They stepped out into the corridor and a blue disk of a thing came wheeling toward them.
"What is that, Remo?" Chiun asked.
"A security robot. No big deal."
An orange light winked on and Remo stepped forward. His foot came up and down, and the robot broke like a china plate.
"See?" he said. "No big deal. They just came on the market. This is one of the cheaper models. All they do is beep out a warning."
"Ah. "
"So where's Limburger?" Remo asked.
"I left him sleeping below."
"It might help if Smith sent in the cavalry and they found Limburger here."
"That is for Smith to decide."
Remo peered about, his thick wrists rotating absently. "So what is the best way out of here?"
"Have you forgotten something, Remo?"
Remo frowned. "What?"
"You left an old woman helpless."
"Oh, yeah. Pearl Clancy. That won't take a minute."
The Master of Sinanju followed his pupil to the great parlor in the center of the rambling house.
"The whole thing was a scheme to get Ned Clancy into the White House next time around," Remo was saying. "Nalini was the Eldress. She set up all the dominoes at the start, and once HELP was a big deal, started knocking them down so Clancy could rehabilitate himself politically."
"You walk unsteadily," Chiun pointed out.
"I caught a dose."
"It does not appear to trouble you very much."
They came to the door.
"Did I mention I saw the same thing that Sambari saw in the forest?" said Remo.
"And?"
Remo threw open the door. "Sambari was a fraidy cat."
Thinning his dry lips, the Master of Sinanju followed his insolent pupil into the room.
Pearl Clancy crouched in her wheelchair like a mummy refusing to die. Her head jerked around, and her eyes widened. She began bouncing in place.
"This poor woman has been through much," Chiun said.
"She could've done a better job of raising her kids," Remo said, kneeling down to reconnect the battery cables.
The wheelchair motor whined back into life and Pearl Clancy grabbed for the control stick. Since it wasn't there anymore, she made a fist and beat the armrest futilely.
Chiun regarded her with compassion.
"She is a pitiful sight. There is almost nothing left of her but her mind."
"If that," Remo grunted, restoring the silver pen to the universal socket on the wheelchair armrest. "Let's go, Little Father."
And as they started from the room, Pearl Clancy grasped the pen and pushed it forward. The wheelchair whined after them, and Pearl Clancy tried to run them down.
They walked faster.
Then Pearl Clancy bugged out her eyes, bringing her outstretched forefingers to her slack mouth. They began wriggling up and down, in and out.
"She is still following us," Chiun told Remo.
"Big deal."
And from the gray disorder of Pearl Clancy's hair emerged red matchstick heads that split to reveal curving black fangs.
Walking along, Remo felt something in his hair, and brushed it off. He stomped the scuttling red thing into the floor.
"Musta missed one," he muttered.
"You smell of that harlot again," Chiun sniffed.
Then one landed on the bald top of his head.
The Master of Sinanju hissed, "What is this?" and shook his head once sharply.
A jumping spider landed in a corner and skittered out again. It lifted itself up on its rear set of legs and wriggled its fangs in their direction.
And behind them, Pearl Clancy wriggled her forefingers back.
As they watched, the jumping spider crouched and launched itself at her head. It crawled into her hair as two more heads poked out, separating.
"Chiun, do you see what I see?" Remo said.
"She is a Spider Diva too!" Chiun cried.
And Pearl Clancy leered at them, drool leaking from her slack mouth.