"I don't believe this," Robin Green groaned. "I'm going to be drummed out of OSI for this."
"Hey, who you gonna call?" Remo joked. When Robin Green gave him the benefit of the stoniest expression Remo had seen since visiting Mount Rush-more, Remo added, "But seriously, now that Chiun is satisfied, we can really go after this guy."
"How?"
"We know he likes steaks. Let's put a hook in one. Maybe he'll take the bait again."
"I already tried that. You know what happened."
"Did you ever wait for him inside the freezer?"
"No. I didn't dare. No one on the LCF knew I was OSI. If I got locked in, I could have frozen to death before anyone realized I was missing."
"I guarantee that I won't let that happen," Remo said, smiling broadly.
6
OSI Special Agent Robin Green shivered behind a hanging side of beef.
She clutched the white blanket around her more tightly. The blanket was white to help her blend in with the color of the butcher paper in which the assortment of pork chops, ribs, and other meats that occupied the upper shelves at the rear of the freezer were wrapped. She perched on the lowest shelf.
"I swear," she muttered, "after tonight, I'm never going to eat meat again."
"Did you say something?" Remo asked, sticking his head into the freezer. The overhead light came on automatically.
"Shut that door!" she scolded. "I was only talking to myself."
"Oops! Sorry," Remo said, shutting the door. The freezer went dark again.
How the hell did he hear me through that door? Robin thought. I spoke under my breath.
But that wasn't the most amazing thing she had seen Remo, or even Chiun, for that matter, do in the few hours she had known them.
If they were GAO, then Robin Green was PTA. But they had been cleared by the highest authorities. Robin had attempted to backtrack their clearance. The base commander at Grand Forks had informed her that it
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came from the Pentagon. When she attempted to trace the specific office or service branch, she was informed that their clearance didn't originate in the Pentagon. The Pentagon was only a convenient conduit.
The last Robin Green had heard, the Pentagon was not an arm of the General Accounting Office. Hell, they were mortal enemies in the yearly battle of the budgets.
It didn't figure. But there they were, T-shirts, feathered wands, and everything.
As Robin's eyes readjusted to the darkness, she shifted again. Her head struck the shelf directly above, knocking over a rack of ribs. She looked to see if the displaced ribs exposed her to view. They didn't. She pulled the blanket about her more tightly.
When she looked up, the air was filled with a soft white glow, and even under her blanket she felt the hair on her arms rise like a million saluting insect antennae.
It was there. Right in the freezer. It glowed. Its back was to her. From head to toe it was a blurry white, like a fuzzy blanket with a light under it. Except that all over its body, golden veins showed. They swam with light. It was as if this thing had veins on the outside of its skin through which light instead of blood coursed. And on its back was slung a napsacklike thing, also white. It was open at the top, with two cables coming out of it like tentacles. They looped up to connectors in its shoulders.
It was manlike, Robin saw. It had two humanoid legs and two arms-although she couldn't quite see the arms clearly. It was bent over the steak rack. The back of its head was as smooth and white as an egg. Hairless, it lacked those golden veins.
Robin Green knew the white thing had not entered by the freezer door. It could not have gotten past Remo and Chiun. And even if it had, the light would have gone on automatically. And it had not.
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Unless . . . unless he had killed the electricity. No, that wasn't it, she realized. The compressors still hummed. But there was another sound. A crinkling. Rhythmic and brittle. It was like the slow crushing of stiff cellophane. It started suddenly, and Robin noticed that the fuzzy glow had faded. The white thing now resembled some glossy white creature. The golden veins had faded away. No, they were still there. But they were colorless now.
Then the apparition spoke.
Krahseevah!" it breathed.
Robin Green tried to speak. Nothing came out of her chattering mouth except cold condensation. She decided to scream.
But before she could summon up the breath for a really good yell, the apparition turned.
And then Robin Green saw the creature's profile.
It was featureless. It stuck out like a white blister. Her scream died in her throat. As she watched, the blister contracted, and Robin knew that was the source of the crinkling sound. Inhale. Crinkle. Exhale. Blister. Inhale. Crinkle. Exhale. Blister.
Every time it took in air, the blister crinkled inward. Then it ballooned out. It was breathing somehow. It was breathing even though it didn't have a nose or mouth or eyes or anything. Just a smooth featureless blister that expanded and collapsed like some gruesome external lung.
It was too much for Robin Green. She covered her head with the blanket and started screaming.
"He's here! In here! He's here!" Robin shouted.
The light went on. The door opened and Remo and Chiun were suddenly in the freezer. Robin shook the blanket off and jumped from her hiding place.
"Where?" Remo demanded, looking around.
"Right there!"
Robin pointed to the rear of the freezer.
"I don't see anything," Remo said.
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"Damn! He flew the coop again!"
Chiun approached the wall, tapping it with his long fingernails. "He disappeared through this wall?" he demanded.
"I think so! What took you so damn long?"
"We were here before you finished screaming," Remo insisted.