‘Hang on,’ instructed Aureole as she banked the hopper hard right.
It accelerated faster than James thought possible, and laid him back in his seat.
‘This prototype has real legs,’ she said gripping the steering wheel tightly.
‘Prototype?!’ spluttered James. ‘You mean . . . it’s not been tested properly?’
Aureole laughed. ‘Well, it is getting a real work-out now.’
James closed his eyes for an instant, imagining all the things that could go wrong. The engine was screaming. Aureole was pushing the hopper as hard as it could go. How much punishment could the prototype take? A quick glance behind showed that they were steadily pulling away from their pursuers. The guards’ cloud hopper was having difficulty keeping up. Go, little prototype, thought James.
‘Complete transparency on,’ ordered Aureole. Instantly, the hopper disappeared, making it look as though James and Aureole were sitting in mid-air, with Aureole gripping an invisible steering wheel.
‘What are you doing?’ said James.
‘This way it will be harder to track us visually.’
Out of the corner of his eye, James noticed a little yellow light blinking near his knee. ‘What’s that flashing light?’
Aureole glanced over and frowned. ‘It is Angie trying to take control of the hopper.’
‘That’s not good, is it?’
As if talking to the blinking light, Aureole said, ‘You can try all you want. You will not override this Supasmart.’
They were zipping in and out of the different levels of traffic. James was sure they must have broken a million road (or was that air?) rules. Now, he knew what Cirro had meant about wanting to be in control. This was nothing like flying. This was terrifying.
Up ahead, a giant circular rainbow – their way out of Nebulosity – came into view, sparkling invitingly. ‘We’re nearly there!’ said James. His fingers were gripping his invisible seat so tightly they had turned white.
Behind them, the guards’ cloud hopper was nothing more than a speck in the background.
Aureole shook her head. ‘No, that was too easy. We are not out of trouble yet, Bird Boy.’
James glared at her. ‘Bird Boy?’
Aureole didn’t have a chance to reply. A metallic green cloud hopper swooped in from their right and sideswiped them. Their invisible hopper shuddered violently.
‘Want to play rough, do we?’ said Aureole through gritted teeth. She returned their sideswipe with one of her own.
‘This is NIB Pursuit. Stop your vehicle,’ boomed a voice from the green hopper, now travelling behind them and slightly to one side.
‘Oh great, we’re going to end up on one of those reality cop shows,’ groaned James.
Aureole shot him a glance. ‘That gives me an idea.’ She suddenly braked hard. The green hopper flew right by. Then, she quickly accelerated, easily catching up to it again.
‘You’re not going to do what I think you are going to do, are you?’ said James, grimacing and bracing himself.
No answer was required. Aureole slammed into the rear left side of the green hopper, sending it spinning out of control. ‘That is called the PIT manoeuvre,’ she said, smiling.
They watched the police hopper spiral out of view.
‘Otherwise known as the Precision Immobilization Technique,’ said James, turning and gazing at her in awe. He’d only ever seen that done on US cop shows.
They flew through the circular rainbow and out of Nebulosity.
‘We have a few minutes before they will follow us,’ said Aureole. She looked much calmer now.
‘How do you know?’
‘We have rules and regulations, just like you. They will need a warrant to fly out of Nebulosity air space, and that will take a few minutes to acquire. We should be out of visual range by then.’ She ordered retro-transparency on and the hopper reappeared. ‘Anti-tracking shields on,’ she said after that and a brief hum came from all around the hopper.
James sat back and looked at his white fingers tips. ‘I’ll give you this – you’re one hell of a flyer – for a girl.’
Aureole glared at him. ‘For a girl!’ she repeated.
‘What do you expect from Bird Boy?’ retorted James.
Their argument was short-lived. A few kilometres on, the hopper gave out a high-pitched squeal that left a painful ringing in James’s ears, before it fell silent.
‘Damn,’ mumbled Aureole under her breath.
They flew straight for a few more seconds and then the hopper nosedived. James felt as if his stomach had decided to bail out. He used his hands and feet to stop himself sliding forward, turned to Aureole. ‘What’s happening?’
‘We are falling, Bird Brain, what does it look like?’
‘Yes, but why?’
Aureole frantically flicked switches and pushed buttons in an attempt to restart the engine. ‘Some circuitry must have been damaged when they sideswiped us,’ she said, almost to herself.
‘Or when you slammed into the back of them,’ said James, sharply.
‘Shut up! You are not helping the situation.’
Wisps of cloud whizzed past James’s view. The water below was rapidly approaching and Aureole’s attempts to restart the hopper seemed futile. ‘Can we eject?’
‘No chance. The cabin is sealed tight.’
‘There must be something we can do. What if you turn on the inertial dampener? Can’t it absorb the impact or something?’
The cloud hopper was shaking violently. Aureole was having a hard time holding on to the steering wheel. ‘It cannot stop the hopper from ripping apart and tearing us to pieces,’ she managed to say.
James felt worse than useless. He was trapped and about to die a violent death. He’d never see his parents again. Never know where they were, or if they were all right. He stared at the rough sea below. Gulped. With every terrible second it grew bigger, until it took up the whole view, and all he could see was water.
TWENTY-FOUR
MAL Laboratories, Nebulosity
The thin blue veins in Kawasaki’s forehead throbbed visibly with every movement of his grim mouth. ‘Yes that is correct, Your Excellency,’ he said quickly, gazing up at the enormous 3D image of the Empyrean’s head, which was projecting into the room. ‘It seems the intruder has stolen both the hopper prototype and . . . and . . . kidnapped James.’ The doctor’s face dropped at his final words.
The Empyrean was livid. His normally silver hair was a fiery red and his eyes were bulging like giant billiard balls. ‘How is that possible, Doctor?’ he growled. ‘I have been assured that the MAL Laboratories are the most secure facilities in all of Nebulosity. More secure than my own Palace!’
Cirro, standing next to the doctor, quickly came to his defence. ‘From what we can ascertain, Your Excellency, the intruder had an accomplice, someone who hacked into MAL security. They managed to prevent the complete lockdown of several sectors, giving free access to many of the labs.’
‘This hacker was quite ingenious, with astounding computer skills,’ added Kawasaki. Cirro shot him a glance. He wished the doctor could be more like him, and keep the emotion out of his voice. Sounding impressed with the criminal’s work would only infuriate the Empyrean further.
‘Are they Azurien?’ said Nimbus through giant clenched teeth.
‘We are looking into that now,’ said Cirro. ‘There is no video footage of the intruder, the hacker made sure of that.’
‘Were they after James?’ growled Nimbus.
‘We believe so, Your Excellency,’ said Cirro, looking at the doctor, who nodded. ‘We left James in a locked room. There was no way for him to get out by himself. And the hopper gave them a perfect getaway. It is the fastest one made so far, and not locked into single voice recognition yet. We may as well have just handed them a free ticket out of the city.’
Rather than stroking the hair on his chin, Nimbus tugged furiously at it. ‘Considering that they knew James was there . . . and
about the hopper prototype . . .’ he muttered, almost to himself. ‘Could it have been an inside job?’
‘I doubt that very much, Your Excellency,’ said Kawasaki, indignant. ‘Before they commence duties here, employees of this facility are thoroughly scrutinised, both academically and psychologically.’
‘And,’ Cirro added quickly, ‘after the SAFFIRE’s disappearance, all employees were checked again.’
Nimbus paused for a moment. ‘Were there any signs of a struggle between James and the intruder?’
‘No, Your Excellency. The door to the lab where we left James had been forced open, but that is all,’ replied Cirro.
Nimbus’s large eyes stared at the Primary Agent. ‘Is it possible . . . that James was in on it?’
Cirro and the doctor looked at each other and then at the Empyrean, neither tending an answer.
Over the Pacific Ocean
The hopper was shaking so violently James wondered how much longer it could stay in one piece. He glanced across to Aureole, her face locked in a determined frown. She had brought the nose of the hopper back near horizontal and was hanging on to the steering wheel with nothing but brute force. She must be a lot stronger than she looked.
The small yellow light caught James’s attention again. ‘Aureole, I have an idea,’ he yelled over the hopper’s death rattle.
‘What is it?’ Aureole yelled back.
‘Can you reconnect to Angie?’
‘Maybe. Why?’
‘When I first rode in a hopper, Cirro told me the main computer fixes all malfunctions. If you let Angie back on-line, she might be able to restore power.’
Aureole seemed to ponder his idea for a few seconds. A few too many seconds for James’s liking; they didn’t have many left.
‘All right, I will give it a try,’ she said.
As she released the steering wheel, the hopper pitched forward and they both hit the windscreen together. James rubbed his head and looked over to Aureole. A thin stream of blood was trickling down her forehead, but she already had her fingers on the Supasmart ZZ, making the required adjustments.
He tore his eyes away from her for a moment to look out of the window. The ocean was rushing up at a ferocious speed. Only a few hundred metres stood between them and a watery end. James knew his life should be flashing before his eyes, but it wasn’t. In fact, very little was going through his brain at all.
‘Let us hope this works,’ she yelled.
Time appeared to slow down. James kept his eye on the little blazing yellow light. It blinked up at him, as if it couldn’t make up its mind whether to stop or not. Aureole said something, but her words were jumbled in his head and didn’t make any sense. He half turned, noticed his vision was weird, as though he was peering down a long tunnel. He opened his mouth to ask Aureole what was going on, but suddenly felt as if two huge invisible hands had just reached into his chest and squeezed the air out of his lungs, trapping his words.
Impact couldn’t be far away now. Why hadn’t his idea worked? Everything around him went deathly quiet. What was happening? James struggled to catch a glimpse of the water, but his eyes refused to co-operate.
This must be it, he thought, as his eyes rolled back. I’m dying!
His head jerked uncontrollably and he wondered why he had to die so young.
James felt a sharp sting across his left cheek. ‘Wake up, Bird Boy!’ Aureole yelled in his ear.
‘Wha . . .’ He shook his head and blinked a few times. His sunglasses were sitting askew on his nose and he pushed them back into position. ‘W-what happened? Did you just slap me?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘You did the funky chicken,’ said Aureole, smiling. She was sitting quite calmly in the seat next to him, a smear of blood on her forehead.
‘What?’ said James, rubbing the back of his aching neck. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You passed out under G-LOC.’
‘Why?’ asked James, his memory of the last few minutes rather sketchy.
‘When Angie fixed the hopper and steered us out of trouble, the g-forces were quite high.’
‘Did you black out?’
‘No.’ She looked at him as if he’d asked the most ridiculous question, and then her face softened. ‘But do not feel bad. It is an Azurien thing. We can withstand considerably high Gs.’
James sat back in his seat and closed his eyes for a moment. He had been in a few scary situations lately, but that had to be at the top of his list. He felt lucky to be alive. ‘How close did we come to, you know, crashing?’
‘Pretty close,’ said Aureole. She seemed unfazed at the thought.
‘And . . . and you weren’t scared?’ said James.
Aureole shook her head. ‘What is that saying . . . If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space.’ She laughed.
‘You’re joking, right?’
Aureole’s face twisted into a wicked smile. ‘Sorry, did I forget to tell you that I am an adrenalin junkie? I thrive on close calls.’ But there was something in her voice that didn’t quite ring true.
As they were speaking, the hopper started to make a U-turn. ‘Angie is taking us back home,’ she noted.
‘Can we stop it?’ James didn’t want to dwell on the amount of trouble they’d be in if they returned so soon to Nebulosity without the SAFFIRE.
Aureole picked up her Supasmart ZZ. ‘I will just disconnect it again. Now that the problem is fixed, the hopper should be safe.’
‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’ said James, trying to keep his voice even. He didn’t want Aureole thinking he was scared, especially if she wasn’t. Though he was sure she was acting braver than she felt.
‘Relax. Nothing is going to happen.’
A small wisp of smoke snaked out of the Supasmart and, suddenly, the hopper lost altitude. James swore and instinctively held onto his seat, ready for the ensuing brown-trouser plunge, again. But Aureole was already pulling on the steering wheel, levelling the hopper back up. ‘Blast! She has purposefully destroyed my Supasmart.
The bitch!’
‘Who?’ said James.
‘Angie.’
‘Angie is still in control?’
‘No, but neither am I. Not fully.’ Aureole looked irritated. ‘All of the basic functions still work so that I can accelerate, brake and steer, but none of the other features will work.’ As an afterthought, she added, ‘Hopefully, we were not online long enough for them to get a fix on us.’
‘And if they got a fix on us?’ asked James. ‘What then?’
Aureole’s brave face slipped for a second, and she gave a nervous shrug. ‘Then we are in real trouble.’
TWENTY-FIVE
Archipelago, Indonesian Waters
James almost scowled. So, we’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with no computer, no navigation and no way of knowing if they are tracking us. At least Darren would have two or three back-up plans.
Aureole glanced over. ‘Do not worry, we are going to visit my friend. With his help, we will stay one step ahead of NIB.’
‘How can you be that confident?’
‘NIB is high-tech, but my friend is very good at counterintuitive programming. He can get around their security. Do not worry about it.’
‘Really?’ said James. ‘Who’s this friend of yours? Another Azurien?’
‘No, he is an Archipelagien.’
James raised one eyebrow.. Had he heard her correctly? ‘A pelican?’ he said with a snort.
‘No, Bird Boy,’ said Aureole, rolling her eyes. ‘An Ark-i-pela-gien . . . an Islander.’ She made it sound as if it were common knowledge.
‘Whoa! Wait a minute! There are other types of humans besides Agrariens and Azuriens?’ said James. He wondered why this possibility hadn’t crossed his mind before now.
Aureole gave a short laugh. ‘You Agrariens, you are so ignorant. I am surprised that you have multiplied as much as you have. You cannot even see wh
at is going on right under your own noses.’ Her eyes held his for a moment. ‘Think about it,’ she said, tapping the side of her head. ‘Why would there be only one or two human species? The Earth has so many different ecosystems, there are plenty of places for humans to continue to evolve separately.’
What she was saying made perfect sense, but James wished she wouldn’t act superior about it all. It wasn’t his fault no one had told him these things. ‘How many human species are there?’
Aureole shook her head, looking quite serious. ‘THAT . . . is classified. I could tell you, but then I would have to kill you.’
James crossed his arms and glared at her. ‘Very funny. Just tell me.’
‘No, I do not trust you. You could be a spy for all I know.’
‘I am not a spy,’ said James, raising his voice. This girl was so infuriating.
Aureole had an amused expression on her face. She seemed to be enjoying James’s frustration. She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘Obviously, a spy is going to say that.’
‘I’m. Not. A. Spy.’ James spat out each word through clenched teeth.
Aureole didn’t respond and the cabin fell into uncom-fortable silence. James knew that he should be more concerned about another hopper turning up at any moment, rather than thinking about human evolution, but he found it hard to let go. When he had his temper under control, he said, ‘At least tell me about this friend of yours. This Ark-i-pela-gien. I assume he lives on an island?’
‘As a matter of fact,’ said Aureole, fake shock plastered across her face, ‘he does.’
James wondered if all Azurien girls were this annoying. ‘How far away?’ he said.
‘We should be there in a few hours, if all goes well. And, that is all I am going to tell you.’ Aureole turned up her nose at him and looked away.
James resisted the urge to roll his eyes and gazed out the side window at patches of white cloud, fuming quietly. It wasn’t until his thoughts drifted to his parents that his anger subsided a little. Where were they? Why weren’t they home? He resolved to try their mobiles as soon as he had the chance. Maybe these Archipelagiens would have a phone.
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