by Andy Briggs
Carson nudged the stick to ram Vanta into Wolverine – only noticing at the last second that the edge of the saucer had a spinning blade rotating around it.
Vanta would be sliced in half!
Carson wasn’t sure what happened next; it all occurred in seconds. One moment they were on a collision course, the next there was a crackle of electricity and lightning arced between Vanta and Wolverine. The lethal flying saucer suddenly lost power and dropped into the path of the Dodge Drone. Vanta was suddenly through the gap, leaving the sound of tearing metal and plastic behind.
Trix had been watching everything on her screen. “What was that?”
“Something must’ve short-circuited,” Vanta muttered.
Carson had the feeling that maybe he wasn’t completely in control of this race…
Eddie ran through the empty canteen, desperately looking for a place to hide. The woman was gaining on him with the speed of a professional athlete. He pushed through a door and into a zigzagging breeze block corridor that led to the toilets. He noticed the door to a storage closet was partially ajar and threw himself inside, crashing against the mops stored within. He yanked the door closed, plunging himself into darkness and causing dozens of spare toilet rolls to cascade on him from the shelf above. He just hoped his pursuer hadn’t heard.
He heard running footsteps pass by. The sound of leather soles on polished concrete shuffled to a stop a little further down the corridor.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP – Eddie was terrified his heart would betray him. Despite the summer heat, he shivered.
The silence from outside was beginning to worry him. Had she gone? How long should he stay inside? Just as he considered leaving, he heard her voice.
“Agent Bevan, I’ve lost the target. Has he doubled back?” He didn’t hear the reply, but was relieved when she said, “OK. I’m heading back.”
In the darkness, Eddie felt smug at giving the woman the slip.
Then the closet suddenly lit up as the phone he was holding in his hand illuminated with a text message from his sister – and an accompanying chime broke the stillness, betraying his hiding place.
The closet door suddenly opened and Eddie spilled out with the toilet rolls. The woman stared down at him and pressed one finger against a small earpiece.
“Target acquired.”
The race wasn’t just a test of endurance for the drones; it was taking its toll on the pilots too.
This course was the longest Carson had ever raced in a single go. With the heat of the day and tight-fitting VR goggles, he was sweating heavily and his mouth was parched. He hoped the other racers were feeling the same.
A drone just behind him wobbled erratically, probably under the unsteady hands of its tired pilot. The fourth lap was relatively uneventful, with the racers now falling into rhythm – no longer eager to scrap, but just keen to see it through to the end of the race. It took another lap before Trix had found a bottle of water and poured it into Carson’s mouth. Most of it ran down his top, but he was thankful: what he did drink perked up his attention.
“The wall” was coming up, a thirty-metre vertical climb that strained every drone’s engines, and was designed to slow them down as it became a test of vertical, not horizontal, speed. Fortunately, Vanta had the ability to twist her rotors parallel to the ground, elegantly powering herself upward. It was a feature that Marcus Nation pointed out to the crowd in a surprised tone.
Above, Carson saw smoke pouring from a rival’s motor as the blades overheated. Before they had even reached the top, the drone’s engines caught fire and the limp machine suddenly plummeted towards Vanta. Carson banked around it and watched the rear-view as it splashed down in the cold water below. Then they were suddenly over the wall.
“There are twelve racers left,” said Trix as they began their sixth lap. “And we’re in the middle. ‘Could do better’, to quote Eddie’s last school report.”
With each racer taken out of the race, the crowd had cheered and stomped their feet. Action replays of the destruction kept looping on the screens, although most had been too quick to capture on video.
“Another drink would be good,” said Carson, licking his lips.
Trix looked around to tell Eddie but couldn’t see him anywhere. Typical, she thought, he’s never around when you need him.
Eddie tried to stand, but a strong hand pushed him back into his chair. The bearded man, now identified as Agent Bevan, had joined Eddie and the as yet nameless blonde woman in the canteen. As they leaned down to his eye level, Eddie noticed they both had pistols holstered under their jackets, but these were angular with sharp edges, and looked more menacing than guns he’d seen on TV.
“You know you can’t do this,” Eddie said with more bravery than he felt.
Bevan examined Eddie’s phone. “You will be surprised at what we can do, son.”
“I’ll find out which team you’re helping cheat, then you’ve all had it!”
The man’s eyebrows rose and he smiled in disbelief. “Cheat? Is that what you think we’re doing?”
Eddie deflated with uncertainty. “Well, um, it was…” he mumbled.
Bevan held up Eddie’s phone. “You want to tell me your passcode?”
Eddie shook his head. The man smiled and tossed the phone to the women. “Agent Anders, you know what to do.”
“Bevan and Anders?” Eddie tried to sound braver than he sounded. “You sound like a really rubbish music act.”
Agent Anders suddenly grabbed his hand and forced it against the phone. It unlocked. He tried to look around to see what she was doing, but the pacing man captured his attention with a snap of his fingers.
“What team are you with?”
Eddie knew it was stupid to answer. Bevan seemed to appreciate his courage. He stopped pacing and peered at Eddie with steely grey eyes.
“Look, son, we know you’re with one of those teams out there. Our agents have infiltrated every home to find what we’re looking for. We could easily arrest you all…”
Eddie’s face scrunched in confusion. “Arrest? We haven’t done anything…” but he was rapidly putting a picture together, and right in the middle of that scene was Vanta. He guessed that arresting every team would draw too much attention to the agents’ activities. He decided his best defence at the moment was ignorance.
“I’ll ask you one more time, son. Then things will get … complicated.” The threat was obvious and drew the corner of the man’s lips up in a cold smile. “What. Team?”
Eddie closed his eyes in defeat. He exhaled a long sigh. “AirBlitz.” It was little more than a whisper.
Bevan looked sharply at Anders, who was still behind Eddie. “They were the fastest in their local heat,” he heard her say.
“But their drone doesn’t look like right. None of them do!”
“Shape-shifting adaptive camouflage,” Anders reminded him.
Eddie had no idea what they were talking about. His gaze was drawn to six people entering the canteen. He recognized them as the southwest team, Speed-Rager, and, judging by their expressions, they’d lost their aircraft.
“Don’t say anything,” Bevan quietly warned him.
“Hey, Speed-Ragers!” Eddie shouted as loud as he could, jumping to his feet. “Bad luck out there!” From their scowls it was clear they were not in a chatty mood, but they drew closer. He noticed the two agents either side of him exchange looks and tense, but they didn’t move to restrain him. “My uncle here was betting you guys would easily win! Isn’t the right, unc?” Eddie playfully elbowed Bevan in the ribs with force. “In fact, he was just placing a bet. See?”
Eddie snatched his phone from Bevan’s hand and flashed it up in a quick motion so that the Speed-Ragers couldn’t actually see the screen.
“Too bad,” said one of the team in a soft West Country accent. “That stupid Dodge Drone was what got us. Next year we’ll be back and ready. Bet on us then, mate.”
Eddie smiled brightly. “You hear that, unc
? Next year you can put your life savings on these boys and finally afford that hip replacement! Oh well! I better get back to the race!”
He shoved through the group – casually pushing one of the teenagers in between him and Anders as she reached out to stop him.
“Sorry! Better luck next time!” shouted Eddie as he ran for the paddock. The agents, desperate not to cause a fuss, still hadn’t moved to follow.
He now had only one thing on his mind: he had to warn his friends.
Chapter 18
ALL TO PLAY FOR
“Lap eight and all to play for!” whooped Marcus Nation. “And we are down to nine racers in what has turned out to be glorious havoc!”
The crowd responded with a massive roar of approval.
Carson wasn’t listening. He had other worries on his mind.
“Oh no.”
“What? What is it?” Trix asked urgently, scanning her iPad for any signs of trouble.
Carson didn’t answer. AirBlitz, Wolverine and Logan46 were in the lead and evenly matched in speed, so now it came down to brute force to knock the competition out. Up ahead was Sixtus – and a pair of drones were moving in on her.
The north-east team’s drone, Killer Driller, inched above Sixtus. A moment later Carson understood the real meaning of the racer’s name as a spinning drill bit lowered from the fuselage – straight for the radio receiver on Sixtus. If that was knocked out, India would have no control at all.
“We’ve got to help her!”
“Why?” both Trix and Vanta asked at the same time.
“She is our enemy,” Vanta reminded him.
“I think enemy is a strong word—” Carson began, but then yelped as the second drone, the Hibernian Monster, ferociously broadsided Vanta.
Vanta veered sideways – a hair’s breadth from colliding with the wall. “Why you little helicopter!” she spat.
Carson felt Vanta bank towards the aggressive drone – and he wasn’t pushing on the control sticks.
“Vanta!”
“Sorry, I’m not very good at insults.”
“I mean the control – give it back! Now!”
With a huff, he felt the control snap back to him and he prevented Vanta from exacting revenge.
“We can’t let him get away with that!” Vanta shouted down his ear.
Carson had no intention of letting that happen.
“Get me over it and on my command, flip me under!” Vanta instructed.
Carson positioned Vanta over the Hibernian Monster. He didn’t see a steel lasso tow cable extend from Vanta’s belly hatch – but Trix saw it all on the monitors. The lasso tightened around the Scottish drone’s antenna array.
“Now!” barked Vanta.
Carson acrobatically flipped her in a barrel roll. The cable pulled tight and swung the Hibernian Monster around, smashing it against Killer Driller like a wrecking ball!
The Hibernian Monster was impaled on Killer Driller and both drones spun out of control into the wall with a terminal impact.
Trix yelled with delight and Carson heard Marcus Nation and the crowd respond with whoops of appreciation – apart from the north-east fans, who booed loudly.
Nation bellowed across the arena: “And the underdog takes two down for the price of one!”
Carson was watching the rear-view screen with a smug smile when he heard Vanta call out: “CARSON!”
His concentration flicked back ahead just as the Dodge Drone loomed into view. Sixtus banked at the last moment – one of her propellers shattering against the massive drone. She wobbled but stayed in control.
Carson wasn’t so quick.
It felt as if his fingers had knotted together as he fumbled the controls. Before Vanta had even responded to the moves, he knew he’d miscalculated.
The front of Vanta tilted up – but not the back, as if she was pulling a wheelie in the air. Vanta’s raised nose cleared the plough blade – but her tail clipped the edge of it. Then two things happened instantaneously:
They shot out of the tunnel and found themselves thirty metres up in the air. And at the very same moment, Vanta lost all power to her motors and plunged straight down, spinning like a merry-go-round, towards the water.
Eddie ran at full pelt from the building, and straight into the Killer Driller team, who were furious, screaming at one another in thick Geordie accents. He instinctively started towards Trix and Carson, who also seemed to be yelling.
He glanced behind and saw the agents were following him. At the last moment, Eddie veered aside and ran towards the AirBlitz team. Luckily, they were too immersed in the race to notice him as he stopped and watched their screens alongside them. He risked a look behind and saw his pursuers were lurking in the shadows of the doorway and they made no attempt to come closer.
Until the race ended, he was safe.
Carson still had full video connectivity with Vanta as she spiralled out of control. It was so intense that a wave of dizziness overcame him and he staggered sideways.
Trix lunged in an attempt to keep him upright but failed and they both toppled to the ground.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Carson tried to answer, but his senses were convincing him he was spinning out of control towards the canal. His only answer was to throw up over Trix!
“URGH!” she screamed, hitting him in the arm – before the vile smell struck her and she forcibly pushed him away.
Vanta suddenly managed to kick her engines back in motion and the horrible spinning stopped. Carson still had the controller in a vice-like grip. Even with the world spinning around him, he had the sense to pull back the controls.
Out on the course, Vanta skimmed the canal. A curtain of water rose up behind her – then she leapt into the air with a “YAHHOOO!!!”
Carson was still on his hands and knees, the VR headset pushed against the ground as he fought sickness. The crowd watched Vanta wobble back into the race, faster than ever. Carson didn’t even notice that she overtook Sixtus as they crossed the line…
“The final lap!” declared Marcus Nation.
Chapter 19
THE JAWS OF VICTORY
The sick feeling was starting to ease. However, the lingering smell of vomit made Carson feel queasy again. Trix yanked his arm to pull him upright.
“Last lap, idiot! Focus!” she ordered. She had unzipped her pukey jacket and thrown it aside, deliberately towards the Logan46 team. It took a moment for them to start reacting to the odour.
Carson’s legs were shaking and his hands and brow felt cold and clammy. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“We’re in third.” Trix’s jaw clenched in an effort to remain calm. “We could actually win.”
“I feel dizzy…”
“Then let me take the final lap.”
Carson considered it. She not only fixed the drones, she was an excellent pilot too. But then it wouldn’t be his race…
“Or let me,” chimed in Vanta hopefully.
The controls felt like jelly in his trembling hands. Worse, Sixtus, with only five functional engines, suddenly moved past him.
“Fourth place,” sighed Trix. “You’re snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”
Carson felt sick again, but not from motion, from the fact he knew it was all over for him. Letting Vanta take over was against the rules, and it would get them disqualified. They had made it this far on his piloting abilities, and even if they could convincingly fake controlling her, he cursed the sense of pride that Eddie had drummed into him: what was the point in winning if you had to cheat at it?
A memory burst into his mind: a snowy evening several years ago, when he had been playing an old board game with his parents, one of his dad’s favourites – Risk. His mum had caught him cheating and then lectured him on the spirit of sportsmanship. At the time he had just felt annoyed at being caught, but now he understood her disappointment.
But not cheating didn’t leave him with many options other than to lose.
Or let Trix try.
He was sure there was nothing in the rules about swapping pilots mid-race.
With a heartfelt sigh, he nodded. “OK, Trix, let’s do this. There’s a straight coming up…” He felt her unfasten the straps on his VR headset with one hand while holding it against his eyes with the other. “NOW!”
The sudden removal of the headset mid-race made Carson think he had jumped bodies. And in a way he had. Once moment he was soaring towards the flaming slalom section, six metres in the air – the next he was standing still in the bullpen. He staggered as he lost his balance.
Trix smoothly put the helmet on, holding it in place with one hand, the other blindly groping in the air. “The controller!”
Carson thrust the controller into her hand, then pulled the helmet straps on tight. That was it; Trix was piloting. He looked around for Eddie and was surprised to see him standing with the AirBlitz team. What the heck was he doing over there?
A change in pitch from the audience made him look up at the screen. Trix was accelerating past Sixtus and had Logan46 and AirBlitz in her sights as they zoomed into the battleship for the very last time.
He looked around for Trix’s iPad, spotting it on the floor. He picked it up just in time to see Vanta had passed the Dodge Drone. Then the lead four drones were back out of the battleship and the arena cameras picked them out.
“The controls are still interfering with Vanta’s power,” he warned Trix. “You can’t outrun them. Unless we can slow them down we might just hang in for third.”
Trix grit her teeth. “Third? I don’t think so.”
Vanta started to make violent zigzags and Carson feared there was another engine problem until he heard Trix laughing. She was deliberately rushing towards AirBlitz and Logan46 to make them think she was going to ram them, before pulling away at the last moment.
“What are you doing?”
“You gave me an idea!”
Carson watched as both rivals quickly banked to avoid her – any collisions now could put them out of the game. But the simple act of jerking sideways made them slow down just a little … and Carson suddenly saw the genius in Trix’s plan.