‘Almost there…!’ she called back. ‘Almost there!’
‘Goddamnit!’
The seconds ticked by - every one of them sinking the nails deeper into Jason’s coffin.
10 seconds…
15…
20…
‘Got it!’ Sally called.
The Tarantula completed its work, then swooped up into the ceiling and Sally yelled ‘Go! Go! Go!’ and Jason floored it and the Argonaut shoomed back out onto the course -
- to be met by a surprising sight.
Just outside Pit Lane, Jason saw Car No. 1 - Prince Xavier’s black Lockheed, the Speed Razor - splayed
sideways in the centre of the track, stopped. Xavier was waving his fists at an orange hover car crashed into the
treeline nearby.
Jason deduced what had happened immediately. As Xavier had been exiting the pits, the hapless driver of the orange car - a perennial tailender named Brent Hurst - had been zooming by, completely unaware of Xavier emerging from Pit Lane. A near miss had ensued, with the Speed Razor fishtailing to a halt, while Hurst had missed the next turn, hit the ripple strips and gone careering off into the treeline.
By the time Jason had emerged from the pits shortly after, Xavier was powering up and so the two of them rejoined the race together, 20 seconds behind the leaders, with the Speed Razor just in front of the Argonaut.
Over the next three laps, try as he might, Jason couldn’t narrow the gap on the leaders.
There were more pit stops, but since everyone was pitting more or less as well as each other, the lead time between the two leaders - Krishna and Washington - and the rest of the pack, led by Xavier and Jason, remained at about 20 seconds.
It was with the completion of Lap 14 that Jason realised. He was running out of laps.
There were only six laps to go, with most racers planning for two more stops, and he wasn’t gaining at all. This was terrible. With an enormous 20-second gap to reel in, he just couldn’t win - and he had to win this race!
Unless…
‘Sally! Bug!’ he yelled into his radiomike. ‘Quick poll! Next lap, do we try the short cut?’
‘Jason, I don’t know…’ Sally said. ‘If you screw it up in there, we’ll lose for sure.’
‘We’re already going to lose!’ Jason said. ‘Unless we get some galactic good luck. Bug?’
The Bug whispered his reply.
‘That bad, huh?’ Jason said. ‘Are there any stats you don’t know, little brother?’
The Bug’s analysis didn’t give him confidence. Only one hover car racer had ever actually won a pro race by successfully utilising a short cut maze - out of 165 shortcut-equipped races. Not good odds.
‘We’re screwed,’ Jason said aloud.
But he kept racing. If he had learned nothing else in his short racing career, he had learned to keep racing. You never knew, something could happen. Who knew, maybe lightning would strike the three cars in front of him.
The laps ticked over: 15, 16…T
he lead gap remained 20 seconds.
Hell, Jason thought, he couldn’t even get past the Black Prince.
Lap 16 saw more pit stops.
Krishna and Washington were leaving the pits just as Xavier and Jason swept into them.
As the Tarantula went to work, Jason looked over at Xavier’s busy pit bay.
In the midst of all the activity around the Speed Razor, Jason saw Xavier chatting animatedly with his Mech Chief, Oliver Koch. And beyond it all, Jason saw someone else standing at the back of their bay, a young man who wasn’t wearing the charcoal-black uniform of the Speed Razor‘s team -
Jason froze.
The young man standing in the very back of Xavier’s pit bay was Wernold Smythe.
‘Hey, Sally,’ Jason said. ‘How long has Werny Smythe been in Xavier’s pit bay?’
‘He arrived a few laps ago. Started talking to Koch about something.’
Jason looked back at Speed Razor‘s pit bay: saw Xavier and Koch talking. Koch was making sharp hand gestures, as if he were giving Xavier detailed directions.
Then Jason checked out Wernold Smythe again. He remembered seeing Smythe two nights ago, by the side of the road, covered in grey powder, with his hover bike similarly covered.
And suddenly it hit Jason.
‘Bug! The short cut at Dunalley. It’s an abandoned mine, right?’
The Bug said that it was.
‘What kind of mine?’
The Bug said that it had been a coal mine.
‘A coal mine…’ Jason said. ‘Limestone powder…’
‘Jason? What are you thinking?’ Sally asked.
Jason said, ‘Coal mines use limestone powder to guard against flammable gases oozing out from the walls. It’s a grey powder that miners spray all over the walls of a mine. Covers everything. I read about it in a thriller novel once.’
‘So?’
‘So, I happened to see Werny on Tuesday night, out on the road to Port Arthur, completely covered in grey powder…’
And with those words the picture became clear in Jason’s mind.
‘That’s what Koch and Xavier were paying Werny for!’ he exclaimed. ‘They weren’t paying Werny to give us faulty parts. Koch and Xavier were paying Werny to go out and map the short cut for them, to find a way through it! Holy cow, guys, we just got galactically lucky.’
Voom!
The Speed Razor blasted out of the pits - just as the Tarantula lifted up and away from the Argonaut.
His face set, Jason jammed his thrusters forward and took off after Xavier as though his life depended on it.
Prince Xavier’s Speed Razor blasted out of the pits pursued by the Argonaut.
The pits were situated right on the mouth of the Derwent River, in the middle of the course’s most fiendish section of hairpin turns, each of which was skirted by demagnetising ripple strips.
Xavier ripped around the first turn, a sharp left-hander, banking steeply, closely followed by Jason in the Argonaut.
The next turn was a tight right-hander - and the point at which racers could take the option of cutting the heel of the Port Arthur peninsula at the Dunalley isthmus.
Right on cue, Prince Xavier took the alternative route and charged left, leaving the course proper, going for the short cut.
The crowds in the mobile hoverstands gasped. That the leaders had already taken the longer and safer route made the move daring in itself. But that it was Prince Xavier Xonora - dashing and handsome and the championship leader - who had decided to go for it thrilled them even more.
But then something even more astonishing happened.
The Argonaut took off after the Speed Razor, zooming toward the short cut behind it.
The two cars rushed toward the Dunalley isthmus. As he flew, Jason could see the wide blue ocean beyond the narrow strip of land.
But in the foreground, built into the front edge of the isthmus like a cannon emplacement - as if guarding the way - yawned the squat concrete entry tunnel to the short-cut mine.
The Speed Razor didn’t hesitate. It disappeared into the mine at 300 km/h.
Jason swallowed. He had to stay close to Xavier - since Xavier knew the way through.
The black entry tunnel to the mine rushed toward him like the open mouth of a hungry giant. Jason drew in a sharp breath.
‘Hang on, Bug. Here we go!’
And with that the Argonaut shot underground, disappearing into the blackness of the mine.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE SHORT-CUT LABYRINTH
LAP: 17 [OF 20]
Rocketing through darkness.
The close square walls of the abandoned mine whipped past Jason at astonishing speed, the whole underground world illuminated only by the sabre-like beams of his headlights. Each tunnel was about the width and height of an old railway tunnel.
Up ahead, he saw the glowing red tail-lights of the Speed Razor descending into the bowels of the Earth, following the steep ent
ry tunnel straight down. Then without warning, the red lights cut left, having arrived at the bottom of the entry tunnel.
Jason shot off after them. He had to keep those taillights in view -
The Bug said something.
‘I know! I know!’ Jason yelled back. ‘I’m trying to stay with him!’
The Speed Razor swept momentarily out of sight, and Jason followed it, only to find himself staring at a fork of two tunnels…and no tail-lights in sight.
A bolt of ice shot up Jason’s spine.
No…
Then he saw the tail-lights way up the right-hand fork and relief swept through him and he took off after them.
The mine flattened out and the Speed Razor swept through it at rocket speed, taking turns easily, a sharp left here, a sweeping right there, with the Argonaut close behind it.
And then Jason noticed that the tunnels had started to slant upward. They were approaching the surface. Trailing close behind the Speed Razor, he rounded a final bend before - blinding sunlight assaulted his eyes.
They were out!
They’d got through the short-cut maze.
The eastern coastline of Tasmania stretched gloriously away to the left, with Prince Xavier’s Speed Razor rocketing away along it.
The Argonaut blasted out of a trapezoidal pipe halfway up the coastal cliffs and banked sharply to avoid the specially placed set of demagnetising strips at the junction of the short cut and the regular course, just as - shoom! shoom! - two cars boomed past him on either side.
Varishna Krishna and Isaiah Washington!
The former race leaders!
And suddenly Jason’s eyes widened.
Thanks to the Black Prince, the Argonaut was back in the race.
* * *
The next lap-and-a-half saw some of the fiercest racing of Jason’s life.
Through the S-bends up at the top-right corner of Tasmania, winding between Cape Barren Island and Flinders Island - trying to avoid the demag strips while also trying to overtake his foes.
And then Varishna Krishna tried to slip past Xavier at the hairpin next to Pit Lane, but Xavier cruelly rammed him, forcing the Indian out over the ripple strips.
Krishna reeled, skidding wide, and as he did so, Washington managed to slip past him. Jason tried to snatch the opportunity as well, but Krishna regained control of his car at exactly the wrong time, and not only did he shut Jason out, he also made him slow down a fraction.
Jason swore.
And so, by Lap 18, with only two laps to go, he was still in 4th, in what was now essentially a four-horse race, behind three of the best drivers in the School: Xavier, Washington and Krishna.
With the race almost eight hours old now, everyone was running on depleted mags, depleted nerves and depleted energy levels. The sheer intensity of their battle had meant that all of the top four racers had at some point touched the ripple strips in the last few laps, thus further losing traction.
Which meant, with two laps to go and their magneto drives starting to feel slippery, they’d each need to make one last pit stop.
* * *
Halfway round Lap 18, Sally McDuff’s voice came through Jason’s earpiece.
‘Jason! The other crews are preparing for their final pit stop. You wanna come in with them now or wait till the next lap?’
Jason pursed his lips, assessed the situation.
His magneto drive levels were at 39% of full strength. Two laps on this course would consume about 30%: 15% per lap. The remaining 9% allowed him maybe three bumps on the ripple strips.
You have to win. Second place isn’t an option today.
The Bug seemed to read his mind, and said so.
‘Thirty-nine per cent. We can make it…’ Jason said.
The Bug was doubtful.
Sally, listening in on the radio, said: ‘Jason, no. Not again. Don’t even think it.’
‘They won’t be expecting it,’ Jason said.
‘Jason, it didn’t work in that training race with Wong and Washington. And you remember Syracuse’s stats. Skipping the last pit stop has a success rate of 0.005 per cent.’
At that moment, the Bug reminded Jason of another piece of Scott Syracuse’s wisdom: To err is human, to make the same mistake twice is stupid.
Jason’s eyes narrowed.
‘We’re gonna do it.’
And so, as the three lead cars decelerated into the pits for their final pit stops, to the absolute amazement of the crowds, the Argonaut swept past the pit entry and zoomed off down the track, trying to put as much distance between it and its rivals before they came out of the pits, hungry to chase him down.
* * *
Jason hit the short-cut tunnel on the fly and, guided by the Bug’s photographic memory of their previous trip through the labyrinth, took the same route they’d taken before.
They emerged from the other side, banking wildly, and Jason touched the demag strips on the outside of the track there and his magneto drive levels dropped 3%.
‘ The others are out of the pits now, Jason!‘ Sally’s voice warned in his ear. ‘They’re hunting you down!’
The Argonaut swept round the course.
Jason concentrated intensely.
His magneto counter ticked steadily downwards.
The other three cars gained on him, rocketing round the course on fresh mags. But Washington and Krishna didn’t have the nerve to follow Xavier through the short-cut tunnel and they fell behind, taking the long way round, and in doing so, effectively put themselves out of the running.
The Black Prince, however, took the tunnel fearlessly, and as such, he kept gaining on the Argonaut.
Then, on the other side of the course, Jason hit the demag strips bounding the Cradle Mountain hairpin, just a glancing blow, but enough to send his mag meter whizzing down another 3%.
The Speed Razor kept coming. On the long straights, Jason could see it looming in the distance in his mirrors.
Mag levels: 18%.
The Argonaut came to the sharp hairpins near the pits. Despite the fact that he took them extra carefully, to Jason’s horror, he clipped the ripple strip on the super sharp right-hand hairpin just before the Start-Finish Line and suddenly his mag levels were at a bare 15%. Jason knew what that meant.
With only one lap to go, on ever-declining mags, and with a ruthless competitor looming up behind him on a fresh set of magneto drives, he had to do a perfect lap.
CHAPTER NINE
LAP: 20 [OF 20]
The Argonaut cut left, banking toward the short-cut isthmus, commencing the final lap.
The crowds in the stands were on the edge of their seats. Among them, Henry Chaser sat with his hand held to his mouth. Martha Chaser seemed quite content beside him, head bowed, doing some knitting.
The Argonaut raced into the short-cut tunnel for the last time. The Speed Razor also banked left, heading for the isthmus, starting the final lap.
The Argonaut zoomed up the coast.
The Speed Razor entered the short-cut mine.
The Argonaut zig-zagged between the upper islands. The Speed Razor roared up the coast.
At Cradle Mountain, Jason slowed dramatically to take the turn that had cost him some magnetism on the previous lap. The Argonaut was sliding all over the place now, handling like someone trying to walk on an ice skating rink, going at a torturously slow 450 km/h. The Speed Razor was doing 600 km/h and accelerating. Halfway round and Jason’s mag levels were down to 7.5%. Just enough to get home - if he didn’t touch any ripple strips.
Down the wild western coast of Tasmania - with the Speed Razor now looming large in his mirrors.
Xavier’s car moved surely and securely, always gaining. The Argonaut slipped and slid, limping home.
Everyone could see where this was heading.
At their current speeds, the Speed Razor was going to catch the Argonaut right at the death.
Mag levels: 3%
Jason floored it down the last long sweeper, bracing him
self for the series of dreadfully tight hairpins guarding the Finish Line - hairpins that he was going to have to negotiate perfectly. One touch on the ripple strips now would end his race.
Mag levels: 2%
‘Come on…’ he willed himself. ‘Come on…’
Prince Xavier’s black Lockheed now filled his mirrors. The Argonaut took the left-hander into Storm Bay at a pathetic 325 km/h. Glowing red demag lights whizzed by it on either side.
The Speed Razor took the same turn a split-second later, doing 450.
The Argonaut shot past the pits, slowed to a crawl to take the first right-hand hairpin.
The Speed Razor launched itself into the same turn. The two cars were almost level.
Mag levels: 1%.
Jason swung left, into the second-last turn of the race - a left-hand hairpin - just as the Speed Razor came alongside his tail.
Then it was into the last corner of the race, a tight righthand hairpin, and here Xavier made his move, tried to overtake Jason on the outside!
The two cars roared round the final turn side-by-side. Henry Chaser leapt to his feet.
Sally McDuff prayed before her monitor.
The crowds in the stands rose as one.
And the two hover cars - the blue-white-and-silver Car 55 and the all-black Car 1 - whipped out of the last turn and rocketed down the home straight and in a blur of speed, crossed the Line together.
CHAPTER TEN
LAP: 20 [OF 20]
To the naked eye, it appeared as if the two cars crossed the Finish Line together, but the official laser digital photo of the finish of Race 25 would later show that after eight hours of racing, after twenty hard-fought laps, Car No.1, the Speed Razor, driven by Xonora X., and travelling at 365 kilometres an hour and accelerating, had crossed the line 4.2 cm behind Car No.55, the Argonaut, piloted by Chaser J., and travelling at 320 kilometres an hour.
After a perfect lap from its daring young driver, by the paintwork on its nosewing, the Argonaut had qualified for the Sponsors’ tournament.
PART IV: THE TOURNAMENT
CHAPTER ONE