Several floors up from the RUMPP TOWER sign over the Fifth Avenue entrance, a balloon was swirling in the eddies and currents surrounding the Tower. It was Halloween-orange and had a pumpkin face. Evidently, someone from the crowd behind the distant barbed wire had released it.
As they watched, a gust of wind swept it up. It skidded close to the Tower facade and, as it rose, bounced off.
"It bounced!" Cheeta breathed.
"I saw this happen before," Chiun offered.
"Praise Diana, Goddess of the Moon!" Delpha cried, closing her eyes and lifting empty palms to the moon. "My womanly magic proved true."
"My ass," said Remo, quickly pinching his nose shut.
"You did this?" Cheeta asked, dumbfounded.
"Indeed," said Delpha calmly. "You may interview me now. I suggest a two-shot."
"And I suggest we land before I throw up," Remo said.
Cheeta said, "Later. I want to see what's going on in the Tower. You! Cameraman! Let's get some footage."
The cameraman got his video up and running.
"Make a circle of the building," Cheeta told the pilot.
Delpha chimed in. "Good. Circles are good. They represent femaleness. If we create enough of them, they will dispel the Horned One forever."
"Shouldn't we be landing, to let the people know it's okay to come out now?" Remo suggested.
"No," Cheeta said sharply, "Later. If we set them free now, we can't interview them."
"Since when does a story come before people?"
"Since before Edward Z. Murrow," said Cheeta solemnly.
"Can I quote you on that?" Remo asked.
Before Cheeta could answer, Delpha cried, "Look, I see an otherworldly apparition!"
Cheeta's glossy head snapped about, like that of a confused Mako shark. "Where? Where?"
Delpha pointed. "There! In that corner office."
The cameraman was trying to position his lens, saying, "Where? Which corner? I don't see anything."
Delpha reached back and yanked the camcorder lens toward the southwestern corner of the building and held it.
"Do you see it now?" she asked.
"I don't know," the cameraman said. "I think you bruised my eye."
"Just keep taping," Cheeta said. "The network will gladly buy you a glass eye."
They swept past the corner and around to the other side, where the Spiffany Building, as solid as the granite it was built of, lay bathed in cold moonlight.
Cheeta asked, "What did you see?"
"It looked like an evil spirit," Delpha said, more pale-faced than usual. "I think it was a night-gaunt."
"What's a 'night-gaunt'?" Remo asked.
"It is a creature normally seen only in dreams," Delpha explained. "They have rubbery skin, long forked tails, and no face at all."
"This thing you saw had no face?"
Delpha nodded. "No more than an egg does."
"Sounds like a night-gaunt to me," Remo said dryly.
"If night-gaunts are breaking into the waking world, I fear for humanity. None are female."
Cheeta frowned. "God. What is this world coming to?"
"There is only one odd thing," Delpha said slowly.
"What's that?" asked Cheeta.
"Night-gaunts are usually black-skinned. This one was completely white. I will have to consult the Necronomicon about them."
To Remo's surprise, she pulled a dog-eared paperback book from under her skirt and consulted it.
"This is strange," she said thoughtfully. "There's no mention of white night-gaunts. Not even in the demonology concordance."
"It doesn't matter," Cheeta put in. "We got it on tape, whatever it was." She glared back at her wincing cameraman. "At least, we'd better have gotten it on tape."
"But the Necronomicon should list it if it exists," Delpha said worriedly.
"Maybe you got the abridged edition by mistake," Remo suggested helpfully.
"Remo," Chiun flared, "you are behaving like an idiot. "
"I've been dragged down by the company I'm forced to keep. Look, can we just land this thing?"
"An excellent idea," Chiun said sternly. "We will land and rescue the persons formerly trapped within this glittering monstrosity, thus earning the eternal gratitude of this country and whoever may rule it."
"Why would we do that?" Remo wanted to know.
"Contract negotiations," Chiun whispered.