第45节

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 Noburo

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.

Noburo's assessment 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

massaged 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 Jap 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.

Nobody'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 asshole. 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 passing 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