Arctic Adventure

by Axel Lewis

  “And in the gadgets department,” Grandpa went on, “I was thinking about some kind of hammer, or axe, something to smash through the ice.”

  “Yeah,” growled Pete approvingly. Jimmy thought he saw a glimmer of excitement in the giant mechanic’s dark eyes. “A huge hammer. A massive hammer. Spring-loaded. Hydraulic retraction. Turbo-charged.”

  “Now it’s funny you should say that,” beamed Grandpa. “I’ll get us a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit. When I get back, I’ll show you an idea I’ve been working on...”

  Pete nodded. “Sounds good.”

  Jimmy grinned. He had a feeling those two were going to get on pretty well, after all. Then he tried to stifle a jaw-breaking yawn. It had been a long day.

  “Don’t worry, Jimmy,” said Grandpa from over at the tea-station. Our new friend Pete and I can handle it from here if you want to catch up on your beauty sleep. You’ve got a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”

  “OK, then. Goodnight, Grandpa. Goodnight, Pete. ’Night, Cabbie,” Jimmy said with another yawn.

  “Sleep tight,” called Cabbie as Jimmy began to wander off to his cabin. “Don’t let the computer bugs bite.”

  Two minutes later, Jimmy was wrapped up in bed beneath two duvets and a thick blanket, listening to the howling freezing wind outside, battering the airship.

  Even though this was going to be his third race, he still couldn’t quite believe it. Tomorrow, he, Jimmy Roberts, would be driving in the Robot Races, across the Arctic circle, with Pete Webber on his team.

  Unbelievable, he thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  The next morning, Jimmy woke up still dreaming of the upgrade he might get if he won the Arctic race – sonic-boom rocket-boosters to take Cabbie beyond the speed of sound, a robocopter-converter to take Cabbie into the air at the flick of a switch...

  Jimmy sat up and yawned. He couldn’t wait to see the modifications Grandpa and Pete had made to Cabbie overnight. He threw on his clothes and ran all the way from his cabin to Grandpa’s workstation.

  He found Grandpa, Cabbie and Pete Webber exactly where he’d left them, surrounded by more empty tea mugs and plates than he could count.

  “Morning, Jimmy,” yawned Grandpa.

  “Hey, Jimmy,” said Pete.

  “What a night!” called Cabbie. “You wait ’til you see what we’ve been up to!”

  “Show me!” said Jimmy, putting his head in Cabbie’s window and examining the control panel. “Hey, Grandpa, what’s the orange lever do?”

  Grandpa said nothing.

  “Grandpa?”

  Jimmy turned. Grandpa seemed to have gone to sleep face down in his teacup.

  “Your grandpa’s had a long night,” whispered Pete. “He’s some genius, I tell you. It’s no wonder you’re doing so well in the championship with a man like that on your team.”

  “And now we’re going to do even better with you on the team,” whispered Jimmy. “That special upgrade prize is going to be mine for certain!”

  “Hey, Wilf,” Pete whispered in Grandpa’s ear. “Wake up and show your boy what Cabbie’s got up his sleeves.”

  Grandpa’s head jerked up, his wild white moustache springing into his eyes. “What’s that?” he mumbled. “Yes, what was I saying?”

  “You were just telling me about the modifications you and Pete have been working on,” smiled Jimmy.

  “Ah, yes,” said Grandpa, stroking his moustache back into position and clearing his throat. “Yes, well ... see the orange lever? Pull it and see what happens.”

  Jimmy tugged on the orange lever. A rhythmic thumping boomed out, making the whole airship shake. Cabbie jumped up and down in time with the pounding beat, and the pit area echoed with the sound of ripping metal. Jimmy looked around in horror and realized Grandpa was shouting something at him.

  “Turn it off!” bellowed Grandpa.

  Jimmy pushed the orange lever back and the thumping stopped as suddenly as it had started.

  “Wow!” cried Cabbie. “What a mover!”

  “Oops,” said Grandpa with a sheepish grin. “I didn’t expect it to make quite that much of a racket.”

  “That’s your robo-pummeller,” said Pete Webber. “A massive, turbo-sprung jackhammer fixed to Cabbie’s underside. It can squash snow to make the ground smoother, so you’ll be able to turn a snowdrift into an ice road in about three seconds.”

  “And knock a hole in the floor of an airship in about two seconds,” said Grandpa, looking nervously around to see if anyone had noticed the damage they had done.

  “And then there’s the roto-blade,” explained Pete. “You push that green button next to the orange lever and a razor-sharp circular saw with huge teeth extends from Cabbie’s roof. It’s telescopic, can pivot in any direction and will cut through anything – ice, compacted snow, rock, you name it.”

  “Wow,” said Jimmy, leaning in and pressing the button.

  Bang!

  A huge parachute was fired from Cabbie’s roof. It slowly floated down and covered all of them.

  “Oops,” said Jimmy. “I thought you said it was the green button!”

  “Shall I repackage?” came Cabbie’s voice through the darkness beneath the parachute.

  “Good idea,” said Grandpa.

  “You need to be careful,” said Pete when Cabbie had retracted the parachute and folded it back into his roof. “The dark green button releases the parachute. The light green button activates the roto-blade.”

  Jimmy peered at the buttons. “You could have chosen another colour...” he muttered.

  “There’s some other things you should know,” continued Pete. “I’ve put my spare toolkit in the trunk – remember there are no pit stops in this race and you may need to do some running repairs while you’re out on the ice. I can talk you through anything you’re not sure about over the Cabcom.”

  “And we’ve put snow tyres on, of course,” added Grandpa, “but if it gets really slippy out there you can activate a set of snow chains with that blue button,” he said, pointing to it on Cabbie’s dashboard. “Press it and they will automatically wrap round Cabbie’s tyres. You will probably lose a bit of top-end speed, but what you lose in pace you’ll gain in grip.”

  “That’s about it,” said Pete. But Jimmy didn’t hear him. The mechanic’s voice was drowned out by the sound of a warning klaxon booming around the pit area, the creaking groan of the airship’s huge steel door being opened and a biting blast of cold air whistling past their ears.

  “Drivers, you have just five minutes until the race begins,” echoed the voice of Lord Leadpipe. “That’s five minutes,” he repeated.

  Jimmy took a deep breath and smiled at Grandpa and Pete. “This is it,” he said, climbing into Cabbie’s cockpit.

  “Good luck, my boy,” said Grandpa, winking and grinning proudly.

  Pete gave a nod. “See you at the finish line,” he growled, but there was a warm smile on his face.

  Jimmy fired up Cabbie’s engines and looked out through his windscreen, through the airship door to the Arctic ice beyond. Blinding white, it gleamed in the sunlight, stretching to a brilliant blue sky. It looked like the edge of the world.

  Jimmy guided Cabbie down the ramp onto the ice.

  Race marshals with flags lined the route to the start line. They waved him forward and into his starting position.

  The start line was right next to Lord Leadpipe’s igloo. There were no grandstands for this leg of the championship as it was far too cold and dangerous for crowds to gather. But it seemed as if every camerabot in the world had made it instead. The hovering robotic cameras sprayed de-icer onto their lenses to stop their cameras from instantly freezing over. Jimmy knew that there would be millions of people sat in their living rooms at home, edging closer to the screen and feeling the excitement that only the Robot Races could cause. The idea of all those people watching him made his tummy do a somersault.

  Instead of the usual cheering fro
m the crowds, all Jimmy could hear was the howling of the wind as it whipped around the robots and stirred up a blizzard in front of the racers’ eyes.

  The racers pulled up to the start line: Monster and Missy, Kako and Lightning, Chip and Dug, Sammy and Maximus, and lastly, Horace and Zoom. Each one of the robots looked like they had been freshly painted and polished, with shiny new stickers advertising their sponsors. Even Cabbie had a new That’s Shallot! sticker on his bonnet. The stupid onion logo was just the same though. The camerabots darted among them, and huge images of each racer appeared on the airship’s vast display screens. None of the drivers looked at each other. They were all staring anxiously down the track at what lay ahead.

  Lord Leadpipe’s track engineers had been busy overnight. They had cut a vast channel in a straight line through the snow and built its banks up, so the track curved up at the edges like a bobsleigh run. It was a half-pipe, a giant U-shape in the distance, reaching all the way to the horizon.

  “Racers,” Lord Leadpipe’s voice boomed from the airship’s loudspeakers, “the first ten-kilometre stretch of the race will be a straight sprint down this specially-created track, which I’m calling the Arctic Roll! At the end of the Roll, you’ll come to a crossroads. It’s left for the snow route, straight on for the ice route, and right for the sea route. The race will begin in ten ... nine...”

  “Which route are we taking, Jimmy?” asked Cabbie, revving his engines and running some last minute software checks.

  Jimmy felt a cold lump spread down his thoat like he’d just swallowed a lump of ice. He, Grandpa and Pete had spent so long talking about Cabbie’s improvements that they’d forgotten to choose which route to take!

  “Four ... three...” echoed the countdown.

  “We need to decide, Jimmy,” said Cabbie, “cos we’re off!”

  Chapter 5 - Into the Unknown

  “Two ... one ... GO! GO! GO!” cried Lord Leadpipe standing on the top of his igloo, microphone in hand. His voice was almost drowned out by the roar of engines and the howl of the Arctic wind.

  All six racers shot away from the start line, skidding and sliding, bouncing over the snow like bumper cars. The ground beneath them screamed as the racers’ spinning tyres sprayed chips of ice and sent columns of steam and smoke into the air.

  Jimmy gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white. He pulled ahead of Princess Kako, who was struggling to keep her robobike, Lightning, upright while dodging the other racers as they span and skidded towards her. Sammy and Horace also seemed to be having slow starts, but Missy looked less worried about bumps – she was laughing as the other racers jumped and swerved. Missy put her foot down and Monster’s enormous bulk tore off into the lead.

  “What a mess!” said Jimmy, glancing at the chaos in his rear-view mirror as the churning snow made it difficult to see who was where.

  “Never mind them,” said Cabbie. “Let’s try to stay up front and out of trouble.”

  Chip and Dug were in hot pursuit of Missy, so Jimmy tucked Cabbie in behind them, using Dug as a buffer against the savage wind.

  “Great start, Jimmy,” said Cabbie.

  “Time to get in the lead,” said Jimmy, gritting his teeth and turning the steering wheel to pull out and overtake. Cabbie swerved wildly and started skidding sideways at a terrifying speed.

  “What’s wrong with the steering, Cabbie?” cried Jimmy anxiously. “What’s going on?”

  “Aquaplaning!” said Cabbie. “Dug’s exhaust is melting the snow. We’re surfing on top of the snow at the moment!”

  The steering wheel continued to jerk left and right, and Jimmy felt like he was juggling a bar of soap as it slipped through his fingers.

  “Should we activate the snow chains?” asked Cabbie as they careered from side to side.

  “Not right now. We just need to get away from Dug’s exhaust,” decided Jimmy. He took his foot off the accelerator and let Cabbie drop back. With one sharp twitch on the steering wheel, Jimmy managed to guide Cabbie out to the right and onto solid snow. Jimmy stamped on the accelerator.

  “I’ve stabilized wheelspin,” said Cabbie, his revs rising as they rocketed forwards. “Now we’re motoring!” he cried as they streaked past Dug and into second place.

  Looking in his rear-view mirror, Jimmy could see Chip’s racer lagging further behind. While the track was like this, the digger-bot’s caterpillar tracks weren’t as effective as Cabbie’s tyres.

  “The track’s getting narrower,” said Jimmy after a few minutes. “Soon there won’t be room for overtaking. We need to get around Missy before it’s too late—”

  Before he could finish, Jimmy saw a flash in his rear-view mirror as Sammy and Maximus shot past Chip. “Looks like Sammy’s making the most of his new fan blades. He’ll be past us in a second,” Jimmy murmured.

  “Look how fast Maximus is on this snow,” Cabbie said as the hoverbot swept past them and settled smoothly into second place.

  Jimmy looked down at his GPS readout on the Cabcom and saw that all six racers were now close together as the snow road narrowed.

  “Cabbie, can you find the best route through?” cried Jimmy.

  “I’m computing, I’m computing!” said Cabbie.

  Just at that moment Jimmy felt a bump as Cabbie hit a pothole in the icy surface of the half-pipe. The jolt made the wheel lock up and Cabbie was sent skidding at a 45-degree angle to the track.

  “Whoa!” said Cabbie as slushy snow sprayed out in every direction.

  As Cabbie skidded, Jimmy jabbed at the blue button on his dashboard. There was a metallic clunk and a clacking noise as specially-made chains snaked round the tyres.

  “Snow chains engaged,” said Cabbie. “We’ve got control back. Great idea, Jimmy.”

  “Thanks, Cabbie,” Jimmy said with a grin. He eased Cabbie back into a straight line and squeezed the accelerator once more.

  They’d lost a few valuable seconds and now Chip and Dug were right on their tails again.

  Trapped between Dug and Maximus, Jimmy tried to hold Cabbie steady. As they were squeezed tighter and tighter between the two massive robots, the back of Maximus’s inflatable air cushions skimmed Cabbie’s front bumper.

  “What are they doing?” asked Jimmy.

  “Trying to knock us out of the way, I think,” said Cabbie cheerily.

  “Sammy wouldn’t do that!” said Jimmy, desperately hoping he was right.

  Sure enough, Sammy’s face popped up on the Cabcom screen. “Sorry Jimmy!” he yelled. “This snow is slippery, no?”

  Maximus veered towards them again, hitting Cabbie a glancing blow which sent him flying sideways and up the side of the Arctic Roll.

  “Strap on your circuit boards!” cried Cabbie as they veered back into the path of Chip and Dug.

  With a deafening crack and a blinding flash, Dug suddenly glowed blue.

  Jimmy gritted his teeth as Cabbie hit Dug’s blue light and was flung away, careering back towards Maximus’s vast air cushion.

  “What’s that?” asked Jimmy.

  “An electro-force field,” said Cabbie as they sailed towards Maximus.

  “I feel like a pinball!” shrieked Cabbie as they bounced between the two towering racers on either side of them.

  “And it looks like the track’s just about to narrow even more when we get to that bend,” Jimmy said, looking at the steep sides to the course. “There’s only one thing for it.” He stamped on the accelerator again and yanked on the steering wheel. Veering sharply to the left, Cabbie rocketed up the bank of the Arctic Roll half-pipe.

  “What are you doing?” cried Cabbie. “I’m the wrong way up!”

  “Hold on,” Jimmy said calmly. “We’re going to keep out of trouble and take the high side of the curve, then we’ll slingshot right past the others. Keep your pistons pumping and we’ll be fine.”

  “Gotcha, Jimmy. Full power coming right up.”

  Cabbie adjusted his settings and the engine roared with more power. Jimmy w
as thrown back in his seat as they skimmed the very top of the half-pipe. He could feel the G-force squeezing his face and trying to prise his hands off the steering wheel as they hurtled through the bend. For one terrifying moment he thought that the tyres were losing grip and they might topple sideways and roll back down the hill to get crushed under Dug’s wheels, but the snow chains bit deep into the high sides of the bend and they held firm. Then Jimmy gave a little twist of the steering wheel and Cabbie arced downwards. Using the slope to pick up extra speed, they shot downhill and flew ahead of both Sammy and Chip.

  They were back in second behind Missy and Monster.

  Cabbie let out a deafening yodel as they hit the bottom of the slope again. “Amaaaaaaaaaaazing!” he shouted. “Nice thinking, Jimmy ... And excellent work by me, obviously.”

  Grandpa’s face popped up on the Cabcom. He must have had his face pressed right up to the camera – all Jimmy could see was a huge grin and an even bigger moustache. They filled the whole screen.

  “That was incredible. Quick thinking, Jimmy lad. Well done!”

  “Thanks, Grandpa,” said Jimmy.

  “And Pete’s had a message from Big Al,” Grandpa went on. “He says ... what did he say, Pete?”

  Jimmy heard Pete mumbling something in the background.

  “Big Al says he could learn a thing or two from you!”

  “What?” cried Jimmy, veering off course in amazement.

  “And I bet I could teach that Crusher a thing or two as well,” Cabbie boasted.

  “Anyway,” Grandpa went on, “the main thing is, you’ve got about two kilometres until the track splits. Do you know what route you’re going to take?”

  “The snow track, I think,” replied Jimmy. “At least that way I’ll be able to keep an eye on the others.”

  “You’re the boss,” said Cabbie. “I’m just as happy crashing through the ice into the sea as I am dropping down a crevasse and never being seen again. I think they’re both great ideas.”

  “Thanks,” said Jimmy flatly. “That’s really helpful.”

  “One kilometre until the track splits,” came Grandpa’s voice again. “It’s about to get interesting, my boy!”