"Of course," Chiun replied. "There are many of them."
"Too many to go through?"
"For us, no," the Master of Sinanju said flatly. Remo looked at Heidi. From the way they spoke, she felt as if she was holding them back somehow. Her expression made it clear she didn't enjoy being treated as a handicap.
"What is it?" she asked, peeved.
"Wait here."
Remo got out of the jeep. Standing on the road, he felt around under his seat. Producing a tire iron, he held it out for Heidi's inspection.
"So?" she said with a look of perplexed annoyance.
"Watch."
Remo flipped the tire iron up the road. It soared two dozen yards before it finally struck the ground. The instant it hit, a huge flash of white and orange belched from the earth. The accompanying violent explosion rattled the road beneath them. The jeep was rocked on its shocks as the windshield was pelted with dirt and gravel.
Heidi sucked in a sharp breath as the unexpected flash of light flared and diminished.
"Land mines," Heidi breathed, once the commotion had died down. A huge smoking crater filled the road.
"The exploding kind," Remo agreed. "Looks like we'll have to hoof it after all."
"It is a lovely day for a walk," the Master of Sinanju said. He stepped down from the jeep onto the debris-scattered road.
Heidi shut off the engine. She was clearly confused. "How do we get through without setting them off?" she asked, trotting to catch up with the two departing figures.
"... WITHOUT SETTING THEM OFF?"
Heidi's voice sounded tinny on the small speakers.
"Damn," Adolf Kluge snapped. "How did they know?" His hand withdrew from the minefield's remote arming system.
Herman shook his head. "They could not possibly," he said. "We planted them only this morning."
"They know, Herman," Kluge snarled. He peered at Heidi more closely. The image was not clear. "Does she look like anyone to you?" he asked.
Herman shook his head. "Possibly the Numbers," he said.
Kluge nodded. "Of course. A perfect Aryan woman," he said, "siding with our attackers. A fitting irony for those who write the final history of Four."
He watched the three of them abandon the jeep and head away from the minefield. They went down the side of the hill, disappearing from the camera's range.
Kluge felt a tingle of excitement.
"Perhaps there is still hope," he said. He stood up, leaning over the board before him. With desperate hands, he remotely armed every mine in the road. When he was finished, he waited at the master control. "How long ago did they go down?" he demanded urgently.
"Twenty seconds. Perhaps thirty," Herman answered.
Kluge nodded. "They move quickly, but she will slow them up. Half a minute to the bottom, plus another minute to get in position..." Kluge was counting in his head. When he guessed a minute and a half had elapsed, he smiled nervously. "We will see if we can't surprise the men from Sinanju after all."
With a sharp stab, he punched a single button. It was the one to detonate the entire field of mines.
THE TREE-DOTTED HILL sloped down sharply to a narrow strip of level land. This minigorge, which ran parallel to both the road on one side and to the upward slope of the adjacent hill on the other, was packed with pine needles and rotting leaves. Some of the boulders that had been displaced when the road was constructed had been rolled down into the ravine. There were many of these scattered like blocks after a child's tantrum. They stood in the way of Remo, Chiun and Heidi.
Remo assumed he would have to help Heidi through the rough terrain, but he was pleasantly surprised to find she was much more agile than he expected.
After abandoning the jeep, she had pulled a drab green coat on over her T-shirt, dragging her omnipresent knapsack over too. With her thumbs tucked into the backpack's shoulder straps, she was scaling the rocks like a professional mountaineer. Scampering up one side of a large rock, she would leap back down to the ravine floor.
For their part, Remo and Chiun appeared to float effortlessly up one side of a rock before gliding back down to the ground.
Chiun made the move look particularly graceful. The hem of his kimono billowed like a gaily colored parachute as the material caught the small air pockets in the cramped valley.
"Are there any mines down here?" Heidi asked as she scampered up a rock face.
Remo's hands were stuffed in his pockets as he hopped down from a large boulder. "Hard to tell," he said casually.
Heidi, who until now had been in the lead, stopped abruptly. Remo stopped, as well.
"Don't you know?" she asked.
"It's a little trickier here," Remo admitted. "Given the terrain. Oddly enough, mines are much easier to detect in a car. I find that tires focus your senses."
"It is their hollowness," Chiun explained, passing the two of them. He scurried up another rock face. When the stone had been rolled down here, a massive tree was uprooted in its path. Long dead, it remained pinned beneath the huge rock. Enormous, gnarled roots clawed at the air.
"You think that's it?" Remo called up to him.
Chiun nodded. "The compressed air within reacts to the surface of the road. The normal sensory range is thus extended greatly."
"That's probably true," Remo admitted. "I never much thought of it."
"Fortunately for all of our sakes, you are not paid to think," the Master of Sinanju called. He disappeared over the far side of the high rock.
"Is he always so unpleasant?" Heidi asked.
"Naw," Remo said. "He's just showing off because he likes you. Let me give you a hand."
The rock Chiun had vanished over was the tallest so far. Remo was pleased to find that Heidi was not too proud to accept help when it was offered.
Remo held his hands out in an interlocking cuplike formation. Heidi placed one boot inside the U-shape and allowed Remo to boost her up to the rock.
He hopped up beside her.
They were walking to the other side of the great flat rock when Remo felt something reverberate up from the rock-and-leaf strewed ground. To his highly trained senses, it was a sudden snap-like a sheet pulled taut.
It came a split second before the explosion.
The ground beneath began to shake as in an earthquake. Belches of flame were briefly visible between the trunks and branches of trees as a black mushroom cloud poured into the crisp mountain air.
Heidi covered her face against the initial hail of pebbles. "The mines!" she shouted to Remo.
A few boulders ahead of them, the Master of Sinanju stopped dead. He shot a concerned look back to Remo.
"What the hell set them off?" Remo demanded. The question died in his throat.
His senses had suddenly picked up something else. Even Heidi felt the new rumble through the rock. On the hill above them, she could see the tops of the farthest trees topple and vanish behind those closest to them. They were being flicked aside by some horrifying force.
It was like a cliched movie scene in which some creature from a bygone age first makes its appearance. Except this terror was real.
An avalanche.
"Remo!" Chiun squeaked anxiously. Trees nearby rattled.
"Go!" Remo shouted back.
Chiun hesitated at first, too far away to offer assistance. All at once, he spun on a sandaled heel, his mouth a thin line. Rapidly he began bounding from rock to rock, distancing himself from the main area of collapse.
The trees nearest them ripped away. Like pencils in some massive sharpener, they were flung beneath the great rolling boulders. The mighty trunks were split to kindling and thrust into the ravenous maw of the avalanche.
When the mass of rock was nearly upon them, Remo snatched Heidi up around the waist. It would be difficult enough by himself. He didn't know if he could manage with extra baggage.
Remo didn't follow the Master of Sinanju. He was too far back. If he attempted to follow, Remo would be swept under the collapsing mountain of debris. Instead, he spun on his heel and-Heidi in tow headed directly into the incoming rush of stone and earth.