第77节

omplex but the answer was simple.

Cadillac was only able to gain access to certain parts of Steve's

brain; he could not read his mind. As with the Iron Masters, the areas

he could tap into were concerned with acquired knowledge: specialist

education and training, language skills, behavioural patterns, social

mores and information about people Steve had met - but not how he felt

about them. It meant, for instance, that Cadillac knew about

radio-knives but didn't know that Steve had one in his possession - and

was putting it to good use.

From the moment Steve had begun to keep in regular touch with AMEXICO,

Karlstrom had arranged for one of his highflying signals aircraft to

orbit the Heron Pool daily, between 2200 and midnight.

Tucked away in his little shack, Steve was able to send a stream of

queries to AMEXICO while Cadillac lay dead to the world, wiped out by

another skinful of sake. After acknowledging the transmission with the

instruction 'STAND BY/IMMEDIATE RESPONSE', the pilot automatically

relayed Steve's messages at high speed to Rio Lobo, AMEXICO's

headquarters in Houston/GC.

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-Shita'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