Which made Jason’s battle with Barnaby even more perilous: if Jason was eliminated at any time before Barnaby, Barnaby would be going to New York.
After all that, perhaps only one thing was truly clear.
Race 50 would be run on a knife-edge: it would be a dogfight of hardcore racing, under the ever-present threat of last-man elimination.
Race 50 made no allowance for mistakes.
It would be winner take all.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jason woke with a start, gasping, sweating. Another crash nightmare.
‘What is wrong with me?’ he whispered aloud. He checked the digital clock beside his bed. It was 1:30am. It was the middle of the night - the night before Race 50. Just what he needed.
He sat up, and decided that sleep would be impossible at least for a while. He went for a walk, wandered down to a small enclosed garden overlooking the river, to gaze at the fountains there.
He sat down on a bench - and suddenly heard footsteps on gravel and voices in the darkness. He ducked behind a statue, listened. He could make out two voices. One old and deep, the other younger, slimier.
Older voice: ‘Good work. You’ve slowed her rise up the Championship Ladder.’
Younger voice: ‘Only doing what I’m told.’
Older voice: ‘But she can still finish in the Top 4. And this School does not want to see Ms Piper going to New York. It’s been embarrassing enough having her study here for the year - and then that Chaser boy gave her a whole heap of publicity in Italy - but it would be beyond the pale if she ended up representing the School in New York. I need you to make sure she doesn’t.’
Younger voice: ‘After the Becker incident at the tournament, we can’t deplete her magneto drives with microwaves anymore. Worms and viruses in her pit machine have worked recently, but she put in a new firewall two days ago and it’s a good one. That said, I think I can find a newer virus that can bring her system down.’
Older voice: ‘Make it happen.’
There was a crunching of gravel and the two speakers were gone.
Jason’s eyes were wide with shock.
He recognised both voices.
The older voice had belonged to Jean-Pierre LeClerq.
And the younger one: Wernold Smythe, the nasty grease monkey from the School’s Parts and Equipment Department.
Jason returned to bed.
Before the race tomorrow, he’d have to have a word with Ariel.
CHAPTER NINE
Dawn came on the day of Race 50.
It found Jason sitting on a clifftop with Dido, the two of them gazing out at the ocean sunrise. Despite his sleepless night, they’d arranged to meet and truth be told, Jason wanted to see Dido alone before the race - her presence gave him strength.
On the horizon, dark clouds framed the rising sun. ‘So how are you feeling today?’ Dido asked him.
‘Better,’ he said firmly. ‘Stronger.’
His eyes were fixed forward. Game face.
‘And your plan for Barnaby?’
‘Solid,’ he said. ‘We’ve found a chink in his technique. The Bug’s been analysing his racing manoeuvres on video-disc. Barnaby’s weak on right-hand hairpins - that’s where he gets sloppy; he goes too wide, so you can cut inside him. And this track is tight, lots of hairpins.’
Dido grabbed his hand. ‘Good luck, Jason.’
‘Thanks.’
Jason looked at the dark clouds on the horizon. ‘It’s going to rain today.’
CHAPTER TEN
Rain hammered down on the straight in front of the startgates.
Sheltered from the driving rain, nineteen hover cars sat poised in their gates, their magneto drives thrumming, pilots and navigators hunched in their cockpits, ready. (Due to mechanical and other issues, six students were sitting out the race.)
The Race School’s starting gates were based on those used in old Roman chariot races: a wide arc-shaped structure fitted with thirty archways opened onto a wide straight. Each archway housed one car and at the starter’s signal, steel grilles barring them would all spring open together, unleashing the racers.
Clang!
The grilles burst open and, like horses leaping out of the gates in the Melbourne Cup, the nineteen cars of the students of the International Race School blasted out of their archways, into the rain, and commenced the fiftieth and final race of the Race School season.
The field shoomed due south out over the Southern Ocean, noses into the driving rain, heading for the bottom of the world.
Barnaby Becker immediately took the lead - with Xavier slotting in close behind him.
This was unusual.
In previous races, Xavier had shown a clear advantage over Barnaby in straight-line speed, yet now he just settled in tight behind his stable-mate…as if he were glad to be travelling at three-quarter pace.
Jason saw what was happening at once.
Xavier was riding shotgun for Barnaby.
He was protecting his stablemate.
Not needing any points for himself, Xavier was trying to ensure that Barnaby won the race - thus getting Barnaby into the Top 4, and ensuring that Jason didn’t go to New York.
But no sooner had he realised this than Jason faced another, more immediate problem.
For it was at that moment - as they swept low over the rain-battered waves of the Southern Ocean - that some of the other racers started targeting the Argonaut.
Joaquin Cortez zeroed in on Jason from the right, aiming straight for his tailfin!
The blow would have knocked them both out of the race, but Cortez - not in contention for a place in the Top 4 - didn’t seem to care at all. Jason ducked under him, swooping low, avoiding the blow - at which moment Horatio Wong rammed him from the other side, banging into the Argonaut‘s left wing, before zooming ahead of Jason. Unlike Cortez, Wong still had a chance of making the Top 4 and he wasn’t going to jeopardise that just yet.
‘ Jason!‘ Sally’s voice came in. ‘What the hell is happening!‘
‘Cortez just tried a kamikaze run, tried to knock us out of the race!’ Jason called. ‘Barnaby must have bought him!’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘There’s only one thing we can do, outrun him.’
Jason gunned the accelerator as they hit the pair of icebergs halfway down the Southern Ocean straight - known as the Chicane - and leapt ahead of Cortez, now in 7th place behind Barnaby (1), Xavier (2), Varishna Krishna (3), Isaiah Washington (4), Ariel (5) and Wong (6); but with Joaquin Cortez nipping at his heels, trying to find an opportunity to take him out.
Then it was into the iceberg section.
If he could have, Jason would have gaped at the spectacle of the field of mammoth bergs, but there was no time for gawking now. He banked the Argonaut between the white monoliths, following the path of the demag lights.
At this early stage in the race, everyone took the standard route between the icebergs.
But as Jason well knew, as the race went on and things got desperate, that would change.
* * *
After three laps, the eliminations began.
At first, they were relatively unobtrusive. Minor racers crashed in the tight land-bound sections of the course, or racers succumbed to technical mishaps - thus eliminating themselves.
Barnaby continued to lead, with Xavier shadowing him in second place.
Then came Krishna, Washington, Ariel and Wong. Followed by Jason and Cortez.
But then, as the number of racers diminished, things started to get desperate.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
RACE 50
LAP: 35 OF 51
RACERS LEFT ON TRACK: 8
By Lap 35, Jason was still in 7th place - second last. He was starting to worry.
The main thing he had to do in this race was beat Barnaby and at the moment, Barnaby was way out in 1st place, protected by Xavier, while Jason was still way back in 7th - with a total of eight racers still on the track and five of them
between him and Barnaby.
Jason still had Horatio Wong directly in front of him in 6th and Joaquin Cortez behind him in 8th.
Cortez continued to harry Jason, especially in the iceberg section of the track - trying to axe through the Argonaut‘s tailfin by taking the turns straighter than Jason - recklessly straighter.
In the end, it was Cortez’s determination to nail Jason that was his undoing. At one point amid the icebergs, Jason took one turn a little too wide, offering Cortez a clear straight-line charge at his exposed tailfin. Cortez took the opportunity, not realising that it wasn’t an opportunity - it was bait.
Because suddenly Jason banked the other way, leaving Cortez to smash hard into the side of an iceberg.
Ejection. Explosion.
Cortez’s car was history and the Mexican racer and his navigator soon found themselves floating down to earth on hoverchutes, and as Jason completed Lap 36 several minutes later, Cortez was eliminated.
But now Jason was in last place - with Horatio Wong banking and bending in front of him.
Jason had three laps to overtake Wong.
Lap 37 - no dice. Wong fended him off grimly, at times using dubious defensive tactics.
Lap 38 - Jason flew the entire lap within a metre of Wong’s tail, but no matter what he tried, he still couldn’t take Wong.
Jason began to panic. He was running out of time and track.
He zoomed through Hobart again, and commenced Lap 39, knowing it could well be his last.
And as he rocketed down the long Southern Ocean straight, eyeing Wong’s weaving tail-lights, he made the call.
‘Bug,’ he said. ‘Either we get past this bastard on this lap or we’re out! Out of the race, out of contention to go to New York, out of everything. I say we take him via the Clashing Bergs. Opinions?’
The Bug replied instantly…and firmly.
‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ Jason said.
The leaders rushed into the iceberg section of the course, all taking the standard route, Wong among them. But as Wong swept right, taking the regulation route, Jason abruptly cut left, slicing between some smaller icebergs before he beheld two clashing bergs.
They were absolutely gigantic.
The rough seas of the ocean and the underwater mechanism caused the two big icebergs to alternately slide apart and then clang back together like a pair of godsized cymbals. The enormous bulk of the two bergs - each was easily 100 metres long - meant that a racer had to really floor it in order to get through.
Jason floored it.
The Argonaut screamed into the shadowy canyon between the two bergs, just as they reached their widest point.
Then the two bergs converged.
The Argonaut sped -
The canyon narrowed, its towering white walls closing -
The Bug screamed -
And Jason flipped the Argonaut onto its side as the canyon’s walls became unbearably close and - CRASH! - the two icebergs came together with a deafening boom just as the tiny Argonaut blasted out from between them, house-sized chunks of ice raining down into the water behind it.
‘Hoo-ah!‘ Jason yelled, blood pulsing through his veins as he swooped back onto the track proper…three carlengths ahead of Wong!
In 6th place.
Wong’s eyes went wide. He couldn’t believe it - Jason was now in front of him!
‘Okay…’ Jason said, his eyes now laser-focused. ‘Time to put you out, Horatio.’
And put him out, he did.
No matter what Wong threw at him, Jason fended him off, and as Lap 39 ended, it was Wong who found himself
in 7th place, last place.
And out of the race.
CHAPTER TWELVE
RACE 50
LAP: 40 OF 51
RACERS LEFT ON TRACK: 6
So by Lap 40, the race order was this:
1st: Barnaby.
2nd: Xavier.
3rd: Krishna.
4th: Ariel.
5th: Isaiah Washington.6th:
Jason.
As one would expect of such an important race, it was super close - while he was in last place, Jason was still flying within sight of the leaders.
Then, at the end of Lap 41, everyone pitted.
Jason swung into the pits, to see all the other pit bays teeming with activity. In a race as long as this one, pit stops were longer, taking anywhere between 30 and 50 seconds.
As he arrived, he saw Barnaby shoom back out onto the track - closely followed by Krishna and Ariel, but not, surprisingly, Xavier Xonora. For some reason, Xavier was still in his pit bay.
Jason came to his own bay.
Sally immediately went to work, and outdid herself. She performed a superb stop, so superb that Jason came out of his pit bay before Isaiah Washington did, leapfrogging him into 5th place.
He gunned the Argonaut out of its pit bay - only to slam on the brakes a moment later.
A car was blocking the exit tunnel that led back out to the track.
Xavier Xonora’s Speed Razor.
It was just splayed across the tunnel, completely blocking the exit - as if it had stalled in the process of leaving its own pit bay. Xavier offered Jason a disingenuous shrug: ‘Sorry. But it’s not my fault.’
Seconds ticked by.
Jason fumed. ‘The son-of-a-bitch is blocking us!’ He couldn’t believe it. Every second he was held up here by Xavier, Barnaby was racing away to victory.
And then Isaiah Washington appeared in Jason’s rearview mirrors, looming up behind the Argonaut, only Washington didn’t appear to be slowing: at this rate, he was going to ram Jason’s tailfin -
To evade him, Jason started edging around Xavier’s car. But then, just as he was about to get round Xavier, surprise-surprise, Xavier got the Speed Razor started and darted off ahead of Jason.
Jason could only swear and chase after him, still in 5th place ahead of Washington, but now a long way behind Barnaby Becker.
Jason raced hard through the rain.
He was now second-last and so safe from immediate elimination, but directly in front of him was the tailfin of the all-black Speed Razor. And Jason had a feeling that Xavier wasn’t going to let him past lightly.
At the end of the next lap, Lap 42, Isaiah Washington bowed out.
Five racers left.
Nine laps remaining.
One elimination to go, before the six-lap dash to the Finish Line.
The race order was:
1st: Barnaby Becker.
2nd: Varishna Krishna.
3rd: Ariel Piper.
4th: Xavier.
5th: Jason.
And suddenly Jason was again in last place - only now his situation was especially dire: Barnaby was way out in front and the racer directly in front of him was Xavier, the best racer in the School and Barnaby’s team-mate.
Thus they began Lap 43 and, with a gulp, Jason saw what he had to do: he had exactly three laps to get past the best racer at Race School - perhaps the best racer to have ever come to Race School - or else he’d be eliminated.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
RACE 50
LAP: 43 OF 51
RACERS LEFT ON TRACK: 5
The Speed Razor and the Argonaut.
Going at it hammer and tong.
Jason threw everything he had at the Black Prince, but try as he might, he just couldn’t get past the Speed Razor. Xavier was simply too good.
He just wouldn’t let Jason by.
On Lap 43, Jason even tried another daring dash through the first pair of Clashing Bergs - just as he had done with Wong - but to his total horror, Xavier outran him by going around on the standard route!
That’s impossible! Jason thought. If he can outrun me going around the Clashing Bergs, there’s no way I can take him…
For the rest of that lap, Xavier held him off easily, anticipating every one of Jason’s overtaking manoeuvres through the tight land-bound section of the course.
Lap 44: still no luck. Xa
vier seemed to be enjoying this, blocking Jason, ruining his chances of beating Barnaby.
And then they hit Lap 45.
Jason’s last chance.
The Speed Razor and the Argonaut shot down the Southern Ocean Straight, zig-zagged through the Chicane - and suddenly the Bug made a suggestion.
‘You’ve got to be kidding…’ Sally said over the radio.
The Bug said he wasn’t kidding.
‘That’s totally crazy, Bug! Even by your standards!‘ Sally said. ‘You’ll be killed for sure!’
But Jason liked the plan. ‘Nice thinking, Bug. You always were a daredevil at heart. Hang on to your hat, little brother, because this is gonna get hairy…’
They came to the iceberg section -
And true to form, Xavier kept to the standard track -
While Jason took the Clashing Bergs track -
And, as before, Xavier beat them to the other side, even though he’d stayed on the regulation track. But Jason had gained a whole car-length on him.
Then they came to the second fork in the track - leading to the second set of Clashing Bergs - and again Xavier took the safe option, but not Jason.
To everyone’s surprise, including Xavier’s, he took the Clashing Bergs track again -
And this time, he came out the other end alongside Xavier -
They hit the third and last fork together…and again Jason took the Clashing Bergs option!
Xavier went the long way -
Jason shot through a quickly-narrowing chasm of two gargantuan icebergs - and blasted out the other end just as they clashed, only this time when he emerged, he came out exactly one car-length ahead of Xavier!