Ambulances and other official vehicles had been summoned from surrounding towns. There were a lot of dead. The ambulances had been coming and going for the last hour.
Finally, Smith said, "I have accessed the airline reservation computer system, Remo. Senator Clancy appears headed back to Washington. His mother and a woman identified here as Nalini Toshi were due to arrive in Boston's Logan Airport in five hours, with connections to the Hayannis Airport."
"We go after her?"
The line hummed in the silence that followed.
"Remo, this is a very sensitive matter. But yes, go to the Clancy Compound, locate and interrogate this woman. Do it quietly. There is no telling where this could lead."
"What about Clancy?"
"If the trail leads to the senator, it leads to him and that bridge will be crossed if and when necessary."
"We're on our way."
"First, there is something you must do."
"What's that?"
"Eradicate those infernal spiders before more people die."
And Smith hung up.
"Guess who just pulled extermination detail?" Remo told Chiun.
Chapter 23
The spiders that resembled ants were very easy to kill. And because they were a distinctive rusty red, they were easy to locate too.
The trouble was, there were tons of them. And the press was starting to creep back into Nirvana West.
Remo caught up with the Master of Sinanju and said, "This could take all day."
"Then it will take all day," said Chiun. "It is our assignment. "
Remo lowered his voice. "We might not get them all, you know."
"We are Sinanju. We will get them all if you have to get down on your hands and knees and pursue them into their very lairs."
"Thanks for volunteering me," Remo said dryly. "But I have a better idea."
Chiun looked doubtful. "Yes?"
Remo stepped on a patch of dry grass and weeds with his shoe. The underbrush crackled.
"One match would get rid of all the bugs and this ecological sinkhole too."
Chiun gasped. "We are assassins, not arsonists. Would you shame the art?"
"Would you rather chase spiders into next Tuesday?" Remo countered.
The Master of Sinanju stroked his wispy beard thoughtfully.
"I will turn my back. What you do or do not do shames your ancestors, not mine."
Remo grinned broadly. "Fine with me. I don't even know my ancestors."
Remo picked up a dry twig, found another, and knelt in a particularly dry patch of brush. He tried the old Boy Scout trick of starting a fire. After ten minutes, he had a hole in the ground on two well-worn twigs.
He found a piece of hard rock and held one in the brush. With the edge of his other hand, he began chipping off pieces. Sparks flew. One started smoldering in the grass and Remo blew on it until he got fire.
He stood up and stepped back.
"I think I did it," he called over to Chiun.
"I am not looking," replied the Master of Sinanju. "To look is to accede. I am ignorant of any disgraceful behavior.
The fire was going good now. It leapt and spread outward. Spiders scurried. They were fast. The flames were faster.
"Okay, let's get out of here," said Remo.
It took two or three hours, but Nirvana West was a conflagration, kept from enveloping the surrounding hills by fire trucks and helicopters dropping orange fire retardant chemicals.
Surveying the scene from a nearby hill, Remo and Chiun were confident they had gotten them all.
"I think we're leaving Nirvana West in better shape than we found it," Remo said happily.
Chiun cast his eyes skyward. "I know nothing of what this uncontrollable white is saying," he informed his ancestors.
They were walking back to their car, which they had parked in a secluded area, away from everything, when a black hearse pulled up.
A desiccated voice asked, "Is this Nirvana West?"
"What's left of it," Remo said.
"Where are the dying?"
"There aren't any."
The hearse door popped open and the last person Remo expected to see in Nirvana West emerged. He wore black. His round-brimmed hat was black. As was his string tie. He was a tall, hollow-cheeked cadaver of a man, with dry skin and quarrelsome birdlike eyes.
"I have come a long way to assist them in their final agony," said the disconsolate voice of Dr. Mordaunt Gregorian.
"You know," said Remo, his eyes going hard, "I've been hoping to meet up with you for a long, long time."
Dr. Mordaunt Gregorian shifted his quick black eyes from Remo to the Master of Sinanju.