The Amtrack Wars - Earth Thunder Part 40

There was little that could be done to intercept the boat, but it could be met on arrival. Forewarned was forearmed. Lady Mishiko may have slipped away but she had yet to reach the Summer Palace. All was not lost. Shikobu hurried towards the secret communications room, mentally composing the message he would send to his master ....

By nightfall, the stormy weather had eased noticeably but the the junk was still rolling several degrees and shipping water as she nosed down into the troughs between the waves that angled in across her bows.

After sharing dinner, Steve retired to his own cabin as Fran, in her role of Commander, bade him a frosty goodnight. Still plagued by motion-sickness, she had only pecked at her food. Steve, by contrast, had made a point of clearing the decks - a fact that probably contributed to her ill-humour.

Sometime after his mind had filtered out the steady beat of the engine, allowing him to doze off, he was woken by a sudden coldness on his back.

'It's only me,' a familiar voice whispered.

With the shutters closed, it was pitch dark. Steve turned obligingly as Fran dropped the coverlet back into place and wriggled her naked body into close contact with his. She slid her right arm under and round his neck and used her other hand to pull him half on top of her so that they lay with legs entwined. The heat in the high point of her pelvis started a fire in his loins.

'I couldn't sleep,' she whispered. 'The thought of floating on a few pieces of wood with all that water beneath us." A shudder ran through her body. 'Hold me.

Please!" This was Fran at her most vulnerable. Make the most of it, Brickman. Score a few brownie points while you've got the chance.

Slowed at the onset of their voyage by the same bad weather that was giving Fran her first taste of seasickness, the junk carrying Cadillac, Roz and Lady Mishiko took nearly thirty-five hours to cover the two hundred and twenty-five miles between Oshana-sita and Aron-Giren. By the time the look-out in the crows-nest sighted the coastline, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the wind was no longer whipping clouds of spray from the white-capped waves - a sign that Lord Min-Orota took as a good omen as he and his entourage prepared to leave.

Cadillac and Roz had already agreed with his suggestion that he could be of more service to the Progressive cause by returning to his domain and readying his troops to answer the call to arms that would follow the deaths of the Shogun and Ieyasu. It was also a move which put him well out of the line of fire if anything went wrong - but only temporarily. If the plan came unglued he was one of the first people the Toh-Yota would come looking for.

Bidding a fond farewell to Lady Mishiko, the domain-lord transferred to the second vessel that had been following in their wake, and sailed away on an easterly course that would take his party beyond the reach of any coastal patrols mounted by the TohYota.

With the light now fading rapidly, the junk captain pressed on towards the channel between the two long, overlapping sand-bars that protected the southern sh.o.r.e of Aron-Giren from the waves of the Great Eastern Sea.

His objective was the harbour at Bei-shura, but as they neared the entrance to the long coastal lagoon, a junk flying the house flag of the Toh-Yota and the long blue and white pennant which marked it out as a naval vessel came into view. It was moving on a course that would bring it across their bow. A red signal rocket, fired from its for'sle, soared into the sky - the order to heave-to and prepare to receive a boarding party.

The throbbing beat of the steam engine slowed, and from the deck above came a shouted command to haul in the big square-cut sail.

Cadillac and Roz watched the navy boat turn and head towards them on the seaward side. 'Well, we expected trouble,' said Cadillac. 'And I think this is it .... ' A sea voyage was the only way of getting to the Summer Palace before .Ieyasu and the Shogun arrived by road, but from the outset Cadillac and Roz had known that the Chamberlain would always be able to stay one jump ahead if, as they believed, he was linked by radio to the Winter Palace. If this was so, then there was bound to be a similar set-up at the Summer Palace on AronGiren.

With virtually instantaneous communication between all three points, it would not take long to organise a blockade of the island, and the ship now bearing down on them was proof that Ieyasu was trying to head off trouble.

It now looked as if Lord Min-Orota's sudden departure from the post-house had been discovered and tied in with Lady Mishiko's disappearance from her quarters.

They had also been tracked to Oshana-sita. With every vessel logged in and out of port, it would not take long to establish the ident.i.ty of the two junks they had boarded. Min-Orota had given the destination of both vessels as Bo-sona, but someone had clearly decided not to take any chances, teyasu had been alerted, and he had contacted whoever was manning the radio at the Summer Palace and ordered them to intercept all in-coming boats from the south.

Cadillac was still wondering what to do when Lady Mishiko joined them at the starboard window. Roz shifted to the right to make room for her. The window was stepped out from the hull, allowing them a view forward along the side of the ship. They watched in silence as the navy ship swung about to bring her bow in line with the junk's and threw her engine into reverse.

The sea boiled under her stern as she came to a dead stop some fifty yards away.

The six pillar-mounted deck-cannon s.p.a.ced along the port side were manned and aimed at the junk. They looked too puny to do any serious damage to the hull bfit, loaded with grapeshot, they were probably highly effective at clearing decks of hostile crewmen.

An oar-boat containing five men was lowered into the calm water between the two vessels. The crew of the junk dropped a rope ladder over the side and the captain got his papers ready to show the boarding party.

'Two of my guards are on deck,' said Lady Mishiko. 'They will warn us if we are in any danger."

'Good." Cadillac gave Roz a questioning glance. She nodded rea.s.suringly.

'This may be a routine inspection,' said Lady Mishiko.

'On the other hand, these men may have been ordered to prevent me landing, or take me into protective custody.

When we discussed the possible moves open to Ieyasu, those two seemed the most likely - but I have since thought of another which would be even more effective."

'And what is that, your highness?"

'Rather than risk half-measures that might cause difficulties later, he might have decided it would be safer for him if I never saw my brother again. I am travelling under an a.s.sumed name. Apart from Ieyasu's men, no one knows I am here. It would be relatively easy to arrange for this ship to be lost at sea - with all hands."

Roz saw Cadillac react uneasily. Whatever Mishiko had said was clearly bad news, but since they were speaking j.a.panese, she didn't know what it was.

'I hadn't thought of that. It is indeed effective. But it is also a very drastic solution. Would the Chamberlain dare do such a thing?

His suspicions may have been aroused, but surely he would not try and murder you without trying to ascertain the real reason for this journey?"

'You do not know my great-uncle,' said Mishiko. 'We call him the Old Fox. He is ruthless, cunning, but also very cautious. There is a saying from the World Before which had always guided his actions.

"Better to be safe than sorry"."

Cadillac nodded, then said: 'Please excuse us, your highness. I would like to have a brief word with my companion in private."

Beckoning Roz to follow, he led the way into the adjoining cabin, and gave her a whispered translation of this latest exchange with Mishiko.

'So what do you want me to do?"

'Nothing as yet. I just want you to understand what could be about to happen so we can react in the appropriate manner as and when the time comes."

'I'll do my best,' said Roz. 'Just so long as you understand that I can't solve every problem we run into! I can react pretty quickly, but it would make things a lot easier if I had some kind of advance warning. If I see or feel us getting into a threatening situation I can do something about it, but most of the time I don't have a clue what's going on because you don't explain enough, and I can't understand a word anyone's saying! And it's very frustrating!" 'I know, you already told me."

'Well, I'm just reminding you! All I can do is to entrap the minds of the navy men who have boarded this boat- if they threaten our safety and providing they stay together.

But even if I manage to neutralise them, I can't stop their shipmates firing those cannon at us!" 'Yehh, point taken. Let's hope she's wrong and I'm right."

Lady Mishiko appeared in the doorway. 'They're leaving!" Cadillac gave Roz a whispered translation then followed Mishiko over to the starboard window.

It was true. The long-boat containing the boarding party was making its way back to the Toh-Yota patrol ship. A few moments later, one of Mishiko's guards admitted the captain.

Cadillac and Roz, secure in their disguise, remained in the background while Mishiko listened to the captain's account of what had happened on deck. After checking the ship's papers and the master's licence, the officer in charge of the boarding-party had informed the captain that because of a rumoured coup attempt by the Yamas.h.i.ta, all incoming vessels were being directed towards five 'controlled' harbours. On docking, the ship and its cargo would be thoroughly searched; any pa.s.sengers intending to disembark would only be allowed to do so if their papers were in order, and if they could show good reason for coming to AronGiren.

Cadillac cursed silently. He and Roz didn't have any papers. It simply hadn't occurred to him that they might need them.

The captain continued to recite the orders he had been given. His junk was required to dock at Bei-shura, but because of the backlog of vessels awaiting inspection, it would have to take its place in the queue. As soon as the junk was underway, the patrol ship would lead it through the channel into the bay where it was to anchor overnight. Any further orders, or information about when they would be able to dock, would be issued in the morning.

Mishiko accepted this with a regal nod. 'Did they examine the pa.s.senger list?"

'No, ma'am. And they did not check the cargo manifest.

They simply enquired what I was carrying. I told them I had a number of pa.s.sengers on board together men, women and children - with their personal baggage, plus a small amount of commercial cargo in the forward hold."

'And they did not ask how many of us there were, nor seek to discover our ident.i.ties?"