo sets fire to the lab.
Samuel delivers heroin to Boffa, who loads it into cars with children. Remo kills Boffa; Chiun leads the children out, while Remo ignites the assembly line and later sets fuses in drug-loaded car carriers. Police/fire crews arrive before the carriers’ full tanks explode; Palmer finds Moorcock and Boffa dead with heroin in their pockets.
Remo reports the Detroit case to Smith, including Moorcock’s bribe to the bail judge; Remo says the surviving children talk to police. In Mexico City, Chiun kills the Iranian and Mexican couriers who continue the drug trade.
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Hachette UK
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Total Recall:
Publisher's description: Hachette supplies only its general series overview here; it characterizes the novels as action-led stories mixing comedy and mysticism.
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