THE MAGIC LABYRINTH

"De Marbot here. Is the captain occupied?"

"I'm listening, Marc!" Sam said. "What's happened?"

"The laser has been blown up! It's totally destroyed! The entire guard, including Fermor, was killed, and so were four crewmen who came upon the scene. The guards were blown up; the crewmen were gu

Sam groaned. For a moment, he thought he was going to faint. He steadied himself with a hand against the bulkhead.

Byron said, "Are you all right, sir?"

Byron looked as pale as Sam felt. But he showed no evidence of hysteria. Sam straightened up, took a deep breath, and said, "I'm okay. Son of a blazing bitch! I should have had twenty men guarding that! I should have brought it up sooner! Now our ace in the hole is gone! And John didn't have a chance with it! Never overlook the human factor, Byron!"

Byron said, "No, sir. I suggest..."

"That we send search parties looking for the bastard? Or bastards? They'll be back at their posts by now. Maybe. Maybe they're pla

"And start checking the stations. See if anybody left his post for any reason whatever. There may be some i

"Aye, aye, sir!" Byron said, and he began calling the stations by number.

"Enemy vessel is five miles away, Captain," the chief radar operator called. "Traveling at fifty-five miles per hour."

The Rex had a top speed of forty-five miles per hour in still water and no headwinds. Aided by the current and the wind, it was going at a speed equal to the Not For Hire's.

"Any indication of the Goose!" Sam said.

"Nothing sir."

Sam looked at the chronometer. The big plane should still be flying alongside the mountains, hugging the top of the trees, down below the forest whenever possible. But it would not be attacking the Rex by itself. Its orders were to wait until the Rex was engaged with the motherboat. Then, while John's crew was occupied with firing upon the enemy; the Goose would come roaring out across the trees, swoop down to The River, and make a run for the broadside of the Rex. If John had had any sense, he would have held back his own torpedo plane until the full-scale battle started.

But then John had hoped that the people on the Not For Hire would be so busy watching the aerial fight that they would be taken by surprise.

"Enemy vessel four miles away, Captain. Dead ahead."

Sam lit another cigar and asked the medic to put some salve on his chin-burn. Smollett did so, and then Clemens stood by the starboard port, watching the smoke clouds rising from the fires on the left bank about a quarter of a mile ahead. Flames were eating the bamboo, pine, and yew structures. Pieces lifted off the blaze, carried by the wind, and landed on the bridges and houses. People were scurrying around, carrying belongings out of burning houses or climbing down ladders before the fire got to them. Others had formed lines, dipping their grails and fired-clay buckets into The River, passing the containers along to the other end, where the water was thrown onto the fires at the bases. That was a hopeless procedure; there was nothing to do but let the fire go. Apparently half of the sightseers had decided to do that. They thronged to the plains, where there were a few buildings and continued to wait for the meeting of the boats.

"Before we're done, we'll have leveled Virolando," Sam said to no one in particular. "We won't be very popular here."

"Enemy is three miles away, sir."

Sam walked to the intercom, where Byron was still talking to the stations. Joe/s huge bulk came up behind him, and Sam could smell the bourbon emanating from the enormous nose. The titanthrop always liked to take several belts before a fight. It wasn't that he needed Dutch courage, he explained. It was just for his stomach's sake. It quieted the "butterflies."

"Bethideth, Tham, I need lotth of enerchy. You thaid alcohol giveth enerchy. My body burnth it up like a motor burnth fuel. And I got a big body." ‘

"Yeah, but a whole fifth?"

Byron looked at him. "So far, nobody's been away from his post."

"Vhat if they had to take a pithth?" Joe said. "I alvayth have to pithth a lot chutht before a fight. No matter how brave I am, and I am, I get tenthe. It ain't nervouthneth. Chutht tenthion."

"And of course all that booze doesn't have a thing to do with it," Sam said. "If I had a fifth in me, I wouldn't be able to get out of the toilet. In fact, I'd be lucky if I could find it."

"The vhiskey dearth my kidneyth. Clear kidneyth; clear head. My head, I mean, not the boat'th head."

"Both heads have a lot in common," Sam said. "The toilet's got pipes full of water, and you have water on the brain."

"You're chuth talking nathty becauthe you're nervouth," Joe said. He patted Sam on the shoulder with fingers the size of bananas.

"Don't get familiar with the captain," Sam said: But he felt better. Joe loved him, and he would always be at his side. Could anything bad happen to him while that monster was guarding him? Yes. The boat could be destroyed, Joe or no Joe.

31

THE REX GRANDISSIMUS WAS VISIBLE BY NOW, A WHITE INDIStinct mass moving toward him. As minutes passed, it became sharper. For a moment, Sam Clemens felt a pain in his breast. The Rex had been his first boat, his first love. He had fought to get the metal for it, killed, even slain one of his colleagues for it—where was Erik Bloodaxe now?—helped plan it down to the least bolt, and all that killing and battling and struggle had been negated when King John had stolen it. Now it was his greatest adversary. It was a pity to have to destroy that craft, one of the only two of its kind on the whole planet.

He hated John even more because he was forcing him to sink the beauty. Maybe, though, just maybe the Rex could be boarded and taken. Then both boats could sail on up The River to its headwaters.

Sam had always seesawed from deepest pessimism to wildest optimism.

"Two and a half miles now," the radar operator said.

"Any blips on the Goosel"

"No... yes, sir! Got some! It's three miles to the starboard, just above the hills!"

"Sir, the enemy vessel is turning to starboard," the radarman said.

Sam looked out the fore port. Sure enough, the Rex was swinging around. And as the Not For Hire plowed toward it, the Rex presented its stern.

"Vhat in hell'th he doing?"

"He can't be ru

"Perhaps," Detweiller said, "the Rex has some mechanical difficulty?"

"If it does, we can catch it," Sam said. "Radar, check its speed."

"Enemy vessel is making thirty-five miles per hour, due west, sir."

"Against the current and wind, that's top speed," Sam said. "There's nothing wrong with it. Nothing I can see, anyway. Why in blue jumping blazes are they ru

Sam paused, rolling his eyes as if they were looking for an idea. He said, "Sonar! Do you pick up any foreign object! Say, something that could be a mine?"

"No, sir. All clear underwater except for some schools of fish."

"It'd be just like John to make some mines and scatter them in our path," Sam said. "I'd do it myself if the situations were reversed."

"Yeth, but he knowth ve have thonar."

"I'd try it anyway. Sparks, tell Anderson to hold off until we're engaged or until further orders."