Chief Batubizee towered above her, rage painted large on his moon face.
"Where is this bomb, woman!" the chief bellowed.
Bruised flesh stinging, she cowered from the Luzu leader.
There was nothing she could do. Her only hope of escape was with these men. When she spoke, her voice was small.
"I will show you," Nellie Mandobar said.
Chapter 38
Even in its heyday four decades ago, the mine had yielded few diamonds. Several scraps of rotted lumber and some comoded chunks of metal were all that remained beside the scrub-lined path that led up to the black cave mouth.
"It was close enough to obliterate the village but far enough away to escape detection," Nellie Mandobar explained as they hiked up to the cave opening. Her dark face was slick with sweat.
Remo, Chiun, Bubu and Chief Batubizee accompanied her. Coming up behind them all were three hundred Luzu warriors.
The stars above were starting to fade.
"How far in is it?" Remo asked as he eyed the lightening sky.
"Perhaps a hundred yards," she replied.
"Does it use the same code as the others?" Chiun asked.
Nellie scrunched up her face. "I do not know," she said. "Probably not. I acquired it several years ago from an East African scientist just before the program was disbanded. If Deferens got his afterward, he could have changed the code."
"Where's the scientist?" Remo asked.
Nellie pointed sheepishly to a dense thicket. Sticking out from beneath the wild shrubs were two charred legs that ended in a pair of burned boots. They appeared to have been there for some time.
"Have you ever met anyone you didn't set fire to?" Remo asked, disgusted. He continued before she could answer. "Can you shut it off?"
"He only showed me how to arm it," Nellie replied. "I did not think I would have to disarm it."
"Great," Remo muttered. He turned to the Master of Sinanju. "What do you think, Little Father?"
"For the future of our House, I would ordinarily insist you find a safe haven while I deal with the boom," Chiun said. "But since neither of us could flee in time, we will go in together."
Chief Batubizee and Bubu stepped forward. "We will accompany you, as well," the Luzu leader insisted. "If I am to meet my ancestors this day, I will do so while laughing in the face of the beast."
"I won't ask if you mean Nellie or the nuke," Remo muttered. "The rest of you fellas stay here," he called to the Luzu army. "And if you see a really bright flash, run like hell."
Propelling Mrs. Mandobar before them, the small group entered the black cave opening.
INSIDE WAS LIKE an abandoned Western gold mine. Ancient wooden support beams ran up to the rock roof where overburdened lintels strained to keep the ceiling in place.
At the cave mouth, Nellie found a bag with flashlights and other supplies she had left during her earlier visits. She and Bubu each took one. The washed-out white beams cast eerie shadows far down the man-made shaft.
"This way," the former first lady said. She led them far down the tunnel.
About seventy yards in, an alcove opened up on their right. Although it was short, Remo got a sudden sense of vast emptiness beyond, as if the world collapsed into nothingness at the end of the small side tunnel.
Peering through the darkness, he saw the opening of another tunnel in the rock face at the far end of the alcove.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Nuk wrote of them in his accounts," Chiun supplied. "They are passages without end. Nuk thought they led to the Great Void."
The thought, as well as the sense of infinite emptiness from the tunnel, gave Remo a chill.
"The geologists from Bachsburg call them kimberlites," Bubu whispered in explanation. His flashlight beam found the opening. "They occur naturally. Some are many miles deep."
The native's beam aimed forward once more, and they continued down their own tunnel. Eventually, the flashlight beams fell across the by now familiar shape of an East African nuclear warhead.
Remo and Chiun stooped to examine the bomb. The flashing red timer was set for 5:00 a.m. An hour and a half away.
"Wanna start ripping wires out?" Remo asked Chiun.
"Given your inability to screw in a lightbulb without first consulting General Electric, it would not be my first choice," the Master of Sinanju replied.
Remo looked to Nellie Mandobar. She licked her broad lips. "I would not try it," she said anxiously. Chiun studied the bomb casing. He ran a hand along the stainless steel, as if measuring its circumference.
"Okay, who's for making Broom Hilda here eat this thing?" Remo asked. He raised his own hand to drum up enthusiasm.
"She cannot eat it," Chiun said, stroking his beard thoughtfully.
When Remo met his teacher's gaze, silent communication explained his meaning. The younger Master of Sinanju nodded, taking up the thread.
"It'd have to be pretty deep," he warned.
"Did you sense a bottom?" Chiun offered.
"This would all have to come down, too," Remo said, waving a finger to the ceiling. It was Chiun's turn to nod.
"All right, we've got a plan," Remo announced. Reaching out, he slapped his hands on either side of the nuclear device, lifting it from the mine floor as if it were papier-mache.
Bomb in hand, Remo and Chiun led Mrs. Mandobar and the natives back to the alcove where the kimberlite opened up. He balanced the warhead on the rocky edge of the deep shaft. Holding the bomb in place, he turned to Batubizee and Bubu.
"You two had better scram," he warned.
Chief Batubizee hesitated. "Master of Sinanju?"
"Go," Chiun nodded. "If the end comes, you should be with your people."
With a final questioning look at Remo, Bubu reluctantly trailed his chief down the tunnel. When Nellie Mandobar started after them, Chiun restrained her.