The Dark Design by Phillip Jose Farmer

Moreover, he wanted revenge. He wanted to track and then to catch up with and destroy King John for having robbed him of his first boat, his first love, the Not For Hire.

It might take forty years to get from Parolando to the mountains that ringed the polar sea. Sam did not care. Not only would he be the revered owner and operator of the biggest and most beautiful River-boat mankind had ever seen, he would be going on the longest voyage any vessel, bar none, had ever taken. Forty years! Put that in your pipe, Columbus, Magellan, and smoke it!

Also, he would be seeing and talking to hundreds of thousands. This delighted Sam, who was as curious about human beings as a housewife was about new neighbors.

If he went in an airship he would have no strangers to talk to.

Though Firebrass was as gregarious as a flock of ducks, he did not understand this attitude. He himself was too eager to solve the mystery of the tower. The key to all that puzzled humanity might be there.

He did not point out to Clemens what he believed to be his real reason for his objections to the airship. It would do no good. Sam would look him straight in the eye and deny everything. However, Sam did know that he was in the wrong. And so, sixty days before the Mark Twain was to depart, he called Firebrass in.

“After I leave, you can build your highly inflammable folly, if you insist on it. Of course, that means you’ll have to resign as chief engineer of the most magnificent creation of man. But you must use the dirigible for observation only, as a scout.”

“Why?”

“Now how by the brass balls of burning Baal could it be used for anything else but that? It can’t land on the tower or anyplace else, can it? According to Joe Miller, the mountains are sheer and there’s no beach. And . . .”

“How would Joe know there’s no beach? The sea was covered by fog. All he saw was the upper part of the tower.”

Sam had puffed smoke that looked like angry dragons. “It stands to reason the people that made that sea wouldn’t make a beach. Would they make a place from which invaders could launch a boat? Of course not.

“Anyway, what I want you to do is to find out the lay of the land. See if there’s a passage through the mountains other than what Joe described. Find out if the tower can be entered otherwise than by the roof.”

Firebrass had not argued. He would do what he wished to do when he got to the pole. Clemens would have no control of him then.

“I took off then, happy as a dog that’s rid of his fleas. I told von Parseval about Sam’s decision, and we had a big celebration. But two months later poor old August was swallowed by a dragonfish. I barely missed going down its gullet with him.”

At this point in his story, Firebrass revealed a secret to Jill.

“You must swear by your honor not to tell anyone else. I wouldn’t be telling you, except that the boat is long gone, and there’s no way you could get the information to King John. Not that you would, of course.”

“I promise to keep it to myself-whatever it is.”

“Well.,. one of our engineers was a Californian scientist. He knew how to make a laser with a range of 404 meters. Within that distance, it could slice the Rex in two. And we had just enough materials to make one. So Sam had it done.

“It was a highly secret project, so secret that there are only six men on the Mark Twain who know of its existence. The laser is concealed in a compartment known only to these six, of whom Sam is one, of course. Even his buddy, Joe, doesn’t know about it.

“When the Mark Twain catches up with the Rex, the laser will be brought out and mounted on a tripod. The battle ought to be short and sweet. Sweet for Sam, bitterly short for John. It’ll also cut down the casualties tremendously for both sides.