The Amtrack Wars - Earth Thunder Part 19

Steering a parallel course to the chain of islands that fringed the northern edge of Lake Huron, s.h.i.+gari's vessel entered Georgian Bay via the Lucas Channel and headed south-east into the smaller Nottawasaga Bay, making landfall at navref Collingwood.

The first Iron Master cartographers, who had based their maps on a carefully-preserved copy of the Millennium Edition of the Rand McNally Road Atlas of the United States, Canada and Mexico, had revised the spelling of all place names to suit their mother-tongue and Collingwood was now known as KorinaGawu.

There was no Iron Master presence here, and nothing remained of the pre-Holocaust towns.h.i.+p, but the area had been explored by surveyors and engineers despatched by the Yama-s.h.i.+ta family, to study the feasability of cutting a new ca.n.a.l across the hinterland to shorten the sea journey to the trading post at Du-Aruta (Duluth, Minnesota).

The surveying teams concluded that it was indeed possible but that it would require a great deal of time and money. If other road-building and construction projects were not to suffer, a huge new labour force would have to be recruited. The Chinese accountants working for the Yama-s.h.i.+ta family rattled the sums around on their abacuses and decided they didn't add up.

Even if an unpaid labour force could be mobilised, they still had to be fed. The slavemasters and construction supervisors had to be fed and paid. There were material costs, and when the ca.n.a.l was completed, the twelve ma.s.sive locks required to compensate for the three hundred and thirty foot difference in the level of the two bodies of water would have to be manned and maintained 365 days a year.

Given the then-current vessel throughput, the savings on s.h.i.+pping costs in terms of reduced journey times would only compensate for a fraction of the costs involved. To balance the books, trading revenues from the Great Lakes would have to increase by some 300 per cent over the next three years and 15 per cent annually thereafter.

Even if a home market could be found, the Mutes could not produce the volume of raw materials required without a radical alteration, in their life-style. They would, to put it bluntly, have to start working.

The project was shelved. The samurai n.o.bles might regard the merchant cla.s.ses as their social inferiors, but they liked to keep the coffers well filled by taxing everything in sight. Making money was as important as dying a 'good death'. Poverty was a condition to be borne uncomplainingly by the lower cla.s.ses, and any samurai who fell on hard times. These unfortunates who lost all social standing usually joined the ranks of the ronin roving bands of cut-throats and brigands who preyed on the road-convoys and outlying estates.

It was this abortive accounting exercise that led the late Domain-Lord Hirohito Yama-s.h.i.+ta to draw up his plan to divide and conquer the Plainfolk by setting the D'Troit and C'Natti against the other bloodlines. It would have provided the required ma.s.sive new labour force, and permitted the exploitation of the natural and mineral wealth of the interior, providing the revenues the accountants required.

And it was this very same plan which his successor, Acting Regent Ais.h.i.+ Sakimoto, had tried to implement - with insufficient preparation and with disastrous consequences.

That was why Saldmoto had been greatly heartened by the arrival of the carrier-pigeon from the Cheboygan out-station concerning the appearance of Samurai-General s.h.i.+noda and Samurai-Major Mitsunari.

Now, at last, he and the family council might get the chance of hearing what had happened from the horse's mouth, instead of having to make sense of the conflicting reports gathered from clans belonging to the routed D'Troit faction - the equivalent, in Sakimoto's view, of putting one's ear to the horse's a.s.s.

s.h.i.+noda and the injured Mitsunari would be landed at Korina-gawu. From there they would ride south-east by east across the hinterland to O-shawa on Lake Onataryo.

Sakimoto had already despatched a wheel-boat to await their arrival.

Once safely aboard, they would cross to the small port of Osa-wego on the eastern sh.o.r.e of the lake, some thirty miles from their final destination - the palace at Sarakusa.

At Osa-wego, the returning samurai would be received with the honour due to their rank by two junior members of the Yama-s.h.i.+ta family council and the usual clutch of local dignitaries, before proceeding along the river and ca.n.a.l system to the Yama-s.h.i.+ta's palace-fortress on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Oneida.

And then the questioning would begin ....

As Cadillac and Roz watched the small house-boat turn about and start its 250 mile trip back to Cheboygan, they knew that s.h.i.+gari had arranged for a second pick-up-boat at Oshawa.

Using the hand-drawn route map he had provided, they encountered no major difficulty in finding their way to the western edge of Lake Ona-taryo. The horses had been fed and rested while on the boat, but it still took three days to travel the eighty odd miles from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e. Riders and mounts had already come a h.e.l.l of a long way - seven hundred pain-filled miles; far enough to convince Cadillac and Roz that they might die from saddle-soreness before reaching Ne-Issan. When they boarded s.h.i.+gari's house-boat and fell prey to motion-sickness, there were times they wished they had.

Cadillac had tried to plan for every eventuality but he was not prepared for the extent of the reception that awaited them at Osa-wego.

As the pick-up-boat came alongside the jetty and a gangway was manoeuvred into place, a number of well-dressed men and women - about fifteen or so - came aboard, accompanied by six men-at-arms, two of whom carried long poles bearing the black and silver house-flag of the Yamas.h.i.+ta.

Cadillac, watching the scene below through the side window of the wheel-house, said: 'I think we may be in trouble."

Roz peeked round his shoulder. 'Is that a reception committee?

Heavens! Do you think they might know us?

I mean, s.h.i.+noda and Mitsunari?"

'They're bound to, this close to. home." Cadillac frowned. 'A couple of those women are little more than girls and see - there's a boy amongst them." He slapped the hilt of his sword. 'Sweet Sky Mother!

Do you think they could be our wives?!" 'Don't ask me. You're the one who "read" their clothes."

'I just got a feel for the man, not his date of birth and the details of his domestic life!" 'You got the names..."

'The names were painted inside the rim of their helmets!" 'And here was I thinking how amazingly gifted you were..."

'Look! Another time, okay?!" Cadillac broke off and paced about the empty wheel-house. 'What a pill! It didn't matter with that crew from Cheboygan and these guys. As long as we looked the part it was good enough.

What the h.e.l.l are we going to do?!" 'The first thing we're going to do is calm down,' said Roz. 'If I can get inside their heads fast enough, there shouldn't be a problem. They're all expecting to see s.h.i.+noda ,and Mitsunari, so their mental image of them should be at the forefront of their minds. There may be a slight hiccup, but once I get a grip on 'em we'll be ' 'Sure. And don't forget to make them think this junk I'm wearing is a perfect fit. You look pretty good, but I must be almost a head taller than s.h.i.+noda."

The sudden return of Cadillac's confidence made Roz smile. He loved giving orders. 'You're probably bigger all round. His wife might like that."

'Roz! Be serious!" He motioned her to silence as he heard footsteps on the stairs.

It was the captain of the pick-up-boat. Roz trapped his mind as he came into view. Bowing from the waist, he begged leave to inform them that Tojo and Akori Yamas.h.i.+ta were waiting to greet them in the small stateroom below. Would they be gracious enough to descend...?

Cadillac silently invited Roz to precede him.

Iron Master protocol saved the day. Only the two council members were in the room when Roz and Cadillac entered, strode forward and bowed deeply from the waist. Tojo and Akori experienced a momentary sensation of unease then relaxed as Roz cast her spell, trapping their minds like flies in a spider's web. Within seconds she had the information she needed to cloak themselves in the true likenesses of s.h.i.+noda and Mit-sunari.

Since the s.h.i.+p's captain had already given him the names of the two family councillors, Cadillac was able to coast through the welcoming formalities, skilfully extracting a great deal of useful information about Ais.h.i.+ Sakimoto the acting regent, and the other members of the reception committee. Most important of all, Cadillac succeeded in teasing out the names of the well-bred women who were anxiously waiting to be reunited with their soldier-husbands.

But first, said Tojo, there were the local dignitaries who were eager to have the opportunity of welcoming their ill.u.s.trious personages on behalf of the townspeople of Osawego.

To jo and Akori had already been obliged to endure the same rigmarole.

Two members of the Yama-s.h.i.+ta family, an army general and a regimental commander all in one day const.i.tuted a major event.

Hastily-commissioned commemorative scrolls were presented to Cadillac and Roz, together with small beautifully-wrapped gifts as a mark of grat.i.tude for honouring the town with-their presence.

Cadillac was gratified to discover they had also brought along several bottles of their best sake to drink to the health and safe return of all concerned, and to pledge their unswerving loyalty to the House of Yamas.h.i.+ta.

Tojo and Akori allowed the Osa-wego reception committee one big swallow each then dismissed them, ordered the captain to get the boat underway and invited Cadillac and Roz to join them in some serious drinking on a strictly man-to-man basis.

Refilling their cups to the brim, Tojo said: 'This may sound rather odd, but when you first came into the room, I didn't recognise you. In fact I could swear you looked completely different to the way you do now."

'Indeed? In what way?" enquired Cadillac. He and Roz were now sitting cross-legged facing their two hosts.

'It's hard to say." Tojo appealed to his cousin, Akori.

'Did you not notice anything?"

'Well, yes, since you mention it, I did." Akori faced his guests with a baffled frown. 'You both seemed a lot taller, but now ' Cadillac exchanged a sideways glance with Roz. 'It must have been a trick of the mind, sire."

The palace-fortress of the Yama-s.h.i.+ta family stood near the western end of Lake O-neida, several miles northeast of Sara-kusa. The Iron Master town with its bustling streets had taken its name from the pre-H city of Syracuse, but had been built around a loop in the ca.n.a.l linking Lake Erie with the Hudson River, some distance from the buried remains of its predecessor. Lake Oneida - a twenty-mile-long stretch of water was part of this liquid highway. Wheel-boats of every shape and size and barges carrying cargoes of every description pa.s.sed in a constant two-way flow beneath the palace ramparts.

The port of Osa-wego was also linked to this inland waterway by the river of that name and it was along this that the vessel carrying Cadillac and Roz now sailed. A left turn at the junction with the main east-west ca.n.a.l led them into the lake and directly to the stepped stone jetty below the palace.