****
“You want to do what?” The CEO gaped at her.
“I want to take the entire team on a photo shoot. I want each and every one of them to share in the glory of Team Neptune.”
“Why, for God’s sake?”
“Because, Jim, they share the burden of the work. Why should they live in the shadows while the driver gets all the praises?”
“Because, Suzie, the driver is the face of the team. He’s the pinnacle of everything they’ve put together. We can’t have a team of prima donnas taking the glory from the main man. Why do you think we pay him so much? He’s a goddam star!”
“They’re not prima donnas, Jim. They’re passionate, hard-working guys who make everything possible.”
Jim raised an eyebrow. “Passionate, are they?”
“Oh drop it, you male chauvinist dinosaur.”
Jim laughed. “Relax, Suzie. I’m teasing you.”
“Well… don’t.”
“What we have is a team. A team strives to one purpose—to win. And the winner takes the credit.” He leaned back in his chair. “That’s the way the world works.”
“It’s not the way my world works.”
Jim shrugged. “Do whatever you think is best. But be careful not to mess with the status quo. There’s a good reason mechanics aren’t in the limelight.”
“Really? What is it?”
“The driver stops getting all the glory. And glory is what drives them to win.”
*****
Suzie decided to go for it. She had new coveralls delivered, each one inscribed with the mechanic’s name across the back. Her enthusiasm was met with puzzled frowns.
“What are we doing here, exactly?” Bob the jack-man asked.
“I’m raising your profile, boys.”
“But why?”
“Don’t you want to be out of the shadows?”
“I didn’t realize I was in the shadows.”
Suzie dropped a hip and addressed the room. “Okay, how many fans do you imagine are aware that Bob is part of Team Neptune.”
“Zero,” the chief answered.
“And you, Chief. You’re top dog in this garage. How many fans even know you exist?”
“I’m not here for the fans. I’m here for the team.”
“And you ought to be recognized for your contribution.”
“But me going out with my name on my back isn’t going to get me noticed anyway,” Bob pointed out.
“Ah.” Suzie raised a finger. “It will if you’re willing to try a few moves from the football field.” She smiled as several of the guys glanced at each other.
“Go on,” Bob said.
****
“The guys are looking smart in their lime greens,” Tick said. He shielded his eyes from the afternoon sun as he walked back to the garage with Suzie. She’d booked an hour’s testing at the oval to give the rebuilt car a shakedown, and the crew some tire-changing practice.
“I thought they could use a make-over. And they’ve been drilling for the past hour, working on some new moves.”
“What kind of new moves?”
Suzie shrugged. “You’ll see. Or you might not, depending on how much visibility you have when you’re strapped into that thing.”
Tick slowed, and turned to look at her. “You’ve never been inside a Nascar?”
“Only when I was ten. My dad managed to sit me inside one for a few minutes. It was big inside.”
“Big for a ten-year-old, but not for an adult.” He looked her up and down. “You’ve filled out since then.” Suzie stopped in her tracks and gaped at him. He sagged and shook his head.
“I mean, you’ve grown up. You’re a woman now. You’re taller, you’re… curvier. You’re…” His head rocked as he searched for the right words.
“I’m what?” She raised an eyebrow.
“You’re prettier, is all.” He said in a low voice. His eyes moved from side to side to ensure he hadn’t been overheard.
“Hmm.” Her mouth turned into a tight line.
“What? I say nice things to you and you give me unhappy face?”
“Nice things,” she repeated. “I know what your little game is, Tick Garfield.”
“My game?”
“You have a reputation with the ladies.”
“Oh.” He smiled. “That game.”
“Exactly. So don’t try your flattery on me, mister.” She stiffened when he touched her shoulder.
“Okay, let’s clear the air right now. I might make naughty with the ladies at the weekend, but I’m here to do a job, okay?”
“Okay…” she said slowly.
“And that means no sleeping with the boss. So stop worrying.”
She laughed. “I’m not worried in the least.” She shrugged off his hand. “I just hate to see a grown man wasting his time.”
“Is that what it would have been?” he asked. “A waste of time?”
“Hey! What happened to not…” she lowered her voice to a hiss. “…sleeping with the boss?”
“I was curious. Nothing more.”
“This conversation is over,” Suzie hissed. “Hi, Chief!”
“Hey, Boss-lady.”
“Looking good, boys. Ready to play?”
“Well, they’ve been practicing, if that’s what you mean.”
“Good. I found you a driver. Not the best one, but he’ll do.” She slapped Tick’s back. “I hear he’s got balls.”
“You need me to prove it?” Tick whispered.
“Go get changed,” she replied tightly. She tried in vain to block the mental image of Tick reaching for his crotch.
“Yes, Boss-lady.”
“Here,” the chief said. He held up a small set of lime greens.
“Okayyy…” Suzie said slowly. The chief turned them around. ‘The Boss’ was written across the back in large, looped letters. Someone had been creative with a spare set of coveralls.
“You like?”
Suzie smiled and dropped a hip. “Yeah, I like. Thanks guys.”
“Thank Bob. It was his idea.”
“Chief!” Bob protested. His colleagues laughed heartily.
“It’s okay, Bob,” Suzie said. “They’re great.”
“Really?”
“Really. Except… wearing a skirt today turned out to be a bad idea.”
“You can change inside.”
“I’ll wait until Tick is finished.” She leaned closer to the chief. “Wouldn’t want to accidentally see his balls, would I?”
“Of course not, Boss.” The chief struggled to keep his face straight.
Suzie rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you believe the gossip crap too.”
“Of course not, Boss.” the chief said again.
“Chief, there’s nothing going on between us. I wouldn’t want to see his balls for an extra year’s salary.” When he whistled, she continued. “And that isn’t as much as you’d imagine.”
“Of course not, Boss.”
“Oh, drop it, would you?”
“Of course, Boss.”
“Chief, you and I are going to fall out.”
*****
Tick roared off down the track, showering the crew with dust. It hadn’t rained in weeks and the skidding tires had struggled to find grip.
“Does that always happen?” Suzie asked.
“We sometimes sneak around with a brush,” the chief said. “If we get enough warning of a stop, we can sweep the area clean inside of a minute. But it builds up quickly during a race.”
The six-man crew stood outside the roller shutters, lined up in two rows of three, exactly as Suzie had suggested earlier. At a signal from the chief, the front row took one step to the left, and the back row stepped forward.
“Nep-toon!” the single line called out. They exploded into life; four of the men collected wheels from the stack outside the garage. Bob lifted a lightweight car jack, and the remaining crewman seized a fuel dump can.
“Go!” They march
ed forward to the cement wall that protected the pit from the track. The four wheels were set on the wall in two pairs. The other two crewmen stood between them, waiting for their driver to arrive.
“Team Neptune ready, Boss.” At that moment, the roar of a Nascar engine cut through the air. Suzie stared as two of the wheel-men leap-frogged the cement wall, landing in a crouch. A moment later, the other two wheel-men followed, landing beside their colleagues, who were already rising and turning. Wheels were snatched from the wall and carried to the far side of where the car would stop. The other two wheels were dropped to the ground and leaned against the wall. The jack-man laced his fingers together, and the refueller put a foot into them, stepping up and onto the wall. The wheel-men closest to the wall reached up and lowered the refueller to the ground. Bob, who had carried the car jack to the wall, sprang up and performed a somersault, landing with his arms wide. The wheel-men lifted the jack as Bob spun, to place it in his hands.
Suzie glanced at the chief, who was nodding and smiling. The whole performance had taken less than ten seconds.
Bob the jack-man turned to face the oncoming car as Tick roared toward them. Suzie was startled by the car’s speed, even though she’d seen tire changes a thousand times. Her eyes widened as Tick roared into the space bracketed by the four tires, and stopped exactly on the money. Bob went to work, hoisting over three thousand pounds of car into the air inside two seconds. Suzie watched in awe as two wheels were pulled clear and two fresh ones were fitted. The car hit the ground, the crew scampered around to the other side, and the process was repeated. She counted out fourteen seconds before the rear wheels were spinning and the lime green Nascar was roaring away.
“Nep-toon!” the crew yelled as they jumped clear. Tick threw her a casual wave as he passed, blasting her with noise and dust. Suzie pressed a hand to her forehead as the car dwindled to a toy, then swept left around the banked track and out of sight.
“That’s our first routine,” the chief said.
“Your first?”
“We have other ideas. If we can develop them quickly enough, the public will never see the same one twice.”
“Looks like the guys had fun.”
“They were getting bored with the same old scrambling-about. This has given something to get their teeth into.”
“Bravo!” Suzie clapped her hands, and the crew grinned. “Who knew we had our very own cheerleading team?”
The pit crew hurried the tires back to the garage, stacking them in readiness for the next drill. Suzie leaned closer to the chief.
“How’s the cooling system performing these days?”
“Still eight degrees’ advantage over the standard design.”
“More horsepower?”
“The output varies, but yes, it makes a noticeable difference.”
“Forty grand well spent,” Suzie said. “But I’m curious to know how McNamara heard about it.”
“It didn’t come from me. And none of the crew know about it. I connect the hoses personally, so no one sees the inner core.”
“We still have a mole in the system, Chief.”
“I’ll let you know if I hear anything, Boss.”
“Thanks.” Suzie fell silent, relishing the roar echoing back from the banked track as Tick gunned the Neptune car around the far side.
“Nep-toon!” the crew called, and the carefully-choreographed circus act rolled out of the garage once again.
The second pit stop was a full second faster as the crew warmed up. It seemed the play-acting was good for their reactions. Suzie made a note to encourage them whenever possible. As Tick roared away and the crew scrambled to retrieve the changed tires, the chief pressed a finger to his ear.
“Tick?” Suzie asked. The chief nodded, then headed for the garage, leaving Suzie alone in the hot afternoon sun. He returned less than a minute later, barely ahead of the performing pit crew.
“Here.” He handed her an open-face white helmet.
She stared at it as her hands moved automatically. “Ah… what’s this for?”
“You put it on your head!” he yelled over the approaching roar.
“I know that, Chief. I mean what—”
“No time to explain. When he stops, get in the other door.”
“What?”
“It’ll be good for you to see things from the other side.”
“Hey, wait. I can’t—”
“Here he comes!”
“Chief!” Suzie protested, but he was already ushering her to the passenger side, even though Tick was still moving at close to a hundred. The crew crouched, tensed and ready. Tick parked the Nascar perfectly, and the passenger side was lifted. Wheels were pulled off, and replacements were pushed into place. The buzz guns whined, and then the car was dropping. The crew melted away, leaving the way clear.
“Awww…” Suzie moaned. She was still trying to fasten the open-face helmet. The chief pulled open the flimsy door, exposing the sturdy tubular cage inside.
“In, in…” he urged. Suzie squeezed past the steelwork and dropped into the deep seat. The car rocked from side to side as the jack-man worked to raise the driver’s side. Tick glanced across as the chief connected the six-point harness and tugged the straps tight. A raised thumb hovered in front of Suzie’s face. Too shocked to do anything other than raise a hand, she watched as the chief retreated and closed the flimsy door, locking it securely.
The car hit the ground, bounced once, and a huge hand pressed against her chest as the garage blurred into streaks of color. The noise was staggering. Not an ounce was squandered on luxuries such as soundproofing, or cushioning. She was strapped into a Kevlar bowl, trapped in a steel-and-fiberglass box, propelled forward by seven hundred fifty horsepower.
She screamed, but it was completely lost in the harsh noise. She’d nothing to hold onto except the straps across her chest. The track slid across in front of her, climbing steeply to her right, falling away to her left. The car tilted over as they hit the first corner. G-forces pushed her down into the seat, and she suddenly understood why Kevlar was used. Her weight doubled, and she would have crushed ordinary cushioning, altering her position drastically. Not too bad for a passenger, but problematic for a driver.
The V-eight roar echoed back at her from the wall, which was getting closer and closer. She gripped the belts tighter, hoping Tick knew what he was doing. Abruptly, the corner ended, and the car hurtled down the bank toward the yellow line at the left side, closing to within a few inches of the penalty-earning zone. But Tick kept his wheels on the correct side, teasing the edge as he hit two hundred. If he was practicing for race day, some poor official was likely to get a headache watching for a transgression. Suzie glanced across to see Tick grinning at her.
“The road!” she yelled. “Keep your eyes on the road!”
“There’s nothing coming!” he yelled back.
“Forward! Forward! Forward!” she howled. She wanted to point at the windshield, but she was too afraid to let go the belt. Fortunately, Tick nodded and turned his attention to the next corner, which was already looming, a gray mountain streaked with black. Suzie was squashed down into the seat again as they roared around, climbing to gain height so he could trade it for speed on the way out.
And then they were back on the flat, facing the long straight which would take them back to the pits. Suzie was shocked to realize they’d completed most of a lap—in the space of a few stunned breaths. As Tick pulled over to the left, and closer to the pit wall, he yelled across to her.
“Now do you see why I love this?”
“You’re all crazy! The whole damn lot of you!”
“I know, right?” He grinned. The car maintained an insane speed. Suzie glimpsed tiny, dark figures ahead. They grew larger very quickly. At the last minute, it seemed, the car shuddered to a halt, and her side rose into the air faster than an elevator.
“Can I get out now?”
“Take a look around,” Tick shouted over the unsteady gr
umble of the engine. “Tell me what you see.”
“Not a damn thing,” she replied. “Except what’s ahead.”
“That’s all there is. Sometimes you get a glimpse in a mirror, or see another car alongside, but only from the corner of your eye. The focus is on what’s out there!” he jabbed a finger at the windshield.
Suzie’s side of the car hit the ground. “Can I get out now?” Dark figures darted past the hood. Tick’s side rose into the air. Buzz guns whined and screamed.
“One more time around the block,” Tick called. His side hit the ground and a huge hand squashed Suzie back into the most uncomfortable, yet strongest seat known to man.
She screamed.
*****
“How was it?” the chief asked. Suzie trembled from head to foot as he unfastened the helmet’s chin strap.
“I think I might go throw up somewhere.”
The chief patted her shoulder. “Have a glass of milk. There’s some in the chiller.”
“I had no idea the ride was so insane—and so damn loud. I mean, it’s noisy enough out here.”
“But now you have a better idea of how hard he works.”
“How hard you all work. How does that thing…” She indicated the car. “…not shake itself to pieces?”
The chief tapped the side of his nose. “Know-how, Boss. And over sixty-five years of racing stocks.”
Suzie frowned. “You don’t look old enough to have been around that long.”
“History, Boss. Stock cars have been around since 1949. They looked a little different back then, though.”
“I’m sure they did.” Suzie pressed a hand to her mouth as her stomach turned over.
“Milk. Chiller.” The chief ushered her toward the garage.
“Sure, sure. Urp…” Suzie pressed a hand to her mouth and hurried inside, unsure if she was going to make it to a sink in time. The milk would have to wait.
****
“Are you feeling any better?”
“Hmm?” She lifted her head from the pillow and tried to focus on the speaker. The trailer rocked as he stepped inside.
Alien Romance: Interview with an Alien (Football Paranormal Invasion Abduction Alpha Sci-fi Romance) (Fantasy First New Adult Contact Science Fiction Mystery Sports Alien Short Stories) Page 33