"And what pleases Kali pleases me," he said.
"I know that, Phansigar." She frowned. "But you can't be chief phansigar anymore."
"Why not?"
"Because Ban Sar Din, the Holy One, is dead. That makes you the new Holy One."
"Good. Then you'll be the new chief phansigar," he said, and checked the cash in his wallet.
"Me? A female phansigar? I-"
"Why not? Kali understands. She was the very first feminist," he said, and he had to hold back the laughter when Holly Rodan nodded sincerely in agreement.
"What about you?" she asked.
"I'll meet you in Hong Kong. I have to prepare myself for my responsibilities as Holy One. I think I'm going into the mountains to meditate."
"I'm from Denver," Holly said. "If you need a place - "
"No. I've got a place of my own in the mountains near there. Nothing like a little Colorado mountain air to prepare a man for his lifelong calling." He put an arm around her and said, "You round up whoever's left, get the van, and go to the airport."
"What about Kali? Should I prepare her for the journey?"
"No," he said, his eyes as hard as steel. "I'll wrap the statue."
"But-"
"We don't have any time to waste," he said. "We are surrounded by unbelievers. We must move quickly."
"I'll get everybody right now."
Five minutes later, he heard a horn beep in front of the ashram. He swore to himself. The stupid little broad didn't even have enough sense to park in the alley behind the building.
He struggled outside, carrying a large object wrapped loosely in cloth.
There were only six Thuggees left, besides Holly, and they were crammed into the silver-striped van like creamed herring in a jar. They were chanting and the van reverberated with their noise.
"Quiet down," Baynes snapped as, he opened the van's rear door. "Do you want the cops to catch you before you make it to the airport?"
"We care nothing for police. We kill for Kali."
"Kill. Kill."
Baynes slugged the nearest chanter in the face. "Well, I care, you assholes. They're swarming all over the place, so let's get a move on."
He hauled the heavy object to the front of the van and placed it on the front seat. Holly Rodan was behind the wheel and he handed her a sheaf of Air Asia tickets.
"Guard this carefully," he told her, pointing to the object. "It is Kali."
"With our lives, Chief Phansigar," she said zealously.
"No. You are chief phansigar. Now I am the Holy One."
Shyly she nodded. "Go with Kali, Holy One."
"Enjoy your trip, Chief Phansigar," Baynes said.
Smith turned from the window and bolted to the door of the motel room. "They're getting away," he said.
"Remo is not yet here," Chiun said.
"We'll save the statue for Remo," Smith said. "But I'll be damned if I let those killers get away."
He was out in the hallway and heading down the stairs, when Chiun decided to follow him. Smith was still suffering from the injuries he had received earlier. He might need Chiun nearby.
On the street, Smith flagged a taxi. "Follow that van ahead of us," he said as Chiun entered the cab behind him, his bright turquoise robe flowing.
"Come on, mister. Mardi Gras ain't for another six months or so."
A yellow hand reached out and twisted the cabbie's head around with a pain more excruciating than any the driver had ever known.
"The emperor requests that you follow this vehicle in front of us. Do you agree to perform this service?"
"Sure thing, Emperor," the cabbie squeaked.
"Then do it with eyes open and lips closed," Chiun ordered.
"Now, keep your heads down and keep quiet," Holly commanded through the window that led to the back of the van. She liked being chief phansigar. She decided that giving orders was basically what she liked doing best in the world.
"We're going to the airport," she yelled, "and take Kali to Hong Kong."
"What'll we live on?"
"There'll be other passengers on the plane," she said. "Somehow Kali will provide, from them." Feeling good about flexing her authoritative muscles, she pulled over at the next red light and ordered one the Thuggees to come up from the rear and take the wheel.
"It's the chief phansigar's job to protect Kali," she said, sliding in on the passenger's side of the front seat and twining her arm around the-cloth-covered figure. "Hey, what's this?"
Something was protruding from Kali's stomach. "Maybe She's growing another arm," Holly said, loosening the cloth that encased the statue. "If it's another arm, then it's a sign that She approves of this move to Hong Kong. She is giving us a sign." Excitedly she peeled the cloth away, then stared at the statue in bewilderment.
"Is it an arm?" The Thuggees in the back of the van strained against the small window opening to see. "No. It's ... it's a clock." Holly touched her finger to the numbered disk embedded in the statue's belly. "What's a clock doing in Kali's stomach?" one of the Thuggees asked.
Holly didn't want to admit surprise. Officiously she said, "The Holy One consulted with me about it. He said that it would make it possible to get the statue past customs."
"Good thinking," a Thuggee said. "Hail the Holy One," several chanted.
"Hail the chief phansigar," Holly shouted, when no one else did.
Why was there a clock in Kali's stomach? she wondered. She looked at it carefully. In the rear of the van, they were still praising A. H. Baynes and somehow it annoyed her. "The foolish Holy One," she said. "He didn't even set the time correctly."
"It's nine-oh-four," a Thuggee said.
"Thanks," she said, moving the hands on the clock to the correct time. Nine-oh-two, nine-oh-three, nine-oh-
When the statue exploded, a piece of it jammed into the driver's brain and killed him instantly. A secondary blast from the van's engine blew the vehicle apart in a cloud of flame and smoke. Holly Rodan was blasted through the windshield into the shrubbery of someone's front lawn. This she took as a sign that Kali did not want to go to Hong Kong.
Holly felt herself dying in the smooth dirt behind a row of hedges. And suddenly she knew why she was dying and who had caused it. She tried to speak, but when she opened her mouth, only blood came out. With an effort, she tried to feel her fingers, to see if they were still attached to her body. They moved. Alongside her face, she began to scrawl a message in the dirt.
"C . . ." she began. Just moving her finger enough to form the letter exhausted her. She wrote an O. She traced an L.
It was all she could do. In her last moments, Holly Rodan was too tired even to chant "Kill for Kali." But she smiled anyway, because she knew that above all else, Kali loved to see Her own die.
The explosion was so powerful that the taxicab following the van spun about in the middle of the street. Smith gasped as he saw the bodies fly out of the flaming vehicle like pieces of popcorn over a high flame. Chiun was already out of the cab, and the moment Smith's reflexes could work again, he followed the Oriental toward the wreckage.
They pulled five injured young men from the flaming van. House lights came on along the street and a police siren screamed in the distance, growing louder.
The young men were dying, but still chanted. "Kill."
"Kill for Kali."
"We die and She loves it."
". . . loves it."
Smith looked at Chiun, who pronounced the five young men's death sentences by slowly shaking his head. They would not live.
"Emperor-" he started.
"Not now, Chiun. Wait," Smith snapped. He leaned over one of the cultists and pointed a fountain pen at him. "Who is your leader?" he asked.
"The Holy One. Ban Sar Din."
"No," a youth lying next to him said. "Ban Sar Din has fallen in disgrace. The new Holy One is our leader."
"What's his name?" Smith asked.
"Baynes," the Thuggee said proudly. "He has given all to Kali. And we follow his bidding."