Coral!
Reaching around, Remo grasped an outcropping. He steadied himself, and twisted sharply. He felt the octopus move with him. Sensing it strike with the coral, Remo struck again. Tentacles uncoiled and slapped his face and arm, but it wasn't enough.
Remo struck out with his hands. He felt them smash into the boneless head. He struck again and again, until the dark hide ruptured. The thing released him at last. Then Remo was kicking with all his might, not knowing or caring in which direction he was swimming--only anxious to get clear of the many-armed horror.
Chiun sensed rather than saw something glide past him. He hesitated, his cheeks puffed out. At intervals he expelled air bubbles. After a moment's thought he reversed direction. Ahead, there was a faint lightening of the murk.
When he could see again, Chiun saw that he was swimming behind Remo. Remo's T-shirt was in rags, and there were red marks along his arms and chest. They told the story of Remo's encounter.
Chiun knew better than to touch Remo in his current state. Cocky as Remo was in even the most dangerous situations, this was a place alien to him. Chiun decided to swim under and show himself ahead to Remo, the better to reassure him.
But that stopped being an option when Remo suddenly reversed direction. He came at Chiun.
Chiun saw the look of terror on Remo's face. He swam to him and took his shoulder, mouthing the word "What?" silently.
Remo pointed back. Chiun pushed him aside to see. There were a dozen of them. They filled the narrow tunnel, their mouths gulping and dribbling bubbles. Their black eyes were unwinking.
But it was not their fishy faces that concerned Chiun. It was the razorlike spines that covered their oblate bodies. Stonefish. And they were heading in their direction. Behind them, Chiun saw two grinning Moovians swimming in place. A big rattan basket drifted beside them. It was clear that the Moovian octopus worshipers had released the stonefish from the basket and sent them on their deadly way.
Chiun pushed Remo to one side, signaling him to stay clear, and then arrowed for the stonefish like a speedy dolphin.
One stonefish swam a little ahead of the others and Chiun dealt with him first.
With an index finger, Chiun speared the fish through its open mouth. With the other hand he shaved the deadly spines with sharp flashing strokes.
In a twinkling the stonefish was as harmless as a guppy, its spines drifting to the tunnel floor like discarded toothpicks.
Chiun made quick work of the next three.
The effect on the remaining stonefish was remarkable. They turned around and wriggled their tails in the opposite direction. The Moovians saw them coming. They lost their pleased grins and climbed all over one another in their haste to get out of the way. One made it. The other got a stonefish tangled up between his legs. He struggled for a short time. Bubbles erupted from his open mouth, and he sank to the floor in slow motion.
Chiun signaled to Remo. Remo kicked off from the coral wall and swam after the Master of Sinanju. His face was calmer now.
Around a turn in the tunnel, the light increased. Moonlight. The tunnel turned vertical and Chin paused under the blue-coral well while Remo caught up.
When Remo arrived, he looked up in time to see two bare feet disappear from the water. Two more stonefish floated disconsolately.
Chiun pointed to Remo's long fingernails. Remo nodded a yes. It was not a very firm nod, but his face showed anger, which pleased Chiun. His fears were abating. They went up.
Chiun performed his barbering trick on his fish, ran it through for good measure, and then looked to Remo. Remo was like a man trying to catch a live mine in his hands. The stonefish twisted viciously. Remo dodged. In frustration, he grabbed its tail and smashed it against the coral. Stunned, the fish floated listlessly.
Chiun touched Remo on the shoulder and motioned for him to follow carefully. He led Remo up to the coral mouth of the natural well. He stopped under the surface and waited. Nothing happened for a long time. Then a Moovian face suddenly broke the still surface. The man looked down to see what was happening.
Chiun pinched the Moovian's nose between two fingers and pulled him into the water. Remo broke his spine with a chop across the back of the neck. The Moovian sank like a dead starfish.
Chiun then made a series of complicated motions that Remo interpreted as "Go take a look."
Remo gave the Master of Sinanju a "Who, me?" look. Chiun nodded.
Reluctantly Remo went up. No sooner had he broken the surface than he felt hands wrap around his ankles and he was floating beside Chiun, his face furious.
Chiun's motions asked, "See anything?"
Remo shook his head angrily. Chiun smiled and went up. Remo kicked his feet angrily as he followed him up. When he broke the surface, Remo demanded, "What was that all about?"
"I had to know it was safe."
"And I was the guinea pig?"
"You were in no danger. I had your ankles."
"And I almost had a freaking heart attack. Do you know what I went through back there?"
"You met a child of Ru-Taki-Nuhu. And why don't you speak up? Not all of our enemies may have heard you."
"We'll settle this later," Remo promised, pulling himself out of the well. When he stood up, his stocking feet made puddles.
Chiun shook his kimono skirts of excess water. Then he began to wring out the hem.
They were on the coral reef they had seen earlier. It was a mad jumble of blue outcroppings and hollows streaked with white lying about thirty feet from shore. They stood on one end, the sea to their backs and coral ridges before them.
"When this is over I'm going to have nightmares for a week," Remo said in a bitter voice.
"Now you know why the octopus is called the Enemy of Life. "
"Yeah, and remind me to write the National Geographic people a nasty letter."
"Hush, Remo," Chiun said quickly. Remo froze. His ears became attuned to their surroundings. The slosh and suck of waves on coral predominated. But through selective attuning, Remo focused those sounds out until they became distant background noise.
Other sounds surfaced. Lungs respirating. Hearts beating, measured, but loud. There was a gurgle that Remo recognized as a man's bowel contents shifting.
"I count nine of them," Remo whispered.
"No, three."
"Listen again. Nine. Nine hearts. Nine pairs of lungs."
"But three opponents. Trust me, I know."
And the seriousness of the Master of Sinanju's tone made Remo feel a thrill of supernatural disquiet. Flashing afterimages of his underwater fight with the octopus came back to him. He shook them off:
Then came the scrape of sandals against coral. It was all around them. They were surrounded.
"I have never trained you for this, my son. For that, I am sorry. But I had thought these octopus worshipers were no more.'
"We can handle them," Remo said gamely. But his eyes were nervous.