Nellie's bugging eyes collapsed to instant tunnel vision. The others were nothing; mere shadows. Seeing only the Luzu chief-the man whose attack had brought her to ruin-Nellie's eyes ignited beneath the mound of plastic fruit. A crazed serpent's hiss issued from deep within her ample bosom. "You!" she exclaimed.
And like a bull from a gate, she charged.
Long nails were talons. Bared white teeth were angry fangs as she raced across the helipad toward Batubizee.
Bubu sprang out to hurl his spear. Remo held his arm.
"Watch and learn, kid," he suggested quietly. The young native's worried eyes darted to Chiun. The Master of Sinanju had faded back, allowing Nellie a clear shot at the chief.
Batubizee stood motionless, raising himself to his full height. For the first time, Remo glimpsed the dignity of the ghosts who had built the Luzu Empire.
Nellie's head was tipped so that she could rip out Batubizee's throat with her chomping teeth. Growling, she was about to clamp down on his Adam's apple when a big fist lashed out.
Batubizee punched Nellie solidly in the chest just above her massive bouncing breasts. The wind whooshed from her lungs, and the former first lady of East Africa dropped backward onto her ample padded rump.
When the chief reached two clutching paws for her throat, a bony hand restrained him.
"In due time," the Master of Sinanju said softly. Nellie scurried from broad bottom to dimpled knees. Her rage collapsed once more to panic. "You have to get me out of here!" she begged. Her demented eyes were pleading as she looked at each of the four men above her.
That she would beg for help from the men who had led the attack on her party was evidence enough that there was more here than met the eye.
"Okay, Carmen Miranda," Remo said, his tone wary. "Why the big rush to leave?"
"I will tell you on board your helicopter," she promised. "Where is it? We must hurry!" Unblinking eyes darted in search of an invisible helicopter.
"Will I be as upset as you're gonna be when you find out our pilot took off on us?" Remo asked. Nellie's shriek sent sleeping birds a mile away fluttering into the dark sky.
"I'd say that's an 8.5 on the yes scale." Remo nodded to the others.
Nellie pushed herself upright on thick ankles. "A car will not get us far enough," she said, her mind reeling.
"Far enough from what?" the Master of Sinanju demanded.
She wheeled on him. "There is a nuclear bomb planted in a cave near here!" she cried. A plastic banana fell in front of her eye. She tore it loose, flinging it away. It landed near a pair of hollowedout Seasonings bellies.
"Not Deferens again," Remo groused. "What, did he plan on blowing up the whole continent?"
"What are you talking about?" Nellie spit. "Deferens had nothing to do with this."
"Then everyone in this dingdong country made the same deal, 'cause we just spent half the night defusing six bombs Elvis and Gamera planted around Bachsburg."
Nellie was trying to wrap her brain around what he was saying. "Camorra?" she asked. "But I made a deal with Don Giovani of the Sicilian Mafia to destroy this village. He and I were the only two meant to escape."
"I guess there's no such thing as an original plot," Remo said, "because that's just what he had in mind."
Confusion turned to cold rage. "I will kill him," Nellie menaced. She grabbed Remo by the arm. "Come, we will take your car. Do you have a spare tire? Oh, and we'll need to stop somewhere for gas."
She tried marching back across the helipad, but before she could take a single step a broad hand swept in, slapping her on one fat cheek. Nellie Mandobar's fruit hat sailed off as she fell to the ground, clutching her face in pain.
Chief Batubizee towered above her, rage painted large on his moon face.
"Where is this bomb, woman!" the chief bellowed.
Bruised flesh stinging, she cowered from the Luzu leader.
There was nothing she could do. Her only hope of escape was with these men. When she spoke, her voice was small.
"I will show you," Nellie Mandobar said.
Chapter 38
Even in its heyday four decades ago, the mine had yielded few diamonds. Several scraps of rotted lumber and some comoded chunks of metal were all that remained beside the scrub-lined path that led up to the black cave mouth.
"It was close enough to obliterate the village but far enough away to escape detection," Nellie Mandobar explained as they hiked up to the cave opening. Her dark face was slick with sweat.
Remo, Chiun, Bubu and Chief Batubizee accompanied her. Coming up behind them all were three hundred Luzu warriors.
The stars above were starting to fade.
"How far in is it?" Remo asked as he eyed the lightening sky.
"Perhaps a hundred yards," she replied.
"Does it use the same code as the others?" Chiun asked.
Nellie scrunched up her face. "I do not know," she said. "Probably not. I acquired it several years ago from an East African scientist just before the program was disbanded. If Deferens got his afterward, he could have changed the code."
"Where's the scientist?" Remo asked.
Nellie pointed sheepishly to a dense thicket. Sticking out from beneath the wild shrubs were two charred legs that ended in a pair of burned boots. They appeared to have been there for some time.
"Have you ever met anyone you didn't set fire to?" Remo asked, disgusted. He continued before she could answer. "Can you shut it off?"
"He only showed me how to arm it," Nellie replied. "I did not think I would have to disarm it."
"Great," Remo muttered. He turned to the Master of Sinanju. "What do you think, Little Father?"
"For the future of our House, I would ordinarily insist you find a safe haven while I deal with the boom," Chiun said. "But since neither of us could flee in time, we will go in together."
Chief Batubizee and Bubu stepped forward. "We will accompany you, as well," the Luzu leader insisted. "If I am to meet my ancestors this day, I will do so while laughing in the face of the beast."
"I won't ask if you mean Nellie or the nuke," Remo muttered. "The rest of you fellas stay here," he called to the Luzu army. "And if you see a really bright flash, run like hell."
Propelling Mrs. Mandobar before them, the small group entered the black cave opening.
INSIDE WAS LIKE an abandoned Western gold mine. Ancient wooden support beams ran up to the rock roof where overburdened lintels strained to keep the ceiling in place.
At the cave mouth, Nellie found a bag with flashlights and other supplies she had left during her earlier visits. She and Bubu each took one. The washed-out white beams cast eerie shadows far down the man-made shaft.
"This way," the former first lady said. She led them far down the tunnel.
About seventy yards in, an alcove opened up on their right. Although it was short, Remo got a sudden sense of vast emptiness beyond, as if the world collapsed into nothingness at the end of the small side tunnel.
Peering through the darkness, he saw the opening of another tunnel in the rock face at the far end of the alcove.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Nuk wrote of them in his accounts," Chiun supplied. "They are passages without end. Nuk thought they led to the Great Void."
The thought, as well as the sense of infinite emptiness from the tunnel, gave Remo a chill.
"The geologists from Bachsburg call them kimberlites," Bubu whispered in explanation. His flashlight beam found the opening. "They occur naturally. Some are many miles deep."
The native's beam aimed forward once more, and they continued down their own tunnel. Eventually, the flashlight beams fell across the by now familiar shape of an East African nuclear warhead.