第65节

your career prospects. And when you started to

tell me about the deal you'd struck with this "mexican" I really

thought you'd gone over the edge. But I can now see this has a lot of

possibilities. Well done."

Toshiro bowed gratefully and sat back feeling extremely pleased with

himself. His reading of the situation had been faultless. Even though

the long-dogs were armed with the Dark Light, the samurai-warriors of

Ne-Issan might find ways to repulse an attack by the Federation. But

victory could still result in a defeat for the Shogunate. The

debilitating effects of an all-out war would upset the present delicate

balance of forces, creating a turbulent situation where the Toh-Yota

family could find itself displaced by the Yama-Shita - the apostles of

progress.

Faced with that stark prospect, Toshiro knew the Shogun would choose to

sacrifice the Heron Pool project - settling a few scores in the

process. And that suited the Herald very well indeed.

After four days of running mail back and forth between the numerous

houses of the Min-Orota family and the Consul-General's residence,

Steve learned he had been assigned to the route which included the

Heron Pool. No explanation was given, but he suspected that his masked

benefactor had been pulling a few strings.

On his journeys to and from Ba-satana and down to Nyo-poro, Steve had

kept his eyes peeled but had seen no aerial activity - an indication

that the range of the glider Cadillac had constructed was fairly

limited.

From his own knowledge of aeronautics - and he had been the best in his

class - it seemed to Steve that without the aid of helium gas you

needed an entirely different wing form to provide the lift for

sustained soaring flight. If the young wordsmith had, as Mr Snow

claimed, filched all the theoretical and practical knowledge Steve had

worked so hard to acquire, then he must be aware of that too. The fact

that Cadillac hadn't acted upon it suggested he was intending to add a

power-plant at some stage. In which case, the swept-back wing design

Steve had seen on his way past the Heron Pool made sense. Cadillac was

obviously testing the stability of the basic airframe while he figured

out how to build an efficient engine using whatever materials and tools

were available.

Terrific. Couldn't be better. Had things progressed faster Steve

might have found himself surplus to requirements. As it was, he still

had a chance to make a useful input. There might be some initial

hesitation but, providing Cadillac could be assured that he would get

the sole credit for any bright ideas the two of them came up with,

Steve was confident he would be able to persuade the Mute to take him

on board. Cadillac might have picked his brains but he didn't think

the same way.

The flaws in his psyche prevented him from using the stolen information

to gain an insight into Steve's thought processes. The knowledge he

had gained was a valuable asset; knowing how to use it was a different

matter entirely.

As Cadillac had already discovered.

This comforting realisation put an extra bounce into Steve's stride as

he headed west along the highway towards Mara-bara and the Heron

Pool.

Drawing closer to the small hamlet, he caught sight of something that

gave him an even bigger kick. Three white-winged gliders flying in

tight arrowhead formation broke out into the blue from behind a fluffy

mound of low-lying cumulus.

Steve judged their altitude to be around 2,000 feet. It was a hot day,

so there were plenty of thermals rising from the surrounding

cropfields, and once at cloud level a Federation wingman knew how to

use the updrafts within to get a further lift.

lying in perfect unison, the three gliders pulled round to the right in

a vertical bank, then slid nose-down as their leader took them into a

steep dive. Realising they were going for a loop, Steve stopped to

watch, holding his breath as he waited to see if they had enough speed

to make it all the way over the top. With an engine behind you there

was never any worry about being able to power your way round, but these

guys could stall before they went over the top and - being so close