Chapter 13

“Wow! Did you see that? Almost everyone moved aside to let us go by.” Katrina marveled as she took off her head set.

“Yeah, but I think it was for all the wrong reasons.” Richard stated as he stared at the head set, glad that he was on this team and not one of the others. “Can you pull up the GPS of our route? I think we need a back-up plan.”

Katrina touched the button on the dashboard so that the screen and keyboard would be available. She typed in the command for the map and seconds later it was on the screen.

“What’s up?” Katrina asked.

“This is what’s up.” Richard used his finger to point to the town coming up next. “We are going to enter rush hour traffic here. We’re all going to be stuck in traffic together.”

Katrina got Richard’s meaning quickly. “You think we should cut around and try to miss the downtown area?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” he replied. “Anything that keeps us away from the other drivers as much as possible.”

She stared at him for a moment before turning back to the screen. The memory of his phone call from his dad came back into her mind and she decided to ask about it. “So what happened with your father?”

“It’s nothing.” Richard said curtly. His tone showed his displeasure.

“I heard you say you were in bad accident in your first race?” Katrina prodded.

“Yeah, I learned a lot of lessons that day, hard ones. You really never know your family until...”

A sleek looking racecar passed them as if they had been standing still. The speed limit was forty-five and the car that had passed them must have been going eighty. Richard downshifted to give pursuit but Katrina placed a hand on his arm.

“We don’t want a ticket, plus they’re going to get stuck in traffic, remember? We’ll catch up another way.”

Richard made a “hump” sound and sped up a little just the same.

Katrina breathed a sigh of relief. She had a feeling that his anger could make him do something stupid. Then something else caught her eye. The split car had pulled over on the side of the road. Both drivers were out of the car, leaning against it. They looked completely at ease about the race and life itself, as if their cigarette break was much more important.

It seemed odd to Katrina, and to Richard too after she nudged him show him what she had seen. Shouldn’t they have been racing toward their goal like all the other cars? Katrina and Richard both stared as they passed them.

“What was that all about?” Richard asked. He checked his rearview mirror to see if any other racecars were near them.

Sure enough there were three other cars coming up quick. They were all driving erratically, each trying to avoid the other’s weapons. Hot on their heels were the chase trucks with cameramen hanging out of their windows to get a better angle.

Richard swore softly and accelerated.

“What are you doing? We can’t get caught speeding.” Katrina stated.

“Check your six.” Richard said.

Katrina looked over her shoulder. Shock and surprise filled her face. “Already?” Katrina shouted in disbelief, “And at this speed?”

Her stress level skyrocketed. She put on her head set once more and the arm segment of the weapon twisted towards the coming cars.

Richard glanced at the speedometer, they were already doing eighty. “You want me to lose them?” he asked.

Katrina checked the gage then looked toward the trio of cars coming up on them. “Wait until they are almost on us, then accelerate just enough to match the lead car as they approach. Make sure they end up on my side. It’s time to use this weapon for what it was designed to do. Be prepared to launch us forward when I tell you.”

Richard nodded.

Katrina turned her head to point the arm towards the coming cars. She had no fear of Richard’s driving ability. After yesterday with the speed governor on, and half the breaks disabled, his ability to control the situation had gained her respect as a driver. As a person, that was another story, but as a driver she knew he could trust him to handle it.

~~~

Silvia typed furiously on one of her keyboards. She had sweat running down her forehead, onto her brow and into her eyes. She used the back of her hand to wipe it away. On the screens before her were images of many different kinds. One showed the code she was actually typing, long strings of code that ran past the top and bottom of the screen. The one next to that had two open internet windows, showing different websites dedicated to code writing. On the two screens to the extreme right, the broadcast of the race had already begun. The first screen showed nineteen picture-in-picture squares, one for each racecar, and the other had a single, full screen image of the MIT car’s feed.

Silvia stopped for a moment to watch the MIT car have unfettered access to the parking lot exit on the large screen. All of the other cars had moved aside to allow them to pass. She stood and screamed at what she had just witnessed. “Mother fucker!” She knew they had come in last the previous night and now they were moving up the line all because of the weapon she had helped to design. It infuriated her that Katrina was once again reaping the rewards of her efforts.

The armed men who sat nearby on guard duty were startled by her outburst. They stopped the card game they were playing to see what had caused her anger. When nothing looked out of place they turned back to their game.

Silvia threw herself back in her seat, more determined than ever to extract some form of revenge. She began to type again with renewed resolve.

~~~

The three racecars were weaving in and out of the building traffic. Each seemed hell bent to use their weapon to disable the other. Of the three cars, one sat much higher than the other two. It appeared that they had chosen a four wheel drive chassis from a truck to get them through the desert sands at the end of the race. The other two were on normal two wheel drive systems that gave them a more normal clearance from the road and better aerodynamics.

The taller car had the advantage of looking down on the other two cars, each busy in the process of attempting to eliminate the other. One of the lower cars had two ramps strapped to its roof and a track system that ran around the entire car. It was comprised of two narrow gage tubes of galvanized steel. A small trolley of sorts that contained a laser ran on the track system. It moved back and forth trying to match up with the other car but had been so far unable to stay in one position for the three seconds required to burn a deep enough hole to shut them down.

The other low racecar was also in the process of using their laser on their opponent but with a much cruder design that hung from their window precariously. Their weapon design may not have been great but they had obviously put a lot more focus on the car’s steering capabilities. If the weapon required driver’s side access, the entire steering mechanism slid over to the passenger side and the passenger became the driver. At that moment the original driver had become the passenger and he was using the portable weapon from the driver’s window.

The taller vehicle was trying to use their weapon and had changed their speed to match the other two vehicles after coming up quickly behind them. The driver had relinquished the steering to his passenger so he could attempt to use their weapon by hanging out of his window. The passenger had to lean over and control the wheel from his side, unlike the elaborate mechanics of the other car.

The weapon of the taller vehicle was attached to a long tube with wires hanging out that powered the device, a very primitive design. Once their higher vehicle matched the speed of one of the lower racecars, it forced them to be in the center of a racecar sandwich.

The tall vehicle, which had their weapon hanging on the end of a PVC tube, pushed their laser head onto the skin of the other low slung entrant between the ramps. It came off the tube when the middle car slowed again to try to break contact. The tall car’s driver fell back to allow room for the center car to maneuver, while the wires hanging between them and the tube were still sticking out of their open window.

Brilliant light flashed from the head, similar to the arcing from a welder’s torch, as the weapon did its work. Immediately the occupants stopped their attack on the car to their left and attempted to reach the laser head to knock it off. The men in the higher car laughed at them. As promised, after three seconds, the center racecar’s power died. It slowed dramatically. The taller racecar slowed to match their victim’s speed until they were both stopped in the middle of the road.

Traffic was starting to back up in the lanes behind them as three lanes of traffic vied for the remaining open lane and a chorus of horns was evidence of their aggravation.

The driver of the still viable racecar leaned out of his window to pull his laser head back onto the tube and began to drive away. He smiled and waved at the two guys slumped back in the seats of the disabled car. Their expressions of utter humiliation spoke volumes.

The driver turned back out his window and shouted “See you losers!” He and his passenger laughed in jubilation of their success as they picked up speed. The weapons specialist turned around in time to witness the arrival of a box truck. In less than two minutes the dead racecar had been dragged into the back, occupants and all.

The third racecar had increased their speed as soon as they had realized that the car who had been their opponent was now too busy to bother them. Richard had allowed it to pass them as he had slowed enough to allow the taller racecar catch up. Its four wheel drive system was causing it to bounce slightly as it approached. Katrina turned her body around to watch the tall car catch up. The ominous arm on their roof rotated in equal measure.

The two men in the tall racecar were still celebrating their mastery of their weapon and their victory over the other car. In their celebratory mood they didn’t notice the MIT car waiting for them where it had been partially hidden in front of a beige Buick Century.

Katrina didn’t turn to face Richard when she said, “Get ready, remember, I need them on my side.”

“No problem.” Richard said. “We have plenty of power and brakes.”

It was game on and they both looked completely focused. This was perhaps the most dangerous part of the race, interacting with another vehicle to disable it without crashing into it or into anybody else. Hearts hammered in their chests and their breathing was short and measured.

As the four-wheel drive racecar approached, Richard’s fingers twitched on the steering wheel in anticipation. Katrina, however, remained as still as steel. She knew her head’s movements would be reflected in the weapon above her in plain sight.

When the moment came to take action Richard closed his grip on the steering wheel. He cut into the far lane and accelerated away from the Buick then stomped on the breaks.

This got the other racecar’s attention. The driver moved into the middle lane, the only unoccupied lane open to him. He didn’t understand the brake lights but knew that the car could be trouble because they shared the same skin.

The driver pursed his lips and accelerated to try to get ahead of it quickly. His passenger noticed the weapon on the roof and pointed excitedly, swearing loudly enough to be heard by the traffic around them and slapping the driver’s arm to make sure he knew of their predicament.

Katrina used her side mirror to watch the car’s progression. When she felt that the other racecar had reached the point where the weapon could become active, she turned her head to face out the rear window and said. “Get ready to launch us forward!”

The driver knew they were in trouble when the arm turned towards them. In his mind the only way out was to speed past the most formidable weapon in the race. Speed would be their saving grace, or so they thought.

Katrina called as she aimed the weapon to an imaginary point behind them. “Almost there!”

Richard kept checking the rearview mirror. “If you wait too long you’ll miss.”

“Shut up! I know what I’m doing.”

The other racecar was poised to overtake the still slowing MIT car. With sheer speed bolstering their confidence the driver smiled before he began to say to his passenger, “I think we’re going to make it..”

Katrina shouted to Richard. “Now!”

Richard questioned the timing in his mind but stomped on the accelerator just the same. When the car shot forward Katrina fired the weapon. Its head traveled into the empty space before the other car.

Richard was sure that the laser head would pass in front of its windshield. To other driver, the image couldn’t have been more horrifying. He could see the laser head traveling right at him and was afraid it might sail into his open window. He had no time to react, all that he could do was watch, horrified. Milliseconds passed as he watched the laser head pass by his open window. Relief washed over him. Then the laser stuck itself against the skin twelve inches behind the side window’s frame.

The driver never even noticed that the MIT car had begun to pace their vehicle, its powerful engine had easily rocketed them to an equal speed. The driver tried to reach out his window and pull the laser head off but he couldn’t turn his body that far. The driver shouted to his passenger to have him take the wheel.

Richard had to do some crazy maneuvering to avoid getting hit by the swerving car during their change of hands on the steering wheel. He decided to fall back a bit and give them a little more room. Other cars who were watching this unfold attempted to get by them, a few driving in the breakdown lane temporarily to try to avoid any possible crash.

“How far back can I go without running out of room on the spool of wire?” Richard shouted.

Katrina shouted back over the wind buffeting through her window without turning to face him. “You’re almost at your limit now!”

A white unmarked box truck pulled up behind the MIT car, a cameraman hung out of the window. Their driver kept pace far enough away to stay out of the fray but still close enough to get good video.

Three seconds seemed to last forever as the racecar driver stretched to grab the laser head. He had pulled himself out of his window far enough to almost fall out as smoke poured profusely from the hole the laser was creating. Once the driver had actually touched the laser and the laser head was so hot that it had burned his hand. Pulling his hand away suddenly had made him lose his balance but the car had already begun to power down.

Richard had to veer wildly to not get side swiped by the slowing racecar and managed to pull away. Katrina activated the release. The spool of wire had suddenly became taut and the laser head popped off the disabled car. In an action similar to that of a fishing pole reeling in its line, the mechanical arm retracted the line very quickly until the laser head approached. When it sensed it was near the arm the line’s pull slowed, and the laser head sagged from the lack of pressure against it. A much slower retraction rate reattached the head into its cradle. Katrina turned off the head-set but left it on her head. The arm rotated into its holding position and became still.

Katrina jumped up and down in her seat happier than she had been since the race had begun.

Richard patted her on the shoulder rapidly shouting, “You did it! That freaking thing is awesome!”

He checked his rearview mirror. A white box truck had stopped directly in front of the disabled car and was preparing to swallow it up.

~~~

The interns began boarding the bus with tired, overworked expressions. They had just finished packing up the tractor trailer and were showing signs of extreme fatigue after being up for thirty-six hours straight. They threw themselves into seats hoping that they would soon be deeply asleep.

After they had all boarded Jenkins stepped on. “The food is here. Make sure you eat something before you drift off.”

Jenkins stepped back off the bus while a crew of twelve, dressed in the black uniforms of the local McDonald’s, stepped on carrying bags of food and mini cartons of orange juice.

One of the interns shouted out. “I need coffee.”

Jenkins voice filtered in through the open bus door. “No coffee, only juice. You all need to sleep!”

His cell phone rang. He dug in his pocket and turned away to answer it after he had looked at the screen to see that it was Appleton.

“What’s up?” he asked.

 “Calling with good news,” Appleton said. “I’m watching the race broadcast and I just witnessed your team pull off a stunning disabling maneuver. Stunning I’m telling you. That girl of yours could work for the military and show them a thing or two about ballistic arcs and distances. Never seen anything like it. And that Richard can drive. Are you sure you still want me to check…”

“Yes, absolutely, no question.”

“Alright. I should be with your guy by this afternoon. I hope they do as well for the rest of the morning as what I just saw.” Appleton said.

Jenkins sighed and said, “Yeah, me too.” He closed the connection and stepped back onto the bus after the last of the McDonald’s crew stepped off.

“Alright, lights out.” Jenkins announced. He turned to the squat old looking driver. His driver’s cap sat askew and his expression had a permanent off-center scowl. “You need to get us to the Super 8 in Fort Dodge, Iowa while we get some rest. Pick a place somewhere in the middle for a rest stop and food. Can you do that or do I need to arrange for a second driver?”

The driver smiled. He spoke with a drawl that was southern accent laced with retired Army lingo. “Buddy, I drive because I can’t sleep. I can drive for a week straight if I have to. Keep the coffee coming, the bathroom stops regular and I can drive you to Hawaii. And we don’t have to make any stops over the ocean, I’ll piss right out the window.”

Jenkins chuckled. Driving to Hawaii, that would be something to see, he thought.

~~~

Richard drove silently after their small celebration.

Katrina couldn’t help but ponder on the events of the morning and the bad phone call he had received before they had left. Even though they had only been together for a day and a half, and for the most part she had wanted to kill him for every second of it, his silence bothered her.

It bothered her that his father would call before the race to mention… something. And had he actually been drunk at the time? What could he have said that would have caused Richard to destroy his phone?

It also bothered her that she cared enough to want to help him. Based on their fights the day before she should have been ready push him out of the car and finish the race alone.

She knew that it was a weakness of hers. She desired to help those around her that needed help, whether they deserved it or not. She took a cleansing breath and asked, “I can see that the call from your father is still bothering you, did he accuse you of doing something wrong this morning?”

Richard turned to Katrina. “It’s not what he said so much as what he implied.”

Katrina shook her head. She had no way to appreciate the difference without more information.

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said, sullenly.

Katrina turned toward the screen in front of her to retract it back into the dashboard. “I get the feeling that your father disapproves of something, your lifestyle, your career choice, or maybe your sexual...”

Richard slammed on the brakes and pulled into the breakdown lane sparking another chorus of horns.

He pointed his finger in Katrina’s face. “You know nothing about me.”

Katrina took a piece of gum and stuck it into her mouth. “I know that your father doesn’t like something about you. You’re closer to your mother but she’s not happy with your racing career. That’s why she didn’t show up for the starting line yesterday. You intentionally strut around like you’re big man on campus, probably because you’re hiding something. That’s usually how it works. Every once in a while when someone walks around with a stick up their ass it really is what it looks like, but I don’t get that feeling with you. Not to mention that I saw your ass strutting around last night, didn’t see a stick there.”

Richard blushed. He actually seemed embarrassed by his behavior.

Katrina chewed loudly for a second before going on. “I think you’re an only child and your father expected more from you.”

“Stop.” Richard said. He didn’t want to talk about his problems to a girl he barely knew. “You don’t know anything about me. We’re here to run a race, not to psychoanalyze each other.”

Just then another two racecars passed by in the building traffic. Richard had to accelerate hard to cut back into traffic.

“Where are we anyway?” he asked.

Katrina pushed the button to bring up the computer screen and typed the commands to initiate the GPS. “We’re on Route 3 heading into Cincinnati. We are supposed to get on 71 which goes through the heart of the city. But if we stay on that route we’ll be up close and personal in rush hour traffic.”

Richard raised a finger. “Do you think that was intentional? I mean, letting us get stuck in traffic to put us all in close proximity to each other again?”

“I don’t know.” Katrina said grumpily. “It will be longer to go around, there aren’t really any shortcuts, but if we’re stuck in traffic and someone comes in close enough to use their laser there won’t be enough room to run away.”

“Okay,” Richard agreed. “Tell me where to turn and I’ll make sure we get there.”

“Take the next exit. It doesn’t matter which one. I’ll plot us a route from there.”

~~~

Silvia Thruwell was smiling. She took a deep breath, it had worked. She had written the code required to hack into the internet device. Of course she still had to test it. She lifted her head to face her many computer screens to lay eyes on the one that had the least important items. She turned her head back to her keyboard to make some changes.

When she gazed back, up Mac Killington’s face was staring at her from between the screens. She screamed. The men at the table, who were supposed to be her protection, more like prison guards, laughed at her over their card game. They had seen him approach and had kept quiet. Killington’s face looked like the Cheshire Cat’s floating head. The smile that greeted her made her skin crawl.

The look of malicious intent curled the corners of his mouth as though he were about to eat her. His eyes showed absolute cruelty and the knowledge that he had the power to do whatever he wanted. Silvia was scared by what she saw.

Killington meandered around to where Silvia sat. He hung over her shoulder to look at all of the screens above her keyboards. Images from the race broadcast took more than one screen and there was still one with code streaming down. Each had continual activity. Only the internet screen, oddly enough, had no activity at this point. The flickering of the monitors lit the dark space behind Killington and Silvia and was reflected by the glass panes of the windows on the other side of the room. He placed a hand on the chair’s backrest. She shivered at the idea of being so close to the powerful man behind her.

Killington broke the silence. “What’s interesting to me is how one person can learn all this and not go crazy. All of this internet and computer stuff is so complex. I can’t even imagine sitting still long enough to do half of what you have accomplished today. So what have I paid for? I have people in high place expecting results.”

Silvia leaned forward away from the reach of Killington’s fingers before answering his question. “I wrote a program to hack into the internet software employed by many of the projects’ managers to have access to their engineering projects. This will allow me to take some portion of control over their racecars. The idea is to get into the software that controls the skin. If I can find the command in the code that exists in their computer, I can send a message to disable their car without having a laser burn through it. Even if they go and fix the problem I already know for a fact that once the disable code is given the car cannot be registered as a winner even if it does pass through the finish ring. I should be able to thin the race by quite a few cars before the fifth day of the race.”

Killington nodded, impressed. “You know, these skills you have sound very impressive. If this works I might be able to use someone with your skills in my organization.”

Silvia shook her head. “I signed up to extract revenge on Katrina. After the paycheck I was promised, I’m done.”

Killington laughed maliciously. The men at the card table joined in, though it wasn’t clear that they even knew what he was laughing at.

 “Here’s a little secret about our business, once you’re in, you’re in. You’ll get paid, but if this works you like you say, I may have a business proposition for you that you can’t refuse. And if you really want out there’s only one way. You seem like a pretty smart girl, I think you get my drift. But for today let’s get on with the job. Pick out a car and do your magic.”

Silvia turned to the divided screen over her work station. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She thought about her goal now. Getting revenge with these thugs now seemed like a very stupid idea. They may have had the money she needed to build this work station in order to exact her revenge but now she wasn’t sure that it would be worth it, especially if she was going to get dragged into this organization indefinitely. She was so stupid. Why hadn’t she just let it go? She had no interest in hurting innocent people or using her technology to benefit the mob. In her heart she couldn’t do that. She sat stock still, afraid to move.

“Well, are you going to do something?” Killington asked.

Silvia began to breathe very hard, like a panic attack wasn’t too far away. Killington snapped his fingers and his men got up from the table and withdrew their pistols. Killington took one of their pistols and cocked it before pointing it to Silvia’s temple. She began to whimper between her gasping breaths. She didn’t want to die.

There was a long pause where the barrel of the gun held its position at Silvia’s head while she continued to whimper. Then suddenly the gun dropped.

Killington laughed. “I need to know if this will work. Pick out a car and do something.” He snapped his fingers again and said ‘Chair’. One of his men quickly ran to the little table and retrieved a chair for him. When he sat down he took out a cigar from his suitcoat’s inner pocket and lit it. Smoke drifted through the light streaming in through the high window over the work station. The equipment’s cooling fans pushed it around. Silvia wiped her hand across her nose as she began to calm down a little.

“Let’s start small.” Killington said as he laid the business end of the pistol on her shoulder indicating a pressure to proceed. Silvia leaned in towards her keyboard. She typed in a command and a list of organizations that had built the racecars populated the screen directly in front of her.

“I hacked into the database of the secret organization that is running the race. They keep track of all the cars that have already been eliminated and the ones that are still active. The names on the screen before me are all of the cars that are still in the race.” Silvia turned to a different keyboard and prepared to type. “Pick a car on that list and I’ll go to their server.”

Killington said mockingly, “Oooh, I get to pick?” He took his gun off Silvia’s shoulder and used it to point at the fifth car on the list. Silvia began to type.

“All of these organizations use one of three servers as their connection to their projects. It will only take me a second to find the right one.” Silvia said.

Sure enough, on the second entry the search bar activated to pull up the active link to the company’s project list. “This car was built by a mid-western group called Build Pro. They make all kinds of products that get sold to the big box stores in the country.” A list popped up all of the projects in their R&D department. Silvia scrolled down and found one that was called ‘The Car’.

“Not a very original name. But if your company name is Build Pro then I wouldn’t expect too much,” Silvia said as she opened the file. It took only a second to find the right PDF. That’s when she turned to the third keyboard. “This keyboard goes to a special server that pings this connection all around the world so no one can trace it back to you.” She pointed to the screen all the way to the top, on the right. It showed the signal traveling around the world until it came back to the state of Montana. When the connection was completed a string of code began scrolling slowly from bottom to top on the screen just below the one that showed the global arc of the signal.

Silvia chuckled. “No serious firewalls here. This will be child’s play.” She pointed the internet broadcast of the race on the large screen on the upper left. “I’m going to depress the brakes on one of these racecars. I need you to find it on this screen. This is a live feed.”

Killington and his men followed Silvia’s finger towards the screen that had multiple picture-in-picture views of the race in real time. They stretched their eyes trying to see all of the images at once.

“Give me a second. I have to find the right port.” Silvia said.

“What does the car look like?” Killington asked, trying to discern how to best narrow his search.

“I don’t know. I can only see code. That’s why I need you to watch for which car is affected.”

Killington pointed to the screen. “I’ll watch the top cars, you two take a bottom half each so we don’t miss it.”

The henchmen nodded in agreement, one of them pointing to which side of the screen they would take.

“Alright, I found the brake ports.” Silvia stated. “There should be some lag time between me activating the brakes and it actually happening on the screen. I’ve got this signal running around the world before it hits the car. Think of it as me communicating almost half way to the moon.”

Killington gazed over to Silvia, seriously impressed. He handed the pistol he had been holding back to the man he had taken it from, who quickly holstered it.

Silvia typed like mad then stopped abruptly. “There, you’ll see something in a second.”

The men all sharpened their gaze. The smallest measurable amount of time crawled by, millisecond after millisecond. Finally one of the henchman said ‘I found it’. The rest of the eyes turned to watch the unlucky recipient of their attentions.

~~~

On a highway outside of Cincinnati an accident had brought traffic to a crawl. The MIT car was getting closer to the gridlock without knowing that their unhindered run was almost at an end. They could see one other racecar ahead of them but neither sought to use their weapons, finishing the day was paramount in their minds.

As the racecars approached the accident scene another racecar started to pass them on the passenger side. They could see that it already had two bad looking burn holes in its skin, each the size of a baseball. Richard let it go by. He had finally understood that it wasn’t the end of the world every time someone tried to pass them. He was confident about the car’s remarkable abilities and with Katrina’s skill with the weapon. He and Katrina just watched them drive on by. The other car didn’t try to engage them. It probably didn’t hurt that the weapon on the roof was in active mode and it had mimicked Katrina’s head movements by following them as it passed.

Moments later the car with the damaged skin’s brake lights suddenly lit up. The wheels had locked up completely and smoke filled the air as the car slowed rapidly and started to twist in its lane. Richard had to make a few sudden moves to avoid traffic that had tried to go around the problem car. The section of road that they were on had only two lanes and didn’t offer the luxury of space to maneuver. He had to swerve into the break down lane once avoid a small red Cobalt that had children in the back seat.

Suddenly the brakes on the car released and the racecar could accelerate once more. After some loud horns from angry drivers the traffic pattern began to go back to normal.

The Build Pro car was now behind the other racecars as the driver tried to re-establish their pace while the passenger ran diagnostics to try to find out what had caused the problem.

They accelerated, trying to catch up to their peers, weaving through traffic. As soon as they had passed the MIT car for a second time their car went dead. They lost all power. They struggled to use their momentum to get into the breakdown lane. When they realized that they had already slowed too much to clear the driving lane completely, the passenger slid out of the window and began to push the car the remaining distance to safety. Another chorus of horns echoed off the guardrail around them.

~~~

Silvia punched the air when the software displayed the message ‘Command delivered’ on the screen to the right. All eyes turned to the screen where the racecars were displayed in their little boxes and waited. They watched the Build Pro car trying to regain their position as the leader on that stretch of highway. It passed the MIT car then the disable code shut them down.

Killington stood and shouted at the multi-screened work station. “Yes!” He turned to Silvia and smiled his evil smile. “Keep going, do them all that way except for these two. We want them to have an unhindered avenue towards the finish line. I will check in often, and please, be careful you don’t accidentally turn off the wrong car. I’m getting paid a lot of money to ensure that they succeed. Of course the little lady you want to exact revenge upon is not on the list of winners. Feel free to hack them down at your leisure.”

Killington turned on his heel and started to leave but stopped as something else occurred to him. Without turning to convey his message he said. “The guys will help you in your duties.”

~~~

Katrina and Richard’s heads both followed the slowing car as they passed it again.

“What the hell happened to them? No one else was close enough to use a weapon on them.” Richard stated.

“I know, right?” Katrina said. She wondered what could have happened to the car that would have triggered the disable code. “You know, I bet they have a window mounted weapon and they accidently turned it on when it was in the back seat and burned a hole bad enough on the inside to shut them down.”

“That can happen?” Richard asked.

“Well, if it’s not mounted in place it might have been turned on accidentally when they were swerving around before. Or if they threw something in the backseat and it hit the power switch. Or the capacitor inside the weapon could have failed and caught on fire.”

“Well I’m glad this one is on the roof,” Richard said as he depressed the brakes. Brake lights all around them were coming on. Traffic had quickly come to a stop.

“I wonder what’s going on?” Katrina asked.

“It’s rush hour. Maybe there’s an accident up ahead somewhere.” Richard added.

Over the next half of an hour they waited in slow motion, through stop and go traffic without ever seeing the source of the problem. People changed lanes frequently, hoping to stay moving but neither lane moved far. Over time people began to look around in the lanes for something different to do than watching the guy in front of them not move. Katrina had leaned toward her window a while ago and Richard thought she might have fallen asleep.

The eyes of a lot of the other cars’ occupants watched their unusual looking vehicle. He had known that the design of their racecar would stand out but the arm on the roof was the biggest point of interest. Luckily, no one around them knew what the arm did. He imagined what would happen if Katrina turned in on. He chuckled. People would probably jump out their cars and run away, keeping him from ever getting off this highway.

As Richard had been lost in his imagination, another racecar had come up on them from behind. It had taken many minutes to position themselves perfectly. Slowly, methodically, they had attempted to sneak up on them, moving only when Richard had been looking in the other direction.

This racecar had a track mounted weapon that was housed in a small box in the rear of the vehicle above the back window. Its track trailed from its home on top of the rear window, down along the side of the vehicle below the window, circled the entire front end, then followed the exact route back along the opposite side and back to its parked position.

When the car was close enough to the MIT car to deploy its weapon the weapons specialist checked once more on Richard’s attentiveness and then nodded with confidence to the driver, and pressed a button on a hand-held controller. A little trolley wheeled itself out of its home and made its way to the front of their car.

Next to the two racecars, which were now end to end, sat a pale blue Nissan Quest minivan with four children inside, all under the age of six. Occasionally the children fought as the movie they were watching failed to keep their attention. The woman at the wheel looked ragged. This traffic jam had messed not only with her schedule but with her mind. She felt lucky that she had loaded their favorite movie in the player when they had left that morning, otherwise she might have completely lost her mind.

One of the children noticed the trolley and pointed it out to the others. The movie suddenly seemed blasé compared to what looked to them to be a train attached to a car. Many eager faces stretched to gain a better view. The operator looked at them and smiled.

The child closest to the door opened his window. When the racecar driver could see that they were going shout out the window, the trolley had already arrived under the operator’s window. The operator looked down to his rolling device then back up to the children. He placed a finger over his lips and pointed the MIT car to indicate that it was a surprise. The children nodded their heads. The driver and passenger of the racecar both smiled at their audience.

All of the cars rolled forward, taking up space, tightening up the line. The racecar very slowly inched its way closer to the MIT car. The trolley was almost at its furthest point so that the laser could be switched on. The operator turned to the children again and reinforced his desire for quiet by placing his forefinger back to his lips. They all nodded, watching with excited faces. Of course, none of them knew what was going to happen so it appeared to be innocent and fun.

The operator positioned the trolley between the push rack supports that were attached to the back of the MIT car and adjusted the angle of attack. He looked back to the children and put up his thumb indicating it was time. All the children nodded. He depressed the red button on his controller and the laser came to life.

Richard was very relaxed, his arm rested on the doorframe partially outside of the open window. The line of cars had barely inched forward twenty feet in twenty minutes. He was so bored. Katrina hadn’t moved in a while and he was sure she had fallen asleep. He looked at the clouds, grateful that there wasn’t full sun or he might have gotten a sunburn hanging out of the window for so long. But it still felt hot out, his racing uniform felt sticky against his skin. Suddenly an alarm sounded in the car. He could hear children laughing loudly and pointing at the back of his car. Richard was very confused at the combination of sounds.

Katrina jumped so violently that she hit her right arm against the metal brace of her window. Between moaning in pain and trying to think over the alarms she shouted, “Move, you must move.”

Richard looked in his rear view mirror to figure out how much room he had to navigate. That’s when saw the other racecar up so close that he could only see a small portion of its hood. “Shit!” Richard spat out. He knew that he had missed the car sneaking up on him.

“Shit!” Richard called again. He grabbed the shifter and dropped it into reverse. “They’re on our ass.” He said as he popped the clutch. The MIT car lurched in reverse and they hit the offending racecar with their push rack. The racecar behind them barely moved, as if it were anchored to the ground somehow.

The children’s continued laughter taunted Richard. He turned back again to see what was going on. The driver and passenger of the other car were smiling him. He could see deep black smoke beginning to rise from the back of his car and he could smell the burning shell.

The two guys in the racecar with the trolley-styled weapon laughed. They were confident that another car would soon be disqualified.

The children in the minivan were laughing with them. Their mother looked horrified at what these men were doing to the car ahead of them and tried to shush her children. What kind of people had a laser on their hood to attack innocent other cars? From her position she could see that the car with the laser also had a stabilizing system similar to that of a backhoe. When the car with the arm on the hood had rammed their car back the laser had fit right into the space between the push rack, and the stabilizing feet had taken most of the force of the ramming. Essentially the MIT car was in no better position than when they started, the movement had only changed the contact point of the laser slightly.

“Move a little more. Try to keep the laser from hitting the same spot. I need a little more time.” Katrina said.

Richard moved as far forward as he could go. He could hear hydraulics operating behind him. In his side view mirror he noticed the feet rising off the ground from the racecar behind them. The attacker was trying to inch up and trap them more completely. Richard had an idea. He angled their car as though he was planning to change lanes.

Occupants of other cars had also started to watch what was happening. When the line Richard had pointed himself at started to move a red F150 allow him to enter so that he could try to get away just as the racecar with the trolley mounted laser bore down on him.

It was ridiculous to think that they could actually get away, they were not even registering five miles per hour, and then the line of cars stopped again. The MIT car was barely ahead of the other car but in the next lane. The driver continued to laugh as the trolley moved to a new position where it could aim at their rear quarter panel. It took a few seconds for the alignment plus the burn time. Richard knew that they had only gained maybe thirty more seconds of life.

Richard had moved up as far as possible in his seat to see if they were far enough away from the laser. He couldn’t move any further in his lane without hitting the driver in front of him. Trying to push another vehicle in a street that looked more like a parking lot wasn’t wise. Richard moved his head up until it reached the ceiling. He looked out the window on Katrina’s side towards the aggressor car. It was difficult to see but he was confident that he had managed to get far enough away.

A klaxon still blared inside the MIT car. It seemed that the laser of the enemy car was still focused on their skin. Katrina finally got their weapon powered up. When she had fallen asleep the weapon had automatically shut down and she had needed to restart cold. She struggled, the computer wasn’t moving fast enough, and she swore loudly. She was waiting for the bluetooth connection to be made so she that could control the weapon.

When the trolley had lined itself up to reach the only part of the car close enough to them it became clear that they were in fact too far away to do much damage. For the weapon to be effective they had to be within six inches of the intended victim. However the weapon’s operator looked Richard in the eye confidently and mouthed to him, “You’re not far enough away to be safe. Say goodbye to winning.”

Richard could read every syllable his lips had formed. “Are we close with the weapon?” He asked of Katrina.

The trolley stopped at the closest point to the MIT car. It was still easily twelve inches away, and its angle of attack was very oblique due to the rest of the cars in line. But it didn’t matter, having the laser on a trolley allowed such interactions. The weapons specialist didn’t fret over the fact that they couldn’t get any closer, he just pushed another button on his controller. The laser head began to extend. A tube pushed the laser head out towards the MIT car like the lense of a camera.

“Katrina?” Richard said using her name as a question rising in tone from beginning to end.

“On line!” Katrina shouted as she turned her head to face the threat.

The robotic arm came to life and turned in the exact position, mimicking Katrina’s head. She extended it out towards the other car. The aggressor’s weapon lit before it reached the optimal distance to their fuselage knowing that if they started their three second laser barrage of energy then they would have enough time.

But a lot can happen in three seconds. Children, who had been rooting for the aggressors only moments earlier, were now impressed by the moving arm on the roof of the MIT car. It silenced their laughter as they watched in awe. A camera man ran up through the traffic on foot since the truck he had been assigned to had been stuck too far back to get good video.

A memory floated to the top of Katrina’s brain as she struggled to maneuver the weapon into place to come out on top.

She and Silvia had still been working on the final designs of the weapon that had not yet been built. Design sketches had been littered around the large table where they had been having an animated conversation between them about what components would be necessary. They had both been tired.

“Numbers don’t lie.” Silvia had said. “We can’t add anything else to the head or it will be too heavy to launch.”

Katrina had pleaded “But we can make it really light and it won’t take much space.”

“Give me an example of when this will be necessary.”

“Alright.” Katrina had started. “Imagine someone already has their weapon bearing down on you and their laser is lit. What choices do you have?

Only one, launch the weapon on their car. But what’s the point? You can’t take away the time that their laser has already been on. It’s a race you can’t win. Even if you launch the laser head at their weapon hoping to knock it off it would be a fifty-fifty shot, not to mention that it would probably break our laser and then it wouldn’t be available to use again. Plus the Capacitor could rupture. If our arm could reach their laser and spin it hard enough to knock it free the hit would probably disable our weapon permanently.”

 “Alright already, I see your point.” Silvia said as she picked up her cup of coffee. “You can have your little device. You just better hope it’s not too heavy.”

Katrina’s mind snapped back as the robotic arm was almost in the right position. Effortlessly she maneuvered the buttons on the controller. When she was about eight inches away she depressed the button that would deploy the item that she had fought to keep in the final design. A small mirror flipped out of the laser head’s housing.

Katrina thrust the arm’s head forward until the mirror was under the laser beam. She breathed a sigh of relief before she articulated the head up, changing the beam’s direction. Now they were safe from any additional burning at least. They would have to stop when they were off the highway so that she could see the damage and make some repairs. At least they still had power.

            The aggressors were too busy to notice that three seconds had already passed or to see that a mirror had been inserted under their laser’s beam. When an alarm had started to wail on their dashboard they were stunned, trying to find out what was going on. The weapon’s operator started to push buttons when smoke started to rise again.

It was the MIT team’s turn to smile. They had averted a devastating setback. The little mirror being inserted in the path of the beam had changed everything. When the MIT car had almost been out for the count they had fought on, making all of the difference in the world.

Richard and Katrina watched the reflected laser burn into the trolley housing until it caught on fire. Smiles turned to giddy laughter. Soon the fire spread. The laser finally died but the fire grew. The extreme expressions on the faces of the driver and the weapons specialist corresponded directly to the size of the fire. Both scrambled to get out of their windows to try to put out the fire before their own car was disabled.

The lines of cars started to move. Richard turned to the front to get going. It looked like they wouldn’t be bothered by that car again.

“Can you believe they were so cocky about their weapon design?” Katrina said.

“I would just be happy to have it work properly, not be cocky about it.” Richard returned.

A shocked look spread over Katrina’s face. “Do you hear yourself? You’re cocky about your... yourself just like they were. You’re no different.”

Richard’s happy face turned sour at her judgment.

They could hear horns from a distance behind them. Richard turned his gaze towards his mirror and Katrina poked her head out of her window to get a better look. What had begun as a small fire in the trolley had spread to the whole car. Clearly setting a car’s weapon on fire could lead to the entire car’s destruction.

Katrina turned back to Richard. “Let’s talk about your cocky attitude.”

“Shut up,” was all he said. ��7�

Next Chapter: Chapter 14