He got his answer about Chambers when the huge Arab grabbed his head in a choke hold with one arm and his right wrist with the other. The man was incredibly strong. The major cut his bonds with a gleaming stiletto. The Scorpion’s eyes never left the dagger as the major put it on the table. The Arab with the automatic put the gun away and moved closer to the cauldron to lend a hand as the huge Arab lifted the Scorpion out of the chair like a baby. That left only the Arab by the door with a gun at hand, the Scorpion thought, relaxing his legs so they had to half-drag him to the cauldron. He tried to move his right arm against the strength of the big Arab, but it was impossible. It was like pushing against the side of a truck and now he knew for sure why Chambers had bought it. It would have to be right, he knew. He wasn’t going to get a second chance. The major leaned against the table, smirking as they pulled him over to the cauldron.

He took one last breath, remembering how Koichi would lecture them in his pedantic oriental way, hardly raising a sweat as he tossed them around the do-jang. “The more stronger, the more better,” Koichi would say. “The essence is to use your opponent’s own strength to defeat him.” That was the theory, at least.

“Forget the others, concentrate on the one,” Koichi would say. The choke hold is one of the easiest to break, he remembered. All that is required is to jerk the head back in a line perpendicular to the plane formed by the opponent’s arm. It helps if you have a free hand to push against your opponent’s arm, as well. Except that he wished Koichi were here to test the theory against the big Arab instead of him, because his neck and right arm felt as if they’d been set in concrete. Instinctively he pressed away from the cauldron, the liquid darkened by their shadows, as they forced him to bend towards it. As he exhaled, the rage exploded inside him like a bubble popping. They were going to do it to him … to him! Even as his hand’s reflection in the acid almost touched his own flesh, he had begun his move.