第82节

'Light the boosters!" Cadillac applied the taper. 'Lit and burning!'

Steve settled back firmly in his seat and began the countdown through

clenched teeth. Ten-nine-eight...

Jodi and Kelso put their shoulders to the push-bars on each side of the

trolley and heaved. It started to move forward. The black powder

safety fuse sputtered and sparked; the flame divided and burnt its way

towards the crimped nozzles of the two boosters.

Five-four-three .:.. Steve checked the front-wheel steering by moving

the rudder bar. two-one-zero-SHHHhooowwaAHHH! The boosters ignited

with a swishing roar. Jodi and Kelso leaped clear and watched

anxiously as the trolley bolted across the field, its rear end wreathed

in fire and smoke.

'Go! Go! Go! GO!" they chanted, double-punching the air on each

exclamation mark.

Once again Steve felt himself pressed back into his seat as the trolley

continued to accelerate. From the rough measurements they had made

during the ground tests with the aid of marker poles, he knew that the

trolley reached its maximum speed in eight seconds. ?. .

five-fourthreetwooneIGNITlON!

Steve triggered the centre rocket and, as he heard it ignite, he

reached outside the cockpit, yanked the toggle that released the

aircraft from the trolley, pulled back on the stick and aimed for the

clouds.

Whooossshhh! It was a fantastic feeling. He had never climbed so

steeply or so fast before. Glancing down, he saw the ground drop

rapidly away. The upturned faces of the spectators became featureless

pale dots - like tiny flowers scattered across a meadow?In less than

fifteen seconds he was nearly 2,000 feet up. The hissing sound ceased

abruptly as the rocket reached the end of its burn and the drumming

vibration that had threatened to shake his teeth loose was replaced by

an eerie silence. Steve rolled out of the climb, going over and down

in a descending right-hand turn.

Straightening out his line of descent, he fired the second rocket.

Shuwahh-pa-powwW! Another giant kick in the pants.

Steve kept the nose down. With no instruments, he could only gauge his

speed by the keening noise of the air as it rushed over the silken

wings and the sickening judder generated by the stresses on the

airframe. Now!

He pulled up into a loop, rolled off the top and went sti'aight into

another loop - an aerobatic manoeuvre known as an upwardS.

The rocket cut out as he came off the top of the second loop, but he

had enough speed to go into a barrel roll.

Steve was forced to admit Cadillac had done a good job with a little

help from his friends. As a glider, its performance had been no more

than average, but under power, the aircraft handled well.

Yep, she was a sweet bird...

The upward-S had added another thousand feet of altitude, enabling

Steve to see Ba-satana, perched on the edge of the Eastern Sea. That

was one big stretch of water. Was that the edge of the world - or did

something lie beyond? He used up the next two rockets in a variety of

aerobatic manoeuvres, working his way closer to the ground as he gave

serious thought to buzzing the display stand from behind to give the

dinks the fright of their lives. He came to the conclusion that it

might not appeal to their warped sense of humour, and settled for a

low-level, high-speed pass across the field, scattering the watching

Trackers and clearing the stone wall by inches.

Up again he went, during the final seconds of the fifth and last burn,

finishing off with three victory rolls before turning back towards the

field for an immaculate landing.

The total burn time had been seventy-five seconds, but by gliding in

between firings he had been able to stay aloft for about twenty

minutes. He had deliberately kept it short to sustain the Iron

Masters' interest, but could have remained airborne for much longer and

flown further. A westward climb using four rockets would have taken

him close to 8,000 feet, leaving one in reserve.

From that height he would have been able to glide all the way to the

Hudson - with a passenger. Yeah. Things were coming together just

fine . . .

His spectacular handling of the flying-horse and its faultless

performance put the Iron Masters in a convivial mood. Anxious to

demonstrate that his flying skills were the equal of Steve's, Cadillac

made the next two flights with Jodi, then Kelso, riding in