by Andy Briggs
The lights were still on red. The lorries still cutting across their path. And they hadn’t slowed down.
“Red light! Red light!” he screamed, hoping Vanta could hear but it seemed she couldn’t. They were at the point of no return – it would be impossible to even skid to a halt. Carson threw his arms over his head and braced for impact.
He didn’t see Vanta had lined their minivan up at the perfect speed. They shot through the red light and a gap between two mighty juggernauts – with just centimetres to spare! The sound of truck horns blaring almost deafened them.
When Carson peeked again, the road ahead was empty. There was no sign of Agent Anders behind them. Vanta, now back to her normal size, soared through the smashed window and dropped on to the dashboard, doing a good impression of being exhausted.
“I need power,” she gasped.
“Got it.” Trix unfastened her seat belt and rummaged around in the glovebox, where she found the driver’s phone charger. Snatching her bag from where it had tumbled, she extracted her toolkit.
“We’re going to be late for our train,” Eddie said, looking at his watch.
“We can’t catch the train; that’s the first place they’ll look.” Vanta flew on to the driver’s head. “I’ll drive us home. But first we need to do something about this guy.”
Chapter 21
HOMEBOUND
Remotely controlling the people carrier, Vanta soon had them on the motorway and heading home. She sat on the dashboard, minimizing movement as she recharged from the phone charger Trix had rewired.
“Oh, nuts! My sister!” Eddie exclaimed. In all the excitement they had clean forgotten that she was supposed to meet them at the train station. “I’ll message her. At least she can’t shout.”
He quickly typed that they were stuck in a horrendous traffic jam and wouldn’t make the train, followed by a smiley face and, by accident, a fish.
WHAT?????? came the swift reply.
“Six question marks,” he noted. “I don’t think she’s happy.”
“Tell her we’re getting a ride home from the organizers,” Trix suggested.
Eddie dutifully typed the message and didn’t have to wait long for the reply.
PICK ME UP RIGHT NOW!
He sighed. “All caps. It’s almost like I can hear her voice. Pick me up,” he mimicked in a stroppy voice. He spoke aloud as he typed: “Can’t. Car full. Don’t worry. Race you home. XOX.” Then after thinking about it he deleted the XOX. “Nah, she’d know something was seriously up if I put that.”
Her reply came few seconds later: OK. On train. Be careful. K
“Ooh, she found the caps lock,” said Eddie, showing them the message.
“It’s cool having a name you can still spell with one letter,” Trix noted with a faint smile.
Eddie nodded and, for the first time he could remember, he began to wonder if she wasn’t as bad as he’d always assumed.
The poor driver remained out cold for another fifteen minutes before the drone detected signs that he would soon be waking.
They pulled into the first service station they found to drop the driver off. It took all three of them to position him on a picnic bench in the darkest corner of the car park.
“Hurry,” said Vanta. “He’s showing signs of waking up.”
“If we get caught doing this…” Eddie began.
“Shut up,” Trix snapped at him. “Would you rather explain to him what we did to his van and why it’s being driven by a drone?”
They made sure the driver was comfortable, then hopped straight back into the van and continued onwards.
Carson was on edge that their vehicle, with its shattered window, dents and scratches down one side and a broken headlight would attract police attention. Surprisingly it didn’t, thanks to Vanta carefully monitoring the traffic ahead. She perched on the dashboard, silently recharging using the cables Trix had rewired.
For the next hour they sat in silence; Vanta had claimed that she needed to dedicate all the energy she had left to driving, not talking. Carson thought it was just an excuse not to answer their growing list of questions.
Eddie was snoring loudly, a stream of dribble working its way down his chin and on to the window his head was resting against, when Vanta finally stirred back to life.
“We’ll be home in forty minutes,” she said.
“And what’s to stop the bad guys from finding us there?” The question had been weighing heavily on Trix.
Eddie pulled a face and extended his arms, as if to say I’m the man! “You both think I do nothing, but as manager my job is to look ahead. Remember when I registered us with the league I gave false names, addresses, phone numbers.” Eddie tapped the side of his head to indicate how smart he was. “I didn’t want us to get caught and me get grounded for life by my parents. To Marcus Nation we’re just three kids. And if anybody asks you’re Carson McFartson –” he ignored Carson’s scowl “– you’re Trix Fontana and I’m Eddie McSmooth.”
Trix extended her fist and looked him straight in the eye. “I don’t give compliments easily, Eddie. But you’re a devious genius.” With a grin, Eddie fist-bumped her.
“But they came in my house, remember,” Carson pointed out.
“Don’t worry about that,” Vanta assured him. “It was too dark, so they didn’t have a chance to identify you or me. The only thing they do know is we’re the Carsonators who won the regional heat, and they still don’t know that was me. Besides, it’s a big region. They didn’t enter Eddie or Trix’s homes—”
“They broke into other racer’s homes,” Eddie pointed out.
“But you were smart enough not to use your real details.”
Eddie beamed with delight. “Yeah, I was, wasn’t I.” He ignored Trix’s overly loud tut.
“So I suspect they were searching every house, trying to pinpoint my weak frequency signature in the neighbourhood. You have to remember that I am very … secret technology. They can’t afford to turn up in force and attract the attention of news reporters.”
Trix snapped her fingers. “That’s why they were searching the warehouse! Remember that van? I bet that was them.”
Carson felt himself relax a little and leaned back in his seat. “So, my first question is, who are they, exactly?”
Vanta paused as she shuffled on the dashboard so she could face them. “A secret government department. And no, not your government. They’re obviously working under the radar, or we’d be in much bigger trouble.”
“Did they make you?” asked Trix.
“I escaped from a special testing facility.”
Trix threw her hands up in despair. “Great! Eddie was right. You really are a killer robot!”
Vanta’s single camera eye twirled around, somehow managing to make her look sad. “Not at all. My father created me as a weapon to defend people, not for war.” Her voice lifted with a trace of pride. “I was to soar the skies, protecting civilians. Preventing crimes … making the world a safer place.”
Trix leaned forward in her seat. “And then you short-circuited?”
“No. Then I learned that the military were very impressed. But they didn’t see me as a peacekeeper. They saw me as a weapon. My father refused to help them with that, but he had little choice. My fate was to be sent to the battlefield. Sent to kill.”
Carson felt a shiver run through him at the very thought.
Vanta hovered so she could see them all. “I didn’t want to do that, so I escaped and went on the run for days.” She dropped back down on the dash and focused on driving. “I was always able to keep one step ahead but despite everything I did, they were still able to track me. I mean, it’s not like I’m an everyday drone, so I do stand out.” She fluttered her front rotors, one then the other, reminding Carson of the way a weightlifter might flex his arms. He smiled as she continued. “But my power was fading and it wasn’t long before I was approaching emergency shutdown. I spotted a scrapyard; it had a few aircraft parts in
there, and I thought it was someplace I could at least hide in. Once my batteries are completely depleted, well, that would be the end for me.”
Trix was thoughtful. “You just vanished off their radar.”
Vanta wiggled as she nodded. “Yes. They had an approximate location, but nothing accurate. I’m afraid entering that first race was a mistake. They must have had people there just in case.”
Carson rubbed the scar on the back of his head. “And this little racer is your disguise. When I found you I really wasn’t imagining things. You grew in size and lifted me out.”
“Yes, using my tow cable.”
“So you could have run out of power lifting me out? You could have died?”
“It was my final gamble. We both could have died down there. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Carson was touched by the gesture. He held out his hand and Vanta hopped on to his palm. He looked closely at her, trying to find any joins or gaps that indicated she could grow. “How do you do it?”
Vanta laughed. “Even I don’t know that, and I’m really smart. My father constructed me from a new super-polymer based on something called graphene. All I know is that it takes a lot of power to swap sizes.”
“If the military wanted to send you into a battle zone,” Trix said thoughtfully, “does that mean you’re armed?”
Vanta cagily bobbed side to side. “Mmm … but I only use boppers as a last resort.”
“Boppers?” spluttered Eddie. “What kind of weapon is that?”
Vanta ignored him. “It’s always better to out-think an opponent. I didn’t ever want to use them. That’s why I ran away in the first place.” She paused. “There’s not that much juice spare in this vehicle. I’m going to have to focus on the drive.”
As she lapsed into silence, the three friends settled down, somehow feeling safer knowing the truth behind the drone. Vanta had proved her worth against the agents, and they felt safe in the knowledge she was there to watch over them. Eddie even managed to fall asleep on the final leg home, with Trix following moments later.
After a half hour, a question that had been bugging Carson returned.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about mysterious train tickets and a hotel suite, would you?”
“Why would I?”
“Because I saw how you hacked into the satnav, and Marcus Nation looked very confused when I thanked him.”
There was a long, telling pause.
“I knew how important it was for you to be there.” The little drone sounded almost apologetic.
Carson tried not to laugh. “I think that was the nicest thing anybody has ever done for me. Although maybe I shouldn’t ask how you paid for it.”
It was the dead of night when they all returned home. Eddie and Trix were able to sneak inside without any trouble, while Carson didn’t even attempt to keep silent as he turned the key in the door. A quick check around revealed that his dad wasn’t even home.
After she was plugged in, Vanta said she would remotely dispose of their vehicle, but Carson suggested returning it back to where they had left the driver. Vanta dutifully set about her task while Carson fought to stay awake, a job he was very unsuccessful at…
Chapter 22
TEAM DECISIONS
The next few days unfolded without any further incidents, and they stopped racing with Vanta in an attempt to keep a low profile. Carson was worried about leaving the drone alone in the house, so he took her everywhere in his backpack, connecting her to his controller to help disrupt her telltale frequencies.
Eddie confirmed that the ten-thousand-pound prize money had been paid into a bank account Vanta had set up online. The credit card arrived a few days later in the post, dutifully delivered to a PO box Vanta had set up to avoid using any of their home addresses.
Running to a cash machine, they drew out enough to pay Kay to keep quiet, and Trix claimed back all the money she had previously spent on the Carsonators. Even so, that had barely dented the account. They agreed to be sensible and not touch too much of it. The last thing they wanted was to draw attention.
However, that plan crumbled when they decided to visit the shopping centre for “a bit of equipment”. The lure of polished marble, sparking glass and bright lights was too much: new trainers silently screamed to Carson to be bought. Their jeans suddenly seemed too worn out and in dire need of replacement.
Eddie pressed himself against a shop window. “Wow, I need to have that jacket.” he exclaimed, despite never having any interest in fashion previously. “You know, for the team image!”
In they went. Out they came laden with shopping bags filled with things they’d never been able to afford before, all in the name of “team image”. Then it was Trix’s turn as an invisible force drew her to the phone shop and the gleaming mobile slowly rotating in a display cabinet.
“That is a serious piece of hardware!” She could even hear a heavenly choir, although Eddie pointed out that was just the shop music playing. That didn’t prevent them all walking out with top-of-the-line models.
“So we can talk to each other properly,” justified Trix.
“Not like on those old phones,” agreed Eddie.
Exhausted from their very responsible spending of funds, they celebrated their national victory over an enormous pizza in the food court.
With a mouthful of pepperoni and cheese crust, Eddie excitedly played with his new phone. The screen was already covered in thick, greasy fingerprints, but underneath them a notification dinged: an email about their trip to Seoul had just come through.
“The hotel and plane tickets are being arranged, they just need me to email copies of our passports.” He punched the air with his fist. “We’re going to South Korea!”
Trix drummed the table excitedly. “Here’s to us winners!”
It was left to Carson to bring the jubilant mood crashing down. “We can’t go.”
Eddie threw a cheesy chunk of pizza at Carson’s forehead, leaving a string of cheddar. “Are you serious? We’re the UK champs. This is the world championship, it’s our duty to be there. We have the best drone in the universe. They’re paying to fly us over there. And there is a fifty-thousand-quid prize. It’s a no-brainer!”
“We’d be walking straight into a trap, especially if you want to email our passports, with our real names? Don’t you think those agents will be waiting for us? They might not know who we are right now, but the moment we roll up there…” He shook his head at the frightening thought.
Truth be told, Carson had been worried that things had been so quiet. It was obvious the Carsonators were from the region – their pictures were out there, plastered all over drone racing sites – yet no shadowy agents had turned up. But he couldn’t shake the feeling they were out there, watching. Waiting.
Eddie’s appetite vanished and he put his wedge down without a bite taken.
Carson avoided looking at them. “If we get caught, we lose Vanta. Why take the risk?”
“We only have her because of the race,” said Eddie with a hint of betrayal. “She wants to do it, or she could fly off any time. We want to do it. So what’s your problem?”
Trix pouted and thrust herself back in her chair, arms folded and a scowl on her face. “I think his problem is about the fact it was me who flew us over the finishing line and not him.”
“What?” Carson had no idea where this was coming from.
“You’ve been weird with me ever since we won.”
“I’ve been weird with you because we had a secret government agency chasing us!”
Eddie poked his thumb against his chest. “I was the one they beat up!”
“They didn’t actually hurt you. They made you sit in a chair,” Carson pointed out.
Eddie ignored him, continuing: “And I was the one who bravely didn’t give anything away! And I still want us to go and race.” He angrily stabbed for forefinger towards Carson. “You’re just being selfish!”
“I’m being rea
listic!” Carson glanced as his pack lying on the table. Vanta was nestled inside and being quiet. He wished she’d speak up to defend him.
Eddie pushed his glasses up as they tried to slide from his nose and lowered his voice to try and assure Carson. “If they knew who we were then they would have turned up already.”
“That’s my point. If we don’t make any mistakes they won’t find us here. We’re safe. If we go to the finals, all they have to do is wait for us to turn up.”
“We have Vanta with us,” said Trix desperately. “We’d be safe, in a foreign country! And we’ve been a step ahead all the time.”
“I can’t lose her…” Carson’s voice was barely audible.
Eddie stood and snatched up his bags. He refused to meet Carson’s eyes. “Typical. The moment we start getting somewhere, it all falls apart. Thanks for nothing.”
“You’re supposed to be our manager. Shouldn’t you be worried about the risks?” huffed Carson.
“I got a taste of winning,” Eddie snapped back as he haughtily walked away without bothering to look back. Carson stared at the remains of the pizza, his own appetite gone. He heard Trix drag her chair back and stand. She picked up her shopping, slowly looping each bag over her shoulder.
“You might not like the way we won the last race, but you were right when you said that we won it as team. We should complete this, even if we lose, because the three of us are better together than alone.”
“It’s not about the race…” mumbled Carson, although part of him wondered if she had a point. The last few days they had all been on edge and hadn’t dared take Vanta out for a race. However, the little drone had been restless and desperate to take to the air.
Every night, Carson expected the house to be raided by sinister government agents … but they didn’t come. Instead he and Vanta had fallen into a routine of her reading stories aloud as he drifted to sleep.