Chapter 16

“Wait!” Katrina yelled at the top of her lungs. “I need another second!”

“I have to turn in two.” Richard shouted back. “Make the shot count!” Richard counted. “One, turning! How long is the cord?”

The MIT car changed lanes. The passengers of a black Nissan Sentra had just witnessed two racecars fly by them on the highway not realizing how closely they had come to being struck by the lead car.

The sound of the weapon firing its laser head resonated inside the cabin of the racecar. Katrina yelled at the top of her lungs. “Missed! Don’t worry about me, just drive!”

Katrina immediately pushed the button to reel in the laser head so it wouldn’t hit the ground and be destroyed. The cable that followed the laser head became taught and started to run in reverse at a high rate of speed.

Three racecars wove around traffic on the 76 westbound lanes outside of Wiggins, Colorado. The MIT car had too much going for it, plenty of power, a real racecar driver at its helm, and the formidable weapon on its roof. A couple of the other drivers had decided to team up and corner the MIT car in an attempt to get it out of the race for good. Now that there were fewer cars in the race the drivers knew that teaming up would be their best chance.

After starting out as such a quiet day on the road Katrina and Richard hadn’t seen it coming. They had been lulled into a false sense of security. The trap had been set for a stretch of road where there would be just enough traffic to keep their quarry contained. Open highway was out of the question. The power behind Dr. Jenkins’ One Tree Project had proved formidable enough that the other drivers knew that the MIT car could outstrip their cars’ speed and be gone without the unwitting help of others.

What was unfortunate, however, was the fact that the weapon on the MIT car’s roof was taking a beating. Between the buffeting winds hitting the arm due to their current speed, and the bouncing from hard lane changes, the accuracy of the laser head had become impossible to predict. Four attempts had yielded four misses and Katrina was seriously frustrated.

Richard, on the other hand, was in his element. This is what he had signed up for, racing in all its glory. And he was good at it. None of the other cars could corner him. In fact, one had been left behind and was now struggling to catch up. Apparently they were running out of power. The MIT car had power in spades. Unlike other teams, who would run out completely and have to pull over to recharge, their power plant still provided the car with enough energy as they drove.

Even if he ran the battery down, they could still drive at lower speeds to recharge the system. But he knew the battery might be an issue if he couldn’t take care of business soon. Ninety mile per hour speed had that effect on batteries. Katrina had warned him that they only had five minutes left before they had to do something desperate. But Richard knew that if they had five minutes left then the other cars had less.

The MIT car drove on, always keeping the other two drivers confused and trying to keep up. One team had a weapon mounted on a PVC pipe. It stuck out of the passenger’s window pointed at Richard’s side of the vehicle. The other had a primitive trolley system that was poorly built and shook heavily at ninety miles per hour.

With all the weaving through traffic, the car with trolley system kept moving to be on the right side of their vehicle so that they would be in position to use their weapon. Richard kept a keen eye on it.

As if on cue, the third car, the one that looked like a dune buggy, ran out of power. It fell away quickly, smoking slightly. Katrina’s and Richard watched the second victim fall away.

“There is an exit ramp coming up in three miles, we need to be on it.” Katrina shouted.

She didn’t need to shout, their car was well made and the cab was insulated enough to block most road noise. However her excitement couldn’t be as easily tempered by the protection of the fuselage.

Richard nodded, before he shouted back. “Point the weapon forward and down. I have an idea how to get this bastard out of the race.”

Katrina did as she was told as Richard cut off a box truck on the right and then dropped back next to the truck separating the MIT car from the other racecar. The weapon on their roof, in its energized position, wobbled badly in the wind.

“When I tell you to fire the weapon, do it and hang on.” Richard yelled.

“We can’t. We’ll pass the exit. We can’t run on low power on the highway. Leave the other car alone and take the exit.” Katrina said.

Richard ignored her and followed through with his plan anyway. He floored the accelerator and their car launched forward past the box truck like a rocket. The bars on the battery gauge began to drop quickly.

Katrina began a low level scream as she sank in her seat. Richard checked his mirror to judge the amount of clearance from the truck then he pulled the emergency brake. The MIT car spun in its position at their high rate of speed. Katrina’s scream went from low shriek to a wail so shrill that birds would have fallen out of the sky because they needed their wings to cover their ears.

The MIT car spun, Katrina screamed in horror a she hung on for dear life, and a determined Richard Bertrand popped the clutch as he rammed the gear shift in reverse. He let momentum turn him around in his seat and threw his right arm over the back, his accelerator pedal hammered to the floor with sure footed experience.

In a thousandth of a second they were racing backwards down the highway facing the truck. The driver’s eyes grew large and his mouth fell open.

“Fire!” Richard hollered over the screaming of his passenger.

He calculated the amount of time it would take for Katrina to open her eyes and figure out what he was doing before she actually fired the weapon. He wove to the other lane in front of the other racecar and held still long enough for the weapon to discharge.

Katrina was finally out of breath and Richard took the opportunity to shout “Fire!” again. Katrina pushed the red button on her handheld controller. As soon as the head released Richard repeated his e-brake pulling, clutch popping, hard steering maneuver, forcing their car to move in directions the car wasn’t designed for.

Katrina’s arms flailed everywhere filling the cabin. Her body bounced around like a pinball. Her long hair spread out like a fan, as if not sure which direction to turn. The weapon’s control device also flew around the cabin intensifying the perception of weightlessness.

A card carrying stunt driver in his own right, Richard controlled every aspect of their flight from hiding behind the box truck to attacking their unsuspecting assailant and using their weapon in all its glory.

As the MIT car spun around again the shocked driver of the attack team showed astonishment beyond words. The wide eyes and slack jaw were only some of the expressions on his young face, astonishment, defeat, fear, and disbelief at such impressive driving skills.

The MIT’s weapon head struck the nose of their hood. Its trailing cable had curved around their car’s roof as Richard had righted them on the highway beside their target. Black smoke rose from the hood where the laser burned into the fragile skin and the car suddenly lost power. Richard slowed rapidly as he took a few seconds to find the weapon’s controller and pushed the retract button. The laser head popped off and retracted into the waiting arm. He turned the car toward the exit lane. Seamlessly they rolled into the traffic pattern like nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.

Katrina sat up. Her long brown hair was everywhere. Her headset sat askew. Her eyes were wild, she had no idea what had happened and seemed surprised that everything seemed to be back to normal. Richard was leaning back in his seat, enjoying the ride, and smiling as if nothing had happened. They were no longer being chased. She looked around to see where they were. “What happened? Where are we?” She asked in disbelief.

“I took care of all of our problems and got another car out of the race. And we got off at the exit you wanted us to take.” Richard said proudly. He handed over the weapon’s controller.

Katrina took it and looked around again. She picked up her paper map from where it had landed near her feet and studied it to make sure they were where they were supposed to be. “So, just like that, you took care of everything?”

“Yeah.” Richard said pleased with himself.

That’s when Katrina exploded. “That’s how you take care of everything? You almost got us killed. What the hell were you thinking spinning around in the middle of the highway?” She beat on his arm. “There were children in the cars around us…” Katrina shouted.

~~~

Dr. Jenkins sat in front of a laptop computer screen, he had been watching the race on and off during the day through the Denver International Airport’s internet connection. He was in an airport terminal with Frodes, Dillon, Kristin and several other students from the team who were waiting for their luggage to be regurgitated out of the hole above the baggage carousel.

The investor, Richard’s father, had instructed them to follow the team to their next location, but on the sly. No one was supposed to know about this part of their participation in the race. The ability to bring a crew to repair the vehicles was supposed to have ended the previous night. At this point only the driving team members were allowed to maintain the car.

But Jenkins knew that there was more going on than what the rules allowed. He knew that there were forces at work attempting to destroy some of the cars and to allow only one car to finish the race. And he was fairly certain that Bertrand was not supposed to be the winner. Today they were going to fly to their next stop and catch up on some sleep along the way. They would not be staying at any hotels from now on. They had to keep as low a profile as possible, and they couldn’t do that using Harvard Bertrand’s credit card.

He was making use of as many free and untraceable wifi hotspots as possible along the way. He needed the reassurance that his team was okay. When the other racecars could be seen converging on their car, all of the students who had been watching the screen over his shoulder began to shout. They all watched in horror. They knew that the other cars were going to try to use their weapons. People around them at the airport were both interested and wary of the strange group at the luggage collection center.

When Richard began to perform magic not seen anywhere but on a stunt track, the shouts of anger changed to those of exuberance at his skill. The students punched the air and made predictions of what he would do next. Almost every student ticked off odds for which car would run out of power first. Their confidence ran high. When Richard had maneuvered the box truck between him and the other cars they were all watching silently in suspense.

Other people had started to join the group to try to watch the small screen out of curiosity. When one of the cars ran out of power and fell away. Cheers of the students filled the luggage terminal once more. None of the people around them understood what they were cheering for. Then Richard sped up and pulled the emergency brake.

Surprise and shock filled the room. One woman screamed thinking that they were going to witness a horrific crash. The MIT car spun fantastically and changed lanes while in reverse. When the weapon launched itself from the roof’s robotic base more gasps occurred. Dillon put his hands over his eyes. Frodes punched the air. He knew exactly what his driver had done. Jenkins smiled.

When the other car began to slow rapidly, the room exploded in applause. The cheering was so loud that security officers came over to see what the ruckus was all about. Jenkins suddenly realized how much attention that they had attracted and quickly closed the laptop and walked towards the door without waiting for his luggage.

Frodes followed behind with a jump in his step. “That was fantastic! Who knew Richard could do such stunts?”

Jenkins stopped. “Where do you think they were going?”

Frodes stopped, serious thought in his mind. “That’s a good question. They were supposed to stay on the highway to get to the next stop.”

“I’m fairly certain that they need to generate some power, and that can only happen at lower speeds but…” Jenkins thought out loud.

Frodes piped up with an idea. “I can call them and ask where they’re going?”

“Not a good plan if others in the race community are looking for them,” Jenkins said as he stuffed his laptop in his bag. “We don’t know who else might be listening.”

The smile on Frodes’ face fell away completely. The realization that other teams had found a way to gang up on Richard and Katrina was astounding. How had they found them on that stretch of highway?

Frodes was in master engineer mode. He spoke in a hushed tone. “Well, we can’t call up the GPS unit any more. But I can ping their cell phones and triangulate where they are by which cell phone towers…”

Jenkins stopped his student mid-sentence. “Pinging… You want to bet that someone else is tracking them even though we shut off all communication to the car?”

Frodes gazed up, his eyes went out of focus. He looked into the space in his mind where the images came to life.

“I think Katrina and Richard’s cell phones are…” Jenkins began as Frodes placed a hand on his arm.

“Richard threw his phone away after that bad phone call from his father, remember?” Frodes said.

Jenkins nodded.

“They’re tracking Katrina’s phone,” Frodes continued.

Jenkins eyes went wide, his jaw went slack. “I was so stupid!” Jenkins said loudly. “I’m willing to bet that they’re tracking her family’s phones too.”

“Why would they care about Katrina’s family?” asked Frodes. “It’s not like she’s been calling them from the road.”

Jenkins’ eyes had a glazed look as he answered. “We’re talking about the mob. If they want something from Katrina, wouldn’t they use her family to put pressure on her?”

Frodes watched as his professor paced around the terminal, wondering how he could help. Every time Frodes began to speak Jenkins placed a hand into the air to forestall him.

After a few minutes Jenkins began to speak again. “First, we need to make sure that Katrina’s family is safe. Do you know where they live?”

Frodes scratched his head. “Maine, I think.”

“If they have passports, send them to Quebec. If they don’t, find them a motel in some small town in Vermont somewhere. That’ll have to do. Make sure that they leave all of their cell phones behind. Call some of the team back to get it taken care of as soon as possible. Second, we need to rent another car. Third, we need to get some cheap phones. Fourth, we’re going to Walmart to buy a shotgun.

Shock spread over Frodes’ face. They were engineers, not spies. He was not prepared for this kind of violence.

Jenkins continued. “I need to talk to Dillon. Get the bags and let’s get out of here. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we still need to arrange another set of tires for tomorrow.”

��~�’�R

Next Chapter: Chapter 17