The Arms of Kali td-59

by Warren Murphy

  "I don't understand it," she said, and he knew what she meant.

  "Neither do I," he said. "I hardly know you, but . . ." He couldn't finish.

  "Maybe we knew each other in a previous life," she said with a smile.

  "Don't tell me you grew up in Newark too," Remo said.

  "No. I grew up in Sri Lanka. An old family. But I studied in Switzerland and Paris. Did you ... ?" Remo shook his head. "I don't think our backgrounds have much in common. Time out. Where's Sri Lanka, anyway?"

  "It's near India. It used to be called Ceylon."

  "Ceylon?" He stared at her so long that he nearly veered off the road.

  "You have been in my country?" -she asked.

  "No. I've just got the jitters, that's all. Ivory, about that statue."

  "Yes?"

  "Every time I looked at it, I saw another face over the statue's. I'm sure it was your face. But it was sad and it was crying."

  "Is this flattery? Telling me I look like a two-thousand-year-old statue?"

  "It wasn't the statue," Remo said. "That's what I'm saying. There was another face behind it, or over it, just hovering there. Your face. I . . . Oh, forget it."

  She smoothed his hand. "Are you all right, Remo?"

  "Fine. Just forget I mentioned the statue and the face, okay?"

  "Okay," she whispered, and kissed him softly on the cheek.

  But he could not forget it. The face hovering behind Kali's stone visage had been Ivory's, absolutely, unmistakably.

  She was the Weeping Woman.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  A five-foot-tall box sat in the corner of A. H. Baynes's office, but Holly Rodan did not even glance at it as she dragged herself into the ashram. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her voice caught and broke. "He got away," she gasped.

  "Ban Sar Din?"

  "No. He's dead. The one that Kali wanted us to kill, the one with the briefcase. He got away."

  A. H. Baynes looked up as she said, "And all our people are dead."

  "Josh too?" Baynes asked. "My son?"

  "I'm sorry," she said. "All of them. I'm the only one who escaped. It was terrible. That awful man had help. This Oriental creature jumped in to save him and it was just brutal and vicious what he did to our people."

  Baynes was holding a pencil as he sat behind his desk. The pencil had not moved since Holly had told him of his son's death, but now he tossed it onto the desk blotter and stood up.

  "It's time to move on then," he said. "We can't stay here anymore."

  "But where will we go?" she asked tearfully.

  "Kali has provided," he said. "I have a bunch of Air Asia tickets. What would you think about a place like, say, Hong Kong?"

  Her eyes twinkled through her tears. "Hong Kong? Really?"

  "Why not. You use those tickets and we'll set up a new temple, a bigger one, in Hong Kong. And we'll start all over again."

  "Will we kill some more?" she asked hesitantly.

  "Of course," Baynes said.

  "That will please Kali," Holly said.

  "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."

  Smith rummaged in the man's pocket and brought out the Air Asia ticket.

  As the police and ambulance sirens wailed to a stop, Smith led Chiun back to the throng of bystanders who had gathered on the sidewalk around the wreck.

  "Forgive me, Emperor," Chiun said. "I did not mean to interrupt you while you were threatening these cretins with your writing tool-"

  "It's a microphone," Smith said, nervously watching as the police moved the injured into ambulances.

  "Whatever it is," Chiun said, "I thought you would like to know who is arriving."

  "Who?" Smith squinted to see in the direction that Chiun was pointing. Past the blockade of police cars, two figures ran toward them. One of them was Remo. Remo strolled up, surveyed the accident, and said, "I go away for just a few minutes, and look at the mess you two make."

  "Maybe if you had been around tending to business-" Smith began.

  "Take a hike. I was busy being blown out of the sky," Remo said. "Anyway, I hope this teaches you a lesson."

  "What kind of lesson?" Smith asked.

  "Sign Chiun's petition. If you have amateur assassins, you're going to have mess after mess, just like this."

  "I have one here," Chiun said, reaching a longnailed hand into his kimono.

  "No, no, no," Smith said. "Please, Master of Sinanju. Put it away. You and I will discuss that another day."

  "Maybe these people standing around would like to sign," Chiun said hopefully. "They must be disgusted by all this noise and waste."

  He looked around, but then stopped as Smith suddenly wobbled a little on his feet and began to sink toward the sidewalk. Remo caught him and held him in his arms.

  "What happened, Chiun?" he asked.

  "The Emperor was assaulted tonight by these creatures. He will be all right."

  "I'm okay now," Smith said, pulling himself away from Remo, obviously embarrassed at his momentary display of human weakness. "Let's just collect A. H. Baynes and put him away, and I'll feel fine."

  "I figured Baynes," Remo said. "I think he planted a ticket on me while I was sleeping and then rigged a bomb on the plane to try to kill me."

  Ivory caught up with them, slightly breathless and wobbling on her high-heeled shoes. She looked around at the accident victims, then placed her hand on Remo's and said, "Is there anything we can do?"

  Smith eyed her coldly, then called Remo away from the woman. "Who is she?" he demanded.

  "Somebody I met."

  "How can you bring a stranger in on the middle of a case like this?" Smith hissed. His anger was visible.

  "She doesn't how anything."

  "She better not," Smith said. "As it is, she's seen the three of us and-"

  "Remo," Ivory called. She was standing behind some shrubs and her face was ashen. He walked over and she pointed down to the body of Holly Rodan. Smith and Chiun came over also.

  "She's dead," Remo said, feeling for a pulse.

  "There is dirt beneath the fingernails of her right forefinger," Chiun said. "She was trying to write a message in the earth." He looked up at Ivory. "Right where you are standing, madam."

  Ivory gasped and moved backward. Just above Holly's finger was the smeared footprint of a highheeled shoe.

  "I'm ... so sorry," Ivory whispered.

  "It's all right," Remo said gently. He put his arm around her. His eyes were on Smith and in those eyes was a challenge.

  Chiun dropped to the ground beside Holly and looked carefully at the earth. "She had written a C," he said. "But that is all I can discern."

  "I don't know if it means anything," Ivory said, "but I called you over because of that." She pointed to Holly's left hand. In it was clutched a fragment that looked like stone.

  Chiun removed it and held it up. The fragment was in the shape of a small hand.

  "The statue?" Remo said.

  "Not the statue," Ivory sighed. "It can't be. I've got to see if there are other pieces around." She darted away from Remo into the crowd.

  "It is apparently the hand of a statue," Chiun said.

  Smith looked at the fragment carefully. "What's this all about?"

  "The statue, Emperor," said Chiun. "The one of which we spoke. Of Kali."

  "Well, thank God we'll have no more talk of magical statues," Smith said. "Now all we've got left to do is get Baynes."

  He handed the statue fragment to Remo, who said casually, "There's one other problem."

  "What's that?"

  Remo held the piece of statuary up to his nose. "It's the wrong statue," he said.

  "What?" asked Smith.

  "I don't feel anything. Baynes switched statues. This isn't Kali."

  There was a long silence. Finally Chiun said softly, "There is another problem, Remo."

  "Huh? What?"

  "The woman."

  "Ivory?" Remo looked around, but Ivory was nowhere in sight. He combed through the crowd, even
slipping past the police to look into the wreckage of the van, but the woman was gone.

  He stood in the middle of the street and yelled, "Ivory."

  But there was no answer.

  The three men returned to the ashram. Remo hoped that Ivory had gone there looking for the statue. But there was no sign of the statue, of Ivory, of A. H. Baynes. All had vanished.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  "Ivory," A. H. Baynes whispered to the beautiful woman who lay next to him in bed.

  Outside, the sun was rising in the Rockies beyond the glass wall of the chalet. The tips of tall pines glistened with dew in the valley below the cliff where Baynes's mountain house stood, surrounded by earlymorning fog.

  It was a perfect sunrise, and with Ivory's creamy body rubbing against his, Baynes was glad she had awakened him to see it.

  "How did you know I'd be here?" he asked, stroking the inside of her white thighs.

  "The girl. The stupid one with the blond hair."

  "Holly? She told you?"

  "Of course not. She was dead. She wrote C-0-L in the dirt. I assumed it meant you had a place in Colorado."

  "Dead? What are you talking about?"

  "You can stop the pretense, darling. I'm the one who wears disguises, remember? Anyway, I erased the message with my foot. No one knows we're here."

  "All right," Baynes said. "She was getting to be a pain in the ass anyway. All of them with that chanting crap. I got a lot out of them anyway. Two new airlines to add to just Folks. If the feds aren't after me."

  Ivory rose languidly and walked over to a creamcolored suitcase. She opened it. "And if they are," she said, "this will set you up all over again somewhere else." She tilted the suitcase to show neat rows of used hundred-dollar bills.

  "I have something for you too," he said.

  "I was hoping you'd say that."

  Baynes hauled a large box from behind the sofa in the living room. He tore open the box and set the statue of Kali on a low table in front of the glass wall overlooking the cliff. Against the background of peaked mountains and clouds, the statue looked for a moment like a real goddess to him, serene and inscrutable, floating in the sky.

  "She's magnificent," Ivory said in hushed tones.

  "A hell of a lot of trouble for a hunk of stone," he said. "I can tell you I'm glad to get it off my hands." Ivory went back inside the bedroom to dress. She emerged wearing a pair of slacks and a heavy sweater. "Planning on going out?" he asked.