The Amtrack Wars - Earth Thunder Part 39

Steve had never travelled on any kind of waterborne vessel up to the age of eighteen, when he'd stowed away on the Great Lakes wheel-boat to Ne-Issan, but he'd emerged in reasonably good shape, and had fared better than Cadillac when crossing Lake Michigan in a frail, narrow outrigger. And he was now quietly pleased to discover he had better sea-legs than Fran who he found clutching the stern balcony rail, white-knuckled and green around the gills.

She raised her voice above the background drumming of the steam-driven screw that churned the blue water beneath them into a broad swirling ribbon of green and white foam. 'Did you know it Was going to be like this?!" 'Like what?" he replied, teasingly.

'Jeezuss! The way this thing is moving from side to side as well as up and down! Plus the vibration?! Can't you feel it? And the noise!

Boom, boom, boom! That G.o.ddamm engine's driving me crazy!" Tough s.h.i.t, thought Steve. You wanna try working down in the A-Levels for three months - like where you sent me. b.i.t.c.h ....

He laid on a look of genuine concern. 'Do you want me to ask them to turn it off, and just use the sails?"

'And drag this out even longer? Forget it!" Steve suppressed his own feelings of nausea and smiled. 'Cheer up. The first twenty-four hours are always the worst I' Her eyes turned to ice. A moment of pure hatred. And screw you too, Commander ....

Two hours after sunrise, Senior Secretary Shikobu and Kenzo the Chief Steward each accompanied by two subordinates, rode out of the Winter Palace, followed by three troops of cavalry in battle-order, led by the Castle Commandant. During the night, Ieyasu had had second thoughts.

Shikobu was now empowered to use force to bring Domain-Lord Min-Orota to the Palace if all other means of persuasion failed.

By the time the cavalcade thundered through the roofed gateway of the post-house, it was not chickens and pigs that scattered, it was the displaced tarts, cardsharps, itinerant pedlars and street performers who had spent a cold and uncomfortable night dossed down in the barns and outhouses of nearby farms. Word of the domain-lord's departure soon circulated and they had all hastened back to reclaim their previous accommodation.

It was left to the alarmed inn-keeper and his wife to explain to Shikobu the circ.u.mstances of the domain-lord's early departure. Having already paid in advance, the parties in question had not deemed it necessary to take formal leave of the inn-keeper, but a quick check of the accommodation showed that all the furnishings and fittings were intact.

The riders and drivers had gone about the business of readying their mounts with the minimum of noise, but it was impossible to silence the gritty rumble of loaded carts, the squeak of harness, and the creak of wooden shafts as the oxen took the strain. It was this which had woken Shoshi and brought her first to one of her many spy-holes, then to the front door and the unguarded verandah.

Waiting until the last of the mounted rear guard had pa.s.sed out through the archway, she gathered her nightclothes about her and ran across the courtyard to where Inazo was sliding the last bolts home in the gate.

Having been awakened three times during the night by the arrival and departure of some lowly servants on an ox-cart and now the departing northerners, Inazo, a faithful but crotchety old b.u.g.g.e.r, was not in the best of humours.

He told Shoshi that one group of hors.e.m.e.n and carts had gone north, the other had taken the east road.

Towards the sea ....

Which group, enquired Shikobu, had been led by the domain-lord?

At this, Inazo had bowed deeply and wrung his hands.

He could not be certain. The house flags carried by the domain-lord's party on the previous day had not been displayed. It had been dark.

His eyes were not what they were ....

Shikobu dismissed him with a wave.

It was true that no flags had been carried aloft, but Inazo failed to mention that someone on Min-Orota's staff had tipped him handsomely for all his trouble, and told him to look the other way.- a fact he did not intend to reveal in front of his tight-fisted cow of a mistress.

For the last three years she had refused to let her husband spend anything on the hovel Inazo and his wife were obliged to live in, and had she known about the lavish back-hander, she would have taken every penny.

On the grounds that all staff contributed to the smooth-running of the inn, neat little notices posted in each room requested clients to include any gratuities when settling their bill - the money being shared out later.

Some chance with Shoshi holding the purse-strings! If they saw a tenth of it they were lucky. Still what could you do when young men and women, eager to escape the endless cycle of back-breaking farm work, were lining up in their dozens every time there was a vacancy- willing to take any job at almost any price?

Shoshi, anxious to show her vigilance to these important men from the Palace, recounted the visit by what she believed was a lady of quality to Lord Min-Orota.

And she described how she had seen her arrive on an oxcart disguised as a servant-girl with seven companions who were clearly of inferior rank.

Shikobu exchanged glances with Kenzo, and questioned her further.

Shoshi was able to supply an approximate time of arrival but confessed to being asleep when the cart departed. Inazo, the gate-keeper, did not have any means of telling the time.

Having dozed off after their arrival he had no clear idea how long they had stayed. He only knew that when called upon to let them out, it was cold and late and, although he could not be absolutely certain, he believed that the domain-lord had watched them go.

Shikobu would have liked more details, but it was enough to go on. He was beginning to regret not acting immediately on receipt of Ieyasu's first message. But on the other hand, permission to use force had only arrived on his desk an hour ago - and Lord Min-Orota had already left by then.

He held a hurried conference with the Castle Commandant.

Kenzo the Chief Steward, was a master of protocol, ceremonies and a gem at catering, but he had nothing to contribute at a moment like this. A decision was made to despatch two troops- sixty men plus their officers- to the north, and the remainder along the east road.

Shikobu, Kenzo and the Commandant would return to the Palace with their subordinates, and a fourth troop would be despatched from there to back up the third in case Lord Min-Orota was heading for the harbour at Oshana-sita.

Shikobu believed he knew the ident.i.ty of Min-Orota's visitor, but he decided to keep his opinions to himself.

It appeared that the ox-cart had taken the road back to the palace but had she been on it? Or was it a real servant-girl that Min-Orota had made the pretence of bowing to? The answer to this question and others, that were equally disquieting, lay at the Palace.

At Showa, Shikobu was met in the courtyard by Kenzo's distraught deputy. Lady Mishiko was nowhere to be found. She, her three children, their nurse and sixteen of her personal servants had vanished! He had questioned her remaining staff, but none of them had confessed to knowing where she might be. All they could tell him was that she had retired in the usual manner the previous night and, in the deputy's view, they appeared to be as surprised as everyone else.

Shikobu briefly considered lining the servants up and having them whipped, one by one, into insensibility until someone decided to save his or her skin by talking. But with no proof of any wrong-doing by Lady Mishiko, his hands were tied. She was, after all, the Shogun's sister and, in theory, was ent.i.tled to go where she liked. An unwarranted attack on her servants could quite easily be construed as a violation of her rights and privileges - granted by her brother, the Shogun.

Dangerous waters ....

Fortunately, there was another avenue he could follow.

On the orders of the Palace Commandant, the soldiers who had served on the night-watch were hastily a.s.sembled for questioning. Those detailed to guard the gate were able to confirm that an ox-cart carrying eight of Lady Mishiko's servants had been allowed over the drawbridge at about eight in the evening, returning some three hours later.

Since most were known to the soldiers concerned, they had not been required to show gate-pa.s.ses or proof of ident.i.ty - and this was a perfectly normal procedure. The personal servants of Lady Mishiko were regarded as being a cut above the rest, and on a par with those who worked for Yoritomo, and the Lord Chamberlain.

Their testimony, added to that of the inn-keeper's wife, told Shikobu all he needed to know. Lady Mishiko, disguised as one of her own servants, had left the Palace for a secret meeting with Lord Min-Orota at the post-house inn. Something she had learned there had caused her to return, gather, her children and her most trusted servants together, and leave some time during the night. Since no one had pa.s.sed out through the gate since the ox-cart's return and his own departure earlier that morning, she must have left by a ecret pa.s.sageway known only to the Shogun's immediate family.

She had met Lord Min-Orota at a pre-arranged rendezvous, and they had travelled on towards Oshana-sita. It was the only destination that made sense. To escape in secret implied an intention to evade discovery. A journey by sea was the best means to accomplish that.

Somehow, Min-Orota or she had discovered the end-point of the Shogun's present journey and intended to reach AronGiren by boat.

If they succeeded in hiring a vessel and left today, they could reach the Summer Palace before Ieyasu and Yoritomo. Shikobu could only think of one reason for their journey and the secrecy surrounding it. The highly sensitive information Lord Min-Orota claimed to have uncovered at Sara-kusa was not for the Lord Chamberlain. It was about him.

Something damaging ....

That was why the domain-lord had refused to speak to anyone else. And why he had enlisted the help of Lady Mishiko. She was the only one who had direct access to Yoritomo. Anyone else wishing to gain audience had to apply to the Lord Chamberlain's office. More often than not, if their case was accepted, Ieyasu acted as the intermediary or, in the rare event that the supplicant was actually allowed to see the Shogun, Ieyasu was always present. And since Toshiro Hase-Gawa's death, that now included Yoritomo's own select band of messengers- the Heralds.

It was pointless to speculate on what this possibly damaging information might be, but it had to be serious. Serious enough to prompt Lady Mishiko to take her children with her ... to avoid them being held hostage to secure her silence. But it was not too late to act. The officers leading the mounted troops towards Oshana-sita were intelligent and resourceful. If they failed to intercept Min-Orota, they would at least return with every sc.r.a.p of information they could glean about his departure.

None of the war vessels owned by the Toh-Yota were fitted with radios.

These devices were only used by a trusted 'inner circle' of agents less than a tenth of the army of informers employed by the Lord Chamberlain.