"Yeah?" said Remo. "What exactly happens here in the evenings? Where did they take the old man?"
"To the clinic," a woman's voice behind him answered bitterly. It was Ana.
Timu spoke. "I told you to go."
"Brother, these are my people too," the girl pleaded. "Day after day, these monsters come to take us— to the clinic." She spat out the word. "That's a joke. No leper dies of leprosy on this island. It's murder, Timu. They're going to kill us, all of us—"
The chief slapped her. "You have said too much, Ana," he said, obviously struggling to control a deep fury. "Take our visitors to your hut and then begone. Do not return until tomorrow when we are again alone."
Rubbing the red spot on her cheek where Timu had struck her, the girl nodded to Remo and Chiun to follow her, then walked behind the chiefs hut toward the back of the village.
"I think it's time we got some answers around here," Remo said to Chiun.
"I think it's time we did what the chief requests until we have reason to do something else," Chiun said.
"And that old man that got dragged away? He's not a reason?" said Remo.
"If you were interested in the old man, he would be a reason. But you are interested in other things," Chiun said. "Behave yourself."
The young woman was ten yards ahead of them, marching along resolutely. As they approached a small hut set far away from the other dwellings, she stopped and pointed inside. Remo stepped alongside her and touched her arm. She flinched, as if his hand were red hot.
"Don't," she said, her voice at near-panic pitch.
"I'm sorry," Remo said. "I only wanted to tell you that we'd prefer to sleep outside. I don't want to put you out of your home."
"It is my brother's wish," she said evenly.
"Where will you stay?"
She looked toward the cliffs in the center of the island. "I have a place."
?Chapter Six
The jungle chattered to life at night, buzzing with the drone of insects and the calls of the night birds. In its midst, silent as a stone, the village rested.
Chiun sat in full lotus in the girl's tidy, isolated hut, facing the wall. Remo lay on a grass mat, his eyes wide open and staring at the uneven thatching of the roof.
"There's nothing here I understand," he said. "First there's a shipload of dead sailors and a missing plane. Then there's a concealed airstrip. So far, so good. Probably some connection there. But what do lepers have to do with the stealth bomber?"
He waited for an answer from Chiun, got none, and went on: "And the birds. Nobody talks about the birds. They freak out if you even mention birds around here. And then, out of the jungle, we've got a bunch of blond commandos, and they grab an old guy with maybe a month, tops, to live, and disappear with him into a pile of rocks. Rocks, Chiun I saw them come out of the freaking boulders. Now, what's that all about?"
Again the old Oriental was silent.
"And the girl. There's a nut case for you. A perfectly healthy, beautiful girl who can't stand to be touched. A girl who lives with lepers..."
He pondered for a moment. The girl. She was really the part that didn't fit in. He supposed she could be on the island to give what help she could to her brother and his people, except that the lepers never came near her. Even her hut was a distance from the rest of the village. And Timu had warned— no, more than warned, commanded— Remo to stay away from her. It was as if she were the leper.
And she had said murder. "It's murder... They're going to kill all of us."
Who were "they?" Why were they going to kill anybody?
"The girl," Remo said, sitting bolt upright.
Chiun whirled to his feet with a snort. "What is wrong with you?" he screeched. "Do you not see I am trying to sleep?"
"You were sitting up."
"I have to sprawl like a dead squirrel in the street to sleep?" Chiun demanded. "I am not a white man."
"You mean you didn't hear anything I said?"
"I heard enough to wake up, fool."
Remo paced. "It's the girl. She's the key. I know it."
"You know how to make noise, O loudmouthed one."
"I've got to talk to her. I can't let this just drag on," Remo said.
"Apparently, you have to talk to anyone. Even sleeping persons."
"Sorry, Chiun. Go back to sleep."
"Thank you. Most gracious." He turned his back and floated to his mat again.
This time Remo listened for the old man's breathing. When it was deep and even, he stepped silently out of the hut into the jungle night.
He guessed where she would be. Stalking noiselessly through the thick brush, he climbed up the craggy hills toward the cliffs, guided by the sound of the waterfall. When the roar was at its peak, when Remo stood at the top of the great white cascade shrouded in mist and darkness, he saw her.
Ana slept a short distance from the crest of the fall, beneath the spread of an acacia tree. In the moonlight, she looked like a jungle flower— delicate, wild, painfully beautiful.
Remo knelt beside her. "Ana," he said softly.
The girl awoke with a soft flutter of dark lashes. She looked at him, momentarily puzzled, then smiled. "Hello," she said.
He took pains not to come too near, remembering her recoil from his touch. "I hope I'm not frightening you," he said.
"You're not. I'm not afraid. I couldn't help what happened... before."
Remo nodded, although he didn't understand. He just wanted to take her along gently, easily, to draw out what he could from her. "Ana, I need to know some things about this place— the island, the valley. Will you help me?"
Her smile vanished. She lowered her eyes.
"Maybe I can do something," Remo offered. "No one seems very happy here."
She raised her head, and Remo saw tears in her eyes. "There can be no happiness here," she said. "This is not our home. This is only our place of death." She began to sob.
Remo watched her for a moment. He didn't want to touch her and scare her. Tentatively, he held out his hand. To his surprise, the girl took it. She laughed bitterly through her tears. "You are not afraid of me, either, are you?"
"No," he said with some surprise. "Should I be?"
She withdrew her hand. "You don't know?" She took in the look of bewilderment on his face and answered her own question. "You really don't know anything about this place, do you?"
"That's why I came to you," Remo said. "I want you to explain some things to me. The airstrip, the birds—"
She turned away sharply. Remo took her chin in his hand and brought her back to face him. "The birds," he repeated. When she didn't volunteer, he went on. "Also those soldiers who came out of nowhere."
"They were from the clinic," she said dully.
"What clinic? I didn't see anything like a hospital here."
"In the rocks. Underground. The clin— the... the..."
She clasped both hands to her head, her features contorted in pain, her knees pulled into her chest.
"What's the matter?" Remo asked. He put an arm around her shoulders.
"No. Oh, no, please..."
"Lie down," he said, trying to press her gently to the ground.
"Help me. Please help me. He's killing me," she gasped, her fingers reaching desperately for Remo.
"Who? For God's sake, Ana, tell me who!"
She wound her arms tightly around his neck. "Don't let it happen," she whispered, her eyes round and frightened. He held her. "Don't let it... don't let..."
Then she screamed, a wild, tortured cry. "Zoran"
She wriggled out of his arms with surprising strength. "Zoran!" she called again. She looked back once at Remo with no trace of recognition on her face, as if he had just appeared from another planet. Then she raced away toward the village and the high-domed cluster of rocks beyond, repeating the strange name.