A soldier offered to give her a hand. She slapped it away. Where was Remo? She didn't see him. Had he attempted to sneak up on Rabinowitz and try an execution? If he had, he was a fool. This was not the place to kill Rabinowitz. She knew that now from what she saw. And she was not the one to do it. It had to be Remo. But he couldn't do it here.
Suddenly she felt a grip on her arms like a giant vise. It was Remo.
"Where are you going?"
"To find you. Where were you? You didn't go up to Rabinowitz. You didn't risk him, did you?"
"You mean the greatest guy in the world?" said Remo, smiling.
Chapter 15
"Just joking," said Remo.
"You bastard," screamed Anna, swinging at Remo's head. It looked like she hit, but she hadn't. She had only touched his face with her blow. "How could you scare me like that? How could you do something so insensitive and stupid and useless?"
Remo thought her anger was even funnier.
"You're such a man. You're such a real man," screamed Anna. "What a stupid, stupid joke."
"I thought it was good, too," said Remo.
"Do you know that if you are lost, everyone is lost? Do you know what's going on? Do you know what I found out?"
"How should I know? You haven't told me yet," said Remo. He looked up toward the command post. He saw Chiun leave, and by his very first step, Remo understood there was trouble now worse than anything Anna Chutesov might have uncovered.
"Rabinowitz is in the process of taking over your country. He's not frightened anymore. The world has become a game to him. He might start some war somewhere now just for the fun of it, and there's nothing we can do here. We're helpless."
"We might be more than helpless," said Remo. "We might be dead. We've got to get out of here."
Anna glanced up to where Remo was looking. Chiun, his friend, had just left the headquarters. He was walking slowly.
"He's coming after us."
Anna looked closer. Chiun seemed to be strolling. "How can you tell?"
"Look at his walk," said Remo.
"I can't tell any difference."
"You're not supposed to," said Remo. "He's ready to kill. And it may be me."
"Why?"
"Dunno. Maybe Rabinowitz figured out why we're here. Maybe he's after you, not me."
"We can't do any good here anyhow. Let's run." Remo saw the eyes of Chiun. Did the little father know? Was this some other mind that was coming to do battle? Did Chiun perhaps think Remo was just some other target? There was no anger in the face. Remo had been taught that anger robbed one of power. Anger was usually a result of weakness, not strength. And it caused such damage to the nervous system. To relax was the efficient way to use the powers of the human body.
"There is a way to finish off Rabinowitz," said Anna. "But it's not here. It's in Russia."
"Why didn't you think of it there?" asked Remo.
"Because I didn't have time and I didn't think I'd need it. I had to get here right away. I thought I could defuse Rabinowitz. I thought maybe we could even destroy him if we had to. I see now, we can't. I saw it in that command post."
"What are we going to find in Russia?"
"The secret to his powers. I am sure they are in Dulsk. I found something that men always miss."
"There are no women in Russia? They didn't miss?" asked Remo. He took her arm and guided her out into the road.
The staff car with officers and a driver didn't stop until the driver was pulled out of the window as the car passed Remo's grip. The car stopped. One of the officers declared Remo under military arrest, and another officer helped that officer regain his feet after Remo and Anna were off in the car.
Remo did not look forward but kept his eye on the rearview mirror.
"We can outrun him, right?" asked Anna.
Remo laughed.
"Is that another joke?" she asked.
"No. No, we can't outrun him in this car on these roads."
"Then why are we driving?"
"It's hell trying to bring you through a jungle."
"I thought you enjoyed it. You were touching me tenderly. "
"I was holding you up and moving you forward and I was touching you that way so you wouldn't break," said Remo.
The man in the black kimono reached the road, and there he placed two feet wide apart and then, so all the world could see, slowly like two sedate windmills, brought his long fingernails out from his sleeves and in a wide arc swung them above his head and then down sedately into a folded-arms position.
"Damn," said Remo, and Anna saw his face pale and his lips tighten.
"What's wrong?" she said.
"I hope he doesn't think it's me here."
"Why?"
"Chiun just gave me the Master's Challenge to the Death if I ever come back."
"But you've got to come back. We're not going to Russia not to come back. We're going to Dulsk to get hold of the mechanism that will destroy Vassily and his powers once and for all."
"I'm not going to kill Chiun to do it. If I could."
"You have to. It's for the world."