Part 57 (1/2)

'They're called rockets - and they used green ones that didn't burst to signal where you had to land when you flew to Ne-Issan...”

'How did you know about that?”

'Clearwater told me. When we were being held by the rortirt. ' 'I still don't see what you're getting at.”

'What you saw was a firework display. Pyrotechnics.

Behind those pretty coioured lights is a combination of chemistry and physics. A force exerted in one direction produces an equal and opposite force in the other direction. It's called ”thrust”.”

'I know about that,' interjected Cadillac. 'It's what the engines of your Skyhawks generate.”

'Exactly,' said Steve. 'Well, the same, propellant charge that pushes up those rockets can be used to put your flying-horses into the air.

All we need is a bigger rocket that packs more punch.”

'Yeah... I see what you mean.” Cadillac mulled the idea over, then eyed Steve. 'How come I didn't think of that?”

'You just did. I only sweep the floors around here.”

Steve waited for a more positive reaction. If someone had handed him an idea like that on a plate he'd have been turning cartwheels. But Cadillac just sat there.

'You don't look convinced.”

'No, it's not that. I can see it has possibilities, but...

won't it be dangerous?”

'Not as dangerous as sitting here on the ground. You said yourself that Min-Orota was showing signs of impatience. If he decides to pull the plug - ' Steve swept a hand round the study - 'you can kiss goodbye to all this.”

'Don't remind me . . .”

'There are risks, obviously. We just have to make sure we get the mixture right. We bench-test small batches of it first, then find a lightweight container that'll hold several pounds of the stuff. Some kind of tube, sealed at one end.

And it must be fireproof, otherwise we could find ourselves with flames coming out of our a.s.s.

'We then attach the tube - we'll probably need several to one of your ground trolleys. We load the trolley with stones to represent the weight of aircraft and pilot, light the blue touch paper and, uhh .

. see what happens.

What we want is a fast even burn. But not too fast. We don't want to rip the wings off.”

'No . . .”

'It's an ideal solution. It'll require a little ingenuity on our part, but it uses available materials, basic engineering skills and - best of all - won't require any major alterations to your existing airframe.

We can just attach them to the underside of the fuselage pod and use a booster on the launching trolley.”

'Launching trolley?”