"Watch the shoes," said Remo when she brought her stiletto heel onto his instep. "They're new. "
She tried to flip him anyway.
Remo refused to flip. It was as if his feet were set in concrete. He had no discernible center of gravity. None that she could find. Refusing to give up, she twisted and tried to insert her fingers into his nostrils and give them a fierce twist absolutely guaranteed to cause the most stern grip to relinquish.
"Easy. I'm ticklish," said Remo, his nostrils easily evading her darting fingers.
"You are unlike any man I have ever encountered," said Dominique, switching to flattery.
"I hear that a lot."
"I am sure."
"Too much, in fact. I like to be treated like an ordinary guy."
"I would treat you that way if you would allow me."
"You're not my type. Sorry."
"I French-kiss like a sailor," Dominique said, using a line that had been used on her.
"I'm not into sailors. Now stop struggling. I wanna see what Chiun does."
Dominique's head turned toward the van, having no other option once Remo had laid his heavy hand on her head and turned it like a faucet fixture.
Her eye fell upon the old Asian named Chiun as he slipped up to the door and laid a tiny ear to it.
"What is he doing?" Dominique hissed.
"Making sure it's not a trap."
"He can tell by listening?"
"He can tell what time it is by closing his eyes and finding the sun with his face."
"What if it is night?"
"Search me. I never saw him do it in the nighttime."
Dominique glanced at Remo's hard, obdurate fingers. "How can one be so slim and so strong at the same time?"
"Same way Popeye did it."
"How so?"
"Spinach."
"You are making fun of me."
"Tell it to Jairy."
"You insult a great clown."
"Shh."
As they watched, Chiun reached up for the door handle and seemed to freeze.
"What is wrong?" Dominique asked.
Remo squeezed her arm to get silence.
As she watched, Dominique realized very slowly that the old Asian was not frozen, as he appeared to be. He was turning the door handle, but doing it so slowly and methodically that he appeared immobile to the casual eye.
"Ah, he is very clever."
Abruptly the door opened and shut almost as quickly. It happened so suddenly it literally took Dominique's breath away. It was as if the door had been the mouth of a mechanical monster that had snatched the old one from sight to gobble him alive.
Nothing happened for a moment.
Then the edges of the door pulsed with the most vivid gray light Dominique had ever seen. And the door flew open like a frightened ghost.
And the awful light poured out.
REMO SAW THE VAN DOOR outlined in green. It was like a kick in the stomach, that green. Remo had never seen such a green. It was hideous, a violent lizard green. Some Sinanju instinct caused him to begin to turn away, when the door flew open and the Master of Sinanju came fluttering out.
Remo naturally looked back to see what Chiun was doing. What he saw shocked him. Chiun's face was twisted with some terrible strain. His arms and legs pumped as if to outrun the green glow.
The green light stabbed out all around him, and in his last moment of consciousness Remo felt his stomach contract involuntarily and the contents of his stomach erupt from his throat.
His last thought was how much he suddenly hated the color green.
DOMINIQUE PARILLAUD felt Remo's grip suddenly relax, and her professional instincts took over. Just in time, too.
She stepped away and by the narrowest margin avoided being splashed by a jet of hot vomit that seemed composed mostly of rice and small chunks of what seemed to be fish.
A horrible expression on his face, Remo fell faces first into his own vomit.
Dominique spun around and saw the old Korean also pitched forward in midstep, a cloud of milky vomit cascading ahead of him.
When he skidded into the grass, Chiun lay still.
Dominique crouched down, her color-blind eyes on the vivid gray light as she searched the grass for her fallen MAS.
The thing came clumping out of the van while she was preoccupied with her weapon.
Dominique experienced a strange stab of recognition mixed with horror. The horror, she thought at first, was a consequence of watching two formidable American agents-she had no doubt that was what they were-succumb to some force she could not comprehend.