第75节

ts,' said Steve.

Cadillac, who was seated at the drafting table, stared down at him with

a puzzled frown.

Steve, who had been on his hands and knees sweeping the straw-matted

floor, laid his brush and pan aside and adopted a cross-legged

position. 'You've been to the trading post, haven't you?"

'Yes, last year."

'Didn't the wheelboats launch any? Mr Snow told me they do it every

time they set sail."

'They sent up burning arrows which burst, and showered down coloured

fire,' admitted Cadillac.

'They're called rockets - and they used green ones that didn't burst to

signal where you had to land when you flew to Ne-Issan..."

'How did you know about that?"

'Clearwater told me. When we were being held by the rortirt. ' 'I

still don't see what you're getting at."

'What you saw was a firework display. Pyrotechnics.

Behind those pretty coioured lights is a combination of chemistry and

physics. A force exerted in one direction produces an equal and

opposite force in the other direction. It's called "thrust"."

'I know about that,' interjected Cadillac. 'It's what the engines of

your Skyhawks generate."

'Exactly,' said Steve. 'Well, the same, propellant charge that pushes

up those rockets can be used to put your flying-horses into the air.

All we need is a bigger rocket that packs more punch."

'Yeah... I see what you mean." Cadillac mulled the idea over, then

eyed Steve. 'How come I didn't think of that?"

'You just did. I only sweep the floors around here."

Steve waited for a more positive reaction. If someone had handed him

an idea like that on a plate he'd have been turning cartwheels. But

Cadillac just sat there.

'You don't look convinced."

'No, it's not that. I can see it has possibilities, but...

won't it be dangerous?"

'Not as dangerous as sitting here on the ground. You said yourself

that Min-Orota was showing signs of impatience. If he decides to pull

the plug - ' Steve swept a hand round the study - 'you can kiss goodbye

to all this."

'Don't remind me . . ."

'There are risks, obviously. We just have to make sure we get the

mixture right. We bench-test small batches of it first, then find a

lightweight container that'll hold several pounds of the stuff. Some

kind of tube, sealed at one end.

And it must be fireproof, otherwise we could find ourselves with flames

coming out of our ass.

'We then attach the tube - we'll probably need several to one of your

ground trolleys. We load the trolley with stones to represent the

weight of aircraft and pilot, light the blue touch paper and, uhh .

. see what happens.

What we want is a fast even burn. But not too fast. We don't want to

rip the wings off."

'No . . ."

'It's an ideal solution. It'll require a little ingenuity on our part,

but it uses available materials, basic engineering skills and - best of

all - won't require any major alterations to your existing airframe.

We can just attach them to the underside of the fuselage pod and use a

booster on the launching trolley."

'Launching trolley?"

'The ground trolley you use for wheeling the planes into the hangar.

We just strengthen it a little."

'But this propellant charge -' Steve tapped his forehead. COLUMBUS had

come up with the data he needed. 'Don't worry, it's all up here.