"To the northeast," Remo said stubbornly. He pointed in the direction from which the smell came.
"It is the smell of dung fires we seek, not blood," Kula said with finality.
"I'm looking for a man," Remo persisted. "And where he goes, blood sometimes spills." He noticed he was talking like a Mongol. He hoped that was all that would rub off.
Kula looked to Fang Yu. Fang Yu shrugged. Her look said all Westerners are mad.
"Look, I know what I'm talking about," Remo snapped.
"If you are so certain of your nose, foreigner," Kula said, "why do you not ride in the direction it tells you?"
"Good idea," said Remo, forking his mount away with a rightward twist of the reins. He spanked Smitty's cream flank. The horse broke into a gallop.
Kula and Fang Yu exchanged looks.
"Ai yah!" Kula cried, taking off after Remo. Fang Yu brought up the rear, muttering, "Crazy foreign devil."
They galloped in a loose pattern. Overhead, the moon ghosted in and out of the clouds.
During one period of exposed moonlight, they spied a brushed-silver hump in the distance. Light snow swirled around it.
A wolf bayed, very close.
Kula reached over to Fang Yu's reins and drew her horse closer to his.
"Wolves," he said ominously. "We must be careful."
"What about him?" Fang Yu asked.
"He is either mad or foolish. I cannot stop a madman and would not bother with the other."
As they watched, Remo pulled up at an abandoned bus and dismounted.
"He has sense enough to hold on to his horse, at least," Kula muttered.
"He is an American," Fang Yu said. "Cowboy blood runs in them all."
Kula nodded at this undeniable morsel of wisdom. There must be some skill in the American, for he himself smelled the cold tang of blood now.
They watched Remo move among humps of snow surrounding the bus. Patches of green showed here and there when Remo brushed at them with an uncovered hand.
"PLA men," Fang Yu said.
"This must be the bus they hijacked," Remo called back. "These guys are all dead."
Kula let his horse approach, Fang Yu trailing, her eyes searching every direction.
"What killed them?" Kula demanded from afar. He would approach this place of sudden death no closer than necessary to carry on conversation.
"I think my Korean did it," Remo admitted, kicking loose snow back onto a gruesome dead face.
"Old Duck Tang?" Fang Yu asked doubtfully. "How he do that?"
"He just does it," Reno said, looking all around.
Kula dismounted, one hand tight on his reins. He examined several bodies. "I see no marks of death," he noted, low-voiced.
"That's how my Korean works."
"You say an old man did this?" Kula questioned.
"Yeah, and without this bus, he had to go on by foot."
"Then he would not survive, not without the warmth of a horse to keep him alive," Kula pronounced. "You might as well return to your own land. Unless you wish to carry his frozen carcass home."
"Hold this," Remo said, shoving Smitty's reins into Kula's sands. He climbed into the bus and looked around.
While Remo was preoccupied inside the shattered vehicle, Kula turned to Fang Yu, who had refused to dismount.
"It is not good to be found where Chinese soldiers have fallen," he rumbled. "Blame will be attached to us."
"Who would search the steppe in this weather?" Fang Yu remarked.
"True, but I do not like the look of these bodies."
Fang Yu looked toward the bus. "What is wrong with them?"
"There is no mark of wolves," Kula said flatly.
"Why is that bad?"
"Because I heard a wolf bay as we approached. If this white could catch the scent of blood from afar, so too will the wolves."
Fang Yu shuddered. Turning in her saddle, she tried to see in all directions at once. Then the moon was swallowed by a cloud.
The darkness was absolute. The horses whinnied nervously.
"Empty," Remo Williams' voice said in the darkness as he emerged from the bus. "They ran out of gas."
Than the snapping, slavering sounds of wolves ripped the comfortless darkness.
"Remo!" Fang Yu cried. Kula jumped to his horse. It reared up in fright, its forelegs kicking at nothing.
Only Remo Williams, his eyes trained to magnify ambient light, saw the wolves coming. They sprinted across the steppe like gray-furred comets. There were three. And they were tearing right for the horses.
Remo came off the bus running. He flashed to Fang Yu's side, smacking her mount on the rump. It bolted. Fang Yu held on. Remo wheeled and did the same for Kula's mount.