The creature just stood there in silence, its blister face working noiselessly. Remo timed the contractions. They corresponded to a normal human respiration cycle. A tight smile warped his mouth. It was human enough to breathe, at least.
Remo tried a rear approach. He put his hands into the battery. They disappeared as if into milk. Remo kept his hands in there. He felt no sensations. Neither heat nor cold. There was no sound or discernible vibration. Only steady clods of dirt passing through the creature's form to land on Remo's Italian loafers.
Remo stepped around to the front.
"Might as well give up, Little Father," he told Chiun. "You're not going to make an impression on this guy."
"And what would you have me do?" Chiun said, still kicking up dirt.
"I don't know. But for once, let's try to figure this out calmly."
"I am calm," Chiun insisted as he tried to crush the
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thing's toes with repeated stamping motions. All that he accomplished was to shake the ground.
Remo examined the thing from the front. He saw that its entire body was enveloped in some luminous material. It seemed to shine from within. Remo looked closer. The golden traceries, he saw, were less like a web than veins. They suggested circuitry. Remo saw junctures at several spots. The hands were encased in what Remo saw were white gloves, and the feet in white boots. Remo noticed that the boots had unusually thick soles. The creature appeared to be about five-foot-five-but three inches of that was boot sole.
Then Remo noticed a rheostat on the thing's lower stomach. About where a belt buckle would be. Remo blinked. It was attached to a belt after all. A white one. For some reason, the belt's edges were indistinct, just like the outlines of the creature. It all blended in.
"Chiun, look at him closer. Do you have trouble with your eyes?"
"My eyes are perfect," Chiun snapped. But when he stared at the creature, he had to look away. He batted his hazel eyes and looked again.
"This creature is attempting to trick my eyes," Chiun said, kicking at it again.
"Hmmmm," Remo said. He put his hand over the thing's face. The. head retreated a little, but only a little. Remo passed his hands up and down before the blister, testing it. The blank face moved up and down, following Remo's gestures.
"I think it can see us."
"Of course," Chiun said testily. "It is not blind. How could it know to hide within a tree if it could not see?"
"But it doesn't have any face-that I can see," Remo added. He looked at the head more closely.
"Do not bother me with trivial details," Chiun spat. He puffed out his cheeks and blew gusty breaths at the creature, as if trying to blow out a candle. His mighty
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efforts made his face redden, but otherwise had no effect.
Remo stared. The blister was opaque. He could not see into it. He wondered what the thing thought it was doing by just standing there. Before, it had run. Was it taunting them now? Remo pretended to draw back, but on a hunch, sent his fist crashing for the face.
The creature quailed as if struck a mortal blow. But it shook its head and resumed its defiant stance.
Remo took Chiun aside.
"We can see it. But we can't touch it."
"There is no scent either."
"Look, I know it seems spooky, but I don't think it's a ghost."
"Of course it is not a ghost. Remo, do not be ridiculous. Ghosts do not look like that thing. It is electrical."
"That's my conclusion. So what do we do?"
"Let us attempt to communicate with it," Chiun said, girding his kimono skirts and marching back to the waiting creature.
"Why don't you let me try?" Remo offered. "You're pretty upset, I can tell."
"Can you speak fluent Russian?"
"You know I can't."
"Then this is my task. For I speak excellent Russian, as does this creature."
"How do you know that?"
"The word it spoke on two occasions," Chiun said. "Krahseevah. It is Russian for 'beautiful.' "
"Beautiful? Beautiful what?"
"Simply 'beautiful.' Like a sunset or an Ung poem. It is an exclamation of appreciation."
As they approached the creature, a red light suddenly glowed in the center of its belt rheostat. It lit up like a resentful red eye.
The creature looked down. It started. Abruptly it
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turned and clumped off stiff-leggedly. It waved its arms as if on fire.
"Come on," Remo shouted.
They overhauled the creature easily. They kept pace with it. Every so often, Chiun reached out in a futile attempt to grab it. Remo simply kept pace. The bulbous face continually bent down to the glow from the rheostat buckle.
"I got a hunch about this," Remo called.
The creature dodged toward a stand of trees by the side of a road.
"Damn," Remo said. "Once he's in those trees, he's going to pull one of those vanishing acts of his."
"If you are so concerned about that," Chiun said querulously, "then you attempt to stop him. I am the one doing all the work."
"Where the hell is Robin, I wonder?" Remo asked, looking over his shoulder.