Sam stopped pacing and looked at John. John had been thinking. Shadows would be moving inside shadows; daggers would be unsheathed; the air would get gray and chill with stealth and intrigue; blood would spurt. And the sleeping would do well to stir.
“I do not say that I have been in contact with Iyeyasu, our powerful neighbor to the north,” John said. He was slumped down in the tall-backed red leather-covered chair and staring into the purple passion in the tilted stem.
“But I have information, or means of getting it. I am certain that Iyeyasu, who feels very strong indeed, would like to acquire even more territory. And he would like to do us a favor. In return for certain payments, of course. Say, an amphibian and a flying machine? He is wild to fly one of those himself, you know? Or didn’t you?
“If he attacked Selinujo, Hacking could not blame us. And if Soul City and Iyeyasujo fought, and Soul City was destroyed and Iyeyasujo weakened, how could that fail to benefit us? Moreover, I happen to have learned that Chernsky has made a secret compact with Soul City and Tifonujo to fight if any of them are invaded by Iyeyasu. Certainly, the resultant carnage would find them weakened and us strengthened. We could then take them over or at least do what we wished without interference. In any case, we would ensure that we had uncontrolled access to the bauxite and the tungsten.”
That skull under that mass of tawny hair must hold a thundermugful of worms. Worms that fed on corruption and intrigue and deviousness. He was so crooked, he was admirable.
“Did you ever meet yourself coming around a corner?” Sam said.
“What?” John said, looking up. “Is this another of your unintelligible insults?”
“Believe me, it’s as close to a compliment as you’ll ever get—from me. Of course, it’s all hypothetical. But if lyeyasu did attack Selinujo, what excuse would he have? They’ve never offended him, and they’re sixty miles away from him on our side of The River.”
“When did one nation ever need a reasonable excuse for invasion?” John said. “But the fact is that Selinujo keeps sending missionaries into lyeyasujo, though he has kicked out all Chancers. Since Selinujo won’t stop doing this, then … ”
“Well,” Sam said, “I couldn’t let Parolando get involved in a deal like this. But if lyeyasu decides on Ms own to fight, there’s nothing we can do about it.” “And you call me dishonest!”
“There’s nothing I could do about it!” Sam said, clamping down on his cigar. “Nothing! And if something develops that’s good for the boat,. then we’ll take advantage of it.”
“The shipments from Soul City would be held up while the fighting was going on,” John said.
“We’ve got enough stock to keep going for a week. The big worry would be wood. Maybe lyeyasu would be able to keep that coming even with a war going on, since the fighting will be south of us. We could handle the chopping and transportation ourselves. If he didn’t intend to invade for a couple of weeks, we could lay in extra stocks of ore from Soul City by offering them increased payments. Maybe promise them an airplane, the APM-1. That’s just a toy, now that we’ve almost got our first amphibian airplane finished. All this is hypothetical, you understand?”
“I understand,” John said. He was not trying to mask his contempt.
Sam felt like shouting at him that he had no right to be contemptuous. Whose idea had it been, anyway?
It was the next day that the three chief engineers were killed.
Sam was there when it happened. He was standing on the scaffolding by the starboard side of the boat, looking down into the open hull. The colossal steam crane was lifting the immense electric motor which would be driving the port paddle-wheel. The motor had been moved during the night from the big building where it had been built The moving had taken over eight hours and had been effected by the crane, which also had a gigantic winch. The winch, plus hundreds of men pulling on cables, had pulled the motor on its big car, which moved on steel rails.