From there they were keyed directly into COLUMBUS.

A few seconds later, the required information was being bounced off the radio antenna of the orbiting signals aircraft and down into the memory bank of Steve's radio-knife.

The same information was fed simultaneously into Karlstrom's personal video-communications network, and a message announcing its presence was flashed on the screen nearest to wherever he happened to be. This was done solely to keep him informed of what was going on. Karlstrom had no need to vet the questions and answers before they were relayed to Steve. COLUMBUS, whose virtually limitless memory also contained the records of every Tracker from the First Family down to the humblest red-head, knew exactly what areas and levels of information 8902

Brickman, S.R. was allowed to access.

To Steve - who still knew nothing about the air link the rapidity and efficiency of the service was a constant source of amazement. It was also a timely reminder of the power possessed by the First Family.

There was no escaping them. No matter how far you ran, they would always have some way to reach you.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Since the licence to build flying-horses had been granted to the Min-Orota family on the understanding that the Shogun's representatives were to be granted unhindered access to the Heron Pool, the Consul-General was duly informed of the decision to develop a system of rocket propulsion.

Consul-General Nakane Toh-Shiba, whose interests were centred round the pleasures of the field and the flesh, reacted with only perfunctory interest as the news was read out to him, but when his letter reached Yoritomo's summer palace, the young Shogun was quick to spot the military potential of such a device.

Black powder had been manufactured for centuries, but up to now it had only been used for blasting in the mines and quarries, in rifle cartridges, and in the cannon that were employed - mainly by the Shogunate - to reduce the fortresses of rebellious domain-lords.

Designed for use in siege warfare, these large pieces were extremely difficult to manoeuvre, and in the decades of peace under the Toh-Yota, their use had been confined to delivering ceremonial salutes. Smaller cannon, such as those on Lord Yama-s.h.i.ta's wheelboats, did exist, but in general artillery pieces were not favoured by the Iron Masters because of their limited mobility.

As might be expected of warriors imbued with the samurai ethos, they were temperamentally unsuited to long-range engagements with heavy-calibre weapons.

The clash of arms in close-quarter combat was viewed as the ideal type of warfare and, as a result, the outcome of most battles depended on the martial skills of fast-moving formations of mounted swordsmen and archers, and lightly armed foot-soldiers.

Rockets filled with black powder were employed by military formations as signalling devices, but their primary use was as harmless entertainment. Vast quant.i.ties of these, along with other types of firework, were used to enliven private and public celebrations and religious festivals, filling the night sky with bursts of coloured rain.

But if a rocket could be made powerful enough to hurl a flying-horse and its rider into the sky, it could also hurl an explosive charge into the heart of enemy formations encamped, say, on a steep hillside - or even beyond it.

And if such a rocket could be carried on the back of a fciot-soldier, then hundreds could be launched in a single volley, delivering a murderous hammer blow that would leave the enemy dazed and demoralised.

At which point...

Yes... This matter would have to be watched closely.

The message summoning the Herald Toshiro to appear before the Shogun reached him in the middle of a jovial dinner with Guard-Captain Kamakura. The good captain's wife and her five daughters had received Toshiro with their customary warmth and hospitality, lavishing their attentions on him from the moment he stepped through the door, and the news that he had to depart without even completing the meal - the best of which was yet to come - threw the women of the family into disarray.

Tearful and downcast, they lined up to bend at the knee, bowing over his hand as they bade him farewell. Toshiro responded with the customary expressions of grat.i.tude, then apologised extravagantly for being unable to stay long enough to sample the delicacies they had prepared. Had he known of the nightcap that had been due to follow the dessert he might have felt a genuine twinge of regret. The second youngest and prettiest of the Kamakura girls had been chosen by her

ambitious mother to grace the Herald's bed. But once again her attempt to snare him had been frustrated by pressing affairs of state.

And time was pa.s.sing! Another year was on the wane. If the Herald eluded them much longer, the two eldest girls might have to be married off to low-born soldiers like her own well-meaning but slow-brained husband!

The news that field tests of the rockets were about to take place reached Toshiro soon after his return, at the Shogun's behest, to the domain of Lord Min-Orota.

Because Heralds acted as the confidential link between the Shogun and his regional officials, a suite of rooms in the Consul-General's residence was kept at their disposal. The estate, which to all intents and purposes was government territory, served Toshiro as a base from which he would often emerge in disguise to meet with agents or to mingle with the lower orders. But the residence was also a home in which he had been made welcome by Her Highness, the Lady Mishiko TohShiba, Nakane's long-suffering wife, and her three children.

Despite her husband's outrageous and insulting behaviour, she had never once uttered a word of complaint to her all-powerful brother, and maintained the same discreet, dignified silence amid those who were closest to her, concealing her distress behind a calm, serene manner.

Many took this as a studied indifference to her fate, but over the years Toshiro had discovered this was not so. The Lady Mishiko was desperately unhappy, and the Herald could not understand how anyone even an insensitive oaf like the Consul-General - could neglect and abuse a woman who, besides being extremely intelligent, artistic and of the highest rank, was also tender-hearted, sweet-natured and beautiful.

It was a pity, reflected Toshiro, that the Consul-General would die without realising how blind he had been. It would have added a bittersweet edge to his fall.

No matter. As the saying went: 'One man's loss..."

From one of his informants, Toshiro learned of the Consul-General's curious behaviour while inspecting the main post-house. The Herald could not fathom why the odious buffoon should suddenly have taken it into his head to move the 'mexican', but he was relieved the matter had been taken out of his hands. Toshiro was tied into an efficient network of informers but he did not, as he had boasted to Steve, have eyes and ears everywhere, and he was not able to move people around like p.a.w.ns on a chessboard. He had been able to get Steve re, gistered as a roadrunner because he appeared to all and sundry to be a Mute, and because the registration had taken place in the domain of the Mitsu-Bishi, firm allies of the Shogun.

Things were different here. Masa-chusa and Rodiren were, in a sense, hostile territory, where the Herald was publicly received with the appropriate pomp and ceremony and privately viewed as a spy-master and agent provocateur. This was why he had to exercise extreme caution to avoid compromising himself and, by extension, the Shogun. Switching ident.i.ties from gra.s.s-monkey to long-dog was not quite as simple as Brickman seemed to think. Only one person could have provided forged papers - Ieyasu, the Court Chamberlain: the one person Toshiro dared not turn to. Life was already difficult enough without becoming enmeshed in that spider's web.

Without realising it, Nakane Toh-Shiba had saved him a great deal of time and trouble and, unwittingly, had signed and sealed his own death warrant. If rocket power proved to be the answer, then the Consul-General would be among the first Iron Masters to take to the air. The letter ordering him to do so had already been written and was in Toshiro's possession - and he was burning with impatience to hand it over.

Two days later, Samurai-Major Ryoshi - one of the top military men in Min-Orota's household - called at the residence to escort Toshiro to the Heron Pool. The Herald had no qualms about visiting the site in his official capacity. Unless he chose to make contact, there was no way Brickman could recognise him. Even if their paths crossed they were unlikely to come face to face; the raexican would have his nose in the dirt like all the other Mute slaves who worked there. And since Brickman did not speak a word of j.a.panese, he could not learn of his ident.i.ty through any conversation he might happen to overhear.

Shigamitsu, the samurai-captain in charge of the Heron Pool, greeted the two men deferentially and, after a brief ceremony of welcome, led them past the workshops to where the first of three weighted launching trolleys stood at the edge of the flying-field.

A fifteen-foot section of wing and a beam carrying a crude tail a.s.sembly had been mounted on timber struts to simulate the aircraft the trolley would later hold. The front axle had been widened to give greater stability.

The vehicle was driven by four rockets encased in reusable tubes made of rolled bra.s.s with soldered and riveted joints. The tubes - about two feet long and three inches in diameter - were arranged in pairs, one above the other, and linked together by a short length of safety-fuse.

Toshiro, Ryoshi and the other j.a.ps from Ba-satana inspected the vehicle closely. Its creator, a dark-haired long-dog who knelt submissively near by, did not rate a second glance. When Shigamitsu had dealt with their questions, the long-dog sought his permission to proceed with the tests. Shigamitsu referred the question to the Herald and Ryoshi with the usual elaborate courtesy, then, upon receiving their a.s.sent, invited them to watch the proceedings from a safe distance.

The dark-haired long-dog applied a burning taper to the fuse. Two more slaves seized the sides of the trolley and ran it forward. The first pair of rockets flared into life. Shwaahh.pa-POWW.t Long searing tongues of flame erupted from the necked ends of the tubes. The stub-winged trolley went racing across the field, leaving two thin plumes of smoke in its wake.

Ppa-ppPOWW! The second pair of rockets ignited.

The speed of the trolley increased. A cry went up from the long-dogs gathered at the doors of the workshops as it hit a b.u.mp and became momentarily airborne, quickly followed by a groan as it dropped at an awkward angle, tore off the left front wheel, then cartwheeled several times before finally collapsing in a mangled heap.

Toshiro and Ryoshi brushed aside the Heron Pool commander's abject apologies. The demonstration had shown that the propulsion system worked. A second trolley, rigged with the same rudimentary wing and tail, was wheeled out. Several more dressed stones were added to increase the weight, and the test was repeated.

This time, the trolley veered wildly from side to side but stayed in contact with the ground. When the rockets burned out, the trolley thundered on across the gra.s.s and - to the great delight of the watching Iron Masters exploded into matchwood as it hit the low stone wall at the far side of the field.

'Was that all?" enquired the Herald.

No. 'Brickman' still had a card to play. A third trolley was produced from the workshops, but this one was manned. In addition to the stub-wing and the tail perched on two struts at the rear, there were more struts at the front; a triangular cage in which a Mute slave was seated on a basket-weave chair. On closer inspection, Toshiro saw it was his co-conspirator - the disguised 'mexican'.

Hhhawww!

Via Shigamitsu, 'Brickman' explained that by means of a simple steering device controlled by the pa.s.senger's feet, the tail could be pivoted to the left and right. This third trolley only had one front wheel and this could be turned in the same direction as the tail when the Mute pushed the bar with his feet. The rear edge of the wing could also be pivoted up and down by moving the vertical stick set between the pa.s.senger's knees. This deflected the air pa.s.sing over the wing and kept the vehicle on the ground.

Ahh-so. . I The Iron Masters retired once more, the fuse was lit and the trolley was sent on its way. Toshiro watched anxiously as the first two rockets ignited. He did not want the 'mexican' to come to an untimely end demonstrating something that had already been shown to work. He had much more important things to do such as disposing of the Consul-General. His j.a.panese colleagues, unaware of his private concerns, watched avidly. All Iron Masters were fascinated with the aesthetics of savagery. In peacetime this was expressed through their pursuit of bloodsports - from c.o.c.kfighting to hunting with spear and bow. For them, the climactic kill was an essential part of life, and they now waited with gleeful antic.i.p.ation for the trolley and its rider to self-destruct against the stone wall.

Ppa-ppowww! The speeding trolley accelerated as the second pair of rockets ignited. Steve felt himself pushed back against the seat. The first static tests had not produced an impressive amount of thrust, but with the additives that AMEXICO had advised him to throw into the basic mix the rockets were now delivering a real kick in the pants.

The stone wall was now coming up at a high rate of knots. Time for the party trick. It hadn't been his idea, but he'd been obliged to go along with it in order to worm his way deeper into Cadillac's confidence. And it had better G.o.ddam work, he told himself. Otherwise they'd be shipping him out feet first.

The visiting Iron Masters and the motley crowd of unofficial spectators were unaware that, with Shigamitsu's agreement, a low, gra.s.s-covered ramp had been secretly constructed on the far side of the field.