They were shown the microscope, and it was turned on.
"Without this contraption for the blind," said Chiun.
"Beg pardon?"
"I prefer my naked eyes."
"But you will not be able to see anything."
"Do what he says," suggested Remo. "He's the big cheese in his speciality."
"What is your specialty, might I ask?" Schiff inquired of Chiun.
"Death," said Chiun in a chilly tone.
Shrugging, the M.E. shut off the microscope and extracted the slide. He handed it to Chiun, who lifted it to the light.
Chiun subjected the slide to the critical acuity of first one eye, then the other. Remo leaned over, but Chiun faded back, hissing, "You are in my light, oafish one."
"Sorry," said Remo, stepping around to the other side.
"I see bug parts," said Remo.
Chiun nodded. "Yes, these look like the parts of a bug."
"Of course," said the M.E., who was astonished that these two could discern this with only their unassisted eyes.
"Bee parts," Chiun added.
"No bees are so small," the M.E. insisted. "I have this on the highest authority."
"Who's that?"
"Dr. Helwig X. Wurmlinger, the renowned entomologist."
"Renown does not equal correctness," sniffed Chiun. He eyed Dr. Schiff. "Do you know the name of the finest assassin in the world?"
"I do not."
"Or his title?"
"Of course not. Therefore what?"
"He is not renowned."
"That makes him perhaps more, not less great," said the Master of Sinanju, handing the slide back and leaving the room in a rustle and swirl of kimono skirts.
Outside, Remo turned to Chiun and asked, "So, we got nothing?"
"On the contrary. We have something terrible."
"What's that?"
"The bee that is not."
And that was all Remo could get out of the Master of Sinanju.
Chapter 9
The New York Public Library near Bryant Park was a lot bigger than Tammy Terrill expected it to be. She immediately got lost among the bewildering maze of book-laden shelves.
"Where's the bug department?" she asked a librarian.
The woman looked up from reshelving a cart full of books. "The what?"
"Uh, the department of insects?"
"Try biology."
"Is that near here?"
Her tone and face were so helpless that the librarian broke down and escorted Tammy to the biology section and indicated a row of fat books so long Tammy blurted, "I didn't know there were that many books in the world!"
"Insects outnumber people by billions. In fact, if you could place every ant on earth on one side of a balance scale and every human being on the other, ants would outweigh mankind."
"Ooh. Neat factoid. You must watch the Discover Channel constantly. "
"No," the librarian said frostily, "I read."
"I read, too. TelePrompTers. Sometimes AP wire stories when I absolutely have to."
"I'll leave you to your digging," the librarian said.
Her eyes widening, Tammy grabbed the woman by her skinny arm. "Wait. I only need to know about bees."
"Bees?"
"Killer bees."
The librarian walked the length of the long rows of shelving and, without seeming to look at the spines, stopped and indicated an upper section of shelf.
"Here," she said.
"You really know this shelf, don't you?"
"I work here," the librarian returned, and walked off, trailing a faint scent of lilac.