Chapter 4
Scotland Beach, Florida
July 23, 2121
9:00 pm
Word of the newest ‘acquisition’ at Gulfside Aquarium got around Scotland Beach pretty quickly. There were different versions of the story going around, but the basics seemed stable enough: two new marine animals, likely dolphin variants, had been discovered by police on Shelley Beach and they had been wearing spacesuits. Chase Meyer first saw the story on Beach Bum, a local web site covering town news and activities. He practically didn’t breathe at all, reading the post and looking at the images, then he read it again twice to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood.
It was real. The same creatures he and Angie had seen after that spout churned up the ocean a few weeks ago, a Saturday it had been.
He texted Angie immediately. Did you see it…new critters at aquarium?
All he got back, after a few minutes, was: OMG.
They met half an hour later at the end of Angie’s street, just beyond the circle at Fairwinds Trail. Chase had ridden his turbo bike up from his Dad’s surf shop.
They kissed for a moment. “Did you see ‘em on the Net?” Chase asked.
Angie nodded. “You think they’re the same things we saw Saturday?”
Chase said, “I don’t know. But I intend to find out. Come on…let’s head down to the aquarium.”
Angie demurred. “I just got home from school. And I’ve got a four-hour shift at the clinic…plus Mr. Lott’s loaded me down with homework—I can’t—“
“Come on, Angie…this could be important—“
“Oh, so a job and homework’s not important—“
Chase had that look. “Angie—“
She held up a hand. “Don’t, okay. Just, don’t….” she fretted for few seconds, not sure what to do with her hands. “Chase—honestly, sometimes…here, let me put this bag up—“ she ran off to the house to drop off her bag, tell her Mom what was up. Chase occupied himself with his wristpad, scanning the news stories as they broke: new dolphins at Gulfside…captured on the beach…tourists frightened as police shootout injures animals….
Angie came running back out of the house and hopped on the back seat of the bike.
“I gotta be back in an hour…no lie. The Clinic’s short today…Dr. Wright told me—“
“No sweat…I just think we ought to check this out. I bet those dolphins are the same ones that fired at us.” He scratched off down Grove Street, fishtailing past the high school and the Citrus Grove Shopping Center.
“Hey, try not to kill us in the process!” she yelled over his shoulder.
They made it to the aquarium in five minutes.
Chase paid both their admissions and they hustled through front entrance, hurrying past light, late afternoon crowds at the Dolphin Gallery, past the Penguin Pavilion, the Seal Stage and Swamptown, until they came to a door leading to staff offices and labs. The sign said STAFF AND EMPLOYEES ONLY. Chase tried the door. Locked.
That earned them a scowl from a docent nearby, dusting off railings around the diorama exhibit that fronted Swamptown. Angie always shuddered going by this exhibit; it was filled with creepy, crawling things with eighteen legs. They were all stuffed—mummified, she liked to say—but she shivered just the same.
The docent was Mr. Weems, white-haired and wrinkled more than a shirt left out in the rain, retired from a million years in the drugstore business. “Can’t go in there, kids. Can’t you read the sign?”
Chase towered over Mr. Weems. He didn’t mind using his height to advantage. “We just want to talk with Dr. Holland. She’s still the vet here, isn’t she?”
Weems shrugged, parked a chin on top of a broom, glaring up at Chase. “One of them. Why’d you want to see her?”
Chase made up some story about catching a fish off Half Moon Cove that he wanted her to identify. Angie just rolled her eyes and bit her tongue.
Weems thought about that. “I can call her on this here phone…but it’s late…she’s probably already left for the day—“Weems rang a number on the departmental phone. He said a few words, sort of chuckled, but it came out like a bad cough. Then he hung up. “Got one of her interns. Dr. Holland’s here, but she’s busy. The intern’s coming out—“
A moment later, Tracey Rook pushed through the door. She was red-haired, her hair tied back in a pony-tail, stuck through the back of a Tampa Bay Rays baseball cap. She was wearing a white lab jacket over faded jeans.
“What’s this about, Roy?”
Weems told her. Chase added a few things, then Angie spilled the whole story. Tracey looked on skeptically. “That’s a pretty tall tale, kids.” Tracey was almost a kid herself. Chase thought she was cute, maybe twenty-five at most. Calling them kids was a bit much. “Tell you what, I’ll talk with Dr. Holland, see what she says. Our new guests, Ralph and Alice, are in the recovery pool. They’re not supposed to have visitors…it could be pretty distressing, what with them being shot and all.” Tracey disappeared back inside the staff corridor, then returned less than a minute later, with a what can you do? look on her face.
“Doc says you can watch them from the door…five minutes max. And don’t say or do anything. We don’t want to startle them…they’re a bit skittish.”
She led the teenagers down the hall and through a set of double doors at the end.
The recovery pool was about the size of the lap pool over at Apalachee High, a place that Chase knew well, from years on the swim team. Dr. Holland was stooping by the side of the pool, testing the water chemistry with some kind of gadget. She looked up, came over.
“I heard from Mr. Weems you may have seen Ralph and Alice before.”
Chase related the story. Angie studied the fish circling warily in the water, one after the other. They eyed the humans with each orbit of the pool. “The creatures we saw had some kind of armor on, like a suit or something.”
That made Josey Holland turn abruptly. “A suit? Like a space suit?”
“I guess. It looked like armor, like it was plated. If these are the same guys, they look a little different, smaller.” She could also see the med bandages on the sides of both Ralph and Alice, where Dr. Holland had done the surgical incisions.
Holland said nothing about the suits she had cut off. “Come on in…I want you to take a closer look…make sure these two are who you saw last Saturday. Stop at the railing there…I’m not sure how they’ll react…you’re somebody new to them.”
Chase and Angie came in. Immediately, Ralph stopped circling and poked a beak above the water, eyeing both of them with careful scrutiny.
Angie felt a chill. She had seen those eyes before. It was—“Chase…look at him…look at his eyes---it’s one of them—“
Chase felt it too. He stayed at the railing, but every muscle was screaming go closer. He watched as both Ralph and Alice paused in their circling, poked beaks and eyes above the water and studied the two of them, cocking their heads first one way, then the other. For a few moments, Chase and Angie stared, nearly eyeball to eyeball, with Ralph and Alice, as if something unknown, perhaps unknowable, had passed between them.
Josey Holland had seen the entire exchange. “You all seem to know each other. Are these the two you saw before?”
Chase nodded. “I’m sure of it, Dr. Holland. Just outside the Cove…it was after that waterspout…you know, the water was real choppy.”
“I didn’t want to go out there,” Angie admitted. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders, remembering. “It was rough, scary. But, Chase…well, that’s how he is—“
Chase told them about the enclosure that Ralph and Alice seemed to be towing.
This intrigued Holland. “Enclosure? What kind of enclosure…can you describe exactly what you saw?”
They did.
Holland shook her head, looked at Rook. “Tracey, check back with the police…see if there’s any mention of an enclos
ure in their report.”
The intern ran off to an office. Holland motioned Chase and Angie to follow her. She led them outside the pool deck, and shut the door behind, locking it. “I want to talk more with you two, but I can’t right now. I’ve got a meeting with the Directors in ten minutes…look, can you both come back tomorrow, say in the afternoon?”
Angie told her, “Well, I’ve got school. And I work at Dr. Wright’s clinic most afternoons…I might could get off if I ask nice.”
Chase kicked at some imaginary dirt on the floor. He jammed his hands in his jeans. “I got a job too….Turtle Key Surf and Board. But my Dad owns the place…I can get off.”
“Good. Come by any time after four p.m. Just call me up on my cell—“ she fished for a card and gave the number to Angie. “We need to have a talk.” With that, she escorted them both back down the hall and out into the Swamptown exhibit area. Mr. Weems was still sweeping and dusting. “Tomorrow—“ she told them.
They both promised and hurriedly left the aquarium.
Back inside, Josey Holland deposited her own lab coat in her office and went to the Directors’ room at the end of a cross hall. Dr. Joe Meier was already droning on about the year’s financials and shot her an accusing you’re late look. Holland avoided his stare and took a seat.
“—as I was saying, the notoriety surrounding Ralph and Alice has had the effect of bumping up our turnstile count and gate proceeds the last few days. We’ve put out press releases in a number of outlets and the St. Pete Times is sending a whole crew over tomorrow morning. Plus we’ve got something else up our sleeves that only a few people know about. Josey, tell them about the suits—“
Holland described the suit-like coverings she had cut off Ralph and Alice, earning more than a few raised eyebrows around the table. Holland thought she could see actual dollar signs in some of their eyeballs.
“There could be a film…a documentary, even—“ one Director said. It was Ed Givens, who owned the Reedy Top Drugstore, down on the south side of town.
“Or a special exhibit…with a higher admission fee,” someone else said.
Holland could see they were off and running, smitten with the financial potential, and little care for scientific protocol. She tried reminding them about the need to go slowly, to document everything, to involve peers and other marine biologists but it was like telling dogs not to dive into a pile of treats. After a while, Holland zoned out from most of the conversation, catching only swatches of words: we’ll need a new wing…couldn’t we start an exchange with other aquariums…we could have a show, like Sea World, animal actors, that sort of thing….
Holland was intrigued with the reaction of Ralph and Alice to the teenagers…what were their names again? Chase and Angie. Nobody had had that kind of effect on them; mostly the two had just circled endlessly, restlessly around the recovery pool. It seemed increasingly likely that the teen-agers had encountered their guests before, off Half Moon Cove as they had said. Maybe there was more to the story than Chase and Angie were letting on.
Holland gathered up her things after the Directors meeting and was heading out the door when Meier intercepted her.
“This is a great day for Gulfside, Josey,” he told her.
Holland looked sour. “The Board’s more interested in exhibits and finances than anything else.” She headed out of the Board room and went down the hall, toward the recovery pool and medical suite. Meier hustled to keep up with her.
“You should be too, you know. We’re not doing so great. If we plan this right and do our homework, Ralph and Alice could be the greatest thing ever to happen to Gulfside.”
“I think so, too, Joe, but probably not in the same way.”
“You heard about the World Aquarium. London’s sending a few people to take a look at our new guests. They’re proposing an exchange.”
“Really.” Holland pushed into the lab and snatched her lab coat off, flinging onto her desk chair. “So we’re going to show off Ralph and Alice before anyone’s had a chance to figure out what they are? Science gets kicked off the bus before it even leaves the station…why am I not surprised?”
“Hey,” Joe said, “I’m a scientist too, you know. They’ll be plenty of time and place for research…in fact, that’s what London’s proposing…a joint research program.”
Holland said nothing. Instead, she went to the door that led to the pool, staring through the window at the circling animals. “They’re both recovering fast, thank God. Pretty much a miracle, since I had no idea what I was doing.”
Meier put a hand on her shoulder, then withdrew it when Holland looked sharply at him. “You did a great job…we’re lucky to have you. Hey, I want to do what’s right for them too.”
“What’s right is for us to study them for a few months, then release them…that’s what’s right.”
Meier looked like he had swallowed a beach ball. “Don’t talk like that…you scare me. In fact, I wanted to ask you: when can they be released to the exhibit hall?”
Holland had known that was coming. “In a few weeks, I suppose…we really don’t know how they’ll react to the others…it’ll have to be Tank B, I’m afraid. I’m hoping they socialize with the other cetaceans okay.”
“Well, they did come from the ocean, didn’t they? I mean, it’s not like they’ve never seen another dolphin.”
But Holland wasn’t paying Meier any attention. A thought had just come…something about those suits Ralph and Alice had been wearing. She headed for the lab, an idea forming in the back of her mind.
Chase Meyer liked to meet Angie right when she got off shift from the Wright Clinic. He managed to finagle his own hours at the surf shop so he could ride his bike up Citrus Boulevard to the highway, stop for a candy or a soda at the gas station there and hang out in the Clinic parking lot until Angie got off.
It was usually about nine when she came skipping down the stairs to the parking lot.
They kissed a long time. Chase wanted to fool around, but Angie pushed him away.
“Don’t, okay…it’s been a long day. Take me home.”
Chase pouted. “Hey, what gives? That’s not like you.”
“I’m tired…you would be too, if you worked like a dog…school all day, homework when I can find the time, the Clinic and everybody crying and whining…I just need some peace and quiet…actually I need a beer and a hot shower.”
Chase revved up the turbo and Angie climbed on. “Just so you know—“ he called back to her, as they sped out of the parking lot, “I work too. On my feet all day at the shop, handling those boards.”
“Yeah, right, a hard-working beach bum. I know the type.”
Chase didn’t take her straight home, but took a roundabout route down Grove Street. Gulfside Aquarium was at the southeastern end of the big circle that was Grove Street. He slowed the bike and pulled into the aquarium parking lot. The place was closed and staff were drifting out to their cars.
“Why’d you come this way? I told you to take me home.”
Chase stared up at the complex, which had been designed by some architect to resemble a series of rolling waves, cast in concrete and steel, not entirely successfully, Chase thought.
“We need to get inside somehow, when we can be alone. Go see Ralph and Alice. Ang, they’re not dolphins. They’re something else. You know they recognized us yesterday.”
Angie got off the bike and did some stretching, working the kinks out of her neck and shoulders. God, she missed being on the track squad. What I wouldn’t do for a couple of sets about now… a few laps would really feel good. But there was no time—
“I know. But it’s just a coincidence.”
“Is it? I wonder…I think we should find a way in…go visit ‘em. It’d be so cool—“
“What, now? Are you just slightly insane? The place’s closed.”
“Not now…tomorrow night…I think I know a way in.”
>
“You mean, like break in…Chase, I swear, you’re just like your Dad…juvenile delinquents, both of you….I mean, really, breaking into an aquarium...?” Angie sat down on the asphalt, hitched her knees up to her chest. “I could see breaking into a liquor store, or even a drugstore, but the aquarium?”
But Chase was like a dog with a bone, when he got an idea. Already, he was working his way closer to the side of the building, nodding agreeably to staff who were leaving, checking garbage cans like he was the custodian. Soon enough, he was lost to view, having already buried himself behind some holly bushes lining the beach side of the place.
Angie sighed, imagining herself under the stinging hot needles of the shower, curling up in bed with her wristpad for some show, maybe an episode of The Buckinghams—she loved to study the costumes and period dresses—then sighed again. Chase could be so—what was the word? She couldn’t even think of the right word.
Annoyed and increasingly irritated with herself and with pretty much everything else, she got to her feet and went after him. Honestly, Chase—
She caught up with him at a small landing directly behind the aquarium. There was a service drive leading around from the parking lot and some loading docks. There were also large-diameter ventilation ducts. Angie eyed those and silently willed Chase to forget that idea. No way was she climbing through a ventilation duct.
But her boyfriend had already found a way to jimmy open one of the loading bay doors, managing to force it up enough for the two of them to crawl under.
Chase looked back. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come on, girl.”
Angie hesitated. “This is wrong. It’s breaking and entering…I can’t—“
But Chase had already disappeared. She could hear him bumping into cans and things in the darkened loading bay. She was pretty sure he’d never had a second thought about anything in his life. Just do it.
Angie sucked in a breath. She was already practicing excuses and alibis in her mind. Mother, forgive me…I used to be a good girl but I just got in with the wrong crowd. Then she dropped to her knees and crab-walked underneath the loading bay doors and was in.
It wasn’t long before the whirring of a security bot nearly scared the bejeezus out of her. She tripped and fell heavily on her side. It was Chase who had tripped her. He yanked her behind some crates, holding a finger to his lips. Shhhh! Infrared detection, he mouthed.
They were both as still as they could be, while the bot puttered along the floor, scanning left and right, a trio of big red lights winking on and off on top of its domed head. When it had rolled into another storage room, Chase motioned for them to get up…quiet! …and pad toward a large set of double doors as fast as they could. The doors opened and they found themselves in a utility hall. They both let out a big breath, gulping in air.
“Look, we’re on video and that can’t be helped,” he told her, pointing up to the red eye of a video camera in a pod in the corner. “But I think I can explain this…we saw someone breaking in and we were just following them—“
“Chase,” Angie whispered, “nobody’s going to believe that. What if there’s another bot?”
“That’s the least of our worries. That’s a Ranger Mark Five, if I’m right…we’ve got two of them at the shop. They’ve got infrared and motion detection, but you can fool ‘em if you’re quiet and move slowly. They’re pretty stupid…now, hmmm, which way to the creatures—“
Angie knew that Chase had an uncanny sense of direction so she trusted him, after she had gotten over the fact they were now two burglars clearly on video breaking into Gulfside Aquarium. Soon enough, his homing instincts took over and he was sliding along the hall, until they came at last to a heavier gauge door. It was locked.
“Now, what—“
Chase spied a drainage channel at the bottom of the wall next to the door. He stooped down, jimmied the duct and found it loose. “Here, help me with this—“but he didn’t really need her help, for after a few minutes’ tugging and shoving and pushing and pulling, he had managed to work the duct far enough to one side to just fit his head through the opening. He got down on his knees and with a lot of straining and pushing—she thought he was stuck in the wall for a moment and wouldn’t that have been fun to explain to the police?—he managed to work his entire body through and was gone.
“Come on…” she heard the voice issuing out of the opening. A hand stuck though. “I’ll pull you—“
Yeah, right.
But she managed to slide through the opening, being narrower and smaller than Chase, and found herself in another hall, this one reeking of antiseptic and alcohol. She nearly gagged on the smell.
It was the clinic.
Chase was already at the end of the hall. “They’re here…look! Right in there--!”
Angie stood on her tiptoes and looked through a window in the door. A pool was visible on the other side. The same pool Dr. Holland had taken them to…and there they were.
Ralph and Alice. Both creatures were circling slowly in endless orbits around the pool, stirring waves gently across the water.
They found the door unlocked. Chase pushed through and Angie, after a moment, followed.
Lighting was dim in the recovery pool deck, only lamps on the tile walls were on. Chase went to the pool edge, certain that the creatures had seen him. The larger one he presumed was Ralph. Ralph stopped circling and came to the pool wall, poking his beak above the water, clicking and screeching at him. Behind him, Alice loitered, making tight circles around the stairs.
Angie thought they resembled dolphins more than anything else, larger, but similar in proportion. They were both grayish tan in color, sleek and supple skin, with twin dorsals and tail flukes like dolphins. But it was their forelimbs that most intrigued her. The limbs were webbed with what looked like fringes, like cowboys wore on their chaps and shirts. And the limbs had hands, with fingers—
It gave her the creeps.
“Chase, maybe we should—“ but she stopped, her eyes widening in horror as Ralph rose halfway out of the water, and proceeded to hand something right to Chase. “…oh my God—“
It was a small fist-sized object, oval, rounded at the top. Ralph had extracted it from a small pouch in his belly; neither of them had seen that. His hands had six fingers, delicate fingers, and they grasped the object with a dexterity she could hardly believe.
Chase stooped down to the water’s edge and took the object. It was like a small can, with domed top and bottom.
“Chase…watch out…please, don’t—“ But he had already taken possession of the object. He stood up and examined it. Angie came up and squinted at the thing in his hand.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know—“ he shook it slightly, then nearly dropped the thing when it started to glow…a dim red glow emanated from within. The outer case was almost translucent and a single red light shone from within.
Ralph suddenly became agitated, slapping the water with his tail flukes. He clicked and chittered and screeched, slapping the water again and again. Alice soon joined in. The fracas lasted half a minute, then Alice sped off to circle the pool more vigorously. Ralph stayed by the stairs. He shoved up gouts of water, slapping with his forelimbs, clicking again and again.
Chase thought it expedient to back away from the edge, Angie right on his shoulders.
“What’s wrong with them? What are they doing?”
“Ralph’s upset—“ then Chase heard it. Something, a whispering susurration, began issuing from the object. He almost dropped the thing. “What the--?” He shook the can again, brought it up to eye level. Now the red light had grown stronger and sharper. He peered in, seeing nothing, then brought it to his ears. He could clearly hear something.
“Sounds like gibberish to me,” he said. Similar to the clicking Ralph and Alice were doing, the can emitted a steady stream of sounds: clicks, whistles, g
runts and chirps. He shook his head, then noticed Ralph trying to mimic his head shakes. Ralph waved his forelimbs, hands extended and Chase somehow knew that the creature wanted the object back. Cautiously, he approached the pool.
“Maybe it’s a bomb…it sounds like it’s ticking,” Angie decided. “We ought to get out of here right now—“
“I’m not so sure.” Gingerly, Chase handed the object back, placing it carefully in Ralph’s outstretched hand. The fingers, they seemed so—
Ralph seemed to nod and took the can, ducking back under the water. Alice stopped circling and came alongside, both of them hovering just inches beneath the water surface. Even though the dim light was refracted, Chase could tell they were doing something with the object. The dim red light cycled through more colors before finally settling on an orangish glow. Ralph surfaced. He handed the object back.
Chase was intrigued and a little wary. But this was so cool, working with dolphins like this, dolphins with hands. He took the object back, watching Ralph’s hand and beak movements carefully.
Here…you want me to do this…like this…up here?… He raised the can to his ears again. This time, the whistling and chirping had stopped. Now…my God! He could hear snatches of something…sounds …like words….like—
Understand…voice…to your…can…hear…your voice…(unintelligible…) can you…my voice…
Chase practically dropped the thing. It was a machine. A translator. Voice recognizer, whatever.
“Angie…come over…listen…you can hear…they’re speaking words….”
Cautiously, Angie bent her ear to the device. Even as she listened, she could see Ralph drop under water. Bubbles peppered the surface. Clicking. Whistles. Chirps, like a radio.
“It’s a radio,” she decided. “Like an earpod…or a player, Chase. They’re singing—“
Chase listened more. He knew a thing or two about music, having fronted for the Croc Boys for two years now, a whiz with the go-tone. But this wasn’t singing, not exactly. It was more…
“They’re not singing. They’re talking…this gizmo’s translating all those whistles and screeches…listen—“
And deep inside, Angie knew he was right. It gave her a chill.
Now, the pod was glowing from within with a warm orange radiance. Chase told her it was warm to the touch; she verified that herself, then her curiosity overcame everything. “Let me listen—“
Chase gave her the pod. …you can…can…hear my voice….can understand what…say--?
Both of them nodded. “We understand some words…yes, I hear your voice…can you understand me?” Chase sat down on the edge of the pool. Angie hung back by the stairs, still listening, squinting, trying to make out more.
…is called…echo…pod…my voice…your voice…together…can you hear what I…
“Yes!” Chase practically shouted. He grabbed the pod back from Angie, spoke into it. “Yes, I hear your words…you talk…I mean, you can actually talk--?
Ralph raised his beak above the water, slapped the water.
…’derstand you…echopod need adjust…give me…hand …pod me…
Chase looked up at Angie. “He wants the pod back.”
“Maybe it needs work.”
Chase gave Ralph the pod. The creature ducked under the water again, did something once more with the device. Alice scooted away and began circling again. Finally, the pod’s light had changed from orange to almost a yellowish tint. Ralph surfaced, hoisting the pod with his right flipper-hand-thing and handed it back.
By now, Chase knew what to do. He grasped the pod carefully and raised it to his ear.
Ralph had ducked under again, yet both of them could hear the clicking and grunts and chirps bubbling up out of the water. Alice had chimed in too.
And out of the pod poured a steady stream of words.
…adjust made…you hear better now…?
Chase shivered from a chill that went down his neck and nodded. “Much better. Who are you? Are you dolphins? Where did you come from?”
Ralph seemed agitated by that and began circling in synch with Alice, the two of them orbiting the small pool in perfect unison.
…not this world…many beats distant…there is the Farpool…we come for—
But the words stopped and that’s when Chase and Angie both heard the clatter of something at the pool doors.
“Bots!” Chase cried. “They’re back…we gotta get out of here—“ He dithered a second, then tossed the pod back into the water. Ralph retrieved it immediately. “Come on--!” He grabbed Angie’s hand and they went to a small cabinet alongside the mechanical room in the corner of the pool deck. “Hide back here…as soon as they come in, make a break for it…run like hell for the door. And cover your face—here—“ he handed Angie his handkerchief, which she held out with two fingers and winced. “So the recognizer can’t get an image of your face—“
At that moment, the doors to the pool deck burst open and two Ranger sentry bots rolled in, scanning and clanking as they rolled across the slick tile.
Chase did a silent count for them. One…two…three…NOW!
They scrambled from their hiding place and streaked for the open doors, slipping and sliding on the wet tile. The bots whirled quickly and detection beams shot out. Lights strobed and flashed on their domed heads. Restraint mesh fired into the air with an audible whoosh. A mechanical voice boomed out: “HALT, INTRUDER, HALT! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!”
But Chase and Angie managed to elude the bots and ducked out into the hall. They headed for the drainage channel they had come in by and they didn’t stop running until they had burst out of the aquarium altogether and made tracks in the wet grass for Chase’s turbo, still parked by the holly bushes.
Chase kick-started the bike and they sped off into the night.