"Beautiful? Beautiful what?"
"Simply 'beautiful.' Like a sunset or an Ung poem. It is an exclamation of appreciation."
As they approached the creature, a red light suddenly glowed in the center of its belt rheostat. It lit up like a resentful red eye.
The creature looked down. It started. Abruptly it
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turned and clumped off stiff-leggedly. It waved its arms as if on fire.
"Come on," Remo shouted.
They overhauled the creature easily. They kept pace with it. Every so often, Chiun reached out in a futile attempt to grab it. Remo simply kept pace. The bulbous face continually bent down to the glow from the rheostat buckle.
"I got a hunch about this," Remo called.
The creature dodged toward a stand of trees by the side of a road.
"Damn," Remo said. "Once he's in those trees, he's going to pull one of those vanishing acts of his."
"If you are so concerned about that," Chiun said querulously, "then you attempt to stop him. I am the one doing all the work."
"Where the hell is Robin, I wonder?" Remo asked, looking over his shoulder.
He saw the helicopter almost as soon as he heard the wop-wop-wop of its rotor. It was Robin. She was bearing down on them, the chopper's skids skimming the nap of the ground.
"Don't look now, Chiun, but Robin's got her feathers in an uproar," Remo shouted. "Better duck!"
Remo hit the ground. Chiun danced out of the way as the helicopter, twisting like an angry wasp, swept overhead. It went through the running creature and lifted just clear of the trees.
When it circled back, there was no sign of the creature. There was only the shadow-clotted stand of trees.
The helicopter circled angrily. Then, as if relenting, it settled to the ground.
"It's in that bunch of trees," Remo said, opening the door.
Robin sat staring through the Plexiglas bubble.
"Robin?"
"I went right through him," she choked. "He went through me. I didn't feel anything. He was inside this
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helicopter. Then he was gone. It was like he wasn't real."
"Why don't you just come out?" Rerao said solicitously. "We'll talk about it."
He reached out to take her arm. She wouldn't budge.
"He is a ghost, isn't he? An actual ghost."
"No," Remo said. "He's no ghost. Come on out and I'll try to explain it to you."
"I never used to believe in ghosts," Robin said in a stunned voice. "They didn't fit into my world. They're not in the regs."
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When Robin Green was collected enough to step from the Bell Ranger helicopter, Remo patiently explained what he and Chiun had witnessed.
"So you see," Remo finished quietly, "he can't be a ghost. Ghosts don't run around with battery packs strapped to their backs."
Robin shuddered visibly. "I went through him," she moaned. "It was as if he was laughing at me. And that unnatural white face!"
"All white faces are unnatural," Chiun said under his breath. He was staring into the silent trees.
"Do you mind?" Remo said. Turning to Robin again, he took her by the shoulders. He looked her square in the eye. "Come on, get a grip on yourself. That was no ghost. Just because we can't explain it doesn't mean we have to be afraid of it."
Robin looked up. Her blue eyes were miserable.
"I don't know how to feel about this anymore," she said, her voice hollow. Her lower lip trembled uncontrollably.
"Join the club. But if we're going to deal with this, we're going to have to do it rationally. Even Chiun doesn't believe it's a ghost anymore. He says it's Russian."
"Russian?" Robin said sharply.
"That word, krahseevah" Remo explained. "It's Russian. It means 'beautiful.' "
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"He said that when he saw the jeans," Robin said slowly. "And the steaks."
"Then he is definitely a Russian," Chiun announced. "Only a Russian would become excited over American blue jeans." He kept his narrow eyes on the trees.
"Hah! There! Did you see?" he demanded, pointing.
Remo's head snapped around. He saw a ghostly white light slip between two trees.
"Okay," Remo said decisively. "He's on the move again. My guess is he'll try to confuse us with the old shell game. Instead of which shell is the pea under, it'll be which tree is the Krahseevah hiding in."
"Krahseevah?" Chiun and Robin said in unison.
"Anybody got a better name for it?" Remo wanted to know.
No one did. Swiftly Remo explained his plan.
"Robin. You get up in the air. I think our Krahseevah is in trouble. Chiun and I will try to flush him out of the trees. See if you can spot him when he tries to leave. When you get a fix, we'll just hop on and follow him."
"What good will that do?" Robin asked doubtfully. "You know we can't touch him. How can we catch him?"
Remo kept an eye on the tree the Krahseevah had entered as he answered. "It's like this," he said. "It knows we can't touch it, yet when we chased it, it stopped dead and let us prove that for ourselves. It could have kept on going. But I think it wanted to discourage us. Maybe it figured if we realized it was beyond our reach, we wouldn't bother to follow it."
"It is protecting something," Chiun said quickly. "A lair, perhaps."
"Exactly," Remo returned. "And if it's trying to get to a special place, maybe we can trap it there. Somehow."
"A sound plan," Chiun said. "Let us execute it."
"Are you with us on this?" Remo asked Robin.
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Robin Green stuck out her chin decisively. "I'm going to clip this bird's wings," she said. "You just watch me."
She ran to the helicopter and sent it into the air. She circled methodically.
Remo turned to Chiun. "Okay, know which tree he went behind?"
"Of course."
"Good. Go for it. I'll circle in from the other side. I have a hunch he won't stay inside very long. Maybe he can't. Let's see what develops."
Remo slipped around the edge of the stand. Then he plunged in. He moved quietly, making less sound than a stalking cat. His deep-set brown eyes adjusted to what was now pitch blackness. He would not need his night vision to spot the glowing Krahseevah, but it helped to avoid ground roots and rocks. The Krahseevah might be as stealthy as Sinanju, but Remo guessed it could hear, even if it didn't have external ears.
He came up on a great box elder. Chiun stood guard over it.
Chiun laid a finger to his lips as a signal for Remo to be silent.
Remo nodded. He pointed to the tree. Chiun nodded firmly.
They waited. After ten minutes, Remo began to have doubts. His idea was to surround the tree so they were ready when the thing made its next move. He looked around. He picked a fortunate time to look around. About thirty yards distant, a faint glow appeared on the trunk of a great elm. It was like a luminous fungus.
"Over there," Remo said, waving Chiun along.
The luminous spot quickly withdrew.
When they got to the tree, they surrounded it.
"What did you see?" Chiun demanded hotly.
"It stuck its face out of the bark," Remo whispered. "Right . . . about . . . here." He tapped the spot.
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Chiun peered intently. "You are certain?"
"One way to find out."
It was a relatively old tree, so Remo simply attacked it with the hard edge of his hand. He hammered away, each blow splitting off chunks of bark and pale wood.
The trunk keeled over with splintering finality. Remo was set to react instantly to what was revealed. To his surprise, there was only emptiness where the elm had stood.
"Damn!" Remo said. "He must have slipped out the back."
Chiun's eyes raked the surroundings. "That one," he announced. He flounced to a nearby oak. He approached it angrily. With a single fingernail he split the trunk down the center. It separated, falling in two equal halves.
But the Krahseevah was not inside that tree either.