"Lady, I'm not going to put on a belt just because you're faking sexual interest. Go play with the reporters in the front of the plane. I have problems and you can't help me. "
"What makes you think I'm faking?"
"I dunno. I know. Like I know balance. Good-bye. Case closed," said the man.
He did not look at her again, but over the Gulf of Mexico some turbulence threw the plane around and even knocked a flight attendant off her feet. Even those buckled into their seats screamed as they were tossed around. Anna gripped her seat with whitened knuckles, and she caught a glimpse of the man to her right.
He was not moving. There was no strain. No being thrown back and forth, held only by a strand of cloth called a seat belt. He was simply seated as he had been since the plane took off.
When the turbulence subsided, she looked closer. His chest was not moving. The man was not breathing. Was he dead? She poked his shoulder.
"Yeah?" he said.
"Oh," she said. "You're alive."
"Been that way since birth," said Remo. "I'm sorry. You weren't breathing."
" 'Course not. I don't need your nicotine sloshing around in my lungs."
"But we've been in the air a half-hour."
"Hard part is keeping the skin from breathing."
"So my smoke bothers you?"
"Any smoke, lady. Not just your smoke."
"Yes, yes. That's what I meant," she said. "Of course I meant that."
"Don't smoke and I'll breathe," said Remo.
"How do you do that?"
"You got twenty years, I'll teach you. In the meanwhile leave me alone. I've got problems."
"I'm good at problems. I'm very good at problems," said Anna. Who was this man? And if he had special powers, might they not be used against Rabinowitz? She wondered these things even as she realized her sexual wiles would not work.
"Yeah, well, figure this one out. Take the most perfect machine and mess it up because it doesn't know who is who anymore, and then try to save it when it might kill you."
"You going to the war?"
"Sort of."
"Is this messed-up mind hypnotized, by any chance?"
"I didn't say it was a person," said Remo.
"Machines don't forget who is who. People who are hypnotized do. That can be very dangerous."
"I don't know who you are," said Remo.
"I am Anna Chutesov, and I am probably the highestranking Russian official you are ever going to meet. I am on the other side that doesn't have to be the other side. I know your country has not even ordered this war. I know you are facing the most dangerous man who ever lived. I think you need me."
" 'Anna' would have been enough," said Remo, and went back to the window. But he could not shut this cold, beautiful woman out of his mind.
What he couldn't shut out was her remorseless logic.
"Let me guess. We realized Vassily could be dangerous and therefore we panicked and tried to capture him with a special force. General Boris Matesev."
"Never heard of him," said Remo, who had killed Matesev when saving Vassily Rabinowitz, an act he now regretted enormously. How could he have known how dangerous Vassily was?
"Perhaps," said Anna. "But you see, Russia, knowing how dangerous Vassily was, tried to get him back. If you know someone is dangerous, logic dictates 'leave him alone.' If everyone had left poor Vassily alone, he would have bothered no one. But we panicked. We attacked him. That's what men do when they are afraid of something. If they're not running from it, they're killing it. Or trying to. They will do anything but think."
Remo turned from the window.
"Yeah, how would they handle Vassily now? He's not the same man he was when I rescued him."
"Exactly. Now you're thinking."
"I'm thinking I don't know what the hell to do. That is what I'm thinking," said Remo.
"Excellent. You know you don't know. That's the first step in knowing. The reason you feel bad and depressed is that you are under some absurd impression that, without the facts, you should know right now."
"You're on the other side," said Remo.
"Of what?" asked Anna.
"Whoever is fighting each other nowadays. Won't matter a thousand years from now."
"You think brilliantly. What's your name?"
"My name's Remo. And no one ever said to me I was smart before. And I never claimed to be. I just try to do what's right. That's all. Case closed."
"You're right. That is stupid, if you think you can close a case just by saying it. I have got the same interests as you. Let me take a guess. Are you part of that group that stopped Matesev and that ridiculous attempt at the sniper assassination?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," said Remo.
"Yes, that's why I'm asking. Why do you think I'm asking? You really are a man. A man's man," said Anna, shaking her head. "I thought you had some intelligence."
"I did Matesev. Chiun probably did the sniper. He's working for Rabinowitz now. So is Smith."
"And so is your whole organization. Never before have we seen supplies move so smoothly in your military."
"They have everything, then."
"Not quite. They don't have you, and they don't have me. But we have got to make sure they don't."
"I can't kill without closing in."
"We can think first. We can go down there and see just what's going on, and understanding that we don't know now means that we do know we have to figure out something else."
"But I don't know what it is."
"Neither do I. But the difference is, Remo, all my life I didn't know what things were until I figured them out. We'll be all right," said Anna.
"You're kinda cute," said Remo.
"No. I'm gorgeous. You're cute," said Anna. And Remo remembered what the Great Wang had told him about finding a mind that could think things through. Was this an accident? Or was this Wang in some disguise? It didn't look like a disguise. Remo touched the back of her hand, seeking out the nerves that could arouse a woman. Slowly he began, and slowly he saw her eyes light with sexual fire. It wasn't Wang.
"Is that it?" asked Anna.
"I was just finding out who you are."
"Are you going to leave me like this?"
"Do you want to make love?" asked Remo.
"Not necessarily," said Anna. "I just want an orgasm. Finish what you start, or don't start."
When Remo was done, Anna gave him a big smile. "That was wonderful," she said.
"I'm pretty good," said Remo. "You should see what I can do working the rest of the body besides the wrist."
"I was talking about having an orgasm without having to take off my clothes or get intimate with a man," she said.
"Oh," said Remo. He sort of liked taking off his clothes. It did help the mood. He also liked taking off a woman's clothes at the appropriate time.
"I suppose," he said, "we're going to have a sexually active, noninvolved relationship."
"Only if you keep your hands on my wrist," she said. "Where did you ever figure out that the wrist had an erogenous zone?"
"The whole body is an erogenous zone if you know how to use it," said Remo.
"Could you teach me that trick on the wrist?"
"You have to know balance and things."
"Do you ever need women?"
"I don't need women. I like women. Say, what are we going to look for down in Sornica? Once you lock eyes with this guy you're done. And I'm sure Smith knew that, too."
"Good point. Then we know now Vassily can seize your mind even if you are not looking at him. We'll have to plan on working on his hypnotism. The point is that we may figure out how to succumb while still being able to operate. That may be a solution," said Anna.
By the time the plane landed they were the only ones on the press plane who were not sure what they were going to find.
Chapter 13
The defenses around one small area were incredible. The Sornicans had dug themselves a network of concrete trenching and underground tunnels. Vast, flat, open fields-deadly target ranges for the defenders-surrounded these hills.