"Look, I know what I'm talking about," Remo snapped.
"If you are so certain of your nose, foreigner," Kula said, "why do you not ride in the direction it tells you?"
"Good idea," said Remo, forking his mount away with a rightward twist of the reins. He spanked Smitty's cream flank. The horse broke into a gallop.
Kula and Fang Yu exchanged looks.
"Ai yah!" Kula cried, taking off after Remo. Fang Yu brought up the rear, muttering, "Crazy foreign devil."
They galloped in a loose pattern. Overhead, the moon ghosted in and out of the clouds.
During one period of exposed moonlight, they spied a brushed-silver hump in the distance. Light snow swirled around it.
A wolf bayed, very close.
Kula reached over to Fang Yu's reins and drew her horse closer to his.
"Wolves," he said ominously. "We must be careful."
"What about him?" Fang Yu asked.
"He is either mad or foolish. I cannot stop a madman and would not bother with the other."
As they watched, Remo pulled up at an abandoned bus and dismounted.
"He has sense enough to hold on to his horse, at least," Kula muttered.
"He is an American," Fang Yu said. "Cowboy blood runs in them all."
Kula nodded at this undeniable morsel of wisdom. There must be some skill in the American, for he himself smelled the cold tang of blood now.
They watched Remo move among humps of snow surrounding the bus. Patches of green showed here and there when Remo brushed at them with an uncovered hand.
"PLA men," Fang Yu said.
"This must be the bus they hijacked," Remo called back. "These guys are all dead."
Kula let his horse approach, Fang Yu trailing, her eyes searching every direction.
"What killed them?" Kula demanded from afar. He would approach this place of sudden death no closer than necessary to carry on conversation.
"I think my Korean did it," Remo admitted, kicking loose snow back onto a gruesome dead face.
"Old Duck Tang?" Fang Yu asked doubtfully. "How he do that?"
"He just does it," Reno said, looking all around.
Kula dismounted, one hand tight on his reins. He examined several bodies. "I see no marks of death," he noted, low-voiced.
"That's how my Korean works."
"You say an old man did this?" Kula questioned.
"Yeah, and without this bus, he had to go on by foot."
"Then he would not survive, not without the warmth of a horse to keep him alive," Kula pronounced. "You might as well return to your own land. Unless you wish to carry his frozen carcass home."
"Hold this," Remo said, shoving Smitty's reins into Kula's sands. He climbed into the bus and looked around.
While Remo was preoccupied inside the shattered vehicle, Kula turned to Fang Yu, who had refused to dismount.
"It is not good to be found where Chinese soldiers have fallen," he rumbled. "Blame will be attached to us."
"Who would search the steppe in this weather?" Fang Yu remarked.
"True, but I do not like the look of these bodies."
Fang Yu looked toward the bus. "What is wrong with them?"
"There is no mark of wolves," Kula said flatly.
"Why is that bad?"
"Because I heard a wolf bay as we approached. If this white could catch the scent of blood from afar, so too will the wolves."
Fang Yu shuddered. Turning in her saddle, she tried to see in all directions at once. Then the moon was swallowed by a cloud.
The darkness was absolute. The horses whinnied nervously.
"Empty," Remo Williams' voice said in the darkness as he emerged from the bus. "They ran out of gas."
Than the snapping, slavering sounds of wolves ripped the comfortless darkness.
"Remo!" Fang Yu cried. Kula jumped to his horse. It reared up in fright, its forelegs kicking at nothing.
Only Remo Williams, his eyes trained to magnify ambient light, saw the wolves coming. They sprinted across the steppe like gray-furred comets. There were three. And they were tearing right for the horses.
Remo came off the bus running. He flashed to Fang Yu's side, smacking her mount on the rump. It bolted. Fang Yu held on. Remo wheeled and did the same for Kula's mount.
Carrying their riders, both horses galloped away from the racing wolves. Smitty followed Kula, who still clutched his reins.
Remo whirled to meet the oncoming wolves.
One leapt for his throat. He was the easy one. Remo grabbed his forepaws on the fly, spun and sent the wolf, legs kicking air, into one of the shattered bus windows. The wolf broke what was left of the glass and landed amid the seats. He didn't get up again.
"One down," Remo said tightly.
The moon came out again, igniting evil green wolf eyes like witch candles. One crouched to Remo's left. The other padded on from his right.
That one leapt with a sudden gathering of gray fur. Remo faded back, kicking high. His foot drove the wolf into a backward somersault. The snap of its neck told him it wouldn't rise again either.
"That's two."
The third skittered to a halt. His back arching, he slunk back three steps, eyeing Remo with furious intent.
"Come on, Lassie," Remo taunted, crooking one finger at the glowering beast. "Time to learn a new trick."
Warily it slipped to one side. Remo feinted with both hands. It dodged back. Remo advanced.
As Kula and Fang Yu watched from a safe distance, Remo did a slow dance around the last wolf, and he around Remo.
"We're not getting anywhere," Remo complained loudly. "Come on, stop wasting my time."
The wolf shifted one way, then another, sometimes advancing, other times retreating. It growled exactly like a dog.
"It is too smart for you," Kula shouted over. "It knows you are a formidable enemy. Better that it think you are weak."
"Appreciate the tip," Remo said. He retreated a few paces. The wolf advanced warily.
Remo broke into a run, presenting his exposed back.
Emboldened by this show of cowardice, the wolf went after him.
Remo reached the bus, broke off a shard of window glass, and spun to meet the charging canine.
Snarling, the wolf jumped.
A glass fang whizzed through the Mongolian night.
It took the wolf full in the chest as its teeth snapped at Remo's throat.
Remo's throat, along with the rest of Remo, ducked under foam-flecked canine jaws. The wolf thudded against the side of the bus and landed atop a frozen PLA corpse.
It leaked a little blood, and snow began collecting on its gray-white fur. Its paws jerked briefly.
"And baby makes three," Remo muttered, picking himself up.
Casually Remo walked up to the others and accepted Smitty's reins from a stupefied Kula.
"Shall we go?" Remo said lightly, feeling infinitely better.
They formed the horses into a line and pressed on.
"You learn to ride well in a short time," Kula ventured after they had fallen into a rhythm.
"Farhvergnugen," Remo rejoined.
"Is that not German word?" Fang Yu asked in perplexity.
"Could be."
"You fight steppe wolf like you been fighting them all your life," Kula said with newfound respect in his voice.
"One wolf is like another," Remo said airily.
"You fight like a tiger," Kula said. "Like white tiger. Maybe I call you white tiger from now on."
"Call me what you want," Remo said. "Just don't call me a quitter. I intend to find my friend."
"I believe you, white tiger," Kula said with simple sincerity. Following the Great Mongolian Road, they came upon the PLA jeep with its frozen driver next.
The snow had obliterated any further tracks. It made Remo think of the mysterious footprints back in New Rochellewhich seemed like another world removed from this one. He cleared those thoughts from his mind. He had to find Chiun.
But all around him the steppe blended in a whirling world of snow. He felt like he was a tiny insect riding through one of those glass knickknacks that make snow when they're shaken.