"She was a harlot and a demon in the flesh of a woman."
Remo swallowed. Only then did Chiun see the bone white aspect of his face. With his hollow eyes and his high cheekbones, Remo's face looked like a skull with a paper-thin coating of skin.
"She..."
"What is it, Remo?"
"She..." Remo swallowed hard. He knelt.
Mistress Kali lay in a crumpled heap. Her head rested on one pale, outflung arm, the golden hair covering her face like a feathery broken wing.
Carefully Remo raised the hair, brushing it back.
Chiun looked down, eyes narrowing.
The features showed in profile, showed in death. They were chiseled and firm. One eye lay open in shock. The black lips were parted to show the dead white teeth.
Remo stared at her profile for the longest minute of eternity.
Then, face twisting in pain, Remo looked up. Looked up at the Master of Sinanju. Bitter tears started from his eyes. His voice was a shocked croak. "Chiun. You killed her. You killed Jilda. You killed the mother of my little girl."
And the Master of Sinanju, the force of the truth striking him fully, stepped back as if he'd been dealt a physical blow.
Chapter 37
The sonar's metallic contact led the Cayuga to Stellwagon Bank, a closed fishing area off Massachusetts.
"If that's a torpedo, I'm Davy Jones's favorite hooker," Sandy said grimly. "It's herding those fish. Every time they veer south, it changes course and chases them north. Someone's controlling it."
After an hour of cat and mouse, Sandy got an inkling what that someone was.
A big gray factory ship. It lumbered along on a course generally parallel to their own.
She went up to the flying bridge and used her binoculars.
"Circle that tub," she ordered.
The Cayuga circled the wallowing factory ship until the name appeared on the bow.
Hareng Saur
MONTREAL
"Sparks, inform Cape Cod we have a French-Canadian factory ship in our waters and ask what should be done about it."
"Aye, sir."
As she waited for a reply, Sandy saw something that seemed incredible.
The Cayuga was still in pursuit of the mysterious torpedo.
Suddenly the torpedo accelerated, surfaced and began to home in on the Hareng Saur.
"Looks like our next course of action will be decided for us," she said.
The torpedo, trailing a foamy wake, closed with the gray ship.
Sandy had her glasses trained on the probable point of impact. Amidships of the big boat.
She saw the wake close in. There was no way to avoid a direct hit. The Hareng Saur seemed completely oblivious to the threat. The tiny white figures on her deck were going about their business in a brisk but unpanicked fashion.
At the last possible minute, a panel opened just at the waterline as if to devour the incoming device.
The torpedo struck. Sandy flinched inwardly. But there was no explosion. The torpedo just scooted into the black aperture.
The black port closed up, and all was quiet except for the sudden heaving of fish nets overboard.
"What the hell happened?" the helmsman wondered aloud, coming out of his protective crouch.
"The torpedo herded the fish to the ship," she said. "Damn it. They're chasing our fish into their waters and stealing them. This is environmental piracy on the open seas!"
Chapter 38
Remo stood up. He was trying to compose his features. His shoulders shook. His fists made two mallets of bone.
"Chiun..." His voice was soft, not accusing, but numb with shock. "Chiun, it's Jilda. Jilda's dead."
"I know," said the Master of Sinanju, eyes round and wide.
Remo looked around the room. "If Jilda's here, where's Freya?"
"I do not know. But I vow that I will find for you your daughter, Remo. I will atone for this grave error I have committed."
"That's why I recognized her. It was Jilda. Jilda..."
Remo looked back at the dead woman he had loved many years ago. His eyes seemed to retreat into his skull-like countenance. Then he asked a question. "What was she doing here? Why was she dressed like that?"
The Master of Sinanju surveyed the room. His eyes fell upon two kneeling men, one nude and one not. "They will know," he intoned.
With determined steps Chiun strode up to the cowering pair. "Speak! Why did you kneel before that woman?"
"She was Mistress Kali," Gilbert Houghton said, as if that explained everything.
"I loved her, although to speak the unvarnished truth I only met her just this day," Anwar Anwar-Sadat admitted. "is she truly ...dead?"
"She is no more, popinjay," Chiun said severely.