He expected he might find some resistance at the front desk due to the lateness of the hour, but the Department of Agriculture identification he had been using for the past few days got both him and Chiun onto the elevator. The lift carried them silently up to the third floor.
The impersonal silver doors opened into a long hallway, bathed in darkness. Remo led Chiun to the door of the lab where he had first met Judith White.
"No key," Remo said. "Guess we do it the old-fashioned way." He reached for the knob, planning to pop it open.
Reading his intentions, the Master of Sinanju held a staying finger to Remo's bare forearm.
"You are hopeless," Chiun muttered.
The old Korean inserted a long index fingernail into the space between lock and door frame. He wiggled it as a burglar would a credit card. The lock clicked obediently. Sliding his nail back out, Chiun pushed. The door swung dutifully into the room.
"Show-off," Remo said.
"If you would surrender to the inevitable and grow your nails to their proper length, you would not have to crash and smash your way through life," Chiun sniffed.
"Don't start," Remo warned.
They slipped inside the lab, silent wraiths.
The lights were on. Diffused fluorescent bulbs shone from fixtures all along the interior ceiling. More light spilled from the corridor that connected this lab to the next.
Judith White's office door was ajar. Although her lights were on, as well, they sensed no life signs. "Death stalks this place," the Master of Sinanju intoned.
Remo nodded. "A scientist was killed here yesterday."
Chiun shook his head. "No," he announced, button nose upturned. "This death is recent."
Remo pulled at the air. Immediately, the tang of human blood flooded his nostrils. It came from the corridor where the BBQs had been stored.
Exchanging a single tight glance, both men began to move across the silent lab. They were as stealthy as jungle predators when they reached the door.
The wide corridor where Judith had made her sloppy pass at Remo was well lit. The BBQ pens were to their left. As they moved into the long room, Remo was surprised to find more than one of the cages occupied.
Two BBQs looked up as they entered the room. "This is the creature of which you spoke?" Chiun said, his voice pitched low. His eyes were razor slits.
"Yeah." Remo frowned. "But there should only be one of them here." He glanced down the hall. The lights were on in the adjoining lab. Gliding weightlessly forward, their feet sliding in perfect concert, the two Sinanju Masters made their cautious way up to the other lab.
They saw the body instantly. Freshly dead, it lay in the center of the room. Their senses told them he was alone. Sliding into the lab, they hurried over to the body.
It was like the others. The stomach cavity had been torn open, organs consumed. One of the ears was missing.
But unlike the other victims, this man appeared to have been slaughtered and eaten at a more languid pace. There wasn't as much blood on the floor as before. Most of it had pooled in the stomach husk.
Standing over the body, Chiun peered down at the hollowed stomach cavity. His face betrayed no emotion.
"This is the work of an animal," the Korean pronounced.
"That's what everyone's saying." Remo nodded. Chiun tipped his head, considering. It was clear something weighed on his mind.
"Care to let the rest of the Scooby Gang in on whatever's got your spider senses tingling?" Remo asked.
Chiun gave him a withering look. "Will there ever come a time when you shut your mouth and open your eyes?"
Remo frowned deeply. "That like one of those 'Do you plan to stop beating your wife?' questions?"
"Pah!" Chiun exclaimed. He spun on an impatient heel, heading back to the corridor.
Remo had to jog to catch up to the swirl of dancing silk. He found the Master of Sinanju standing before the two caged animals. Remo noted that the latches on the cage doors were secure.
"Do you still not see?" Chiun pressed.
"You mean how do they let themselves out, kill and then get back in?" he ventured.
"Are you so blind?" Chiun asked brusquely. "Where is the blood?"
Remo looked around. He looked down the corridor to where they'd found the body. Finally, he looked back to Chiun. His expression was sheepish. "What blood?" he asked.
The Master of Sinanju closed his eyes, as if too weary to display real anger.
"If these animals are responsible for this death, then why are they not flecked with blood?"
Remo looked more closely at the nearest BBQ. Its pale skin was as clean as a whistle. So was the other animal's skin. There were no darker patches on their black spots.
"Maybe they licked it off," Remo suggested.
"They could not clean away the scent of so fresh a kill from their breath," Chiun pointed out.
The Master of Sinanju squatted down before one of the BBQs, hazel eyes intent. The odd-looking animal stared blankly back at him.
"These things are genetically engineered," Remo offered. "Maybe they absorb smells like a box of baking soda in the fridge."
"I know of this 'genetical,'" Chiun said. "It is the name applied to inferior breakfast cereals that masquerade as a famous product. Beyond that, these creatures are guilty of nothing more than being completely adorable."
Remo blinked blandly. "Come again?" he asked.
When Chiun looked up at him, his face was beaming. "Surely you must agree they are as cute as buttons."
"Only if we're talking really ugly buttons."
"Hush, Remo," Chiun admonished. "It will hear you." Sticking his bony arms between the bars of the cage, he pressed his hands against the animal's triangular ears. "Pay him no heed," the Master of Sinanju cooed.
The BBQ moaned softly. Chiun squealed in delight.
"I hate to break up this Kodak moment, Marlin Perkins, but we've still got a hollowed-out scientist in the pantry."
Chiun's expression dismissed this as irrelevant. "Do you think Smith would allow me to take one of these marvelous creatures back to Sinanju?" he asked.