The belly jets of the Rocket fired. Zachariah checked his gauges. He didn’t see

  anything else reading funny. They might have a chance to catch up after all.

  The official waved at him to launch from outside the zone of debris being pushed by

  the jets. He pointed in the direction of travel. Zachariah waved back that he

  understood and hovered into position. Then he switched jets and barreled after the

  other racers in the air.

  “That was a dirty trick to clog the intake,” said Bolan.

  “It’s all right,” said Zachariah. He pushed the throttle wide open. “I think Gold Bug

  reworked the jets to give us a bit of extra speed.”

  “How much extra?,” asked Bolan. His gaze turned to the number cubes flipping on

  their spokes.

  “I don’t know,” said Zachariah. “We’re about to hit our upper limit. We’ll see what

  happens after that.”

  “We’re going to catch up to the leaders?,” said Sola. “We’re moving fast across the

  map.”

  The picture cubes changed faster than she could read them. She checked the compass.

  It held steady.

  A vibration ran through the Rocket. Zachariah looked at his gauges. The machine

  flew at the top of the board, but seemed to be flying faster than that. He glanced at

  Gold Bug. The ant waved his antennae from his place on the machinist’s shoulder.

  “Bolan,” said Zachariah. “Look out the sides of the window for me.”

  The apprentice unstrapped from his seat. He came forward and looked out both sides

  of the window. Wings extended from the back of the Rocket. Small engines burned

  the air behind them.

  Then the wings fell away in a plume of flame that pushed the flying machine forward

  and shook the sky around them. Bolan held on to the pilot’s chair to prevent himself

  from flying to the back of the compartment.

  Knife pulled himself forward and caught his partner in a grip. He used his grip on the

  floor to get the apprentice to his seat and help strap him in. Bolan rubbed his shiny

  head as he looked at the gauges.

  “We’re below the red lines,” said Bolan. “How is that possible?”

  “Gold Bug’s machine was a booster with its own power source,” said Zachariah. “It

  gave us a lot of directed force while burning itself up. We should see our speed

  dropping soon. Our own engines won’t keep this up without the booster.”

  “We’re halfway to Messer’s Reach, Da,” said Sola. “We’ll be there in an hour at this

  speed.”

  “It won’t last,” said Zachariah. “We might drop down to reasonable speeds without

  crashing, but with the booster gone, we will be dropping down. Good work, Gold

  Bug.”

  “I’m starting to see a bit of a strain on the engine,” said Bolan. “We’re going to have

  to slow down somehow.”

  “We’re not going to be able to do it until the boost runs out,” said Zachariah. “We can

  power down the throttle, and coast for as long as possible.”

  “All right,” said Bolan.

  Zachariah cut the throttle back. He watched the height measurer as he held on course.

  The last thing he wanted was to go in a spin and dig a line through the ground to

  Messer’s Reach. The speed numbers stopped clicking on their spokes. He nodded.

  The booster was wearing off as expected.

  All he had to do was hold steady and cut the throttle back up when the numbers had

  reached a certain point.

  “We should be able to see the city wall from here, Da,” said Sola.

  “I see it,” said Zachariah. “We’ll be there soon enough. I think I see a green light and

  some balloon over the city.”

  “We have to spiral down inside the wall,” said Sola. “That’s the only way to be

  certified as a finisher in place.”

  “That means we have to burn off some of this speed if we want to do that,” said

  Zachariah. “Suggestions?”

  “Direct engine flow through the belly jets and use them for brakes,” said Bolan.

  “What happens if inertia keeps the engine coming through the compartment?,” said

  Zachariah.

  “It shouldn’t,” said Bolan. “There’s a chance that we might flip over if the jets fire at

  the wrong time.”

  “So we cut the forward push,” said Zachariah. “Then hit the belly jets while the push

  is lessening behind us.”

  He eased down the throttle. Then he hit the switch. He checked his air speed. They

  were still moving fast.

  He worked the stick so the Rocket bled off speed in a set of turns. He smiled as they

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  came to a stop at the edge of the wall and hovered in place. He poured enough power

  on to lift them over the barrier. He descended on the other side, riding the belly jets.

  “We have to go around three times, Da,” said Sola.

  “I have it,” said Zachariah. “I don’t see any of the officials.”

  “We’re ahead of schedule,” said Bolan. “They’re probably still at home waiting for

  messages from Riordiana that we launched.”

  “That means we’ll be stuck here while we wait for someone to check us in,” said

  Zachariah. “Maybe we can get Campbell to help us check in.”

  “What can he do?,” asked Bolan.

  “As an ambassador, he can call his opposite number and see if anyone in Messer’s

  Reach knows where the race commission is,” said Zachariah.

  The green light dropped down to hover outside the Rocket’s window. He tapped on

  the sliding door with a fist.

  Zachariah reached up and slid the window out of the way. He was glad that he was

  wearing the sunglasses Bolan had given him.

  “How do you do?,” said the green light. “What brings you to Messer’s Reach?”

  “I’m competing in the air race, and it looks like I’m the first to reach the finish line,”

  said Zachariah. He frowned. He had answered without thinking. “These are my

  daughter and apprentice.”

  “You’re competing in the air race?,” said the green light. “What’s your name?”

  “Zachariah Eight Arms,” said Zachariah. “This is Sara’s Rocket.”

  Hardy opened up his wing case and produced the racing card. The green light took

  it gingerly. He nodded at the checkpoints listed on the card. He set the one for the

  finish in it with a gaze. He handed the card back for safekeeping.

  “I want you to land next to the staging area,” said the green light. “I’ll mark the time

  in the book, and get someone to witness your arrival. Land and wait for me, please.”

  “I will be glad to, sir,” said Zachariah.

  The green light flew away with a nod.

  Zachariah closed the window. He looked around. He didn’t know how many more

  turns they needed before they landed.

  “How many more turns do we need?,” asked Zachariah.

  “One and a half,” said Sola. “Better do two from here to make sure.”

  “Right,” said Zachariah. “I wonder how fast we completed this last leg. He seemed

  surprised to see us.”

  “We’re hours ahead of time according to the clock,” said Bolan.

  “One more turn,” said Sola. “We’re almost done.”

  “There’s an award ceremony,” said Zachariah. “A dinner for the racers. That will be

  tomorrow. After that, we have to start thinking about the two jobs we have.”

  “Two jobs?,” asked Sola. “What two jobs?”

  “Our man in blue wanting us to search the bottom of the Riordiana harbor is one job,”

  said Zachariah. “The other is the call for the battleship for Lobster Bay.”

  “So we’re really going to try to do that,” said Bolan. “A flying battleship will take a

  ton of materials and manpower to build.”

  “I know,” said Zachariah. “I’m sure we can build both craft in a matter of months if

  we can get the material together. Carson will be able to help with that. The main

  problem is designing the things so they operate like they are intended so they will be

  easy to put together, won’t break apart under trouble, and are easy to maintain if we

  hand them over to others.”

  “Are we going to hand them over?,” asked Bolan.

  “I haven’t decided yet,” said Zachariah. He veered from hitting the wall at the last

  moment. He cautioned himself to pay attention to what he was doing. “Something has

  to be done with that menace in Corwin’s Mansions.”

  “I guess a flying craft capable of taking him on toe to toe would be the right thing to

  do,” said Bolan. “He won’t bring that thing against Baldwin, but he might still attack

  the Reach, or Riordiana.”

  “If he attacked Riordiana, he better stop Festus from launching before attacking any

  of the holdings,” said Zachariah. “Anything else would ask to be decimated by

  Primrose’s attack.”

  “I don’t think Messer’s Reach has any flying forces,” said Bolan. “And there’s the

  Alvas and the Rhiem.”

  “It’s not exactly an easy assault,” said Zachariah. “A lot depends on what other forces

  he can deploy. All we saw were a few pilots with their own craft. What if he has

  ground forces capable of holding any land seized. It would be a struggle to evict him

  until a green light arrived. And even green lights can be killed under the right

  circumstances.”

  “All right,” said Bolan. “I can see that thing cutting a path through the Alvas until

  they got their magic working.”

  “If they got their magic working,” said Sola.

  “Good point,” said Bolan.

  They had gotten lucky over Corwin’s Mansions flying against that big thing in the

  sky. Knife’s tool kit had made all the difference. If that thing dropped down on

  Riordiana, or Messer’s Reach, there was no telling how many people would be killed

  before a counterattack was launched against it.

  There was no telling if a counterattack could be launched against it from the ground.

  He didn’t want to be on the ground trying to do that when an air attack gave him a

  chance with the right flying machine.

  “We’ve made the last turn, Da,” said Sola. “We can land as directed.”

  Zachariah put down next to the stage as directed. He cut the jets so the Rocket settled

  on its skids as gently as possible. He pushed the cockpit door back and unstrapped.

  He climbed out and descended to the ground.

  Sola and Bolan joined him a few moments later. They worked on stretching out kinks

  from the short ride across the continent.

  “It will be good to get back to the shop after this,” said Zachariah. “I don’t think I am

  cut out for adventures.”

  Bolan and Sola looked at each other. They tried not to laugh at the sentiment.

  “So do we have to wait for the officials to come down?,” asked Sola.

  “You two should be okay to go about your business,” said Zachariah. “I think Gold

  Bug and I can talk to the officials and have everything certified without you.”

  “We’re going to stay just in case,” said Sola. “I don’t want to lose because we were

  supposed to be here and we weren’t.”

  “And we’re going to have to show that we were on the Rocket with you when Gold

  Bug’s machine activated,” said Bolan.

  “They’re going to think we cheated, Da,” said Sola.

  “I can see that,” said Zachariah. “We did complete the last leg in record time.”

  “And we don’t have the booster unit,” said Bolan. “It broke off in flight.”

  “Gold Bug’s machines do tend to do that,” said Zachariah.

  “So we have to wait and talk to the officials,” said Sola. “After that, we can head

  home and sleep in our own beds tonight.”

  “The celebration will be tomorrow night if all the racers can get back tonight,” said

  Zachariah.

  “That will be great,” said Sola.

  A group of men in commission livery walked across the field. Some of them adjusted

  their uniforms as they approached the Rocket. One held a book to record the times

  and names of the winners.

  Zachariah put down his name as the pilot, and his passengers’ names as crew. He

  displayed the yellow card to show when he had arrived. That was also put down next

  to his name. The officials released him from the field until the awards ceremony.

  He asked if he could remove the Rocket.

  “We’re going to have to inspect it first,” said the lead official. “And we’re going to

  have to make sure everything is as it was.”

  Zachariah looked down at his kids. They both indicated silence on his part.

  “Go ahead,” he said to the officials.