Authors: Matthew Reilly
RACE 50
LAP: 35 OF 51
RACERS LEFT ON TRACK: 8
By Lap 35, Jason was still in 7th place - second last. He was starting to worry.
The main thing he had to do in this race was beat Barnaby and at the moment, Barnaby was way out in 1st place, protected by Xavier, while Jason was still way back in 7th - with a total of eight racers still on the track and five of them between him and Barnaby.
Jason still had Horatio Wong directly in front of him in 6th and Joaquin Cortez behind him in 8th.
Cortez continued to harry Jason, especially in the iceberg section of the track - trying to axe through the
Argonaut
‘s tailfin by taking the turns straighter than Jason - recklessly straighter.
In the end, it was Cortez’s determination to nail Jason that was his undoing. At one point amid the icebergs, Jason took one turn a little too wide, offering Cortez a clear straight-line charge at his exposed tailfin. Cortez took the opportunity, not realising that it wasn’t an opportunity - it was bait.
Because suddenly Jason banked the other way, leaving Cortez to smash hard into the side of an iceberg.
Ejection. Explosion.
Cortez’s car was history and the Mexican racer and his navigator soon found themselves floating down to earth on hoverchutes, and as Jason completed Lap 36 several minutes later, Cortez was eliminated.
But now Jason was in last place - with Horatio Wong banking and bending in front of him.
Jason had three laps to overtake Wong.
Lap 37 - no dice. Wong fended him off grimly, at times using dubious defensive tactics.
Lap 38 - Jason flew the entire lap within a metre of Wong’s tail, but no matter what he tried, he
still
couldn’t take Wong.
Jason began to panic. He was running out of time and track.
He zoomed through Hobart again, and commenced Lap 39, knowing it could well be his last.
And as he rocketed down the long Southern Ocean straight, eyeing Wong’s weaving tail-lights, he made the call.
‘Bug,’ he said. ‘Either we get past this bastard on this lap or we’re out! Out of the race, out of contention to go to New York, out of everything. I say we take him via the Clashing Bergs. Opinions?’
The Bug replied instantly…and firmly.
‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ Jason said.
The leaders rushed into the iceberg section of the course, all taking the standard route, Wong among them. But as Wong swept right, taking the regulation route, Jason abruptly cut left, slicing between some smaller icebergs before he beheld two clashing bergs.
They were absolutely gigantic.
The rough seas of the ocean and the underwater mechanism caused the two big icebergs to alternately slide apart and then clang back together like a pair of godsized cymbals. The enormous bulk of the two bergs - each was easily 100 metres long - meant that a racer had to really floor it in order to get through.
Jason floored it.
The
Argonaut
screamed into the shadowy canyon between the two bergs, just as they reached their widest point.
Then the two bergs converged.
The
Argonaut
sped -
The canyon narrowed, its towering white walls closing -
The Bug screamed -
And Jason flipped the
Argonaut
onto its side as the canyon’s walls became unbearably close and -
CRASH!
- the two icebergs came together with a deafening boom
just as
the tiny
Argonaut
blasted out from between them, house-sized chunks of ice raining down into the water behind it.
‘
Hoo-ah!
‘ Jason yelled, blood pulsing through his veins as he swooped back onto the track proper…three carlengths ahead of Wong!
In 6th place.
Wong’s eyes went wide. He couldn’t believe it - Jason was now in front of him!
‘Okay…’ Jason said, his eyes now laser-focused. ‘Time to put you
out
, Horatio.’
And put him out, he did.
No matter what Wong threw at him, Jason fended him off, and as Lap 39 ended, it was Wong who found himself
in 7th place, last place.
And out of the race.
RACE 50
LAP: 40 OF 51
RACERS LEFT ON TRACK: 6
So by Lap 40, the race order was this:
1st: Barnaby.
2nd: Xavier.
3rd: Krishna.
4th: Ariel.
5th: Isaiah Washington.6th:
Jason.
As one would expect of such an important race, it was super close - while he was in last place, Jason was still flying within sight of the leaders.
Then, at the end of Lap 41, everyone pitted.
Jason swung into the pits, to see all the other pit bays teeming with activity. In a race as long as this one, pit stops were longer, taking anywhere between 30 and 50 seconds.
As he arrived, he saw Barnaby shoom back out onto the track - closely followed by Krishna and Ariel, but not, surprisingly, Xavier Xonora. For some reason, Xavier was still in his pit bay.
Jason came to his own bay.
Sally immediately went to work, and outdid herself. She performed a superb stop, so superb that Jason came out of his pit bay before Isaiah Washington did, leapfrogging him into 5th place.
He gunned the
Argonaut
out of its pit bay - only to slam on the brakes a moment later.
A car was blocking the exit tunnel that led back out to the track.
Xavier Xonora’s
Speed Razor
.
It was just splayed across the tunnel, completely blocking the exit - as if it had stalled in the process of leaving its own pit bay. Xavier offered Jason a disingenuous shrug: ‘Sorry. But it’s not my fault.’
Seconds ticked by.
Jason fumed. ‘The son-of-a-bitch is blocking us!’ He couldn’t believe it. Every second he was held up here by Xavier, Barnaby was racing away to victory.
And then Isaiah Washington appeared in Jason’s rearview mirrors, looming up behind the
Argonaut
, only Washington didn’t appear to be slowing: at this rate,
he was going to ram Jason’s tailfin
-
To evade him, Jason started edging around Xavier’s car. But then, just as he was about to get round Xavier, surprise-surprise, Xavier got the
Speed Razor
started and darted off ahead of Jason.
Jason could only swear and chase after him, still in 5th place ahead of Washington, but now a
long
way behind Barnaby Becker.
Jason raced hard through the rain.
He was now second-last and so safe from immediate elimination, but directly in front of him was the tailfin of the all-black
Speed Razor
. And Jason had a feeling that Xavier wasn’t going to let him past lightly.
At the end of the next lap, Lap 42, Isaiah Washington bowed out.
Five racers left.
Nine laps remaining.
One elimination to go, before the six-lap dash to the Finish Line.
The race order was:
1st: Barnaby Becker.
2nd: Varishna Krishna.
3rd: Ariel Piper.
4th: Xavier.
5th: Jason.
And suddenly Jason was again in last place - only now his situation was especially dire: Barnaby was way out in front and the racer directly in front of him was Xavier, the best racer in the School and Barnaby’s team-mate.
Thus they began Lap 43 and, with a gulp, Jason saw what he had to do: he had exactly three laps to get past the best racer at Race School - perhaps the best racer to have
ever
come to Race School - or else he’d be eliminated.
RACE 50
LAP: 43 OF 51
RACERS LEFT ON TRACK: 5
The
Speed Razor
and the
Argonaut
.
Going at it hammer and tong.
Jason threw everything he had at the Black Prince, but try as he might, he just couldn’t get past the
Speed Razor
. Xavier was simply too good.
He just wouldn’t let Jason by.
On Lap 43, Jason even tried another daring dash through the first pair of Clashing Bergs - just as he had done with Wong - but to his total horror, Xavier outran him by going
around
on the standard route!
That’s impossible!
Jason thought.
If he can outrun me going around the Clashing Bergs, there’s no way I can take him…
For the rest of that lap, Xavier held him off easily, anticipating every one of Jason’s overtaking manoeuvres through the tight land-bound section of the course.
Lap 44: still no luck. Xavier seemed to be enjoying this, blocking Jason, ruining his chances of beating Barnaby.
And then they hit Lap 45.
Jason’s last chance.
The
Speed Razor
and the
Argonaut
shot down the Southern Ocean Straight, zig-zagged through the Chicane - and suddenly the Bug made a suggestion.
‘
You’ve got to be kidding
…’ Sally said over the radio.
The Bug said he wasn’t kidding.
‘
That’s totally crazy, Bug! Even by your standards!
‘ Sally said. ‘
You’ll be killed for sure!
’
But Jason liked the plan. ‘Nice thinking, Bug. You always were a daredevil at heart. Hang on to your hat, little brother, because this is gonna get hairy…’
They came to the iceberg section -
And true to form, Xavier kept to the standard track -
While Jason took the Clashing Bergs track -
And, as before, Xavier beat them to the other side, even though he’d stayed on the regulation track. But Jason had gained a whole car-length on him.
Then they came to the second fork in the track - leading to the second set of Clashing Bergs - and again Xavier took the safe option, but not Jason.
To everyone’s surprise, including Xavier’s, he took the Clashing Bergs track
again
-
And this time, he came out the other end
alongside Xavier
-
They hit the third and last fork together…and
again
Jason took the Clashing Bergs option!
Xavier went the long way -
Jason shot through a quickly-narrowing chasm of two gargantuan icebergs - and blasted out the other end just as they clashed, only this time when he emerged, he came out exactly one car-length
ahead
of Xavier!
It had taken not one, not two, but three short cuts to do the impossible: they had overtaken Xavier!
Xavier charged, threw all he had at Jason, trying to retake him. But now that he was in front, Jason wasn’t going to let go of his lead.
He and Xavier fought all the way around the track, but when they hit the Start-Finish Line seven minutes later, it was Jason in the lead.
The 16th and last elimination of the race would be Xavier Xonora.
Now there were only four racers left, and with six laps to go, they alone would fight it out to the finish.
But not before one last pit stop at the end of Lap 48.
Jason knew this pit stop would be his last chance to catch up to Barnaby - who by this time was now almost 40 seconds ahead of him.
‘Sally!’ he called over the radio. ‘This is your moment!’
‘
I’ll be waiting
,’ came the reply.
Jason wound through the land-bound section of the course, until finally he beheld Hobart.
He swept into the city and dived into the pits - - saw the usual buzz of activity, Mech Chiefs running every which way, pit machines rising and falling, electric lights everywhere blazing.
He saw the other three racers still in their pit bays, their Mech Chiefs working away already, halfway through their stops:
Barnaby.
Krishna.
Ariel.
And then, just as Jason swung the
Argonaut
into its pit bay, there came a loud dying whine from somewhere above him and all of a sudden…
…
every single electric light
in Pit Lane went out!
Pit machines froze in mid-air.
Computer monitors crashed to black.
Everyone looked about themselves in confusion.
Sally, now standing beside the
Argonaut
, swapped a look with Jason.
They didn’t even need to say it out loud.
Power failure.
Manual
pit stop.
Jason and the Bug were out of their seats in seconds, and by hand they attached six fresh magneto drives to the
Argonaut
while Sally added coolant and compressed-air cylinders, also by hand.
The other teams obviously hadn’t practised manual stops much - if at all - and they just stood in their pit bays, confused.
Barnaby yelled at his Mech Chief, swearing, pointing, telling him to hurry up.
Krishna deduced that he had to help his Mech Chief, and so he leapt out of his car.
Ariel did the same - and while she may not have practised manual stops as well as Jason’s team, of the other three racers, she did the best at it.
As he screwed on his mag drives with a cordless drill, Jason heard Ariel’s Mech Chief yell to Ariel: ‘ - can’t explain it! A virus just hit us like a goddamn anvil! Ripped down our firewall! But it was so powerful, it spread into the wider system and brought down the entire Pit Lane power grid!’
In the end, the big winners from the unexpected power shutdown were Ariel and Jason.
Having entered the pits in 3rd place, Ariel shot back out onto the track in 1st place!
Krishna shot out next, in 2nd.
Barnaby was the biggest loser - perhaps because he hadn’t got out of his car for the whole of the manual stop, choosing instead to simply abuse his Mech Chief. As such, he came out of the pits in 3rd place…
…a single car-length ahead of Jason Chaser.
Game on.
RACE 50
LAP: 50 OF 51
RACERS LEFT ON TRACK: 4
With two laps to go, Jason hammered on the heels of Barnaby Becker.
In a funny way, Jason felt confident now.
Xavier was out of the race, as were those racers like Cortez and Wong who had tried to take him out. And now he had Barnaby in his sights.
And he knew Barnaby’s weakness - right-hand hairpins - and there were plenty of those coming up. Through the Chicane…into the icebergs.
Jason lined up Barnaby.
Got himself into position behind him.
The best option was at the very end of the iceberg section, at a hairpin turn inside a tunnel carved into the last iceberg.
They weaved through the icebergs, Jason coming closer and closer to Barnaby - looming ominously. Then they hit the last iceberg, and Jason made his move, ducked inside
Barnaby, expecting him to take it wide, as usual… …only Barnaby didn’t do that at all.
Instead, he took the hairpin perfectly, and cut Jason off…
…and held his position!
Jason was shocked.
That wasn’t supposed to happen!
his mind screamed. Barnaby never took hairpins like that - not even in the
most recent race, Race 49.
He must’ve got lucky,
Jason thought, and he prepared to take Barnaby at a right-hand hairpin up in the land-bound
section of the track.
But again Barnaby confounded him - taking that hairpin perfectly as well, and thus fending Jason off again. ‘How are you doing this, Barnaby!’ Jason asked aloud.
‘How do you know…?’
He cut himself off.
At that moment, like a sledgehammer-blow, it hit him… …and it broke his heart.
Dido.
Flashback:
Jason and Dido that morning, sitting on the clifftop watching the sun rise. And Jason telling Dido how he planned to beat Barnaby that day:
‘
We’ve found a chink in his technique. The Bug’s been analysing his racing manoeuvres on video-disc. Barnaby’s weak on right-hand hairpins - that’s where he gets sloppy; he goes too wide, so you can cut inside
him…
’
Then another recollection struck Jason.
The time he had told Dido about his nightmares and his greatest fear: having his tailfin taken out. Then, the very next day, Horatio Wong had ruthlessly taken out his tailfin, almost killing him and the Bug.
His greatest fear at the time had come true.
And the event had all-but taken Jason over the edge, shattering his race confidence.
Oh, Dido
…he thought.
You didn’t
…
But the evidence was clear. Whenever he told Dido something, his enemies seemed to know it the following day.
Dido was in league with Barnaby and Xavier.
Jason’s brain returned to Race 50.
The
Argonaut
screamed across the Start-Finish Line and started the last lap, Lap 51.
Ariel was leading.
Krishna was in 2nd place.
Then a gap.
Then Barnaby in 3rd.
And Jason in 4th.
Race 50 had essentially become two races: one between Ariel and Krishna for the win; and another between
Barnaby and Jason for 3rd place.
But as far as Jason was concerned, Krishna and Ariel didn’t matter - however they finished, it didn’t affect him
on the overall Ladder. All he had to do was beat Barnaby to get to New York: as things were, 3rd was as good as 1st
in this race.
* * *
Down the Southern Ocean Straight, through the Chicane for the last time.
He was still all over Barnaby, probing for a way past. Into the iceberg section.
Jason thought about taking the three Clashing Bergs routes, but figured his luck there couldn’t last. Better to hang onto Barnaby’s tail - he could still take him.
But he couldn’t take him in the icebergs.
Barnaby held him out, sometimes just by flagrantly taking up all the track, blocking Jason’s path.
Northward, back towards Tasmania.
Then into the land-bound section.
More hairpins, and belying his previous efforts, Barnaby took them all beautifully - but now Jason was charging, pushing Barnaby on every turn, the two cars almost side-by-side.
As Jason and Barnaby fought in the central region of Tasmania, ahead of them, Ariel Piper - having flown a near-perfect race - crossed the Finish Line five seconds ahead of Varishna Krishna, taking 1st place.
But Barnaby and Jason were still racing.
And with Ariel and Krishna coming 1st and 2nd, everything was still on the line for the two of them - whoever won this tussle would go to New York.
Screaming with speed, they came roaring over the magnificent Tasman Bridge, approaching the last corner of the race - a sharp
left
-hand hairpin underneath a freeway flyover - and Jason made a sudden inside move on the turn…
…and he got him!
As the Finish Line swept into view, the
Argonaut
‘s nose inched in front of the nose of the
Devil’s Chariot
.
‘Noooo!’ Barnaby yelled.
And then he did something totally unexpected.
Panicked and desperate, Barnaby rammed Jason hard - driving
both
of their cars across the nearest set of demag lights.
Jason fought with his steering wheel, but to no avail - he saw his mag levels deplete with shocking speed.
Luckily for him, the same thing was happening to Barnaby’s car. It, too, was losing all its magnetic power.
At which point Jason saw where he was heading - straight for a big concrete pylon that supported the freeway bridge above them.
With a terrible shriek, the
Argonaut
glanced off the pylon and flipped up onto its side, ending three-quarters sideways, lying up against the next concrete pylon.
The
Devil’s Chariot
performed a similar crash, but it finished right-side-up, resting on the roadway, pointing backwards.
Both cars just sat there, under the concrete overpass, smoking and still.
‘You okay?’ Jason yelled to the Bug, both of them hanging sideways in their seatbelts.
The Bug said he was.
Jason was all right, too, but the forward half of the
Argonaut
was now resting on its side up against the pylon, so Jason couldn’t get out of the cockpit even if he tried.
‘Bug! Pro rules! Driver over the Line. You’ve got to get to the Finish Line! Here!’
Jason removed the
Argonaut
‘s steering wheel - fitted as it was with a transponder. Pro rules dictated that if a car couldn’t cross the Line, a racer could still finish the race by having either himself or his navigator
carry
his transponder-equipped steering wheel over the Line.
Jason offered the steering wheel to the Bug. ‘Run!
Run!
’
The Bug’s eyes boggled for a moment, then he unbuckled his seatbelt and literally fell out of the cockpit, dropping clumsily to the ground. Then he stood up, took the steering wheel from Jason, and ran.
Down the highway.
As fast as his little legs could carry him, down the last 500 metres of highway.
The crowd gathered to watch the final race of the season had never seen anything like it.
There was the Bug,
running
down the finishing straight, his little legs pumping, his round bespectacled face pink with exertion, clutching a steering wheel in his right fist.
Trapped in the cockpit of the
Argonaut
, Jason could only watch him run.
‘Go, Bug! Go!’
Vmmmmmm
.
Just then, an ominous thrumming sound came to life beside Jason.
Jason turned - to see the battered and dented
Devil’s Chariot
lift up off the asphalt and resume a hovering position. It seemed wounded, broken. But it was working.
Slowly, it pivoted in mid-air and Jason saw Barnaby at the controls, his face set in an evil grimace.
Jason snapped round - and saw the Bug still running down the road.
Barnaby hit the gas.
* * *
The Bug ran. Hard.
He was hardly built for speed: short legs, little pot belly, big glasses, helmet. Sweat had fogged up his glasses by now, but he kept on pounding the pavement anyway.
The crowd was now on its feet - but silent. Stunned into silence.
And then everyone saw it.
Saw Barnaby Becker’s battered
Devil’s Chariot
come lurching down the highway behind the Bug…
Chasing him to the end.
It wasn’t trying to run him down. Far from it. It was trying to beat him to the Line. After all the racing, all the pit stops and overtaking manoeuvres, it had come down to this. One racer on foot, the other in the air, in his dented, broken car.
And as all could see, even at their wildly differing speeds, they would hit the Line almost together…
Then, a man’s voice in the crowd yelled, ‘Go Bug!
Go
!’
The voice of Henry Chaser.
And as they watched this bizarre contest, the rest of the crowd joined in.
‘GO BUG! GO!’
‘
GO BUG
!
GO
!’
The Bug’s little legs pumped up and down.
The
Devil’s Chariot
gained speed.
Jason could only watch, helpless in his seat.
The Bug ran over the giant white letters painted on the road just before the Finish Line - ‘
START-FINISH
‘ - just as the
Devil’s Chariot
roared up behind him, accelerating…
…coming closer and closer and closer…
…and the Bug saw the Line - the actual Finish Line, a thick white band stretching across the road in front of him - and as the roar of the
Devil’s Chariot
filled his ears and rushed alongside him, he dived…