"Did you see her?" Remo demanded, panting near Chiun's open car window. As he spoke, he glanced anxiously around the lot.
"See who?" Chiun asked blandly.
The old Korean was still peering at the pair of hunters crouching in their makeshift duck blind. After two more breakfast beers, one of the shotguns had sunk below counter level. Wobbling, the second seemed destined to follow.
When the Master of Sinanju turned a distracted eye on Remo, all thoughts of inebriated hunters evaporated. His eyes grew wide.
"You are injured!" Chiun cried out. The old man burst from the car, flouncing to Remo's side.
"It's nothing," Remo insisted, pushing away Chiun's ministering hands. "Did you see Judith White?"
"A woman did this to you?" Chiun asked, voice flirting with heretofore unknown octaves of shame. His eyes filled with sick horror. "Quickly, Remo, we must get you inside lest someone learn of your great disgrace."
"Chiun!" Remo snapped, his face severe.
"Yes, yes!" Chiun retorted harshly. A leather hand waved angrily. "I saw the woman. She bounced through the parking area like a crazed grasshopper."
As the realization that he had failed began to sink in, helpless fatigue took hold of Remo. Before him, Chiun widened the T-shirt tears. The old man's mouth thinned when he saw the raking wounds beneath the cotton gauze.
"She took the car?" Remo asked, voice growing weaker.
"She is well gone." Chiun nodded. His tone grew somber. Affected shame gave way to concern. "Remo, we must tend to your wounds. Come."
Remo's shoulders sagged in defeat. The movement caused him fresh pain. He tore his eyes from the street. Jaw flexing hard, he nodded assent.
Injured shoulder sensitive to every step, Remo allowed the Master of Sinanju to guide him back toward the BostonBio building.
Chapter 23
Back in the lab, Remo sat up awkwardly on one of the desks. The Master of Sinanju instructed his pupil to strip off his shredded T-shirt.
The pain in his shoulder should have been far greater than it was, but Remo had long ago learned to control pain. He willed his body to numb the sharp stabs down to a dull ache. Still, the pain was such that he winced as Chiun probed the area with his fingers.
"You are fortunate," Chiun informed him. Tapered fingertips pressed the flesh between gouges.
"Yeah. I think I'll run out and buy a lottery ticket," Remo groused.
Chiun's gaze was level. "Another two inches and she would have severed the artery. Then you would have stumbled and blundered around, decorating these walls with your spurting blood. And when the woman-who-is-not-a-woman grew tired of the sport, she would have slaughtered you and consumed you. Tell me again, Remo, how you are not the beneficiary of dumb white luck."
Remo gave him a lopsided frown. "Since you put it that way," he grumbled. "So I guess we kind of both decided she's behind the killings."
Chiun nodded tightly. "Had I not been distracted by the handsome creatures which her wicked animal mind did create, I would have realized it last night."
"Animal mind?" Remo asked.
Chiun's reply was matter-of-fact. "Could anything but a beast in human form lay a finger on a full Master of Sinanju?" the old man said simply.
Remo considered. "I guess it would explain the weird tracks," he admitted slowly.
Before him, the tiny Asian clucked unhappily. He was using Remo's sheet of cotton gauze to clean the wound.
"You know better than to bind an injury," Chiun remonstrated, face pinched.
"I know," Remo sighed, "but I was bleeding like a stuck pig." He winced as the blood-soaked cotton traced the deepest furrow. "How is it?" he asked.
Chiun dropped the soiled bandage to the floor. "You will live," he pronounced. "In spite of your best efforts to the contrary. Where did you find these dressings?"
Remo blinked, surprised. He pointed to the cabinet where he'd found the gauze. Going over to it, Chiun collected a fresh sheet of sterilized cotton. He placed it over the worst of Remo's wounds, holding it in place with a few strips of expertly positioned tape.
That Chiun would wrap the injured area told Remo all he needed to know about the seriousness of the damage. Neither man said a word as the Master of Sinanju applied the last pieces of tape.
"These wounds run deep in several places," Chiun said softly once he was done. "We must return home at once so that I might apply the proper balms."
Remo nodded, climbing obediently down from the desk. "Just let me check one thing," he said.
"Let others check." The aged Korean waved. He took Remo by the arm.
"Chiun, I want to see what was so important to her. It'll only take a minute." There was urgency to his tone.
The Master of Sinanju's grip was firm. With a troubled scowl, he released Remo's arm.
"And I will get a mop to clean up behind you. Be quick about it," he pressed unhappily.
They went back to Judith White's office.
The computer was still on. Remo saw several floppy disks on the floor near her chair mat. They'd been dropped haphazardly to the rug.
Remo glanced at the text on the monitor. There wasn't much there he recognized. There were some chemical formulations, only two of which he remembered from high-school chemistry. The rest was gibberish.
Endless lines of letters on a pop-up window were separated by endless lines of dashes. He couldn't make head nor tail of that part of the screen.
Remo was about to turn away when something at the top of one of the files caught his eye.
It was a name. It had been used to label the last file that Judith White had pulled up from her hard drive.
Remo was already light-headed from loss of blood. For a moment, he wasn't sure whether he was in worse shape than he thought. He might have become delusional without even realizing it.
"Chiun," he called, voice hollow. "Take a look at this." He was staring at the screen.
Face tight, the Master of Sinanju joined him behind Judith's desk. "What is it?" he asked impatiently.
Remo's good arm reached out to the screen. His index finger extended to the glass.
"What does that say?" he asked.
Chiun's eyes narrowed as he scanned the line. No sooner had the words registered along his optic nerve than his eyes grew wide once more. And in their hazel depths was something almost bordering on fear.