"And we insist upon a car with a good spare."
More keys were taken back. The struggling died down.
"Lastly, the car's gotta be blue."
"What if it is not a car?" one man asked.
"What is it, if it's not a car?" Remo wanted to know.
"It is a Land Rover."
"Then you're in luck. Land Rovers are our favorite."
The owner of the Land Rover began hopping about in happy circles. "I win! I win! I win! The Master of Sinanju is going to drive my machine!"
"Actually, I'm going to do the driving," Remo said, putting out his hand to accept the key. The metal barely touched his fingertips before it was swiftly withdrawn.
"I will have no lowly white drive my car," the owner said huffily.
"You lose your golden opportunity, then."
"He does not," said Chiun, putting out a longnailed hand. "For I will drive."
Remo gulped. "You?"
"I might perhaps be rusty," Chiun allowed. "But the skill will return. It is probably just like falling off a bicycle."
"If it is," Remo said sourly, "try to fall off your side, not mine."
Ten minutes later, they were careening through the crumbling streets of downtown Port Chuma, sending chickens and other livestock out of their path while Remo held on to the Land Rover seat for dear life.
"You drive worse than I remember," Remo was shouting.
The Master of Sinanju scooted up an alley to avoid two East German-built Trabants trying to beat one another through the same intersection.
"But I drive better than the inhabitants of this backward place," he countered.
Remo started to express his doubts when the trash compactor sound of the two Trabants colliding drowned out his words.
"Yes?" Chiun prompted.
"Never mind," Remo grumbled. He looked around. The city still had much the colonial look of Gondwanaland when it was known as Bamba del Oro. The stucco buildings were peeling and had not been kept up. A traffic cop in tropical ducks blew a whistle at them.
Chiun sailed past him without concern.
The whistle turned shrill and angry.
Remo looked back. "Now you did it."
"Do not concern yourself, Remo. He can do nothing. For the policemen in this land are too poor to own automobiles."
"I hope you're right." Remo looked ahead. "Aren't those railroad tracks up ahead?"
"Yes."
"Shouldn't you be slowing down?"
"No." And the Master of Sinanju pressed the accelerator flat to the floorboards, simultaneously turning the wheel hard to the left.
Remo Williams had reflexes and nerves far superior to ordinary people. But even he blinked his eyes at sudden sounds. The Land Rover ran over a stone, and the wheels left the ground. It hurtled toward the hard steel rails. That was when Remo blinked.
When his eyes flew open, somehow the Land Rover was rattling along the crossties between the rusty rails, its tires a hair from scraping the rails on either side.
Despite the bumpiness of the ride, the tires held a true course.
"Mind telling me what you think you are doing?" Remo chattered.
"I think I am seeking a dragon," replied Chiun blandly.
"What makes you think the train the dinosaur is on runs on this track?"
"Because there is only one track. This land is too poor to have more than one. Therefore it is too poor to have more than one railroad line."
"I'll buy that," said Remo, trying to keep his teeth from chipping. "So how do we know we're going in the right direction?"
"We do not."
"Huh?"
Chiun lifted a bony finger. The other held the wheel rock-steady. "But I do. For the track runs in only two directions. And the other goes into the sea. Therefore we are going in the proper direction."
Remo couldn't argue with that logic, so he said, "I see plenty of road on either side of the railbed."
"Which is true now, but may not be true when the tracks enter jungle," Chiun pointed out, unperturbed.
It was dark. The headlights were bobbing and bucking like flashlights attached to a milkshake machine.
Soon, the city was left behind and all was darkness except for the two funnels of light bouncing ahead of them.
Abruptly, the Master of Sinanju stopped the Land Rover.
"It is your turn," he told Remo.
"It is?"
"I have done the hard part. No thinking will be needed until we reach the dragon." He stepped from the vehicle.