The Amtrack Wars - Earth Thunder Part 84

Karlstrom introduced the senior officer who rose to meet Steve as he was ushered in. 'This is Torn McFadden, Deputy-Director of AMEXICO."

'How d'you do, sir."

'And your escort was Jo-Anne Casey. One of his a.s.sistants."

'Ma'am." AMEXICO's addiction to secrecy required all staff to remove the Velcro name-tags from their uniforms while working within its sealed headquarters.

Karlstrom left his imposing desk and invited everyone to take one of the armchairs set around a low table in a corner of the room. Jo-Anne poured out cups of Java from a heated jug and handed them round.

'So... did you enjoy the train ride?"

'Yes, sir. It was very instructive. Gave me a chance to see how the other half lives."

'And what exactly do they want you to do in exchange for the Commander's fair hand?" Karlstrom smiled as he saw the question hit home. 'Just a lucky guess. It would be counter-productive to bug the train."

'And next to impossible,' said McFadden. 'It's swept for bugs every time it goes out and their security screen is tighter than a gnat's a.s.s."

Steve turned to Karlstrom. 'So how did you know they'd made me an offer I couldn't refuse?"

'I'll ask the questions, Brickman."

Steve gave them a blow-by-blow account of his meeting with Bull Jefferson, but concealed his knowledge of the facts surrounding his son's birth. Karlstrom pulled and pinched his nose - which was no doubt the reason why it was long and thin. The others just sat back and listened.

As he neared the end of his account, Steve produced the tape streamer device and pushed it across the table.

Karlstrom gave it a cursory glance then pa.s.sed it on to Casey and McFadden.

'My first job is to pull out the list of files and programmes held on AMEXICO's data-base. And they've provided me with a copy of your ID card and your access codes, sir."

'Fine." Karlstrom stifled a yawn. 'Give them whatever they want."

Steve couldn't believe it. 'But, sir - ?!" Karlstrom snapped back to life. 'Brickman! How many times do I have to tell you? The world doesn't revolve around you! This is a big organisation! At any one time we're running a hundred field-ops and scams like this.

Maybe not at this level, I grant you, but we know what we're doing.

'It was only a matter of time before Bull Jefferson tried to get a foot in the door; Everything's set up. They're going to get a long list of files and programmes - but it won't include everything and you won't get it all on this."

Karlstrom picked up the tape-streamer and pa.s.sed it across to Steve.

'You'll need several bites at the cherry. Which is good, because we need to put certain counter-measures in place. So spin it out over the next few months, and build in some suspense. Make them appreciate the effort you're making. The danger, the difficulties, the constant fear of discovery - you know the kind of thing. If you get stuck, Jo-Anne will provide you with a scenario - and she will also be your contact from now on. She'll give you the details of a video-terminal you call up when you need to make contact." He stood up. 'That clear?"

Steve jumped to attention. 'Yes, sir!" 'Good. Well done." Karlstrom skirted the table and gripped Steve's left arm briefly. It was the first informal physical contact he'd ever made, and its warmth took Steve by surprise.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

Clearwater's return in exchange for Fran gave Cadillac an immense amount of satisfaction. It could not have been achieved without Roz's help, but if he had not ignored her initially scornful reaction to the idea, Clearwater and her child would still have been prisoners of the Federation. Knowing that he had also stolen a feather from Steve's cap made him feel even better.

All his rival had to do now was save himself- a.s.suming he still wanted to. In the past Steve's true motives had been open to question, but Cadillac was now more than ready to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Roz's unshakeable faith in her kin-brother and the conciliatory mood of his last meeting with Brickman, had caused him to take a hard look at himself. For the first time in his life, he was now able to admit that his own peculiar blend of pride, arrogance, insecurity and vaulting ambition had been the root cause of much of the trouble between them.

The destruction of The Lady from Louisiana and Roz's arrival had marked a new beginning, a chance to remake himself from the inside out. And despite the occasional twinge of jealousy, Cadillac had made remarkable progress. In expressing the hope that Steve would find a way to rejoin them, he was being perfectly sincere.

Steve was, after all, the fourth Chosen One. Despite the arguments and the bitterness they had proved they could work together in the past and they would do so again.

Only this time their relationship would be on a different footing. The sheer brilliance with which he had conceived and executed the plan to destabilise Ne-Issan would force his longtime detractor to accept him as an equal.

At the beginning of their relationship when they had used bits and pieces salvaged from wrecked Skyhawks to build the powered hang-glider on which Steve had then taught him to fly, there had been a period of real rapport.

It was Steve's involvement with Clearwater which had sown the seeds of distrust. In the interval between that painful episode and now, Cadillac had come to understand that the betrayal - in which his ex-soulmate had been a willing accessory - was part of a larger pattern of events; a pre-destined step along The Path which had led to Clearwater's journey into the Federation and the appearance of his true life-partner - Roz.

Bringing the four of them together was more than a question of simple symmetry. Despite the bitter words that had pa.s.sed between them, Steve was the only close male companion - apart from Mr Snow - that Cadillac had ever had. The 'otherness' of his straight-boned body and unblemished skin, and the fact he had been chosen as the next wordsmith of the M'Calls, had always distanced him from his clan-brothers. They had shown respect for his status, but his peer group had cruelly mocked his appearance as a child and later, on entering manhood, they had treated him with benign disdain for not being a true warrior.

Brickman had been no better, but in a different, more exciting way.

Having expressed his grat.i.tude for being pulled from the burning wreckage of his Skyhawk, he had proceeded to show him absolutely no respect at all.

He had challenged every a.s.sumption, questioned every decision, demanded endless explanations - and had even muscled in on his own pupil-teacher relationship with Mr Snow.

Cadillac had borne all this - though not always n.o.bly because he regarded Brickman as his intellectual equal.

A stimulating companion and thorn in his side, whose own courage and daring had set the standard by which he now measured himself. The loving partnership with Roz had given him a new a.s.surance and sense of completeness, but there was still a gap which only Steve could fill: the deep-seated bond between male warriors who have faced danger and death together.

A similar bond united Roz and Clearwater. A bond which went far beyond the spoken word. They were soul-sisters, twin spirits united in mind and body by a shared destiny and the pain and joy of motherhood.

Clearwater had given birth to a child she would never see, the dark star whose life-task was to destroy the Federation from within, and now Roz carried the other half of this cosmic equation, Talisman, the Shining One, who would become the saviour of the Plainfolk.

For the moment, this knowledge was theirs alone.

Cadillac did not know that Roz was pregnant, or that Sand-Wolf was not Clearwater's true son. Which was just as well, because he had more than enough to occupy his mind - namely when they should leave Ne-Issan, what they should demand by way-of payment, and how they should deal with any attempt by the Yamas.h.i.ta to double-cross them.

Given the services they had rendered to the Yamas.h.i.ta, they should have been able to sleep easily in their beds, but Cadillac did not wholly trust their hosts, or any dead-face for that matter. His familiarity with their language and customs had enabled him to detect a subtle shift in their hosts' demeanour since returning with their grisly trophies from the Summer Palace, and it had made him reallse - more forcibly than ever the unbridgeable gulf that lay between Iron Master and Mute.

They might have made him an honorary samurai, but it was nothing more than a convenient device to circ.u.mvent protocol and facilitate face-to-face discussions on how to remove the Shogun. In all other respects, he, Roz and Clearwater were still regarded as non-persons.

The Iron Masters' sense of superiority did not flow from their territorial conquests or their social preeminence.

It sprang from an inner cert.i.tude, and was so deeply engrained in their psyche, it could not be eradicated by a military defeat. When the Plainfolk finally became a nation and their warriors swept into the Eastern Lands to liberate the Lost Ones, the Iron Masters would die with a contemptuous sneer on their lips rather than submit.

It was a pity. Putting his taste for sake on one side, there were many positive and pleasureable aspects to Iron Master society that he was loth to abandon.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Clearwater and Roz. Both were anxious to return to the Plainfolk, and the combined pressure was irresistible. After spending weeks in alien environments in constant danger of one kind or another, they longed for the moment when they could let their minds relax and their guard drop - secure in the knowledge that they were among their own kind. Flying north with Sand-Wolf, knowing that she would soon be gaining her freedom, had been a wonderful moment for Clearwater. No one had told her she was to be handed over to the Yama-s.h.i.ta family at the borders of Ne-Issan.

Finding herself a house-guest in the Sarakusa Palace had been the second unpleasant surprise.

In setting up the exchange, Cadillac had completely overlooked the possibility that someone might recognise Clearwater as the 'white witch' who had killed Lord Hirohito Yama-s.h.i.ta and dozens of his compatriots at the Heron Pool, just as Lord Min-Orota had eventually seen through his own disguise.