Chapter 22

Las Vegas was a spot on the map in the middle of the desert. That spot was so brilliant, even in the middle of the day, that it was impossible not to not look at it. There were lights everywhere, and fantastic architecture seemed to rise out of the sand itself. Katrina was reminded of the Egyptian Pharaohs who had built amazing structures in the sand.

Katrina ate popcorn out of a vending machine sized bag. Occasionally she tilted the bag towards Richard and he took some. She smiled at the thought of how much things had changed between them in such a short time.

Richard too gazed at the wonder of Las Vegas. He had been here before but it was constantly changing, becoming greater than its former self time and time again.

According to Katrina, this was the time when most of the racecars would be recharging. On a normal day they would have charged the cars overnight while the teams were sleeping. This night no one would be sleeping, so the recharging would probably happen during late afternoon so that everyone could start the last leg to the finish line.

Richard daydreamed about stopping at one of his favorite hotels to have a real dinner. All of the other teams would be stopping somewhere. In fact they had probably already eaten and the cars could already be charged at this point.

Richard changed his mind. He didn’t wish for a nice dinner, rather, he longed for a shower. Sand had buried itself in his every crevasse while he had been trying to take out the shooter. He itched in places he couldn’t scratch while in his racing outfit. Peeling it off was not an option while Katrina was in the car. He took another handful of popcorn out of the bag before shifting down as he approached a red light.

As they waited for the traffic light to change in their favor Katrina noticed another racecar several lanes over. It looked like the one from Caltech. She pointed it out to Richard before she turned in all directions to see if any of the others were nearby as well. She couldn’t see any. The light casually changed to green and noise burst out from a bullhorn nearby, as though the color green had triggered some kind of alarm. None of the cars moved, everyone was stunned by the noise. The message of the bullhorn was similar to an emergency alert system, but instead of being heard through their radios it was coming from an emergency vehicle.

“All vehicles need to remain stopped. SWAT is coming in to…”

The rest of the words were drowned out as the sound of a helicopter grew louder. The wheels of the cars all around them began to spin. Smoke filled the air. Apparently there was more than one car here that did not intend to follow the instructions. Everyone shot forward.

Katrina placed her hand on Richard’s arm and said, “Wait a second.” She turned to look behind them. SWAT vehicles were fighting their way through the traffic. “Go right!”

Without thinking Richard turned right, burning rubber like everyone else. Katrina hung on for dear life and grabbed the map that had fallen between the seats. “We need to get off the main roads.”

That was all Richard needed to hear. He turned into a warehouse entry way and flew into the large empty parking area. It was full of employees’ cars, hundreds of them. He pulled into a parking spot as though he worked there and they waited. The seconds that passed were tense. Both of them searched the entrances of the lot to plan their escape in case they were followed.

They waited, but no one followed them into the lot. “Do you think the SWAT team was looking for us?” Richard asked. “I mean, there were a lot of other cars that left that corner at the same time, maybe they’re chasing some drug dealer.”

Katrina took that moment to extend the weapon’s arm so that it hung over her window. She took the laser head and began to reattach it.

“All I know is that we stand out. If the police are searching for racecars, the shape of the car and this thing on the roof clearly don’t belong, if you know what I mean.”

Richard agreed with a nod. “But if the police are searching for someone else we can just get going right?”

“I don’t know,” Katrina said. “Give it five more minutes and…”

Richard instantly became more paranoid. “What, can you see something?”

“No, but I have an idea.” Katrina went back to studying the map. “Any idea where there might be a Wal-Mart in this town?” she asked.

Richard looked over her shoulder at the map. “You want to go to Wal-Mart?” he asked, incredulous.

“Yes,” was all that Katrina said.

Thirty minutes later the MIT racecar was driving out of a Walmart parking lot with a luggage carrier strapped to their roof with ratchet straps that crossed through the cabin from the open windows.

“That thing looks ridiculous. How are you going to be able to use the weapon with this on?” Richard asked.

“If we need to use it I’ll raise the arm to break the top of the shell off then I’ll cut the straps and the rest will fly off the roof. It’s perfect. Now we look like any other tourist and the arm is still fully functional.” Katrina said proudly.

“Yeah, I guess that could work, but we’re down more time now.” Richard came back.

“Stop whining and start driving.”

Richard sped out from the corner light of the Wal-Mart parking lot. He left behind a little rubber and some of his dignity. No racecar should have a luggage rack strapped to the roof. Who wanted to look like a tourist?

Richard got them through the streets of Las Vegas as quickly as he could. While waiting at a stop light they saw SWAT officers on the parallel block that had pulled over two cars. One was a familiar looking blue Honda and the other, a small truck. Guns had been drawn and the occupants of the vehicles were being pulled out and cuffed.

Richard checked his mirror and nudged Katrina to get her attention. One of the other racecars had pulled to a stop two cars behind them.

Katrina turned to see if she could figure out which team it was. She knew there had been six cars left in the race as of morning. Other than the one that resembled the dune buggy and the split car driven by the motorcycle gang members, the others looked similar. Only the weapons separated their appearance. Katrina craned her head out of the window to get a better look. She was hoping to see the guy from the Caltech team that had liked her weapon’s robotic arm. If it was his car she wanted to catch his eye.

With the SWAT team in such close proximity, the time spent waiting for the light to change grated on Richard’s nerves. In the corner of his eye he could see his weapons specialist practically crawling out the window to look at the other racecar. Then he saw the split racecar, in its open position, roll up behind the other racecar. The guys in the first car had their eyes on the light while trying to observe the Swat team covertly.

The passenger of the split car, who normally sat on the right side of the vehicle had climbed out and crouched low as he placed a laser head on the rear of their opponent’s car very carefully and then slid back into his seat. The split car moved into the lane next to the other racecar and waved to get that team’s attention.

They already had Richard’s full attention. He had craned his head to try to see over Katrina, who had blocked almost the entire window with her body.

The SWAT officers hadn’t noticed any of the racecars, their attention was fully absorbed by the dangerous men who had been cuffed and were now leaning over the hood of the blue Honda.

Richard could hear the other teams talking but it was hard to make any of the words out. He caught a few words here and there.

“Glad the cops are busy chasing that gang.” and “Man this light is taking forever.” were the only parts that he heard well enough to understand. Meanwhile smoke had started to appear from the laser weapon sitting on the back end of the racecar. When the warning noise came from the distressed racecar, the conversation changed to shouting. A couple of the SWAT officers turned their heads to see what was going on.

The split racecar went into reverse and rolled back, waiting for their weapon to finish its work. The passenger of the car that was being attacked slid out of his window to go and pull off the weapon’s head, but it was too late, the car shut down.

The SWAT officers didn’t know what to think of the smoke and in the confusion a couple of the guys in cuffs had decided to run.

The split racecar went around the stopped cars and went through the red light in the lane designated for oncoming traffic. The SWAT officers split up. Some got into their vehicles and some ran after their prisoners. Richard slammed the stick shift, prepared run, but Katrina held him back.

“Wait! We’re tourists, remember. As long as we can blend in we’ll be fine.”

Richard revved the engine, trying to resist the urge to burn rubber and get out of there. He felt trouble on their heels. But Katrina was right, the roof rack was supposed to help hide them in plain sight and he needed to let it play out.

When the light finally changed he drove off slowly, with traffic. He was edgy and on the verge of panic as more police officers came toward the intersection. He hoped that they were looking for the fugitives and not them.

In the rearview mirror both Katrina and Richard saw the white box truck pull up in front of the disabled racecar. The cameraman was trying to distract an officer who had stayed at the scene while they connected their cable to the downed racecar to make it disappear. That was all they saw as they kept driving, putting as much distance between them and the disabled car as possible without attracting attention.

It occurred to Katrina that they might have been caught on camera. “I hope no one noticed us at the light,” Katrina said, “We may have been in camera view.”

Richard didn’t say a word. He just frowned and nodded in agreement, glad to be headed away from the scene.

~~~

For Frodes and Jenkins it was almost time to depart the bus they had traveled on for so long. They were now on route 190 entering Death Valley. Jenkins got up and walked forward in the narrow aisle to speak to the driver. The place where they needed to get off was located about forty minutes into this leg of the trip. They needed the bus to drop them off at a specific place along the road. Jenkins made his request of the driver, a stout man with a penchant for gum chewing, but instead the driver droned on about how they were not supposed to make unscheduled stops. He had a strong southern drawl and used a silly analogy about airplanes not stopping on the whims of their passengers.

Jenkins rolled his eyes. Obviously airplanes couldn’t stop like a bus could but he didn’t see the point of explaining the flaw in logic to the gum chewing moron. Instead he decided to try a different approach. Jenkins withdrew some cash from his pocket and peeled off two one hundred dollar bills.

The gum chewing driver’s eyes widened and he said, “Well, I can stop but I’m going to have to throw you off the bus as trouble makers and make a scene about it. Don’t want it getting back to my superiors that I take requests.”

            To Jenkins that was close enough and he smiled as he walked back to his seat.

Frodes had his laptop open and was watching the race. Jenkins walked up and said, “The Driver will honor our request.”

“Oh, good,” Frodes replied without taking his eyes from the screen.

“You may not think so when it happens.” Jenkins said with raised eyebrows. “Make sure all your stuff is packed and ready for when the screaming starts.”

Frodes looked flummoxed. “What?” he asked.

“I’ll tell you about it when we’re off the bus.”

Frodes shook his head. He tried to shake free of the confusing thoughts so that he could share some information of his own.

 “I think I just saw our car. There were two racecars stopped at the same traffic light but there was some other kind of thing going on with a SWAT team on the next block and the split car team distracted the other team long enough to disable their car. Man they got balls, to do that so close to the police… anyway, when the camera turned back to the intersection I’m pretty sure I saw our Katrina and Richard in the same line of traffic.”

“That’s great!” Jenkins said as he sat in his seat. “How did the car look?”

“Well, I think they’re trying to disguise the car.”

“What does that mean?” Jenkins eyes slanted when he asked this troubling question.

“They hid the laser arm so no one could see it.” Frodes said.

“That’s a great idea.”

“It’s covered up with some kind of luggage carrier.” Frodes elaborated.

Jenkins was all smiles when the shouting began from the front of the bus. The smiles faded as the bus slowed and pulled hard to the side of the road.

“Quick grab your stuff.” Jenkins said.

Not five minutes later Jenkins and Frodes were standing on the side of the road while their luggage was being tossed to them from the storage compartment.

When the driver was done shouting, he turned to them, smirked, and in a low tone said “Good luck. It’s hot out here.”

He then climbed back into the bus and closed the doors. As the bus rode off huge plumes of smoke and dusk washed over the apparently stranded men. They waved their hands against the offending dust trying to clear the air to a breathable level.

Frodes couldn’t help asking, “What the hell was that all about?”

Jenkins coughed before he responded. “The idiot driver said that he couldn’t just let us off anywhere we wanted. If we wanted to get off he would have to make a scene and throw us off. I had to pay him two hundred bucks to get him to agree to that.”

Frodes looked around before he asked, “Where are we?”

Jenkins took in the scene and checked the GPS on his phone. “Damn! He dropped us in the wrong place. Two hundred bucks and he let us off way too early. Now we have to walk even further.”

~~~

A chopper landed at McCarran International Airport in a designated police area. The gunner unsnapped his safety harness and turned in towards the passengers. To his surprise they were awake and collecting their gear. Cosgrove shouted over the dying engine of the helicopter. “How far to headquarters?”

“Not long. We have a car for you.”

All eyes followed his extended hand as it pointed toward the waiting vehicle. As the four FBI agents crossed the tarmac sweat poured down their faces and they each wished that they had a clean set of clothes to change into. Once they were inside the air-conditioned vehicle Cosgrove’s cell phone came out. It was time to get to work, but he didn’t make his first call yet. He wanted some information from the officer that had picked them up first.

The officer quickly brought them up to speed. “As you crossed the desert, we received several reports of racecars in the city. One of the cars was disabled right next to a gang arrest that was happening. It was right under the noses of one of our teams. There has also been an extraordinarily large number of gang related cases in the last twenty-four hours involving cars and guns. What is the connection?”

Cosgrove told the story, short, sweet, and to the point. “A bunch of people organized a race. It’s supposed to be a test for new technology. But someone was hired to stop at least some of the cars from finishing the race. And there is a lot of money on the line.

“The closer they get to the end of the race, the more dangerous the methods have been for stopping the cars from reaching their goal. They may be recruiting local gangs. Where is the car that was disabled? I want to see it as soon as possible and I need to talk to the passengers.”

The SWAT officer back peddled. “Ah, about that,” he began, looking embarrassed, “We lost it. We have the passengers but the car is gone. Local police arrested the passengers but the car was stolen. We have a clip of what you can see from their dash cam, but the nose of the police car turned away from the car before the officers stopped to park.”

Colliste shook his head at yet another setback. “How can a car just disappear?”

Cosgrove turned away and dialed a number on his phone, disgusted by the whole affair.

Brockton stared down the SWAT officer. “Take us to the men who were arrested so we can interrogate them.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 23