He had to find ways to build a new case against Yama-s.h.i.ta and his co-conspirators. But to achieve this he might have to make use of the outlander. It was not a prospect he relished, especially since it appeared that the only way to keep the ill-mannered dog in his place would be to nail his knees to the floor.

'Did anyone ever tell you you've got a big mouth?"

'Frequently,' said Steve.

n.o.buro rose to meet the Herald as he brought out the clear-skinned woman. Glancing through the doorway, he saw that the cloud warrior had been left kneeling on the mat.

Toshiro addressed him in j.a.panese. 'I am deeply indebted to you for bringing these outlanders before me.

It has been most instructive. Please make sure she is returned safely and without incident."

n.o.buro bowed.

Toshiro turned to address Clearwater. 'It would be in your best interests to say nothing to anyone of what you have seen or heard tonight. And in case you and your clan brother cherish any hopes of returning home, let me alert you to the fact that Lord Min-Orota personally a.s.sured me that when Cadillac's usefulness comes to an end he is to be stripped of the gifts and pleasures with which he has been provided and plunged into utter degradation. And when he has had sufficient time to fully appreciate his fall from grace, he will suffer a lingering death. Your position is equally perilous. Your master's friends regard his desire for your company as a dangerous weakness that threatens them all. Do I make myself clear?"

Clearwater bowed from the waist. 'Yes, sire."

n.o.buro ushered her out on to the veranda and handed her over to the waiting red-stripe. 'Put her to bed, make sure everything is as it should be, then bring Tenno back here."

The red-stripe and Clearwater disappeared into the darkness.

'I shall take the outlander with me,' said Toshiro as the ronin re-entered the pavilion. 'Mask him and tie his hands behind his back.

And hang that bag of leaves on him somewhere."

n.o.buro brought Steve to him with the waist-bag hanging round his neck.

The length of rope that had been used to secure his feet while riding was now tied round his waist. n.o.buro offered the loose end to the Herald. 'Shall I escort you to your horse?"

'No, you've done enough,' said Toshiro. 'Thank you again, my friend.

It has been an honour to know you. Be a.s.sured that I shall commend you and your men most highly to the Shogun."

n.o.buro bowed. 'To serve him is reward enough. May the kami grant you safe pa.s.sage through these troubled waters." He followed Toshiro out and watched as the Herald led his prisoner down the planked steps on to the path, then turned right, going round towards the trees that lay behind the pavilion. n.o.buro walked along to the end of the veranda but, in those few seconds, they had vanished into the night.

When they had covered a distance of some hundred yards, the Man in Black who was leading Steve by the rope tied round his waist turned back to face him. Steve had a sudden premonition of danger, but even his reflexes weren't fast enough to cope with the speed of Toshiro's fist. The blow, aimed with pinpoint accuracy, landed on a nerve centre in Steve's neck just below the ear, knocking him senseless to the ground. Toshiro quickly bound Steve's feet together, then ran back towards the pavilion.

Tenno, the other red-stripe who had been given the task of keeping guard outside the rooms occupied by the courtesan and her house-women, sprang into an attacking stance on hearing the scrunch of feet on gravel, then relaxed as he was greeted by three froggy croaks.

He replied in similar vein. Shida, his colleague, stepped up into the terrace with the woman. The cowl of her cloak was pulled forward, making it impossible in the darkness to see her face. While Shida kept watch, Tenno motioned her to keep silent, then slid open the door to her quarters and guided her past the sleeping house-women to the shuttered inner room.

Although it was even darker inside than out, Clearwater was just able to make out the sleeping forms of Su-Shan and Nan-Khe; neither had moved in her absence. The red-stripe waited while she hung up her cape and slipped back under the quilt, then made his exit.

Tenno and Shida returned to the pavilion. Now that their mysterious visitor had gone, neither was unduly surprised to see light coming from the central doorway.

Mounting the steps, they saw that the two masked lanterns had been hung from the ceiling with the single vertical slit raying its light towards the open door. It was then that they saw n.o.buro's body. He lay with his feet towards them, his head pointing towards the sliding screen that gave access to the veranda at the back of the pavilion. It was now wide open - a threatening black square full of unseen dangers.

Tenno and Shida dropped down on one knee on either side of n.o.buro. His throat had been cut from ear to ear. A square of writing paper had been pinned to his chest by a needle-like stiletto. The legend read: 'Thus perish all ronin who dare to challenge the Se-Iko."

Hhhawwwww!

Both men leapt to their feet, hands flying to their long-swords. As they began to move across the room towards the opening at the rear the deathly silence was broken by two sharp, overlapping sighs - like the hiss of two rival snakes. It was the last sound Tenno and Shida heard and it was made by two razor-sharp throwing stars that flew out of the darkness and embedded themselves in the centre of their foreheads, killing them stone dead in mid-stride.

A few seconds after they hit the floor, Toshiro's black-clad figure vaulted over the railing on to the veranda.

Entering the room, he closed the front door-screen, then dragged the bodies of the red-stripes into line on either side of the dead n.o.buro and pinned them to the floor with their own swords. With that task completed, Toshiro doused the lanterns and went out the way he came, drawing the two screens together behind him.

n.o.buro's a.s.sessment of the Herald had been characteristically shrewd and uncannily correct. There was a great deal more to Toshiro Hase-Gawa than met the eye.

As well as the less obvious qualities with which he was endowed, he also possessed unsuspected skills, and tonight they had served him well.

Reaching the spot where he had left the outlander, Toshiro found his prisoner was still unconscious. He untied Steve's feet first, then ma.s.saged the pressure points on his neck and shoulders to bring him round. The process took two or three minutes and Steve was still a little shaky when Toshiro hauled him to his feet.

'Come on, time to get going,'

'Yeah, okay. I'm on my way." Steve shook his head to clear away the lingering dizziness and worked his jaw around. 'I don't know what I did to deserve it, but that was a neat trick. You must show me how you do that sometime."

The black-clad figure took a step towards him. Steve tried to step back out of range and found himself up against a tree. He was a good head taller than the j.a.p but there wasn't much he could do with both hands tied behind his back. And even if they'd been free he wasn't looking to take him on. This guy was his ticket to ride.

'Listen, Brickman. To have got this far, you can't be as dumb as you look. I keep giving you the message but from the way your mouth is acting your brains must be out to lunch. So let me lay it out for you one last time.

You've already said enough to get yourself killed several times over.

The only reason you're still here is because I'm hoping that maybe you and I can work out a deal that could earn you a reprieve and give both of us what we want. But don't think that makes you fireproof.

n.o.body's indispensable. Not even you. If you don't start showing me some respect, I'll cut you loose and go it alone. And if that happens, you're going to end up as a pig's breakfast. Got it."?"

Steve bowed to show a little respect. 'Yes, sire." You pint-sized, slant-eyed yellow a.s.shole. The straw mask concealed his mocking smile and his voice carried no hint of triumph. But inwardly he was cheering. 2102-8902

Brickman, S.R. had cleared another hurdle. Despite all the blood-curdling threats, he would live to see another dawn.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

In the Federation, there had been no sunrise for close on a thousand years: or sunset either. Year in, year out, the lights stayed on wherever people were working. Life for Trackers was geared to a twenty-four-hour cycle. The machinery that made life possible underground was constantly serviced by succeeding shifts of generation upon generation of technicians. For those not engaged on 'night' work, the pa.s.sing day was marked by a lowering of the illumination level in accommodation areas and public plazas to what was called 'twilight'.

The thing that Trackers feared most was darkness.

And some old hands, who were the subversive guardians of an alternative history that was not to be found in the video archives, spoke in hushed whispers about a time known as the 'Black-Out' when an apparently well-planned but ill-fated attempt to mount a revolt against the First Family plunged the underground into total darkness that lasted according to some accounts - for several decades.

Thousands suffocated as the ventilation shafts ceased to function, thousands more went mad and tore each other to pieces like starving rats trapped in a concrete cellar; the innocent dying with the guilty.

The few who survived owed their salvation to the First Family Creators of the Light, the Work and the Way; Keepers of all Knowledge, Wisdom and Truth.

From that moment on, their authority became absolute. The elimination of dissident elements, the ungrateful, the greedy and the disloyal, removed the worm from the bud that would one day flower in the Blue-Sky World. And the progress that had been made towards that dream confirmed their fitness to lead the Federation, provided visible proof of the genius that lay behind their vision of the future, and underlined the sureness of their guiding hand and the truth in the immortal words of the Founding Father, George Washington Jefferson 1st 'Only people fail, not the system."

Amen...