Patrick Meservier
Chapter 24
Chapter 24
In the middle of Death Valley, newly constructed stadium seating glinted in the sun where it rose out of the sand. It had been created to hold the people who would be arriving to watch the final minutes of the invisible car race. There were boxes above the top row of seats where the ultra-rich could hang out in air-conditioned comfort. These ‘Top Boxes’ had the best view of the finish loop and commanded the most ridiculously prices.
Some were by invitation only. One thing was certain, if you could afford a ticket to one of these boxes, or were invited to attend a party in one of them, you had the best seats at the finish line, or the finish loop, as it was called in this race.
The dais rose from the sand exactly three feet above the ground. Inside the hoop there were electronics that would recognize which vehicle finished first. There was no way that two cars going through at the same time could be considered a tie. Every car had exactly the same fuselage and an embedded sensor placed at exactly the same place on each car that would communicate with the computer inside the loop. And a computer couldn’t play favorites. Whichever sensor crossed first, even by a millimeter, would be deemed the winner. After the winner was determined, every other car would be shut down no matter where it was in the country. If they didn’t make it to the hoop they would be scooped up by their chase trucks and brought back.
The Finish Loop stood in the center of a four hundred foot diameter, circular, fenced in area. The stands only occupied one side of the area and it looked like half of a modern football stadium. The stands hugged the fence and traversed one fifth of the perimeter. The rest of the view was open to the desert through the fence.
Grant Phyindress stepped into the most lavish box and walked over to the light switches to turn on the overhead lights. A bar became came into view in the far corner of the room as well as a seating area in front of huge window. The view from the window encompassed the entire fenced area surrounding the finish loop.
A whole entourage of people walked in after him. Some were the catering staff, the bartender, and folks that were to ensure that this party would be one to remember for the ages. The computer staff followed as well. They were the ones who were keeping the internet feed running that covered the race. Others included the starting line girls, his personal staff, and the investors of the remaining racecars.
Ian Practor walked in last with a scowl on his face. He didn’t look like someone who wanted to be at a party.
Phyindress shouted across the room to Practor. “Ian, I forgot to turn on the finish loop lights, they’re on the wall next to you.”
Ian turned around and turned on the ten light switches. The darkening desert brightened as though the sun were rising instead of setting before them. A moment later four monster televisions came on. Each screen was showing one of the remaining contestants of the race. Cheers filled the room and a line soon formed at the bar. As those in line waited for their turn to order a drink, their eyes followed the travels of the racecars through the city of Las Vegas.
Fingers pointed toward the screen when a particular landmark appeared, followed by conversation about a memory for that individual who had either won or lost a lot of money at the gambling institution that had passed into view. The room was filled with conversation and laughter.
When the MIT car drove into the residential neighborhood and the street began to fill with people and police officers all attention fell upon that screen and they watched in silence. Some watched in horror at the events unfolding before them, others cheered. When the laser came alive on the roof of the MIT car, and the houses began to burn more exuberant cheers filled the room.
No one really cared about the people who were injured or killed. They only cared about the car. When the young man rolled out in the center of the street with his RPG the room roared again. The technicians had to turn up the volume to keep it above the level of noise in the room. Silence fell immediately when the rocket launched itself towards its target. Everyone thought that the car would be hit.
When the car spun suddenly spun and the rocket slid through the open windows to hit the SWAT vehicle, the whole room exploded with excitement. Less than a second later one of the wheels of the truck came toward the camera and the feed went black.
The bartender laid out a line of glasses on the counter and made a continuous pour filling each glass for a toast. Hands reached in and grabbed them eagerly. No one care about the death and destruction that had just occurred. The only thing on their minds was how much money they were going to bet on the MIT car to be the winner.
Ian Practor folded his arms over his chest. He was probably the only person in the room who was not celebrating. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen. He had paid good money to find an RPG and get it in the hands of someone who could finish the job and instead he had witnessed another person fail to eliminate the MIT racecar. He checked his pocket, looking for his phone. When his head rose he found his boss standing next to him and it surprised him.
“Sir?”
“Did you see that?” Phyindress said. “All of that destruction of private property is going to cost us big. We need the lawyers on board now to plan a defense. We need to get a team together that can nip this in the bud. If we’re lucky, we might be able to keep the money we’re making on the internet broadcast of the race. We’ve made a million dollars just since noon time.” Phyindress said as he patted Ian on the back. “You deserve a raise.”
Phyindress’ smile was huge. Ian barely showed his teeth in the thin smile he returned. He looked more like he was going to be sick.
When Phyindress left to get closer to the bar Ian stepped back outside into the hall that connected the top boxes and made a phone call, but it was not to any of the lawyers.
It took a few seconds before anyone picked up. As soon as a greeting spilled out from the other side Ian began to speak in a low whisper that still managed to convey his anger.
“Do you know what I just watched? I watched your man miss the MIT car and blow up a SWAT vehicle. HOW CAN YOU HIRE SUCH INCOMPETENT PEOPLE OVER AND OVER AGAIN?!”
There was silence in response and Ian began again. “Call the drivers and tell them to take matters in their own hands. That car is only about an hour and half away from the finish loop. Everything we are working for will go down the drain if they win, and that doesn’t even count the backlash from the police or the FBI.
If one of those feds was killed… Keep the choppers coming and tell the gangs where the car is. That should keep the pressure up. A million bucks should be enough for a competent person to finish the job.”
The line went dead.
~~~
Harvard Bertrand smiled like everyone else in the room. He even drank at the toast. His gut, on the other hand, squirmed. He had just watched his son survive yet another attack on his life. He would be lucky if his son survived the next two hours. If he had a gun right now he would do the cowardly thing and blow his own brains out. He didn’t know if his heart could survive watching his son die.
He knew that all of this was his own fault. If his son survived things between them would change. He knew that he had been an ass towards the boy his entire life. What an idiot he had been. So what if Richard didn’t want to run the company… So what if acted like a playboy... The smile on his face felt so fake that he hoped that no one else could tell. He just wanted to save his son. He kicked back his drink and tried to smile more convincingly.
~~~
Richard’s face lay in Katrina’s lap. Katrina sobbed; she didn’t know what to do. They didn’t have any supplies that would help deal with this kind of injury. “I’m so sorry, I don’t know what to do to help you. I’m going to drive you to a hospital.”
Richard shook his head. “No, it was my decision to let the rocket fly through the windows. We just need to finish the race. It can wait.”
Katrina crawled over Richard to try to set herself up behind the wheel and move Richard to the passenger seat. “We’re going to the hospital. The race is over for us.”
Richard placed a shaking hand on Katrina’s arm. “We can’t. There are still people trying to kill us. If someone recognizes us at the ER they’ll just kill us there instead. We need to keep driving.”
The white box truck flew into the parking lot and skidded to a stop next to the MIT car. Katrina raised her hand to block the dust and rocks coming at her from the quick stop. When she put her arm down she recognized the truck and saw the crushed camera and knew immediately who these people were.
The driver popped out and ran around the truck to speak to Katrina.
“Are you guys alright?” He asked in his deep baritone voice. His expression changed the second he saw the burn on Richard’s face. Lucky climbed out of the passenger side of the truck with his small camera. He pushed the camera in through the open window trying to get the Katrina’s wet crying face and Richard’s burned one on camera but Jersey pushed him out of the way.
Jersey took his fingers and pressed them to Richard’s throat.
“He’s going into shock. He needs help now.”
Lucky never said a word or offered to help in any way. He maintained the due diligence of recording the scene before him.
Katrina looked shocked. Jersey wasn’t acting like a tow truck driver.
He turned towards the camera man and said, “Go grab my bag out of the truck.”
“No way man,” Lucky said. “I’m doing my job. You should do yours.”
Jersey was angry. He walked up to the cameraman and took the camera out of his hands, threw it to the ground and stomped on it until it was a pile of broken plastic.
“Hey, I can’t believe you did that! That was my last camera.” Lucky shouted. “Now the feed is dark.”
“Good, now you have nothing else to do! Go grab my bag.” Jersey said again menacingly, and Lucky scrambled into the truck to grab the large duffle bag which he dropped on the ground next to Jersey.
“A lot of the chasers are also EMT’s. I can help him enough to get you by. You can’t go to a hospital right now. There are too many people hunting you. The safest place is out in front of them all.”
“He can’t drive like this.” Katrina said.
“After I give him a dose of what I have, he’ll be able to outrun this racecar on foot. It won’t heal the burn but it will get you by until the race is over. Then the million dollar bounty on your heads will go away.”
Katrina’s eyes widened. “What did you say?”
The reason that there are so many people shooting at you is because there’s a bounty on your heads. Someone doesn’t want this car to win the race.” The EMT began to open packages he had pulled out of the duffel bag. He shook open some large gauze pads to their full size. When he placed the gauze on Richard’s chest to open another round of items needed to dress his face, he handed Katrina a small sealed packet.
“Give him these,” he said.
Katrina didn’t have to ask why. She tore open the sealed package and removed four pills. She held her friend’s head up. Richard wasn’t responding and his eyes were rolling back. She shook him a little to get him to stir. He moaned.
“It’s the shock. You need to get him to swallow those right away.” Jersey reminded her.
Katrina grabbed Richard’s shoulders and shook him for all she was worth. Richard flopped around like a rag doll but still didn’t open his eyes. Katrina took a different approach and whispered to him softly.
“I want to have sex with you.”
Jersey’s jaw dropped as Richard’s eyes popped open.
“Here, swallow these first.” Katrina said quickly, before he could close his eyes again. Richard did as he was told before he lay back down and shut his eyes.
Jersey stared at her and Katrina finally noticed that he had stopped working on Richard’s bandages. Katrina squinted and said. “What? Oh… the sex thing. Um… That’s what he responds best to. If anything was going to rouse him, it would be that.”
Jersey chuckled and went back to work.
Lucky opened the doors of the box end of the truck and brought the ramp down so that Jersey could drive the car into the back. They had agreed that the easiest way to get the car out of the city was to keep it hidden in the truck until they were out in the desert and were ready to finish the race.
Not long after the car had been moved inside twenty or so police cars screamed by with their lights on and a helicopter flew overhead. Katrina got back into the race car once it was inside the truck to stay with Richard, cradling his head as he rested. Jersey and Lucky got back into the cab of the truck and they finally began to move further from the center of the city.
~~~
Mac Killington sat in the lock up at the Detroit FBI office. One of the benefits of being in lock up at the FBI was that there were few other inmates. So for the most part he had been alone, and it didn’t bother him in the least.
A man shouted Killington’s name through the hallway. “Mac Killington, your lawyer is here.”
Killington smiled. He hadn’t requested his lawyer this time, but he knew who would be walking down the hall. Sure enough the officer of the day escorted a tall thin man in a suit to the cell. The man carried a briefcase that looked new but his suit looked slept in and his beard looked scruffy and unkempt. The officer stepped out of earshot but not out of visual range. The thin man moved casually to block the officer’s view as if by accident so that their conversation couldn’t be overheard and lip movements couldn’t be read.
“Irish, you clean up pretty well. Who knew?” Killington said. “You probably should have shaved though.”
“I’m sorry boss. The racers are almost at the end and my guys couldn’t get to them fast enough.”
Killington nodded. “That’s okay, it’s one thing to take care of business around the neighborhood but trying to keep up across so many states thins our resources. I still have a trick left up my sleeve. We need to finish this job and I know who to call.”
The scruffy man looked incredulous. “What do you want us to do?” he asked.
Killington cocked his head to peer around his associate to make sure that the officer had maintained his distance before he spoke. “Get in touch with Kipper. He will know how to contact the two man team in California I told you about. Tell them ‘Mac needs it done’ and add Cosgrove, his team, and Josephine McGregor in Nevada to the list. She’s FBI too. They may want to outsource the last one because there is very little time.”
Irish stood taller, feeling more confident. He spoke loudly enough for the officer to hear. “I will check out that lead Mr. Killington. Will there be anything else?”
“No, that will be all for now. Just make sure you talk to the other lawyers to keep them all in the loop.”
Irish nodded his understanding. He turned to the officer and raised a hand, he had to swallow hard to make his next statement without the scorn that he normally showed officers of the law. “Sir, I’m ready to leave.”
~~~
A white Toyota Corolla pulled up next to Frodes and Jenkins. They had been walking for a while. The sun had nearly set and the falling temperatures, though still well above freezing, felt very cold compared to the triple digit temps of an hour ago. Both men’s teeth were chattering as they had slowly walked towards the finish loop dragging their luggage behind them.
Jenkins lifted his head and recognized Dillon and Kristin. “My God, are you guys a sight for sore eyes.”
All Frodes could say was, “I was hoping you’d be by hours ago. This stupid bus driver dropped us too far away and...”
Jenkins raised a hand to stall his rambled complaint. “Can we hop in and warm up?”
Kristin hopped out after popping the trunk latch. She took their bags and put them in the truck as the guys climbed into the back seat of the rental. Dillon turned the car around and headed back towards Nevada. Frodes objected immediately.
Jenkins only asked “What happened?” knowing in his gut that Dillon wouldn’t be going back without a reason.
Kristin pulled out a tablet and turned it on. “You need to watch this.” She handed it over to their mentor.
Frodes asked for water and sipped as they watched in horror as the events unfolded in the Las Vegas neighborhood. The scene changed to a handheld camera looking inside the MIT racecar with Katrina crying while holding Richard’s head on her lap showing the burn on his face. The view from the camera suddenly pulled away showing a black man’s arm and as the camera’s angle changed Jersey’s face came into view, then it went blurry and the feed ended.
Frodes had taken on a gray, hollow look. Jenkins just looked tired. He handed the tablet back to Kristin.
Dillon asked, “Who’s the black guy?”
Frodes answered. “That’s Jersey. He’s the chase truck driver.”
“We’re going back to find them.” Kirstin said quickly. “They’re in big trouble and that burn, I think it might be from the rocket fuel. If Richard is down then Katrina will be driving now. We’re going to run interference. They need all the help they can get.”
Kristin had a pained face and watery eyes instead of her usual cheerful smile. She reached down to her feet and pulled up two shotguns. “Who’s with us?”
All complaints about walking in the desert disappeared. The only thing on Frodes’ mind was to save their friends. The mild mannered engineer persona melted away. He reached for the weapon and said, “Step on it.”
~~~
Outside of the Nevada Federal Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters, on West Lake Mead Boulevard, a black van pulled over in a parking spot across the street. The sliding door opened on the side that faced the building, and a man in a black face mask leaned forward.
On the third floor of the building a whole block of windows in the corner were lighted. Night had fallen but there were still many agents working at gathering intel, trying to locate the remaining racecars.
Through binoculars the man in the mask watched men and women pass in front of the windows. Clearly most had congregated in the conference room and that’s where he decided to target. He felt confident that he had found his quarry. He turned inside the van and replaced the binoculars with a Rocket Propelled Grenade tube. When he returned his view to the windows he placed the weapon’s tube on his shoulder and knelt on one knee. The rocket felt heavy, causing the tube to lean forward slightly. He was accustomed to this weapon and adjusted it easily using the eyepiece to focus on the spot he was going to destroy. He signaled the driver.
After the van slipped out of park and into drive, the man holding the RPG fired. A long line of smoke followed the rocket as it flew toward its mark. The van didn’t wait for the explosion. Confident that the weapon would reach its goal, they sped off.
The rocket did indeed find its mark. The entire conference room exploded into a ball of fire that lit up the Las Vegas night. Glass blew out into the air and fell to the street below.
~~~
Katrina sat behind the wheel of the MIT racecar in the dark. The only light in the small space came from the overhead dome light in the car. She had one hand stretched out to the steering wheel and she leaned on her open window looking bored. Richard, whose face was bandaged along its left side, sat in the passenger seat. He was bobbing up and down from his newfound energy, the result of whatever had been in the four pills Jersey had given him.
The car still sat inside the back of the box truck. Katrina had originally thought that Jersey’s idea of getting them out of the city incognito had been a great one, but now with Richard bouncing off the walls she wondered if they should have just driven.
“When I’m driving and you’re not shooting at any particular moment, what do you do? Do you just sit here?” Richard pushed all kinds of buttons on the dashboard. He had energy to burn. “Do you just sit here while I drive? That sounds so boring. Oh my God… I don’t think I can just sit here, you know what I mean? If you drive, what am I going to do?”
Katrina sighed. And to think she had been crying over his injuries only minutes ago. She sighed again. In less than two hours all of this would be over. At that moment two hours was still way too far away.
~~~
Jersey drove the white box truck as fast as he dared. Lucky leaned against his door, still sour about the fact that he didn’t have his camera.
No one bothered them as they drove. In fact, though there were cops of every kind on the streets no one seemed to take nay notice of them. The officers seemed to be setting up to block the side streets. When he approached a light, an officer stood in the intersection waving the traffic through. It almost felt like they were part of some kind of parade.
Eventually he noticed another white unmarked box truck in traffic ahead of them. When traffic in his lane allowed them to get closer he could tell that it was a chase truck that still had a camera mounted on the hood. Then he saw the racecar that the other box truck was following. He slowed down to stay behind them so that the other box truck’s camera wouldn’t see them. A small change in the elevation of the road gave him a view of the traffic further ahead and he could see two more box trucks and their racecars.
Jersey felt suddenly uneasy. It was almost as if they were being corralled.
~~~
Cosgrove rode in the helicopter from hell. At least it felt that way. He had arranged to have all of the police agencies in Nevada create a corridor out of the city to keep the citizens safe from the racecars and their pursuers. It was all because they were in a state where grains of sand outnumbered the inhabitants. Voting potential seemed to take precedence over common sense. Funny how the world worked, he thought.
Then he had received the phone call about the rocket that had killed a whole room full of FBI agents, including Josephine McGregor. He hadn’t liked McGregor, but she shouldn’t have died because of a stupid race. He wanted to tell the gunner to shoot everything that moved, kill everyone associated with the race, instead he watched helplessly as the cars moved through the city in the traffic below.
~~~
Jersey and Lucky were both nervous now. They could see that this had to be some kind of trap. Lucky was trying to watch behind them to see what the officers did after the racecars passed their intersections. It seemed like as soon as the cars passed by, the officers were moving on as well.
Lucky turned to Jersey. “I think we’re all going to get pinched outside the city limits. They’re herding us out of the city so they can finish us off some place out where no one else will see what’s happening.”
Jersey nodded. “I agree. Grab the walkie and tell Katrina they’re going to have to stay in the box a little longer than we’d planned. If there is some kind of roadblock ahead we might still be able to get them through. I’m going to try to get ahead of the racers and maybe they won’t realize we’re part of the group.”
Lucky nodded and picked up the two-way radio from the seat to convey the message.
Jersey added one more thing. “Just tell them to take a nap or something.” Then he thought about Richard and the drugs he was on. “Never mind, Richard will never be able to sleep with what I gave him.”
Lucky nodded again and spoke into the walkie.
~~~
Katrina nodded as she agreed with the new plan. “Got it, we’ll sit tight.”
She looked over to Richard. He was climbing out of the window. “What? What the hell are you doing?”
“I’ve got to do something. I’m going crazy sitting here. I need to run.”
“Get back in here, they may tell us that we have to leave at any minute.” Katrina pleaded. “Please come back.”
“I need to run!” Richard exclaimed.
Katrina climbed out to drag him back into the car.
~~~
As the last of the city faded from view the line of traffic on South Highland Parkway was still moving at a pretty good pace. The three racecars and their box trucks were mixed in with a wide variety of other vehicles. They approached Interstate 15 where the vehicles began to spread out.
The Interstate was a much faster road. It felt easy to be driving eighty. The Parkway had felt congested and fifty-five had felt so slow but safe. There were no other cars on the interstate other than the line of traffic that had come off of the Parkway. For the three racecars this was the best ride they had found in the entire country. They could easily have driven 100 mph or more but the three racecars did as they had been instructed at the beginning of the race, they stayed just above the speed limit.
Jersey and Lucky were encouraged with the maneuverability that less traffic and more speed gave them. Jersey pulled into the left lane and everyone could hear the engine roar as he floored it. The diesel engine blew black smoke into the air from working so hard.
He passed one, two, then three of the white box trucks with cameras mounted to their hoods. Every time they passed one of the trucks the drivers stared at them. Jersey hoped that it was because of the dented hood, not because they recognized the truck and noticed the absence of its racecar.
He got worse looks from the racecar drivers but ignored them and was soon in the lead. Fortunately other traffic began to catch up as well, not everyone on the highway was content with driving the speed limit. Big rigs bore down on them as well as minivans with soccer moms drivers and small Hondas and Toyotas with fuels conscious commuters all in a hurry to be somewhere else.
Four helicopters flew over the interstate. Two were assigned to the FBI; the other two were on loan from the Air National Guard. These were not recognizance birds, they were armed Apache style choppers. On the horizon they could be seen settling down to the ground.
After watching the war birds land, all of the vehicles at the front of the line began to slow. This allowed even more of the regular traffic to catch up. Jersey pressed on to be as far ahead of the racecars as possible. He knew what was coming. There was a giant police roadblock just before the California state line.
As everyone pressed closer to where the helicopters had landed, the racecars slid farther and farther back in traffic. They were now realizing that they could be trapped here and were trying to figure out how they could get off the highway. Jersey didn’t slow any more that the rest of the traffic. He knew that his best chance was to blend in and hope that they wouldn’t be taking the time to inspect the trucks. He drove up to the roadblock confidently, as if he had nothing to hide.
There were a few cars in line ahead of him but no other trucks. He sat higher than the other vehicles and had a good view of the patrol cars that blocked the road in front of the helicopters. They had also commandeered some tractor trailer trucks to spread over the highway’s sandy buffer zone like wings to prevent anyone from making a break for it. A couple of military Hummers, with machine gunning stations on the top, took positions beyond the extent of the tractor trailers with guns pointed towards the coming traffic on each side of the highway. Towers of lights made the whole area brighter than it would have been in full sunlight.
The blockade funneled cars into a single lane that had to negotiate through a curved passage of lined with military vehicles ensuring no one could drive straight through if they had enough momentum to try to run through it.
The helicopters were on the ground ready to take flight on a moment’s notice, their imposing weapons pointed at the line of traffic. The FBI chopper hovered fifty feet above the road, a gunner at the ready.
~~~
Katrina presented put both of her hands on the hood of the racecar, out of breath, facing Richard. “I told you to get in the car right now!”
Richard just laughed. He faced her from the other end of the vehicle. “I’m only getting in if I can drive.”
How was she going to convince him? She couldn’t catch him, he wasn’t even out of breath.
“You can’t drive like this. Hell, you shouldn’t even be in the car, you should be in a hospital. But please just get in. We have to be ready on a moment’s notice.” Katrina pleaded.
The truck that they rode in slowed and then stopped. Both of them stopped talking to listen. The truck didn’t move and the only sounds were that of the truck dieseling.
Katrina pointed to the passenger seat and whispered harshly. “Get in now or I will have to do something desperate.”
“Oooh, what are you going to do, make me?”
There was banging on the truck’s side. Richard turned to look but there was nothing that he could see in the mostly dark truck box. When he turned back to taunt Katrina some more, he found a pissed off Katrina flying through the air over the hood, with her hands up aiming for his neck.
~~~
Jersey had one arm extended over his wheel, looking bored to be held up in the line. He was doing his best to appear normal and slightly agitated at the delay. Lucky looked nervous and Jersey threw him a quick scowl as an officer walked up to his window. Jersey turned his gaze to acknowledge the officer’s presence.
“What are you carrying?” the officer asked.
“Produce.” Jersey said pulling off his bored attitude well.
“It doesn’t say produce on the box.”
“The regular truck broke down. This is a rental.”
“What kind of produce?” The office asked.
“Watermelons.”
The officer nodded and was about to wave them on but then noticed how nervous Lucky seemed.
“Why are you looking so anxious?”
“Why are you pretending to be an officer of the law?” Lucky shot back in a childishly sing song voice.
The officer set his jaw and started around the front of the truck. Jersey turned towards his passenger and glared. He wanted to pummel him.
Lucky knew he had done something wrong. He sat up straighter. He was about to apologize but the officer had already moved around to his side of the truck.
“Let’s have this conversation outside.” He said, motioning Lucky to get out of the truck. The officer knew that he could find something in the cab worth an arrest if the guy was this edgy. He looked inside the cab but saw nothing but a can of Pepsi and a bottle of SoBe in the cup holders.
“When did you rent this vehicle?” The officer asked.
Jersey gave a deep sigh, trying to calm his nerves without sounding annoyed. Suddenly there was a loud bang from the back and he sucked in his breath.
~~~
Katrina had Richard by the throat. She had finally managed to catch him. Her anger was spilling out. Richard had his tongue sticking out of his mouth. He was trying to laugh more than he was trying to catch his breath. To him this was fun, a good way to use his newly limitless energy.
~~~
The officer looked down the length of box. “What did you say was in the back?”
Jersey answered quickly, “Watermelons. The longer we stay here, the more will pop because it’s so hot back there.”
The officer put his hand on the box to feel if it was as warm as the driver alleged. He left it there for a moment and he did feel heat pouring through.
Jersey was starting to sweat. He was lying through his teeth. The warmth in the back came from the charging car that produced no emissions except for heat. Jersey only knew about the watermelon problem from his early days when he worked in a grocery store. The trucks delivering watermelons always had some that had split open if the boxes weren’t refrigerated.
As the officer paid attention to the warmth of the box he heard another pop.
~~~
Richard was climbing into the driver’s seat but Katrina still had him by the neck.
“Stop it!” she whispered angrily “You are not driving!”
He wriggled his arm trying to get free and his elbow smacked the car’s fuselage.
~~~
“See, I really have to get going.” Jersey said.
“What’s his story?” The officer gestured to Lucky.
“He’s just learning my route. This is my last day and I only get paid for intact watermelons. I’m sure you understand.” Jersey pleaded.
Another pop occurred in the box of the truck. “You sure you only have watermelons back there?”
“If you want me to open the truck I don’t care, but I really need to get going.” Jersey pleaded again.
This time it was the officer who stepped back. He sighed and said, “Go ahead, get out of here.”
Lucky scrambled back into his seat and Jersey released the brake to move through the curved roadblock.
Lucky still had sweat on his forehead. “I can’t believe we got out of that. It was a good idea to get rid of all the crap in the cab especially the wrappers for the bandages. That was really smart.”
Jersey leaned over and smacked his passenger really hard in the arm. Lucky crumpled under the pain.
“I should throw your ass out right here. Your smart mouth almost got us in serious trouble.” Jersey reached over and smacked him in the arm again before he floored the accelerator. He knew that behind him, when the racecars got closer in line, there was going to be trouble. He wanted to get as far away from it as possible. Lucky pressed himself against the passenger side door, holding his sore arm.
The box truck was carrying a fair amount of weight and struggled to get back up to speed. He hoped that the stupid officer spent as much time with every vehicle that was passing through the roadblock as he had spent with them. If that were the case they might make it to California before the bullets started flying.
~~~
Pressure was mounting in the line of cars waiting at the roadblock. Eventually one of the racecar’s drivers decided to take the chance and made a break for the sand. The other two racecars quickly followed. They peeled out of the line and took to the desert to avoid the roadblock. They went straight out to get away from the lights before turning to parallel the road but they were easily caught in the helicopters’ search lights.
Cosgrove shouted into the booming PA system in his chopper. “Stop! We do not want to hurt you. Pull over or we will have to open fire.”
The cars made no effort to stop. They headed farther out into the desert. The Apache Helicopters rose into the air to join those of the FBI and the Hummers took to the sands.
Other cars broke the line and ran off the side of the road. The people inside these vehicles took out weapons and pointed them up. The gang members were still looking to collect the million dollars. Some of the cars charged the police blockade. Shots flew from all directions.
The military helicopters turned away from the racecars and headed back to support the officers on the ground. The FBI choppers’ side gunners opened fire.
~~~
Jersey shouted to Lucky as he stared into his side mirror. “Take out the walkie. Tell them they have to leave right now! We won’t be able to stay ahead of the race while they are in the back. I can’t get enough speed. Our truck is too heavy with the car in the back. They’re going to have to make a break for it!”
Lucky took out the walkie he had tucked in his shirt pocket and brought it to his mouth.
~~~
Richard had managed to get himself fully into the driver’s seat but Katrina still hand both hands around his neck.
“Get out of the driver’s seat!” She yanked on him not caring if she tore his bandages.
When the walkie keyed up they both stopped to listen. Lucky’s voice screamed out of the speaker. “You have to go now!”
Katrina strangled her driver even harder than before. “Get out of that seat!”
Richard didn’t seem to mind being strangled. He calmly put on his seatbelt, released the emergency brake, and revved the engine.
“It’s time to go. Get in,” he said as if there were nothing wrong.
Katrina screamed in frustration. “If you kill us because you didn’t listen to me, I’m going to haunt your ghost for the rest of eternity!”
“You can’t haunt a ghost,” Richard said with a smile. “Now get in and stop sounding like a wife.”
Katrina screamed loud enough to startle Jersey and Lucky. They both looked back towards the box through the metal of the cab wondering what was going on.
Katrina pounded on the hood as she ran to the passenger side. She pulled herself up and slid in through the window. After she got her belt on she punched Richard as hard as she could in the arm.
“Go ahead if it makes you feel better,” Richard said with a smile. “With these drugs, I can’t feel a thing.”
Katrina rammed on her headset and powered it up. Her angry scowl marred her pretty face.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
Agitated beyond belief, she screamed “NO!”
Richard stomped on the accelerator.
~~~
Jersey’s plan to get the MIT team past the roadblock had worked perfectly. No one was looking for a truck delivering watermelons. All the attention had been focused on the three racecars that were trying to skirt the roadblock and the gang members who were still trying to collect on the million dollar bounty.
Flashes of gunfire filled the night. There was no way any of them could see what they were aiming at. The roadblock had become a war zone. The only exceptions were the gunners who were firing from the choppers. Per military regulation, which the FBI and the Air National Guard observed, all machine gun style weapons had a tracer bullet on every fifth round. These tracer rounds, in the night environment, looked like laser fire from futuristic weapons and made the sky look like a scene from Star Wars.
Overshadowed by all of the activity behind them, the MIT car exploded from the back of the white box truck. Richard had rammed the door with sufficient force to shear the pins that had been holding the ramp up. The MIT car was airborne for a second before landing on the still opening ramp. Sparks blasted from the ends of the ramp that were now rubbing on pavement.
As soon all four wheels were on the pavement Richard cut around the truck to pull up next to Jersey’s window.
“Thank you!” Katrina shouted.
Jersey saluted her. “Good Luck!” He returned.
Lucky stuck his head near Jersey’s so that he could be seen out of the driver’s window and shouted “Call me!” before Jersey pushed him back to his side of the cab and then pulled over to attend to the open back door.
Richard sped off.
Everything looked good. The war was behind them for once and the road ahead felt inviting for a change. Richard turned to Katrina and said “See, I can drive normally.”
Katrina gave him ‘The Look’ before turning her attention to her mirror to watch the flashes of light and the long arcing lines of the tracer rounds.
Out of nowhere, the other three racecars pulled back onto the road from the sand. Their sudden approach startled an overly wired Richard. He steered erratically for a second before realizing who they were. He let his heart calm down now that he knew that these were his compatriots.
The Caltech car pulled alongside Katrina and her dower face changed in an instant. The driver smiled at her. She beamed at him.
“I thought you guys were going to be stuck back there.” Katrina yelled out her window.
“Na. Those fools gunning at us had no chance.” He said with a smile. “I’m a great driver.”
Katrina smiled even wider and said, “Well, we had a few problems. We lit up the town a bit on our way out, but we’re good.”
He laughed. Lighting up Las Vegas certainly meant something different in his mind.
Richard, hearing the conversation, leaned in and turned his face to show the bandage. “Yeah, facial burns not included.”
Katrina slapped him and he returned his focus to driving. She leaned back out of her window to flirt with the man whose name she had still not yet learned.
~~~
Ahead of them, the car with the dune buggy look drove next to the split style car which was currently connected and running as a normal car again. The passenger of this odd car leaned out of his window and handed a package to the driver on his right in the dune buggy car.
“We got the okay to take the next step. No one else was able to get close enough to finish the job. Do your thing and we’ll meet you at the end, as winners.”
The dune buggy driver nodded as the split car drove ahead to separate himself from the coming altercation.
The driver handed the package to his weapons specialist who accepted it with a smile. When he unwrapped it, a pistol fell out into his open hand.
With a smile he said, “Finally, a decent weapon.”
~~~
Katrina had her hand out the window to touch the fingers of the Caltech driver. She giggled. Neither of them noticed that she still wore her headset so that the weapon above her was pointed at the driver while they flirted. One misstep and she could have taken his eyes out.
Richard was still full of adrenaline from the drugs he had taken for the pain from the burn. One of the many side effects was that he felt hyper aware of his surroundings. Part of him was focused on Katrina’s flirting, of which he obviously didn’t approve. He was the one who had just saved her life. Another part was focused on why the split car had just disappeared and the dune buggy car had fallen back with their weapons specialist hanging out of his window while his arm was outstretched towards Katrina.
Richard assumed the worst and panicked. The outstretched arm looked like he was holding a gun. He floored the accelerator. The MIT car performed like a rocket and shot ahead of the dune buggy car on its passenger side. Katrina screamed as though she was falling out of her seat on a roller coaster. Richard grabbed Katrina, cupping the back of her head through her hair.
As soon as they had passed the dune buggy he swerved into their lane and slammed on the breaks. As he did this he turned Katrina around and pulled her in close, so close that their noses were touching, and then he kissed her.
The driver of the dune buggy car swore loudly and swerved instinctively to the left to avoid the imminent collision but did not turn far enough out to compensate for the man hanging out of his window.
When Richard turned Katrina around quickly, the weapon on the roof swiveled to follow her head. When he pulled her close she leaned on the fire button. The weapon turned on and lazed a line across the competitor’s car as it passed by. Because the dune buggy passed so close to them the bulb of the laser knocked the pistol out of the outstretched hand of the would be murderer.
The laser ran down the side of the dune buggy and inside the rear wheel well. The tire was cut in an instant and started to lose air rapidly.
The gun had fired when it had been knocked from the dune buggy passenger’s hand and had planted a round in the rear driver’s side tire of the Caltech car. Both cars pulled to opposite sides of the road within a hundred feet of each other.
Richard stopped the car in the middle of the road before pushing Katrina way from their embrace. Katrina slowly opened her eyes to stare into Richard’s.
The kiss surprised her. She took both of her hands and lightly touched both sides of Richard’s face, pulling him closer for another kiss. They looked into each other’s eyes. The moment felt like a lifetime. Somehow she liked kissing her driver. Somehow it felt right. Yet they had talked recently about his sexual orientation and this wasn’t the direction they had discussed.
Somehow everything that had been good in that moment went disastrously wrong. Richard cringed from her touch to his bandaged face and he turned away. This brought Katrina quickly back to the real world. What had just happened?
Katrina turned around to see both cars on the sides of the road. “What did you do?” she asked angrily.
Richard held the bandaged side of his face lightly and pointed to the dune buggy car. The weapons guy just tried to shoot us, or you. I just flattened…”
Energy like the burst from a solar flare erupted from Katrina. She screamed as loud as she could with her arms raised towards the heavens. Richard moved his hands towards his ears to protect them.
Katrina tore off her headset and pulled herself out of the car. She walked over to the laser head that hung limply without anyone to direct it. She nimbly removed it from its casing and carried it over to the dune buggy. On the ground she found the pistol between her and her destination. She picked it up. Now she had two ways to kill these bastards.
Somehow she thought that it had been these idiots who had ordered the bounty against them, the ones who had punctured their tires, the ones that had made their race experience hell, and that they were the ones responsible for burning Richard’s beautiful face, scarring him for life. She was going to destroy them both.
As Katrina approached the passenger, dazed by her own apocalyptic anger, she raised the gun and pointed it at him. “You’re both going to die!”
Their driver laughed.
Katrina fired the first round, somewhat wide, into the body of their car. “I’m going to shoot your legs and then I’m going to let my laser burn a hole through your eye until it goes out the other side.”
They both realized that she was serious and struggled to get out of the car as fast as possible. The driver fell out and they both ran into the desert to put some distance between them and the crazy woman. Katrina placed the laser unit on the car over the area where she imagined a fuel cell might be hidden and turned it on. She casually walked to the other side and shot both of the driver’s side tires. She fired off another round into the dash destroying the main computer screen.
The laser melted its way through the layers and the car shut down, all of its lights fading to dark. Katrina left the laser on and it continued burning into the skin. She wanted the car to burn. The fuel cells should ignite any minute.
The Caltech driver ran up to her. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m going to have both of these bastards killed. They tried to murder all of us. I’m destroying their car so that the gangs coming up behind us will hunt them down.” She turned towards the desert and shouted so the bastards could hear her. “You better hope the police find you first!”
“You think the gangs are coming?” he asked.
“Oh yeah,” Katrina said. “This fire will help them find the car.”
Suddenly the fire started as if on cue. It didn’t take long to erupt from a small flicker to an inferno. Katrina had estimated the location of the fuel cell properly.
Katrina reached in to turn it off the laser and removed it from the car. “That’s enough,” she said. “I’m done. This race is over for me.”
The Caltech driver looked at the growing fire and took Katrina’s arm to walk her away from the car in case the fuel cell blew.
“You can’t stop now. You can’t let that splitting racecar win. They’re the ones who gave these guys the gun.”
Katrina looked at the ground as revelations opened in her mind.
“I have a problem though,” he continued. “If the gangs come we’ll be in the same situation as those idiots in the desert. I have a bullet hole in my tire and we’re already driving on our spare.”
Katrina looked back toward her car to offer some kind of help but didn’t see Richard anywhere. She panicked. With his level of energy, he could be anywhere. She looked left and right but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She took off at a run to investigate. When she arrived at the car she set the laser head and pistol on the roof and saw Richard lying on the seat holding his face.