Shortly after that, the Master of Sinanju cantered up beside him and Remo rolled down the car window.
"I didn't know you could ride a horse, Little Father," Remo remarked.
"Koreans are the finest horsemen in all of Asia," Chiun sniffed.
"The Mongols don't think so," Remo said.
"What do you know of Mongols?" Chiun demanded.
"Enough to clear out of their way when the dinner gong is struck," Remo said. Then, "It was all true, wasn't it, from Amelia Earhart to Fu Manchu?"
Chiun nodded. "How did you know I would be in China?"
"Smith, who else? He found that note in a bottle Zhang threw overboard."
"What! There was no note!"
Remo frowned. "He knew about Temujin too."
Chiun frowned. "It is another of Smiths sneaky listening insects." He spat. "That man is more duplicitous than the fictitious Fu Achoo."
"I thought we pulled all the bugs from the house?"
"You must have missed one," Chiun said pointedly.
"Never mind. Why does he call me Sagwa?"
"It is not a name, but a Chinese insult. It means Stupid One. "
"At least I'm trusted to drive the family car," Remo snorted. "Are you really going to give up Zhang to the PLA?"
Chiun did not reply. "When the evil one awakens," Chiun said, "do not obey his orders."
"And how am I supposed to disobey?" Remo complained. "I feel like Howdy Doody!"
"Just do as I say. Obey him until we reach Five-Dragon Cave, but after that, do as I say."
Fang Yu rode up, hissing, "Return to your place in line, Old Duck Tang!"
"She's calling you Donald Duck," Remo supplied.
"And you are Old Mouse Mi," Fang Yu laughed. "That mean-"
"Mickey Mouse," Remo said unhappily. "I get the picture."
"I return," Chiun said haughtily, "but only because I do not wish to listen to this female cat-eater."
"What you know? You Korean! They eat of dog!" Fang Yu spat after Chiun's departing form.
"I'm so glad you two are getting along," Remo said acidly.
Fang Yu matched her pony's gait to the car's smooth pace.
"You were lying to me all along, weren't you?" Remo asked.
"Not all lies. You good in sack. Better than husband."
"So you really are married?" Disappointment tinged his voice.
Fang Yu nodded. "Zhang Zingzong is my husband-the fool!"
Remo almost lost control of the wheel. "What!"
"When Zhang find skull, he share with me. Zhang not know I was a Blue Bee, just as you not know I was not Ivory Fang. I tell him about this. But he not want to become Blue Bee. He flee with skull, but not know that Blue Bees are everywhere, even in US FBI."
"What happened to the real Ivory Fang?" Remo asked.
"Real Ivory Fang got out of way. I not really spy for West. I serve my teacher, my Jiao-Shi, who will one day restore China to greatness. He is a great man, Remo. He save me from orphanage. Has worldwide swarm of Blue Bees, and many cars like you drive now, and hiding places for them all over. Blue Bees in America find Zhang, and through him, the Master of Sinanju. But Jiao-Shi arrive too late to catch them. He know this Korean would come to China, so we wait and watch. My task was to be with you because everyone know Sinanju work for American now."
"So you kept him up on what I was doing?"
"Some. Teacher was hearing own reports of Old Duck Tang. I meet with him that night in Beijing, tell him about you. But when I learn you seek Master of Sinanju too, I understand my teacher had to know this. I know teacher had gone to Sayn Shanda. That is why I suggest we go there, not for other reasons."
"Well, thanks for the ride."
Fang Yu laughed with childish cruelty. "You very welcome, Sagwa."
"Don't mention it," Remo growled. "I don't suppose you'd care to enlighten me as to how your teacher manages his disappearing acts. Every time I follow his footprints, I end up where he isn't."
"Perhaps he walk backward," she said with a tinkly laugh. "You not think of that, Sagwa?"
Fang Yu pulled back and let the trailing ponies catch up. She joined them. Remo rolled up the window to shut out the cold.
At the border of the two Mongolias, frontier guards looked on stonily as they rode by like a funeral procession.
They followed the Great Mongolian Road to a small town and then with the Blue Bees beating a path, into the snowdusted steppe and toward the foothills of a nearby mountain range.
Here, the driving became rough. The car jumped and jounced, waking the mandarin Wu Ming Shi in back. He looked like an animatronic mummy coming to life. Even awake, only his eyes looked alive.
They moved through a narrow pass between rising hills. As had been the case since leaving Sayn Shanda, Remo couldn't see where they were going. The line of horse rumps made sure of that.
Finally, with hills rising sheer on either side, the Blue Bees broke ranks and Remo hit the brakes.
He looked around. They were in a pass beside the entrance to a cave. Before them, the road led to a narrow iron bridge fording a wide river. Behind was the pass. There was no other way to go, Remo thought worriedly, except over the bridge or back the way they came.
The mandarin's voice in the speaker tube said, "Attend me, Sagwa."