The Destroyer 70 The Eleventh Hour by Warren Murphy
The Destroyer 70 The Eleventh Hour by Warren Murphy
This is one of the best Destroyer novels in a long time. A Korean American young man, having listened to legends of Sinanju from his grandfather, decides to try and prove if the legends are true by sneaking into North Korea. There he videotapes the caretaker of Chiun’s property telling him that the Master of Sinanju is working for America. The young man, believing that America is corrupt and the current administration needs to be brought down, decides to bring the information to the Soviets creating a very exciting threat to the secrecy of CURE.
In the meantime, Remo is caught in a fire trying to rescue people and the incident awakens Shiva the Destroyer within him. Shiva does not recognize Chiun, which tells Chiun that Remo has been totally possessed. To strengthen Remo against Shiva, Chiun decides to get Remo back to Sinanju believing that immersing his pupil even further in the discipline will fortify him against Shiva. But how to get Remo to do as Chiun wants?
Chiun, in the aftermath of the encounter with Shiva, begins to exhibit signs of advanced illness and asks Remo to take him home to Sinanju where he prepares to pass the mantle of reigning master of Sinanju on to Remo. In doing so, both Chiun and Remo make speeches which the Korean American (whom the Soviets sent back to Sinanju) also videotapes. Remo also meets the first villager of Sinanju that he does not despise and begins to fall in love. It appears that there is hope for another generation of masters of Sinanju.
While Remo is exploring his new romance, the Soviets bring President Ronald Reagan proof that CURE exists and that Sinanju is working for America. They demand that Reagan shut down CURE and give Sinanju to them and Reagan decides to comply. Smith is given the shutdown order, attempts to destroy all of his computer data (something goes wrong, but he doesn’t know that), and then travels to Sinanju to try and get Chiun to kill Remo (no one thinks that’s going to happen) and then to kill himself.
When Chiun learns that Reagan wants his contract transferred to the Soviets, Chiun insists on a formal ceremony and then things really get interesting… I’ve given away a lot of the plot here, but not the crucial stuff. This is a good one!
