"Idiot!" Blutsturz yelled, throwing his arms before his face.
Smith jumped from the boat before it struck.
Konrad Blutsturz wobbled slightly--only slightly-and sickled off a corner of the boat's flat snout. The craft took on water and began to sink.
Smith, scrambling up the mushy bank, plunged toward the cabin.
"Where are you?" he called.
Behind him, the croaking voice of Konrad Blutsturz laughed mockingly.
The body was nude below the waist. Someone had shoved the pants down about the ankles.
Smith saw that it was Ilsa, the blond nurse he had met at Folcroft. She was dead. His heart in his mouth, he ran from room to room. He found nothing, no one. The cabin was empty.
"Where is she?" he said to himself. "My God, where is she?"
Remo came to the fork in the swamp creek and asked Chiun, "Right or left?"
"Left," said Chiun firmly.
Remo sent the airboat skimming down the left-band channel. The Master of Sinanju stood at the head of the craft like a bizarre figurehead. He wore a Hawaiian shirt over duck pants, because everyone in the Everglades settlements wore them.
"I still think we should be helping Smith instead of running around like this," Remo complained.
"Smith told you he did not wish our help," said Chiun. "He is the emperor. His word is law."
"If this place is empty, I vote we turn back for Folcroft."
"You turn back," said Chiun. "I will remain to await the coming of the man-machine, Bloodsucker, should he return."
The left channel ended in an empty cul-de-sac. "You were wrong," Remo pointed out.
"I was not wrong," said Chiun huffily. "I simply was not absolutely right."
"Same difference," said Remo, turning the boat around.
"Listen!" Chiun said suddenly. "I hear something." Remo shut off the motor and heard a voice filter through the sun-dappled trees.
"Smith! Harold W. Smith!" the voice screeched.
"It is him," said Chiun. "Bloodsucker."
"Through those trees," said Remo, sending the craft piling onto a bank. They jumped out and flashed through the undergrowth as if they had machetes attached to their bodies.
On the other side of the bank, they found the right hand channel. Standing in it, the deep water not even reaching his hips, was Konrad Blutsturz.
"Smith." Blutsturz called.
"Hold, abomination!" cried the Master of Sinanju. Konrad Blutsturz heard the voice and half-turned. One leg lifted and moved. storklike, and he pivoted to face the new threat.
"So," he said. "You have found me."
Remo started into the water. Chiun pulled him back. "Wait. Let him come to us."
"Okay, Little Father. You call it," said Remo. He shifted off to one side so that he and Chiun presented separate targets.
"Smith," cried Konrad Blutsturz as he advanced. "Harold Smith. Come out and see the vengeance I mete out to my enemies."
"Is he referring to our Smith?" asked Chiun.
"I don't think so," said Remo, who changed his mind when a familiar figure in gray stuck his head out of the nearby cabin.
"Smitty," Remo called. "What are you doing here?"
"That thing kidnapped my wife."
"You know each other?" said Konrad Blutsturz, surprise filling his bloodless face.
"Don't you know?" said Remo coolly. "We work for him. We've been onto you from the start."
"For Smith? All along?" Blutsturz turned to face Smith. "I have been stalking you and you sent these two after me? Amazing. You are more resourceful than I expected, Harold Smith."
"Forget Smith," said Remo. "You have to deal with us first."
Chiun called to Smith, "Look in the cabin, Emperor Smith. The device we seek may be in there."
Smith disappeared inside.
"He is out of the way, good," said Chiun. "Let us show this nearly dead thing how Sinanju deals with its enemies."
"I'll see what I can do, Little Father," Remo said as Konrad Blutsturz reached their moss bank. Blutsturz lifted a leg. It broke through a chunk of earth and slipped back into the tea-colored water.
"What?" wondered Konrad Blutsturz, dumbfounded. "He cannot leave the water," Chiun told Remo. "Too heavy. "
"Now," said Remo.
Remo took the left, coming in on an inside line-the traditional Sinanju path for close-quarters fighting-and the flashing blade rose to meet him. Chiun cut in on the right, taking the outside-line approach.
"I will kill you," howled Konrad Blutsturz, and chopped down with the wicked blade.
Remo twisted out from under it and jabbed a stiff fingered blow at, not the metal arm, but the flesh of the stump above it.
Konrad Blutsturz let out a scream of deep agony. He duck-walked back from the bank as if his legs were being pulled by invisible strings.
Chiun kicked out a sandaled toe and caught one metal leg as Blutsturz hopped back. The leg buckled, then recovered mechanically. Blutsturz' torso twisted like a scoop of ice cream on top of a tipping sugar cone.