第3节

rrect

the Dark Light would be an act of incredible folly which would once

again place the world in mortal peril.

But, as Ieyasu knew, the world of Ne-Issan was bordered by the

Appalachians and the Eastern Sea. There was another vaster world

beyond the Western Hills, inhabited by grass-monkeys and long-dogs:

Plainfolk Mutes and Trackers - the soldier-citizens of the Amtrak

Federation. The Mutes were hairy savages, semi-nomadic hunters with no

craft skills beyond those needed to support their simple mode of

life.

All their edged-weapons, crossbows and metal implements were supplied

by the Iron Masters. But the Trackers were warriors who had no fear of

the Dark Light. It was the life-force of their underground society.

It enabled them to send images and voices through the air, it powered

their weapons, their giant, caterpillar-like land-cruisers and their

sky-chariots - war-machines which entered the cloud-realm of the kami

with impunity and were not cast down.

Their presence posed a threat to the world of Ne-Issan yet

Amaterasu-Omikami stood aside and did nothing. Their underground

cities were not crushed, and the world beyond the Appalachians was not

ravaged by heavenly fire - a theological conundrum that was studiously

ignored by the leading sages of the Shinto priesthood.

Ieyasu knew the answer. The Dark Light was neither good nor bad.

Electricity was a power that lay at the heart of the natural world. It

could be captured by special, cunningly-wrought machines and conveyed

along special threads from one place to another, or shot through the

air like an invisible arrow that flew across plains, mountains.

and seas within the space of a single heartbeat.

Like all power, it could be used and abused. It could corrupt, in the

same way that sake addled the brains of drunkards and opium destroyed

the will of addicts. But in its pure state, it was not inherently

evil. Electricity had been created to be the slave of man. Only if

the man was weak could the slave became his master. Ieyasu had certain

foibles but he was not a weak man. He enjoyed the attendant luxury his

privileged birth and high rank afforded him but he was consumed by

nothing except the desire to manipulate the reins of power to the

ultimate benefit of the Toh-Yota family and the Shogun.

In that order. Ieyasu ate well, drank judiciously, and kept his gaunt,

aging body in trim by practising his swordsmanship. He enjoyed male

and female company and could still produce a commendable erection which

a select circle of court ladies - ever anxious to advance themselves or

the careers of their husbands - accommodated by supplying him with a

string of pubescent nymphets.

The Dark Light might kill him but it would never enslave him. Ieyasu

knew this because it had served him well over many years. Key members

of his private network of secret agents had been using high-powered

radio transceivers and other electronic devices for the last ten

years.

The same type of equipment used by the secret agents of the Federation

and which, after a series of stealthy contacts, had been supplied by

them to Ieyasu's organization under the terms of a secret protocol

signed by him and Commander-General Karlstrom, the head of AMEXICO.

Among the items covered was the return of any mexican caught by the

Plainfolk Mutes and sold to the Iron Masters. Other clauses outlined

mutually-beneficial arrangements for the pooling of specific types of

information, for example - the kinds of weapons the Iron Masters

planned to supply to the Mutes by way of trade and, in return, any

snippets of information which could help Ieyasu head off any bid to

topple the TohYota shogunate.

A final clause set out the arrangements for joint operations between

the two spy networks. It was here that AMEXICO's help had proved

invaluable. There were certain locations which, for various reasons,

Ieyasu's home-grown agents were unable to penetrate or where they could

not operate effectively. The wheel-boats operated by the Yama-Shita