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."It's a game.You play it with a joystick.It's called humans against theZorkmonster, only when the Zorkmonster becomes invincible, he sets up a finalbattle at one point to try to trap you and wipe you out.You, of course,represent the humans.""Of course," Smith said."At that time, there's only one way to beat Zorkmonster," Barry said."What is it?" Smith said quickly.He might try to reach Remo with thisinformation."All you can do is unplug the machine.Zorkmonster never loses," Barry said.The news media were generally ecstatic.Despite financial cutbacks fromAmerica, despite criticism from reactionary groups, the IHAEO now was makingheadway against the dreaded curse of central Africa, the Ung beetle.Twenty-four jetloads of delegates arrived at the main airport of Uwenda, thecountry that now comprised five tribes including the Inuti.Amabasa Francois Ndo was returning home in triumph.A television announcer said: "We are witnessing here Africans helpingAfricans, despite Western white obstruction.We see here a triumph ofindigenous peoples over their oppressors." The television announcer was froman American network.The delegates' jets were met by air-conditioned limousines that stretched outalong the roads, a caravan of wealth.Ndo, normally the darling of the press,refused all interviews.He had not slept well since Chiun had taken the god Gafrom him.He recognized the hills outside the car and realized he wasreturning to his own home village.The horror hit him then that the villageelders would demand he show them that he had safely kept Ga with him.But hedid not have it for them.Fortunately, he was on good terms with the president, vice-president, chiefmagistrate, chief of police, and head of the Agricultural Department ofLiwenda.They were all his cousins.The commander in chief of the Army was hisbrother.Together, they might all keep the rest of the village at bay.Certainly he had shipped home enough money for them and they might justrealize that if he stopped, the money stopped.Still, Ga was a powerful god.He was thinking these things as someone up front was talking white nonsenseabout the damned beetle they were all going to see get killed.They shouldhave sent a fly swatter.Yet the man in the kimono had insisted, so here he was, the director generalof the IHAEO, in a stinking muddy village with people who didn't even know howto dress.Home, unsweet home.An especially backward and despicable looking pair were fawning over thepolish on his new limousine."Get those two out of there.They smell," Ndosaid to his chauffeur."They say they're your parents, your Excellency.""Oh well, put them in some clothes and get the photographer.""Yes, your Excellency.""And bathe them.Yes, god, bathe them.""Yes, your Excellency."The place was even worse than he imagined.The fields of maize were even morescraggly, the village square in the center of the huts dustier, and the roadswere absolutely impassable.Come rainy season, they would be a sea of mud."The roads are awful.What happened to them?""The French left, your Excellency.""They didn't take the roads with them, did they? Did they steal them?"Page 41 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"They stopped repairing them, Excellency.""All right, all right: Let's get this experiment over with and get back towhere it's livable.""The scientists have not arrived yet, your Excellency.""Why not? What's holding them up?" asked Ndo, looking over the long line ofdark roofs, the immaculate limousines stretched out like an expensivetechnological necklace through the yellow dried fields."There were only so many limousines to go around, Excellency," his aide said."So?""So the scientists are coming by ox cart."Dara Worthington did not mind the ox cart.She did not mind the dust.She hadbeen raised in country like this and it was good to get back to Africa, goodto see the people again: Even good to ride in an ox cart again.Remo and Chiun rode beside her with the other scientists in the carts behind.At several points along the road, they had to pay road tolls.What they were paying for was occasional patches of asphalt, left from thedays of the French.Who they were paying were soldiers of the Uwenda Army.The Uwenda Army performed other public functions.They collected money at themarkets from both shoppers and vendors.They collected money from dice games.They collected cold cash from anyone who wanted to build anything in Uwenda.Up ahead on the somewhat asphalt road, soldiers now were menacingly turningtheir machine guns toward the carts.Behind them was a tank, its large cannonalso pointed at the small carts.Dara had heard about a diplomatic tiff when the Soviets had given Uwenda seventanks.The President for Eternity, Claude Ndo, had read in a Britishpublication that the tanks Uwenda had received were not the most modern in theSoviet arsenal.He did not want second-line tanks.A Soviet general was sent to Uwenda to explain to the President for Eternity,Claude Ndo, cousin of the director general of IHAEO, that the only differencebetween the first-line Soviet tank and the second line was a refractionaryvoltage regulator for use in arctic conditions."You have no need of the newer model," the general said."Do you need it?""We maneuver in arctic conditions," the Russian said."We have interests in freezing areas just like any other nation.""Who are you going to fight in the arctic?" the general asked."Whoever we wish.Just like you.""How are you going to get the tanks there?""Give us the tools and we will do the rest.We are your allies.The ThirdWorld stands in solidarity with you."The general mumbled something about the need for the new tanks beingridiculous and was told that the Russians always had a reputation for beingcrude and insensitive.He was told that this crudeness might cost them alliesin Africa.He was told that even now there was a movement in America to getmore African allies.The President for Eternity did not hear the Russian general mumble an oldchildhood prayer asking that all this might come to pass.The general faced areal problem: if Uwenda got the new tank, then every other African countrywould want the new tank.Gabon, for instance, was not going to sit around while Tanzania had the newtank because that would mean a loss of face.And if Tanzania got the new tank,then of course, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Ghana would also have to have the newtank.It was a nightmare to contemplate so the Soviet general, as he had beeninstructed by the Soviet foreign office, pulled out a manila envelope
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