The shots brought new heads sticking out. Switching to selective fire, the colonel popped them like birds on the wing.
Sleepy, surprised faces materialized in the gloom, and were as quickly obliterated.
The colonel raised his voice to a shout. "Verapaz, I am come for you! Show yourself!"
Remo was moving by then.
He cleared the space between himself and the colonel in less than five seconds flat, even with having to skirt various exotic trees.
Even then he was not as fast as the guerrilla, who had dropped to the ground, turned like a dog in the dirt and was kicking out at the colonel with her khakiclad legs.
"Puta!" he snarled, bringing his submachine gun down to perforate her belly.
Remo reached him then. One hand drifting out ahead, he broke the weapon in two with a hard downward chop.
The colonel had been holding his weapon steady with both hands. Now they flew apart, each holding a different end.
His eyes went wide at the sight of his bifurcated weapon.
Then Remo was in his face.
"What the hell kind of soldier are you! Those people were unarmed."
"Who are jou?"
Remo relieved him of the weapon parts, tossing them in several directions. The colonel started to grab his combat knife.
Remo let him. When it lifted, Remo took it away from him, held it in front of his face with one hand and used his free index finger to tap the blade. Three taps, starting just back of the point. With each tap, a section of the blade broke off clean until there was no more blade.
Remo handed the colonel back the useless hilt.
To show his gratitude, the colonel tried to shoot Remo in the face with a hastily pulled side arm.
Remo clapped his hands once, abruptly. They came together with the tightly gripped weapon between them.
The colonel felt the sting of the converging hands on his gun hand, flinched and told his brain to tell his trigger finger to squeeze the trigger.
His finger refused. Then the pistol began falling apart in his hands as if every screw had melted.
When he was left with only the cartridge-packed handle, but no breech or barrel, his gun hand began turning red as if sunburned. He stared at it with wideeyed disbelief.
"Can you say 'vascular disintegration'?" asked Remo.
"I do not know those words."
"Think of the veins on your hand turning to mush and letting all the blood seep into your tissues."
The colonel suddenly screamed. Not from the realization of his maiming but from the pain signals that finally caught up with his brain.
Reaching for his neck, Remo squeezed a nerve that cut off the pain. He wasn't in a hurry; he let some pain seep through.
"I'm looking for Verapaz."
Through gritted teeth, the colonel said, "As am I! We are on the same side, yes?"
"We are on the same side, absolutely not, " Remo shot back. "I don't kill noncombatants."
"You are obviously American. CIA?'
"UNICEF."
"The children's fund?"
"That's right. We're looking after the welfare of children everywhere. We also take donations. Dollars, not pesos."
"You are loco."
"If loco means I'm mad enough to break your neck, I have no quarrel with loco. "
"Jou might have your wish, for I believe Verapaz to be in this very village." He gave the prostrate guerrilla a nudge with a black-booted toe. "This Naca, she knows."
Reaching down, Remo brought the guerrilla to her feet.
"Where's Verapaz?"
"I know not."
"She is obviously lying," said Chiun, who had materialized at their side.
"I have said this," Primitivo said.
"You stay out of this," Remo said.
The Master of Sinanju drifted up to the girl, making his voice sympathetic. "Poor child. They give you the tools of death when you should be the bearer of life."
"I do not need your advice, even if you saved my life," she spit.
Remo said, "Look, we have no problem with you. We just want Verapaz."
"I would sooner die than surrender him to you. Go ahead. Shoot me if you must."
Turning away in disgust, Chiun said, "Go ahead, Remo. Shoot her. Her milk has been soured by war. She is spoiled for motherhood."
"I'm shooting nobody." Remo faced her. "There's an easy way and a hard way. Which do you want?"
"The third way. The way out of this nightmare. How dare you come into my land to seek my Lord Verapaz? This is no affair of gringos. "