第70节

t a deal?"

Steve gazed at the samurai's lacquered toes and weighed up the

proposition. For someone normally accorded slave-status to be asked to

kill a high-ranking Iron Master was pretty damned extraordinary. Apart

from hinting at further intrigues he didn't know about, it seemed to

indicate that the Man in Black-and the 'interests' he represented had

swallowed his story and were prepared to take him seriously. He was

back in the game and, now that they'd asked him to do some of their own

dirty work, had even acquired a little leverage. When added to the

make-and-break assignment at the Heron Pool, it meant he had room to

manoeuvre and the time he needed to put his own plans in motion.

Yeah... it was all coming together. But there was no point in going

overboard.

'I feel honoured at being given such a task, but someone in my position

is going to find it difficult to even get near a man who, by the sound

of it, is a high-ranking official."

"Don't worry, sport. When the time comes, you'll get all the help you

need."

They were the right words, but they did not have a comforting ring.

Steve ached to straighten up, but decided it would be unwise. Better

to keep talking to the grass. 'How soon do you want this to happen?"

A pregnant pause, then: 'The instructions I have received are quite

specific. The Consul-General is to be taken up in a flying-horse.

When it has attained the greatest possible height, he is to fall from

the sky. His body is to be split and broken like that of a stray

mongrel crushed under the wheel of a passing cart. This is the death

which has been chosen for him. No other. Is that clear?"

'Yeah, sure." It sounded like a real suicide mission, but this was no

time to go weak at the knees. 'Dumping him overboard is the easy

bit.

It's getting him up there that's going to be the problem. First of all

I have to get transferred to the Heron Pool. Once I'm in there I'm

pretty sure I can put together a propulsion system. In fact I know I

can.

And once we're over that hurdle, it shouldn't be too hard to persuade

Cadillac to let me get involved in the flight testing. So I'll have

access to an aircraft. That's where it gets difficult. According to

Cadillac, the Heron Pool belongs to the local domain-lord ' 'Lord Kiyo

Min-Orota."

'Right. Cadillac is in nominal charge of the project; but he's just a

hired hand like the rest of us. It's Lord Min-Orota's people who

really run the show. I don't have to tell you what the set-up is,

you're part of it. If I can't look you in the eyes, they're not going

to let me even breathe the same air as the Consul-General. But okay

let's assume for the moment they did - how do I persuade him to go for

a joyride?"

'Don't worry about it, sport. When you're ready to go, he'll be

there."

The samurai's reply confirmed Steve's hunch about the identity of the

man with his finger on the button.

There was only one person with sufficient clout to order a

Consul-General into the air with an outlander at the controls. The

Shogun.

Yeah ... better watch out, Stevie, he told himself.

You're back in the game all right, but this is not like trading shots

in a Shoot-a-Mute video gallery for a glass of Korngold. You're at the

high-stake table with the big boys. The kind that eat people like you

for breakfast...

The fact that the Man in Black had been less than forthcoming about the

relationship between Clearwater and the Consul-General was proof that

he could not be trusted. 'Promises to Mutes don't count." Wasn't that

what Karlstrom had said? You could bet your last meal-credit that this

overdressed dink felt the same way about Trackers. Yeah... if he was

going to get home in one piece he would need more help than Jodi or

Kelso could provide. He had to enlist the help of a big gun.

And there was one close at hand, eager and willing to be pressed into

service.

Clearwater.

She might not be able to move mountains, but she had shown she had the

power to rearrange large chunks of the landscape. He had to find a way

to get her off that island when the crunch came. With her by his side

there would be nothing to fear from Yama-Shita's boys or from the

friends of the Man in Black. At the first sign of danger she would

blow them right out of their socks.

The samurai's voice cut across his machinations.

'Okay. That about wraps it up." His feet disappeared from view, then