Remo stepped in, met the black tentacle halfway and took hold of it. He spun. The whip, still traveling in his grasp, came flying out of its owner's grasp.
Mistress Kali stepped back in shock, looked at his empty hands and his pale features, then she turned a smoldering red under her yellow silk domino mask.
"You dare!"
"We dare all the time," said Remo casually.
"I am Mistress Kali!"
"Like the cat says, 'Big hairy deal.'"
"Defier! I slay you with my scorn."
Kali lunged. Remo reached out and took her by the throat. He squeezed. At once her face reddened, then purpled. Her black-nailed fingers clawed for his face. Remo held her off at arm's length.
"What do you say now, Little Father?" he asked Chiun as Kali tried in vain to claw the skin from his face.
Chiun frowned. "Her strength is only the strength of an ordinary person," he said quietly. "And she possessed but two arms."
"Right. That means she's not Kali."
"I am Kali!" Mistress Kali snapped, taking another swipe at Remo's eyes.
"Butt out. We're talking about another Kali," said Remo.
"I am she! I am the Black One. I am the Mother of all. He who eats, eats by me."
Chiun frowned. "She speaks the words of Kali."
"She's a high-priced hooker. That's all."
Chiun walked around the dominatrix whose shiny black body shook with impotent rage and hate.
"You do not recognize my son Remo?" he asked Mistress Kali.
Kali glared venomously at the Master of Sinanju.
"Look closer, shrieking one. Are his features known to you, you who call yourself by the hated name?" demanded Chiun.
Kali spit at the Master of Sinanju. Chiun evaded the expectoration with a graceful pirouette.
Reaching up, Chiun took her head in one hand and inexorably turned the eyes of Mistress Kali to face Remo. "Look deep. What do you see?" he commanded.
"I see a dead man!" Kali hissed. "Kneel before me or I will gnaw the skin from your bones."
Chiun shook her head. "You do not know my son?"
Kali glared more fiercely. But somewhere deep in her icy blue eyes flickered a different light. "I know..."
"Know what?" asked Remo.
"You..."
"Well, I don't know you," Remo returned.
"Are you certain, Remo?" demanded Chiun.
"Yeah. I'm-- Then Remo looked closer. He realized he wasn't looking at her face, but at the silk and the eyes they framed. Now he looked deeper. "Her eyes. There's something familiar about her eyes."
Chiun's voice grew sharp. "Are you certain?"
"Yeah. The eyes look familiar. But I can't place them."
"Your essence is remembering, not your brain. She is Kali. You must slay her, Remo."
"Let's see her face first," said Remo, releasing her neck. His fingers plucked at the yellow domino mask.
Mistress Kali turned into a tiger. She twisted, squirming, and one hand reached into small of her back.
It came back trailing a long scarf of pure golden silk.
"Remo!" Chiun cried. "Beware her strangling scarf!"
Remo, as usual, was too slow. Swift as he was, he was too slow. His mind was on her face and the mask over it.
The Master of Sinanju, ever vigilant, shook off his jade fingernail protector and plunged the gleaming nail beneath into Mistress Kali's unprotected throat. It sank in to the tip of the finger and withdrew before anyone could absorb the movement.
Mistress Kali shuddered on her feet. A gasp came from her open harridan mouth. Her eyes flew wide with shock.
She spoke a single breathy, incredulous word. "Remo?"
Then, eyes rolling to whites, she collapsed at their feet.
Remo was holding the domino mask in one hand. For a frozen moment, he stood there, not inhaling, not exhaling. His eyes, dark as the hollows of a skull, went sick.
"What happened? I never touched her," he said.
"I did," said Chiun, who held up the golden tail of silk. "Behold, for she was about to wrap her silken wiles about you."
"Chiun."
"What?"
"Tell me you didn't..."
"I did."