"Sure," said Remo.
"For a price to be determined later," Chiun said blandly.
"We'll worry about that then," said Nancy.
Captain Relish escorted them to an inflatable pontoon bridge that carried them over the shallow water to an open passenger door in the side of the anchored craft.
"The cargo bay is aft," he said, leading them through an interior that very much resembled a truncated passenger jet. A door in the rear gave into the cargo area. It lay open to the dazzling African sun.
Nancy gave the area a quick once-over. She turned to Captain Relish. "I think you'd better leave. Captain. That's ten tons of reptile meat about to come down in a relatively confined space."
The captain ducked out.
The cranes' operators brought the beast over to the waiting cargo hold of the ekranoplane. They were good. They got it into exact position without unnecessary jockeying. It blocked the sun.
Slowly, the cables began paying out.
"Okay," Nancy said nervously, as the creature's shadow grew. "We shouldn't have to worry about the tail. But if the head folds under the body, it could be crushed. At the very least, the windpipe could be constricted."
"Just grab the head and keep it from the body, right?" asked Remo.
"Right. You can do that?"
"Sure."
Nancy withdrew to a safe distance, where she made white-knuckled fists on and off during the remaining part of the fifteen-minute operation.
She saw it all, and questioned none of it.
The whiplike tip of the tail touched first and began coiling like a serpent dropping into a box. It was the other end she was worried about.
The undersized head, mouth slightly open and eyes closed, inched closer and closer to the stainless steel of the bulkhead floor.
Remo and Chiun took up positions under it. Small as it was in comparison to the thick neck, the head dwarfed them both. Like construction workers guiding a girder into position, they took hold of the snout and chin and with a nod to each other, walked it away as the body continued down.
The head was heavy enough, Nancy knew. But the greater weight lay in the tremendous pumpkin-striped neck.
Somehow, the pair knew exactly what to do. They moved left when the neck began to kink right and vice versa. They seemed to have an instinct for the way the reptile's weight was redistributing itself. It was as if, Nancy thought, they used the creature's own inert muscles against itself. That, more than their eerily effortless strength, impressed her most.
When the great padded feet touched the floor, they had the neck almost fully elongated. This was the crucial part.
Then it was over. Suddenly, effortlessly. The legs folded up on either side of the great bulk of the body and the wrinkled underside touched the floor. The ship hardly jarred.
And the neck, fully elongated now, lay flat, with the head resting on its chin.
Nancy came up and looked the beast over without saying a word.
The Master of Sinanju watched her and said to his pupil, "She is not very effusive in her gratitude."
"Give her a minute," Remo said. "She has to check everything out. Like you, when we fly."
"I am not flying in this maimed air vehicle. It has no wings."
"I don't get it, either."
Nancy let out a yelp of annoyance.
They ran to meet her.
"Damn Damn Damn Damn!" she was saying.
"What?" asked Remo.
"I forgot to sex the beast."
"Oh," said Remo.
Chiun took Remo aside and whispered, "What manner of female wishes to mate with a dragon?"
"She doesn't mean it that way."
"What way does she mean it?"
"She's trying to figure out what sex it is."
"It is a female," Chiun called.
Nancy looked up. "How can you tell?"
"Male dragons have larger heads. Females but tiny ones, because they have smaller brains. Just as with human females."
"Thank you for that illuminating bit of information," Nancy said thinly.
Chiun wrinkled up his tiny nose. "She does not sound grateful."
"Give her time," said Remo.
"I am willing to be patient as long as I receive my dragon bone," Chiun allowed.
"Nobody said anything about her being that grateful."
"A toe bone then. Until the beast dies a proper death. Then I may claim the leg bone of my choice."
"Do they even have toes?" Remo asked.
"True dragons do."