Patrick Meservier
Chapter 25
Chapter 25
A war was being waged all around the helicopter that Cosgrove and Colliste occupied. Their side gunner’s tracer rounds illuminated his firing path but they didn’t light up the damage being inflicted on the vehicles below. Perhaps there was no damage at all.
Cosgrove struggled with the idea of Jurisdictional Prudence. He knew that in instances where one agency was under fire they were obliged to help the affected agency as a priority higher than their own case. The problem that he struggled with was that all of the gang activity was directly under the state’s purview and the amount of firepower right on the scene was more than sufficient to get the rogue individuals under control. Plus, the air National Guard was here to lend a hand.
Now, if the gangs crossed over into California that would be a different story. Right now, all that he knew was that the racecars were getting away, again. If he successfully apprehended the drivers of the racecars, then the bounty would no longer be an option and the gang members would all go home; everyone would be happy.
Cosgrove pointed to his traveling partner. “Get the other chopper on the line. We’re going to pursue the racecars and leave this mess to the Nevada Highway Patrol.”
Colliste nodded and picked up a radio.
~~~
Katrina watched Richard through the window of the car. She had no idea how to help him. Should they just let the police catch up or would the gangs get there first? The image in her mind flicked to police officers finding their dead bodies on the road. But how could they keep going? She was frozen in place, lost in her own thoughts.
The Caltech driver leaned in next to her and saw Richard lying across the seats. “Looks like he’s in serious pain.”
His passenger walked up and asked, “What are we going to do?”
They could hear the helicopters and it sounded like they were getting closer. They had to do something now or it was all over. He took the laser head from Katrina and handed it to his weapon specialist, whose name was Jeff. “Finish off our car. We’re with them now.”
Without question Jeff ran over to their car and set the laser to disable their car.
The Caltech driver turned back to Katrina, “My name is Ty, we’re in this together now and we need to get going.”
Katrina nodded absently as the power in the Caltech car went dead and Jeff ran back to them, handing Katrina back her weapon.
“Help Jeff reconnect the laser head so we can leave,” said Ty as he walked around to the driver’s side of the car.
Together Katrina showed her engineering peer how the weapon went together. He looked genuinely impressed. It helped Katrina focus. She began to explain the functions in more detail but Ty spoke to get their attention.
“Help me get Richard in the back so we can all fit in the car.”
They ran over and slid into the windows. It was a tight fit but they tugged at Richard to get him behind the seats until he was curled across the back of their storage area with his head closest to the passenger side of the car.
He whispered to Katrina, “My burn hurts so badly. I can’t focus.”
Katrina reached back and touched the side of his face that was not covered in bandages. Her eyes filled with tears. She had no idea how to help him.
Ty took a minute to familiarize himself with the controls and then released the break.
Jeff twisted his torso to reach around the passenger seat to put his fingers on Richard’s neck to check his pulse. “The pain medication needs a boost to keep him stable. He’s not going to go into shock but the pain will only get worse.”
“We have nothing to give him. What can we do?” Katrina asked.
Jeff had an idea. “Adrenaline could help. We just need to get him amped up.”
“How fast can this car go?” asked Ty.
Katrina turned to him with all the seriousness she could muster. “Somewhere around 200 mph. If he needs the adrenaline, step on it!”
~~~
Back at the finish loop Grant Phyindress had a glass of booze in his hand waiting for the cars to get closer. The starting line girls, all wearing tiny bikinis, danced around him. Most everyone was half in the bag by now except for Ian Practor.
Ian stood in one corner of the room with a very sour expression on his face. His cell phone was in his hand and he kept glancing at it, expecting it to ring at any moment.
All of the lights around the loop were lit and the spectators of the Invisible Race were filling up the stands. A large LED screen sat atop a post over the finish loop. The screen showed the stats of the race in the center and in each of the four corners smaller sections showed the remaining cars. Lots of excitement energized the place.
One of the technicians interrupted Phyindress’ celebration.
“Sir, we have lost all camera feeds for the race. The cameramen are all stuck at a roadblock and the racecars are gone. People are starting to get anxious, what should I do?”
Phyindress turned to his girls and said loudly, “Please excuse me, I have to go find some lost race cars.” He had already had enough alcohol for his words to become slurred but he had spoken loudly enough for the whole room to hear him and they all cheered as he moved toward the cluster of technicians who were set up on one side of the room.
Phyindress became a completely different person as he walked toward the technicians. He was still half in the bag and his words were still slurred but he focused on the problem like a pro.
“The internet community must have information or they will stop watching. We must at least give them updates. Each car’s fuselage has a built in GPS tracker. No one else knows about them except for the manufacturer of the skins. That was my backup in case all of the cameras went down. Have those trackers turned on and do it fast. We need to know where the cars are and get some cameras out there. Do it fast.”
The technician made a quick phone call then turned to his computer and punched in the codes. Instantly the image of the roadblock disappeared and was replaced by a map of Nevada with two large red dots on it. Both dots were on the same road heading towards California, perhaps only fifteen minutes away from Death Valley.
It took a few seconds before labels showed up next to the dots. Phyindress leaned in to read through his blurred vision. He put both hands in the air excited. “Alright! It’s down to our car and the MIT team. Bertrand will be so excited. His man Jenkins pulled it off. A worthy contender!”
Phyindress turned back to the party, bumping into Practor on his way to a small stage.
Ian watched the screen with the two labeled dots from the shadows of the open electronics center, fuming.
Phyindress stepped onto the small stage carefully. He raised his hands in the air.
“Attention everyone. We are finally down to the last two contenders! I’m sorry to say that our camera crews have been held up at a police roadblock and will not be able to film the last leg of this great race. If you’ll direct your attentions to the screen, you can see the two dots that represent the two remaining cars moving toward the California border. One is my entrant, the other, the MIT car.”
Cheers erupted throughout the room. Practor gave in and took a drink from a passing waiter. He didn’t savor it, he kicked it back preparing to finish a job that apparently no one else could.
Phyindress shouted above the cheering. “Last chance to get a small wager in. I have a man going around taking information. Tell him how much you’re putting down and he’ll swipe your credit card.”
Phyindress tried step off the stage gracefully but tripped and had to be helped back down into the crowd. Practor left the room in disgust.
~~~
The darkness of the desert felt omnipresent. Cosgrove and Colliste were nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Being in a helicopter flying low and fast did weird things to their tired minds. Colliste couldn’t take the odd silence anymore. All day they had been so busy that they couldn’t see straight at times. Now they were doing nothing but trying to catch racecars going full bore across the desert.
“Are Weaver and Brockton going to join back up at the end to help round up all the cars left?”
“No, they’re out.” Cosgrove said. “They’re going to be okay, but after that explosion they are stuck in observation at medical.”
Colliste nodded agreeing that they needed the recovery time.
The pilot’s voice broke over the com. “We have a fire ahead. Looks like a car is burning. And there’s a second car off the road.”
Cosgrove said to Colliste, “If there are two less cars in the race, then it should be easier to find the one with the weapon on the roof. Maybe that crazy weapon is what started the fire here too.”
Finn took the microphone and spoke to the pilot. “Put us down nearby so we can see if there are any casualties.”
The chopper put down on the highway near the cars. Cosgrove and his man jumped out, guns drawn, and with a strong flashlight lighting their aim. Both headed over towards the Caltech car. When no one could be seen, they lowered their weapons. Cosgrove headed over to the fire leaving Colliste to investigate the abandoned car.
The rotors blades made for hurricane type winds around the agents and it was difficult to see much of anything with all the sand flying around.
Colliste ran to the burning car to see what his boss had found.
“No bodies here.” Cosgrove shouted out over the wind.
Colliste shook his head. “No bodies in the other car either but they have a bullet hole in the back tire and what looked like a burn on the hood of the car.”
Cosgrove shook his head, irritated at not knowing what the hell it all meant. “Call in that two cars are down and where to find them. Also, they need to get some searchlights up here and see if they can find whoever was in these cars. They could be lost in desert and they may need medical attention.”
~~~
Richard could hear the engine working hard, but it was still humming along like it was supposed to. He kept his eyes closed, lost in the pain. He couldn’t see how fast they were driving but felt as though the G forces were higher than they should be. He could feel them pressing on him and knew that the car had to be going higher than a 100 mph. He was worried about the guy driving the car. He wondered what kind of training the guy had and if Katrina was paying attention to the charging system.
No one spoke and his worry grew. Finally he couldn’t take it anymore and had to look. He opened one eye a sliver and saw the landscape rushing passed the windows. When he turned to see the speedometer holding at 160, both eyes popped open. Without realizing it, his fear pumped adrenaline into his system and the pain drained away.
“Pull over, pull over!” he shouted hoarsely.
Ty did as he was told. It wasn’t his car, after all. As soon at the vehicle stopped, Richard scrambled over everyone to climb out of the car through Katrina’s window. He ran towards the driver’s side and told TY to slide over. Ty obliged without any argument and Jeff climbed into the storage area to get out of the way.
A second later the car took off again and this time it flirted with the 190 mark. Everyone in the car was nervous, except Richard. He appeared to be completely calm now and in his element.
“How close to California are we?”
“Five minutes or so at this speed.” Jeff said quickly.
Richard and Katrina both looked at him surprised.
“This is an area of the country we know very well.” Jeff added.
Ty nodded.
Ahead lights filled the road. It reminded Ty and Jeff of the roadblock but they didn’t seem concerned.
“I think that’s the California state line. You think there’s another roadblock?” Jeff asked.
Ty nodded. “You might want to get off the road here and go around. That’s how we got around the last one.”
Katrina had only one question. “How did that split car get around?” She asked knowing that none of them knew the answer, but also placing in everyone’s mind that if they could do it, so could their car.
Richard’s mouth went into high gear. “Maybe the other car already went around.”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Get off the road.” Katrina instructed.
Richard shut off the lights and went out into the sand. They bounced around on the uneven ground. Without their lights it was impossible to see anything. There was a new moon that night and everything out here was black. Richard used the lights of the roadblock to judge his position and easily circumvented their problem. The officers never even turned their lights to try to find them.
Katrina wondered why they had set up the roadblock at all if no effort was being made to stop those who went around.
~~~
Cosgrove held the communication device to his mouth speaking with the helicopter pilot. “How fast are we going? Can we catch up to them if they’re still moving?”
“Normally we can go just shy of two hundred miles per hour, but I have you two in the back and the gunner. That slows us down to about 175. Can’t change the physics. I can’t move any faster unless you get off.”
Cosgrove looked over to the gunner.
The gunner looked surprised and said quickly. “I’m not getting off.”
The pilot began to speak again. “The roadblock on the border of California should slow them enough to help us catch up. Unless their cars can go 200 mph we’ll catch them.”
Cosgrove killed the microphone. He was angry that nothing was going right. He leaned back against his seat hard. All he could hope for was that he got to them before they finished the race. That had been the goal all along but they were running out of time.
~~~
Darkness engulfed them. They had turned the car’s headlights on when they had returned to the interstate but they were the only car on the road. Their jaunt into the sand hadn’t lasted long. On the distant horizon they could see street lights.
“That should be Death Valley Junction ahead where those lights are,” Katrina said. “We’re going to drop you guys off there. It should be a safe place for you to get in touch with your team.”
Jeff nodded wearily, Ty on the other hand, began to object. “No. You can’t let us out now. We can still help you, we can help you win.”
At over a hundred miles per hour it didn’t take very long to arrive at those lights and Richard slowed to a stop.
Katrina turned to look Ty full in the face. “I would love to have you stay and help us, but I know what we will find at the end of this race. The FBI, Homeland Security, California SWAT will all be there. We are going to be arrested, you’d be arrested too if you’re still with us. We are going to testify against those bastards that tried to kill us.”
Ty looked down into the dark floorboards of the car he still sat in seeking some argument that would change her mind. “What if Richard can’t drive? I can be here to take over.”
Richard glowered at Ty. Katrina could see him and tried not to laugh. Richard leaned toward Ty but she put her hand on his chest and pushed him back into the driver’s seat.
“We have to go.” Katrina stated, hoping this would be enough to get Ty out of the car. “You know it’s best if you guys get out here.”
Ty took a pen from his uniform’s pocket and took Katrina’s hand. He wrote on it and said, “Here’s my number. Call me after the race.”
“You mean when we get out of prison?” Richard asked sarcastically.
Ty and Richard locked eyes. She turned from one man to the other ending on Ty. She moved her hand from Richard’s and pulled at Ty to get him out of the car. “I’ll call you, just go. We’re running out of time.”
Ty slid out and Jeff climbed out of the back over Katrina and out of the car. Richard didn’t wait another second for goodbyes. He burned rubber, leaving their Caltech friends behind.
~~~
Colliste had his head leaning on the window staring out trying to find a racecar. He was so tired. The angle made his neck all tight and he knew he would soon have a large headache.
They had spotted several vehicles that had turned out not to be racecars. Apparently there were other people that lived in the world that owned cars and drove at night. The helicopter had crossed over the state line not all that long ago and the traffic had all been stopped at the roadblock. He hadn’t seen any cars for many minutes now. He could see the faint lights of a small town ahead just as the pilot came on to announce that Death Valley Junction was ahead. As they approached, a distinct set of headlights were visible. Colliste was about to tap his boss on the arm to let him know that he had found something but decided that with all the false alarms he should wait to be sure. Damn he was tired.
In the moonless night in the desert, a set of headlights could probably be seen for a hundred miles. At least it felt that way. It’s difficult to gage distance without other visual cues.
To Colliste these lights seemed very far away despite or perhaps because of the speed and height of the helicopter in which they flew. Tonight’s pitch blackness hampered his visual acuity as well. He thought that the lights he was observing were pointing in the wrong direction and felt that this would be another false alarm. The streetlights up ahead would at least make identifying the type of vehicle possible. It was a real bitch trying to recognize a specific type of car on a dark road.
As they got closer he realized that the car had been stopped but had just sped off. Colliste swore under his breath because now they were going to be watching it in the dark again.
“Did you see that?” Cosgrove asked. “That might be our car.”
Colliste sighed and said, “They just pulled out, I have them now.”
Cosgrove pulled his binoculars to his eyes and focused in on the car. As it shot forward spitting sand and rocks, a street light glinted off the weapon attached to their roof. Cosgrove began to jump and down in his seat with excitement. The whole vehicle rocked under his moving weight. The gunner rocked wildly on his perch. Over the intercom system, the pilot yelled a warning.
Cosgrove shouted back in return. “Follow them!”
~~~
Katrina looked so tired as she lay slumped in her seat. Her headset sat askew on her head. It didn’t matter that Richard had the accelerator floored and the car flirted with 200 mph. She was just tired.
Richard had both hands on the wheel when he spoke. “Do you think we can catch them?”
“Oh yeah.” Katrina returned drowsily. “And it should be soon. Their car can’t go this fast for any length of time, and any prolonged speed would just take away the fuel they will need at the end.”
“Say, look behind us.” Richard asked. “Does that light look like a star or a...?”
Katrina turned around slowly to gaze at it.
~~~
Cosgrove had the car in its sights through his binoculars. Suddenly the weapon turned and pointed at them as Katrina had turned in her seat. He panicked, knowing the power it had, and shouted to the pilot.
“Move away!”
The pilot asked why. Cosgrove didn’t think they had time for an explanation and reached in the cockpit. He grabbed the pilot’s coat and yanked him to the side. The craft tilted radically causing the aircraft to bank so hard that they turned almost ninety degrees off course.
~~~
Katrina saw the light streak sideway across the sky. She turned back and stated calmly, “Maybe a jet or something.”
~~~
The helicopter pilot struggled to get the craft stabilized. The passengers rolled around attempting to better handholds. Colliste had one good strong hand on the gunner whose harness had brought him inside the aircraft when they had tilted. Finally the craft became level again.
The pilot turned the craft back on course, set the autopilot, and unbuckled himself. He tore into the seating area and punched Cosgrove who fell backwards from the impact. The pilot withdrew a pistol from its holster and pointed it to Cosgrove’s head.
“You want to die, fine. Your choice is to have me throw you out of my chopper or I can just shoot you. Decide, because I will not allow you to down this craft with that kind of stupidity. You may outrank me on the ground, but I have the right to shoot anyone who tries to down an aircraft, endangering the lives of all of the other passengers. And, right now I’m inclined to do it. So what is it, do I shoot or throw you out?”
Cosgrove stammered. “But… But they were turning their laser weapon on us, I was keeping us alive.”
“If the aircraft goes down we all die.” The pilot grumbled. “I don’t have all day to hear your excuses!”
Cosgrove raised both his hands in surrender.
The pilot shook him violently but let him go. He turned to the gunner. “Are you alright Jim?” he asked.
Jim nodded.
The pilot pointed to Cosgrove who was still lying backwards across the seat. “Stay inside and keep an eye on this idiot. If he reaches into the cockpit again, shoot him.” He turned on the spot and disappeared back inside the dark cockpit without waiting for a response.
Colliste put his hand over his forehead. This needed to be over soon. They needed rest. Cosgrove was going to over the edge, they were both were.
~~~
Richard leaned into the steering wheel to focus on his driving. He had both hands on the wheel, at the ten and two o’clock positions, expertly controlling the most advanced automobile he ever driven, or that he had ever heard of. Companies around the world were developing vehicles that could drive themselves. This one left the pure driving experience in the hands of the operator, but it never needed fuel. Sure it had to go at lower speeds to recharge the battery, but it never had to be plugged in. He could floor the accelerator for a thousand miles and his only fear, aside from the police, would be running low on power for short periods of time. This car deserved to win.
At that moment the adrenaline from the rush of the high speed driving kept his intense pain from returning. He turned to watch Katrina for a second. She had actually fallen asleep. He knew that she was exhausted. His ability to stay awake had come from the drugs he had taken. She, on the other hand, had to be very tired to sleep at this kind of speed.
Suddenly he heard gunshots. Muzzle flashes of gunfire back and forth ahead of him in the street gave briefly seen images of two cars, then nothing.
Katrina woke up with a start as Richard slowed the vehicle down to a more normal driving speed. It felt odd. Every minute at normal speed now felt like they were crawling.
Headlights came at them from a vehicle that was straddling the center of the road. Richard pulled over as much as he could with two of his wheels in the breakdown lane hoping to have enough room to avoid any problems. He considered going off road next.
“What’s going on?” She asked, after realizing that it had been gunshots that had woken her.
“Don’t know yet. There’s a car coming this way and I heard gunshots. I’m not sure of what to make of it.” Richard rattled off.
Katrina straightened out the headset and prepared herself mentally for battle. The weapon reoriented itself as the headset became settled properly on her head.
The oncoming car was now close enough for them to tell that it wasn’t a racecar. Richard was ready to turn into the desert at any second. The other car skidded to a stop in the middle of the road and four people disgorged themselves and began to cheer.
Richard slowed their car to a stop as the four people ran towards them in the street. He recognized them now. Dillon was the first one that he recognized, then Frodes. Kristin hooted and hollered as she came in front of their headlights followed by Professor Jenkins. He walked at a very quick pace as the others ran ahead. Katrina slipped off her headset and she slid out of her window with tears in her eyes. She was so happy to see them. They all patted her on the back as though they had just won the race.
“How did you know it was us?” Katrina asked.
Kristin pointed to the weapon and said, “That is just unmistakable.”
Richard had been dragged out of his window, with barely enough time to pull the emergency brake. Frodes asked about Richard’s burn and the thrilling tale began to unfold as they were now old friends regaling each other with their battle stories.
Katrina pulled out of a monster bear hug from Dillon as Kristin patted her on the back. Dillon let her go and gravitated towards Richard’s great tale.
Professor Jenkins stood quietly awaiting his turn with Katrina. His quiet demeanor made him stand apart from the students. Katrina turned into him and hugged him as she would a father.
“I never knew this would be so hard.” Katrina said into his button down shirt, her tears choking her up. “I killed people trying to hurt us. I can’t believe I hurt so many people.”
Jenkins patted her back. “You did what you had to do. Protecting yourself is not a crime. It didn’t help that the others were the ones who had initiated the battles in the first place. And that should console you a little. They would be alive today if they stayed home and watched the race on the tv instead of picking up a gun.”
Katrina squeezed him even harder. “Do my parents know what’s going on?”
Jenkins nodded. “We’re keeping them safe.”
Katrina pulled back. “Are they in danger?”
“I’ll fill you in about everything that been happening behind the scenes after the race”
“No, I need to know now, are they okay?”
“They’re fine, but you have to finish what you started. You’re so close. In thirty minutes we’ll be able to have a drink and share a week’s worth of stories.” Jenkins smiled as he said this.
They could hear a helicopter in the distance and all eyes turned towards the sound.
Jenkins pushed Katrina towards the car. “Get out of here. That’s the FBI.”
Richard and Katrina both knew what that meant. They both ran to the car. Kristin shouted a few updates as they climbed in.
“The split car is running out of power. You should be able to catch them easily. We shot out one of their tires which means that they will have to finish the race as a motorcycle.”
Dillon shouted after the MIT car as it began to roll forward. “We’ll have your back!”
Jenkins shouted. “Just go!”
The MIT car flew out away from their friends as the helicopter drew closer. The four ran back to their rented Corolla and took off after them.
~~~
Colliste shouted excitedly, “That’s them!”
Cosgrove pointed to Colliste. “Get the other chopper on the line and find out where they are.” When he turned, he watched the car disappear into the night.
Cosgrove looked at the gunner then poked his head into the cockpit and asked, “Why are they getting away?”
The pilot didn’t look back when he spoke. “That’s a fast car.”
“How fast can they be, this is a helicopter?”
The pilot began to repeat his earlier lesson on speed and the basics of flight. “This vehicle was designed to travel at almost 200 mile per hour. With the extra weight, our speed has dropped to around 175. If you want me to go faster, you’ll have to get off.”
“So you’re telling me that the car down there can do 200 mph?” Cosgrove asked.
“Maybe more,” he said thoughtfully.
Colliste shouted. “The other helicopter is at least ten minutes behind us.”
Cosgrove got back in his seat. At the rate they were going, by the time they showed up at the finish line, the race would already be over.
~~~
Richard had the accelerator floored again. They were so close and the split car had a head start but was losing power. He had to catch them.
Katrina sat back in her seat using one arm on the window edge to help support herself as she looked into the blackness of the night.
The expression on her face was very different from the calm pose she had struck not long ago when she had slept through the high speed driving. She looked scared now but it had nothing to do with his driving. She knew the stakes. She also knew that the split car couldn’t be too far away and that they may still have a gun.
The MIT car found them quickly. The split car began weaving in the road to try to keep them from passing. Kristin had been right about their power problem. The car was barely doing eighty and they could hear the flat rear tire slapping with each revolution.
Katrina set herself up to use the laser on the other back tire but their weaving didn’t give her a good target. She turned the laser on a couple of times but it was so bright in the darkness of the night that the other car could easily move away.
Richard weaved to try to match the movements of the other car to help Katrina’s aim. He was afraid to try to pass the car in case they had other weapons on board.
They were both so focused on the laser and trying to line up a shot that they didn’t notice the passenger holding a gun out of his window until he had already fired it. The shot came through the windshield between Richard and Katrina. He automatically slowed to back off out of range.
“What are you doing?” Katrina shouted. “We need to get by them!”
“If you get shot then this whole thing would have been for nothing. I’m not going to let that happen, not for a stupid race!”
Katrina leaned over, muckled on to the steering wheel and yanked hard. She put her foot on top of his on the accelerator and the car shot forward. Richard did all he could do to keep the car on the road as the split car’s passenger prepared to fire the pistol again. The MIT car spun around because of the hard acceleration.
Katrina lowered her head and forced the weapon to its lowest position. When the car began to spin she depressed the fire button. She bobbed her head up and down to create a weaving pattern for the laser beam.
The pistol fired another round. This time the bullet would have found its target, if she had been sitting upright. The bullet buried itself in the impression Katrina had left behind in the seat. Thankfully her body had been elsewhere.
The beam etched a wavy pattern across the side of the split car and across the arm of the man who was holding the pistol. He dropped it as he screamed in pain. The gun hit the ground and discharged, striking his own car’s remaining rear tire.
The driver could immediately feel the loss of contact with the road as the car wavered slightly. The driver grabbed the wheel with both hands and struggled to keep the vehicle straight. In a panicked moment he depressed the brake. The MIT car launched forward out of its spin.
Katrina sat back up. She could see the hole in the windshield in her line of sight and said, “Well it’s a good thing I was…”
Richard punched her in the arm so hard she fell against her door.
“Owww! What did you that for?”
“You could have killed us both and you almost got shot. You could have…” Tears choked off the end of his statement, he couldn’t finish.
“But we’re in the lead! Finally! We can end this!” Katrina said.
Richard turned away.
Katrina turned to face forward again and could see that they were about to miss their turn.
“Turn here!” She shouted.
Richard slammed on the breaks and cut the wheel hard. The car skidded sideways in the turn.
The sound of a missile coming at them whistled through the air and there was no time to react. A helicopter that had been waiting to ambush them had fired an air to ground missile at them but had missed. Richard’s sideways spin out, because he almost missed their turn, had saved their lives. The ground on Katrina’s side of the car exploded. The car sideways motion from the late turn, in conjunction with the concussive force of the blast, moved their vehicle sideways by at least thirty feet. They stopped and it rained sand for what felt like hours.
Inside the car both Katrina and Richard’s heads pounded. Disoriented and shell shocked, they tried to get the world back in focus. The sound of the chopper turning to get a new line of fire sounded very distant.
Katrina turned to see if Richard was okay and saw blood dripping off the bottom of his bandages. His head lay back to one side. Immediately Katrina thought he had been hit. She grabbed his face and brought it in closer. She couldn’t see any new injury but when she looked into his eyes, they were beginning to roll back in his head.
“Where are you hit?!” She shouted.
“My face is throbbing, like something is crushing it.”
She realized that the concussive force of the blast had further injured his burn. She remembered that adrenaline would substitute for a drug in the short term so she let go of his face and moved her foot to the accelerator. The car shot forward spitting sand out from under its rear wheels. Richard put both hands on the wheel instinctively.
“Drive!” Katrina shouted.
~~~
The chopper had lost its chance to fire again when the car drove off. The pilot changed direction and began to pursue them. The split car turned off the road, racing across the desert to avoid falling into the large pit created by the missile. The gunner inside the helicopter manning a large caliber machine gun aimed at the split car but the pilot held him back
“Don’t shoot,” the pilot’s voice shouted into his ear. “That’s the car we’re here to support.”
The large machine gun lowered then took aim at the racecar in the lead instead.
~~~
At the finish loop all of the stadium lights still burned brightly. Two racecars were approaching finally. The members of the investors’ party group were all hammered. The fact that a helicopter was shooting at one of the cars didn’t seem to affect them in the slightest.
Those who had been sitting in the lower priced seats were crowding the exits trying to get as far away from danger as possible. They poured out of the stadium seats as fast as their legs could carry them as machine gun fire echoed off the buildings.
Harvard Bertrand wasn’t drunk. He had only pretended to be joining along in the festivities. He watched as his son drove while the helicopter fired on them. In the corner of his eye he saw Ian Practor walk back into the party holding a rifle. He had stepped down into the technicians pit to take up a position at the window. The technicians all watched his progress into their area worried but no one said a word. They just watched him, perplexed.
Using the barrel of his rifle he broke the glass facing down onto track. Harvard heard the glass breaking and marched over to Ian. He demanded to know what Ian was doing.
“I am protecting our investment.” Ian said snidely.
“You’re going to shoot down that helicopter.” Harvard said with relief.
Ian looked away and sighted in the chopper with his rifle before moving his sight down to the MIT car. “Yeah, that’s what I’m doing.”
Harvard’s eyes grew wide. He knew that the rifle’s aim had changed to a target much too close to the ground to be one that was flying. Something inside Harvard broke. As Ian was about to pull the trigger Harvard dove on top of him, taking him to the floor.
“That’s my son you’re aiming at!” He shouted.
~~~
Large caliber machinegun fire peppered the land around the MIT car as Richard maneuvered them between the split car and the chopper. The gunfire ceased and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“What are we going to do! Can’t you do something with that laser on the roof?”
Katrina looked completely exasperated when she responded. “I can’t blow things up with it! All it can do is burn a little hole.”
“Well, burn a little hole in the gas tank or something!” Richard shouted back.
The chopper rose higher into the air to change positions. The split car slammed on its brakes to get away from Richard and Katrina and suddenly they were alone on the track again, a prime target.
~~~
The split car turned towards the finish loop. When it got close, the car slowed and the weapons specialist slid out of his window. He ran towards the rear of their vehicle and removed the single ramp required to get them up on the dais. He ran to the dais and set the ramp in place. The split car drove backwards to create enough room to get their vehicle up to speed to climb the steep ramp. They were going to win. All they needed to do was to climb the ramp and go through the loop.
Suddenly, embedded lights came on around the perimeter of the dais.
When the Split car had gone far enough back it turned back towards the finish loop and accelerated. The sandy ground didn’t help with acceleration and with his shot out tires he didn’t have the traction to get up to speed. The rubber slapped the sand slowing him down. He had very little power left. The driver leaned forward trying to will his vehicle to go faster.
~~~
Richard could see the split car making a run for the loop. The chopper was nowhere in sight. Richard cut the vehicle hard and drove towards the ramp. The weapons specialist on the track ran in front of the ramp thinking that no one would intentionally run him down in front of all of the witnesses.
Richard didn’t care. It would be a game of chicken, his car with its laser against a single pathetic man. He was pretty sure the man would move.
~~~
The split car was coming in close. In the corner of the driver’s eye he could see the MIT car coming at the ramp. If one of them didn’t stop in time they would hit each other. The split car driver leaned in further towards his steering wheel and willed more speed.
~~~
Richard didn’t need to will more speed. He leaned back and pressed confidently on his accelerator. Katrina started to panic. The guy in front of the ramp wouldn’t move. She screamed for Richard to stop. He still didn’t care.
“If you want him to move, turn the laser on. Make him get out of the way.”
Katrina turned the laser toward the man standing on the track. His eyes were wide but he held his ground. When the laser fired, all of the dust in the air illuminated the beam. Just before it touched him, the man dived away to the left. In another second Richard would have run him over.
In that second many things happened at the same time. The MIT car used the front push guard to knock the ramp away. The split car driver knew that if he didn’t turn he would crash into the dais. He yanked on his steering wheel hard and banked to the right towards the man who was still lying on the ground. The weapons specialist rolled to try to get out of the way but his arm didn’t make it in time. His driver ran over it, breaking it in several places.
Then the chopper fired a missile at the MIT car as it passed the dais. When the sound of the missile could be heard, the slow whistling sound, Richard yelled something indiscernible as he cut the steering wheel. The missile hit the ground beside them and exploded. The MIT car rose into the air with all the sand below it and flipped high into the air.
The Corolla pulled into the finish loop area and its crew watched the events unfold before their eyes. Twice the MIT car rotated in the air in its arc to the ground before landing on all of its wheels in an upright position as sand rained down all around them.
After their team’s car landed properly, it was back to business. Professor Jenkins captained the four wheeled gun boat by shouting commands to his crew. “Open fire on that chopper! Burn the barrels off your guns to bring it down. Dillon, keep us between the chopper and our racecar.”
Frodes and Kristin both opened fire from opposing windows. The small vehicle rocked from each shot gun shot.
Richard and Katrina just looked at each other, stunned, as the car came to rest. Richard shouted to Katrina, “Are you okay?”
Katrina nodded. Her ears rang so badly it left a painful echo in the back of her head. “You’re bleeding!” she said in return, pointing to his bandage.
“It’s alright,” He shouted back. “I have plenty of adrenaline now!” He turned to face the heavily cracked windshield and drove.
Katrina didn’t know what he was planning to do but he was driving towards the split car again. She was afraid he was going to ram them with the front guard.
~~~
Cosgrove was chomping at the bit to catch up to the racecar. They were seconds from flying over the finish loop enclosure when a huge explosion rocked the air. Its light brightened the night beyond the track’s lighting. The blast knocked Colliste out of his seat. Cosgrove found a lucky hand hold before he hit the floor. When things settled a second later Cosgrove pointed to Jim. “You might want to be on that gun right about now.”
Jim nodded and resumed his original post.
As they flew toward the race track’s enclosure they could see the guns being fired from the Corolla. All eyes followed their aim to see another chopper bearing down on them. This chopper had no markings, unlike the plane letters spelling FBI on each side of theirs.
The pilot of the unmarked helicopter had obviously been surprised by the appearance of the FBI and he banked hard to put some distance between the two aircraft. Cosgrove asked one question to solidify his decision making process. “How far out is our backup?”
The pilot shouted back. “Three minutes at best.”
“We need to keep these people safe. Go after that chopper!” Cosgrove shouted.
The pilot turned and followed the unmarked helicopter.
~~~
Inside the party, everyone was still celebrating. The activity that was happening outside was more exciting than anything Phyindress had told them before they had chosen to attend this party. They cheered for the MIT car, they cheered for the split car, they cheered for the lone man running around on the track with a broken arm who was trying to reset the ramp. These drunks cheered for everything.
When the FBI chopper entered the arena and chased the other one away, they booed. They knew it would be more boring now that they were gone. There seemed to be no regret over the fact that their entertainment revolved around people trying to kill each other.
Harvard still struggled with Ian Practor. This may have been the first time he had ever fought for his son. He had been a fool to ignore Richard for all of those years and he knew that it was his fault that his son ever had anything to do with this race. He was also proud of his son’s accomplishments, so proud in fact that he would have given his own life to save his son’s. He wasn’t a young man anymore but he had the strength of blinding love at that moment. He snuck in a punch and knocked Practor to the floor before diving over him again.
They both struggled for control of the rifle. It became more like a tug of war. Practor had resorted to kicking with his feet like a spoiled child. Harvard punched him in the face but Practor still wouldn’t let go.
“You don’t need to do this, my son’s car can’t win, they have no ramps to get up the dais.” Harvard grumbled.
A lightbulb went on in Practor’s mind. He forced himself up against the window so that he could see the cars. There were no ramps on the MIT car’s roof. He had forgotten that they were supposed to be located on top of the car.
Practor smiled at the good news. They can’t win without ramps to get up the dais. And the split car had one. At that particular moment he didn’t consider that other options could exist. He didn’t see ramps, to him the race was already over.
Practor turned to Harvard Bertrand and let him have the rifle. He pushed it with all his might, forcing the stock back into the other man’s forehead.
Bertrand collapsed to the floor. He was out cold.
Practor took the tail of his shirt and rubbed the entire weapon down to erase his fingerprints, then he positioned the weapon beside his unconscious opponent. He took Bertrand’s hands placing them in the correct positions to fire a weapon before walking away. No one else was paying any attention to them. Now he couldn’t be accused of trying to change the outcome of the race, or intentionally hurting anyone. He left Bertrand to take the blame thinking he had the race in the bag now. The MIT car couldn’t win, they had no ramps.
~~~
The pilot of the unmarked chopper chuckled as bullets flew past him. The rounds being fired from the gunner’s side mount on the FBI chopper all missed as they arced around him. He had led the FBI helicopter away from the track but he only needed to turn back for one good shot. He had two missiles left and plenty of bullets. His only concern was the small unpredictable white car.
~~~
“Since there are no choppers shooting at us for the moment now would be a good time to figure out how the use that weapon on the roof to protect us when it returns.” Richard said as he chased down the limping split car.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m taking that bastard down!” Richard shouted at the top of his lungs, indicating the remaining racecar.
Katrina thought for a moment. “I have to lean out the window to make an adjustment to the head sleeve so it can point up at a better angle and…”
“I don’t care, just do it!”
After unbuckling her seat belt, Katrina turned her head to turn the laser to her side of the car so that she could reach it and then shut down all of the power while it hung just outside of her window. She removed her head piece and reached out the window. She had to have half of her body out of the window to grab it. “You know it would be easier to do this when we’re stopped. The bumps are really cutting into me.”
Richard didn’t answer. He only had one thing on his mind.
Katrina worked quickly. She detached the laser head and pulled it inside, carefully pulling on all the wires equally to ensure that they stayed together but something was caught and she couldn’t bring the head into the car. She slid back out further and tried to find what was stuck.
~~~
The split car’s driver could see the MIT car chasing him in his side mirror. He checked the power gauge on the instrument panel. It showed dangerously low. He should have been through the loop by now. The driver slammed his fist on the dash hoping it would give him more power. It didn’t.
His weapons specialist worked feverishly to pull up the ramp with his one functional hand. His other arm hung crooked.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. The driver leaned forward and picked up a pistol he had kept hidden under his seat for moments like this. This was his personal weapon and he was running out of options.
When he looked up to check on the distance of the other racecar, he found them right on top of him. He had misjudged their speed.
~~~
Richard knew they were close enough to get the job done. He reached over and yanked on Katrina’s jump suit pulling her back into the car. “Hang on to something!”
Katrina wrapped her seat belt over her shoulder and braced her hands on the dashboard just before the front push guard slammed into the side of the split car. A loud crack thundered out in the night and the car’s forward moment stopped suddenly.
~~~
The split car driver shook his head to clear his vision after the impact. He floored the accelerator and the car moved forward. There was a huge crack in the fuselage but it hadn’t disabled the car. He cut hard to head back to the dais hoping the ramp was back up. He leveled his gun out of his window and aimed at a tire. If they got a flat they’d be stuck in the sand. He pulled the trigger.
The flash of light then the loud bang got Richard’s attention. The sound of the slug hitting the rim got both Katrina and Richard’s attention. Their faces reflected horror until Katrina recognized the meaning of the ringing of the aluminum rim. She laughed.
Richard stared at her until she answered his unasked question. “He shot the tire to slow us down. We have solid filled tires! He did nothing.”
Richard laughed but he was still mad. The idea that the bullet did nothing didn’t help the fact that there was yet another person trying to kill them. He floored the accelerator and rammed the back of the split car.
The car spun sideways out of control for a second and then rolled onto its side. The split car had a mechanism built in to keep the car from falling over when it was in split car mode and it forced the car back upright in slow motion as though there were a magic rope that had pulled it upright. The spinning weighted disks inside the car’s wheels always wanted to be perpendicular to the ground. Even though two of the tires were flat, the spinning disks still operated flawlessly.
Katrina’s jaw dropped as she realized what had happened. Her mind went into high engineering mode trying to work out the specifics of what she just witnessed.
~~~
After the car popped back up, the driver of the split car knew that he was running out of chances. If he didn’t win the race soon the MIT driver would run him over. He could see the anger on Richard’s face. The driver threw his gun to the floor and drove off.
~~~
Richard pursued him again. Katrina still had a dumbfounded look on her face. “You may want to finish what you were doing. That chopper will be back any minute.” Katrina nodded and went back to work.
~~~
Frodes had his head out of his window searching the sky for the chopper.
“Do you see anything?” Jenkins asked.
“No they’re too far out. I can see the lights on the FBI chopper, though. It looks like they’re coming back around this way.” Frodes said. “Maybe they chased them away.”
“Stop the car.” Jenkins shouted.
Dillon slammed on the brakes. The two racecars drove by, Richard chasing the split while Katrina hung out of her window to work on the weapon. Jenkins watched what Katrina for a moment and then made a snap decision. “Dillon, pull up on Katrina’s side of the car.”
When Dillon got close enough to Katrina’s side of the car, Frodes yelled to her. “What are you trying to do?”
“I’m flipping this sleeve so the laser head will point upwards.”
Jenkins shouted, “Vincent, switch sides. Help Katrina pull the sleeve out. Kristin keep a watch on the sky.”
Frodes switched sides and leaned out of the open window. Katrina yelled to him. “I’m at a bad angle. The sleeve keeps getting hung up. If you pull it straight out it should come out easily. I need to put it back in upside down so the angle of attack points upwards.”
“You think that’ll work?” Frodes asked.
“Yes, now hurry up. It will lock into place. Push hard enough until it clicks in.”
Katrina turned away from Frodes who was trying his best to remain level. She slipped back in with the laser head. She disconnected all the wires and reset a few of the switches for a slightly different operation. Frodes shouted to her when he got it separated. Katrina eased the laser head out of the window again before sliding out herself.
She handed the head to Frodes. “Hold this a second.”
She slipped back in and dragged the wires out. Carefully she wound them back inside the arm where they belonged.
Kristin shouted, “The chopper is back! Frodes I need you now.”
Suddenly machine gun fire rain on them. The passing chopper was at the wrong angle to do too much damage but a row of bullets sprayed across their path just the same. The Corolla took several hits on the hood and the MIT car saw sparks across its push guard. Jenkins shouted at Katrina to hurry up.
Katrina was trying not to have a panic attack while she and her friend were hanging out of the windows as bullets flew. “As soon as I finish pushing these wires back up the tube, line up the head to fit in the slot. There is a red line on the laser head that matches a red line in the sleeve.”
Frodes turned the laser head in his hands looking for the red line as Katrina pushed the wires as carefully as she could back inside the arm.
When Kristin began firing her shotgun into the sky, Richard turned the steering wheel suddenly and the two cars separated, the laser head still in Frodes’ hands.
Katrina watched the laser head go in a different direction. She turned towards her driver and punched him in the arm. “What were you thinking? We almost had it all together!”
Richard screamed. “I was saving your life!” as a new round of machine gun fire erupted on the side of the car where she had just been a moment earlier.
Her jaw dropped open. She was stunned by the fact that Richard always seemed to have her back. Katrina turned away ashamed and finished putting wire back into the robotic arm. Not only was their weapon not ready to help protect them, it was riding around armed in the back seat of another car. One hit to the high power capacitor and it would probably explode, killing everyone in the car.
~~~
Jenkins gave new orders. “Frodes get back on your shotgun. Focus on the guy holding the machine gun. Dillon, keep us between the helicopter and our car.” Dillon turned around and tried to match the speed of the helicopter.
“What about the laser head?” Frodes asked between shots.
Jenkins turned his head so fast something should have cracked. Sure enough he could see the laser head on the seat behind a kneeling Frodes.
“Oh shit!”
~~~
The chopper cut hard to the right as the FBI chopper got closer to them. The pilot called to his gunner. “Hang on, cutting hard!”
The gunner found a hand hold as the helicopter banked, straining his harness. It was a maneuver most pilots would never attempt because it could down a vehicle based on faulty aerodynamic values against the blades that held them in the air. Luckily, the blades didn’t snap and the chopper was now facing the oncoming FBI chopper. The pilot fired a missile at his new target. The propellant lit, launching the cylindrical bomb forward. The pilot laughed.
~~~
Frodes and Kristin fired their shotguns and reloaded them so many times that they had to resort to holding the muzzle with the socks off Frodes’ feet because of the heat. It looked funny but it kept their hands from getting scorched. Their consistent efforts to put buckshot into the air towards the chopper made a cloud of tungsten steel. The hard pellets hammered against the armed nose of the weapon as it sailed towards the FBI chopper.
The FBI chopper didn’t react to the moving missile. The pilot’s attention was taken with trying to keep up with the sudden movement of their prey. At the last second, when he saw the propellant of the missile, the pilot tried to reorient the chopper to avoid being hit. He pulled hard on the stick but in his heart he knew that they were dead. He couldn’t avoid a missile that had been fired so close.
~~~
All of the small hits from the tungsten pellets built up on the armed sensors designed to trigger the explosives and prematurely detonated it mid-air. The explosion between the two choppers forced a concussive wave against both helicopters. Both pilots temporarily lost control but a moment later, the seasoned pilots regained control and righted themselves. The FBI pilot steered away to come up with a new plan of attack.
The other pilot was just angry. He shouted to his gunner to destroy the white Toyota that was causing them so much grief and he steered closer.
~~~
Colliste was the first to get up off the floor. His seat belt had broken when the chopper had lost control from the blast. He went over to help his boss get up from the floor and put him back in a seat. Cosgrove moaned lightly. He had been the closest to the door and had absorbed part of the wave from the blast. Then it occurred to Colliste that if his supervisor had been knocked out from the blast then the gunner had to have been hit worse.
Colliste turned toward where Jim the gunner had stood on his perch but he was gone. His mouth fell open. He stuck his head out of the door and tried to see through the dust to the ground. He couldn’t see anyone on the ground.
Colliste pulled up the safety harness’ strap but the end in Colliste’s hand was shredded. Anger bubbled up in his gut. He jumped out onto the perch without a harness and took the machine gun’s handles. He quickly found the unmarked chopper and let lead fly in their direction screaming with a rage he didn’t know he had within him. The machine gun hammered in his hand as the expelled brass flew into the wind.
~~~
The split car was ready to make another run at his re-positioned ramp. Richard’s crazy driving scared the crap out of him. One more hit and their car would fold enough so that it wouldn’t be able drive straight again. It was already difficult enough to stay straight as it was. His steering wheel had to be cocked severely to the right just to manage it.
He could see the Corolla trying to evade the helicopter. The stupid pilot was supposed to be protecting him from the MIT car and instead he was playing with the crazy people in the white Toyota. He turned the car towards the ramp and stepped on it. The energy gauge sank lower. He hammed on the steering wheel begging the car to go faster.
Ahead he could see the MIT car change direction and move to cut off his path to victory. It slowed in front of the ramp and when it took off again his ramp was being dragged away by the driver. His weapons specialist was running after them while cradling his broken arm.
~~~
Richard lost his grip on the aluminum ramp when he hit a bump and dropped more than thirty feet away from the dais. He didn’t care. If they set it up again he would go over and grab it again.
“We need to figure out how we’re going to get through the loop without getting shot at,” he said quickly as he changed directions away from gunfire ahead of them.
Katrina tapped quickly on a keyboard.
“Are you listening to me?” Richard asked.
“Yes, and I have this under control. Keep away from the bullets and don’t let the split car on his ramp.” Katrina looked up to look at him properly before typing more code.
Richard’s eyes were on her fully and she could see that the bandage on his face was soaked with blood which had started to drip onto his uniform. She knew that their time was running out. If he lasted two more minutes without passing out they would be lucky. Adrenaline could only go so far.
~~~
Bullets raked the side of the unmarked helicopter barely missing the gunner. Colliste’s aim was quite good under pressure. The pilot of the unmarked helicopter shuddered at the sound of the bullets hitting his aircraft.
He shouted to the rear. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, that was close. Fly better or I’m going to get hit.”
The pilot’s anger flared, “Shoot better and they wouldn’t still be shooting back!” he shouted.
Another round of bullets raked the side of the chopper and gunner got hit high in the leg. He fell over screaming in pain. The machine gun on the FBI chopper was military grade, firing a standard NATO 7.62 caliber bullet.
Being hit by the larger sized machine round meant that he might lose that appendage or even bleed to death. Either way he was more than injured, he was catastrophically wounded and he knew it. Another spray of bullets struck the chopper. The shooter threw himself back inside and inched his way to the pilot.
“Get us out of here,” he pleaded. “We can come back with more firepower.”
“Stop whining. It’s just your leg. We almost have them. I’ve still got one missile left. One perfect shot and we’re out of here.” The pilot said, disregarding the pain of his friend.
~~~
Katrina pointed to the Toyota and waved them over. The enemy chopper had veered off to avoid more bullets from the FBI helicopter and that gave her a minute to work on the laser.
Richard watched the split racecar. At that moment their weapons specialist was trying to drag their ramp back towards the dais.
Richard and the Toyota approached each other from opposite directions then stopped. Both drivers took a moment to breathe.
Frodes switched out his shotgun for the laser head. Katrina placed her hands on the laser head as well so both of them could guide it into the sleeve. When it slid in and clicked into place, Katrina shouted to Frodes. “Take the small mirror off the arm and break it off.”
Frodes looked perplexed. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Take the small mirror tucked under the right side cowling and tear it out.”
Frodes didn’t question her directions, he pulled it off and held it out so that Katrina could see it.
“Good,” Katrina said. “Place it just over beam’s output on the laser head and wedge it into place so the beam will reflect back in.”
Frodes struggled to get this part taken care of. It took a few seconds. Richard shouted. “Hurry up I can see the chopper coming back!”
Kristin began to shoot at it, the white sock still on her hand moved back and forth on the barrel.
Frodes let go and shouted “Done!”
Richard drove off without waiting for Katrina to respond. Katrina slid back into her seat and put her seat belt back on then her head set. She began to type furiously. Richard didn’t ask any questions. He just tried to stay away from the enemy chopper. Although it didn’t seem like they were shooting at them at the moment.
Katrina began to shout instructions. “I need you to align us parallel to the chopper at some point soon. Tell me just before you do, but then slam on the brakes for a second, and cut the wheel and turn away so that the back of our car is facing them.”
Richard smiled. He knew that Katrina had a plan and he trusted her. Katrina finished typing and slid the keyboard away. She picked up the weapon’s controller and began to watch out the window. The split car was making a new run on their ramp. They had managed to get it back in place. He turned the wheel away from the chopper and put Katrina’s plan on hold to go take their ramp again.
In a repeat performance Richard took the ramp as the weapons specialist with the broken arm watched him take away their ability to finish the race.
~~~
Finn Cosgrove was slowly coming back around. He could hear Colliste rummaging around the cabin looking for something.
“What are looking for?” he asked.
“Ammunition. We’re out,” he said. “I think I hit their gunner but I can’t finish the job without more bullets.”
“Where’s Jim?” Cosgrove asked.
“He’s gone. He was blown off of his perch by the explosion.”
Cosgrove suddenly got an influx of memory. He remembered the explosion and his eyes opened wide. “We lost Jim?”
“Yes! Now help me find some more bullets!” Colliste angrily demanded of his boss.
The pilot shouted into the cabin. “Tell Jim that we have six hand grenades in the back. Our back up will be here in less than a minute. I’m going in for another run. Get ready.”
Both men looked at each other before scrambling to the rear of the chopper to find the hand grenades.
~~~
Katrina pointed out the window. “He’s coming around.”
Richard dropped the ramp and turned around. He passed the weapons specialist who swore loudly at them as they passed. Richard just laughed at him in return.
“Remember what I said about the lineup?” Katrina asked.
“Yeah, I got it.” He turned to face Katrina with a smile, confident that something great was about to happen.
All Katrina could see was how bloody the bandage on his face was. She couldn’t believe he had lasted this long. Katrina nodded and turned her gaze down towards her firing control to hide the tears that were welling up in her eyes.
Richard drove their car towards the enemy chopper. They were going head to head. The chopper lowered until it hung only ten feet from the sand. They were playing chicken now. The gunner must have run out of bullets because no lead rained on them. Closer and closer they approached. Richard had a plan and he wanted to be close enough to see the rivets before he executed it.
The FBI chopper bore down on the enemy helicopter from the side. The pilot shouted out, “Hang on, it’s going to get rough for a moment! Don’t throw a grenade yet, wait until my signal!”
Cosgrove and Colliste both found something to hold onto with one hand so that they could each hold a grenade with the other.
Carl, the pilot counted down the seconds in a whisper. “Three, two, one… ”
~~~
The enemy pilot smiled for the first time in many hours. The MIT car raced towards him and he lowered his weapon almost level with his target. When he felt comfortable he placed his thumb over the missile launch switch attached to his steering control and prepared to press it. This last missile was going to finish off his target and then they could disappear into the night.
~~~
Carl’s speedy approach at the enemy’s blind side gave him a slight edge but that was all he needed. He had to pour on the power to catch up to the cockpit then turn in while staying under the rotors. One wrong move and their blades would become entangled.
Carl watched his gauges to determine his altitude as he turned up the accelerator as high as it could go. Quickly his craft lurched forward. He turned his gaze up to watch his rotor distance and pressed forward. He broke out in hives knowing how close he was to the other chopper. This was it.
When the FBI helicopter moved fast enough to match cockpits together the enemy pilot looked surprised to see a determined FBI pilot close enough to spit on him. Instantly, he moved his thumb off the firing button and grabbed his control stick with both hands hoping to pull up.
Carl growled as he tipped his vehicle’s vertical axis towards the enemy’s choppers left shoulder side. His rotor blade tips touched the enemy cockpit’s plexiglass. The entire side of the clear windshield exploded like a bomb.
Shards embedded themselves into the enemy pilot causing him to lose his focus. The rotor strike pushed his aircraft’s axis tilting it out of the strike zone. His blades came in fast and the FBI chopper nosedived to get away but the ground was so close that didn’t have much room to maneuver. Carl throttled back the accelerator as hard and fast as he could and spun the craft so that the open doors would face the now open cockpit of their enemy.
Carl shouted, “NOW!”
Colliste and Cosgrove both tossed their grenades. The other helicopter tilted up and away as the FBI craft bottomed out into the sand and slid sideways.
~~~
Richard couldn’t believe what had just happened in right in front of them. He was driving at full speed into the disaster. He had been anticipating their spin to allow the laser to do its job. Now the FBI chopper had crashed into the other helicopter and then hit the sand directly in front of him. Katrina screamed at the top of her lungs.
Richard cut his wheel to the left, stomped on the clutch several times while changing gears at the speed of sound. The car expertly avoided every obstacle while Katrina continued to scream at the top of her lungs.
As the MIT car raced around the spinning blades, one of the grenades exploded against the aluminum fuselage of the enemy chopper followed by the second one that had landed near the open cockpit. More shrapnel embedded itself into to the pilot, not enough to take him out, but enough to have him lean back pulling flight stick with him. The chopper rose up faster than the aircraft was designed to move.
Richard could see the chopper rising. Their one shot was disappearing. He tried to shout over Katrina’s screaming but he couldn’t get her attention. Instead he cut the wheel one last time positioning the rear of their vehicle toward the rising chopper and slammed his hand down on the firing button in Katrina’s hand. The pneumatic cannon buried deep inside the robotic arm fired the laser head. It flew towards the enemy chopper and stuck to the side of the engine above the open door.
~~~
The wounded shooter was sprawled on the floor. His pulse was weak. The helicopter rose quickly but not in a straight line. He knew that the pilot must be in bad shape. Their craft wobbled as he dragged himself over to the second seat and pulled himself up into it. He didn’t bother with a seat belt. He just took the stick to try to help control their flight path. When the helicopter leveled out he turned towards his friend. Blood oozed down his face and neck where chunks of skin and muscle were missing from the grenade blast. At that moment he did feel lucky that he had only been shot in the leg.
He took over and turned the chopper at the MIT car as it sped out towards the outer edge of the track. Friction against the flight controls slackened. His friend had slumped over in his seat and his hand had fallen away from the stick. The shooter turned the craft and aimed their chopper towards the MIT car as he flipped up his firing control’s cover in anticipation of firing their last missile.
~~~
Katrina stopped screaming to catch her breath. She worked hard to regain control of her breathing. She could see that they had successfully negotiated around the crashing helicopter. Richard had managed to keep them alive and fire the weapon at exactly the right moment. She suddenly felt like a slacker.
“I’m going for the win.” Richard shouted. “The ramp is already up and the split car is making another run.”
Katrina shouted “Go!” sure that everything was good. “You have to get to at least fifty-three miles per hour for our ramp to work.”
“What ramp?” Richard asked. “I was going to use theirs and go up one sided.”
Katrina and Richard both looked at each other for a second.
“One sided up a single ramp?” Katrina asked. “Are you crazy?”
“What do you mean our ramp? We don’t have one!” Richard said. “And why hasn’t the laser finished off that helicopter yet?”
Katrina put both hands to her temples. “It’s not like a laser from a science fiction movie. It takes time for the power capacitor to over…”
Richard cut her off. “How long is it going to take?”
“I don’t know. Maybe a minute.”
“A minute? We don’t have a minute!” Richard shouted.
~~~
The split car limped along almost out of power. This was his last run. If he didn’t get through the finish loop this time they would have to push it through.
~~~
The enemy chopper leveled off just outside the overhead lights of the finish loop. The lighting inside the loop made everything perfectly visible for the shooter. He turned the craft around and pointed it towards the finish loop waiting for the right moment to fire their last missile. Now that the FBI chopper was down he had nothing to fear. He could stay in that position for as long as they had fuel.
He could see the car that they were supposed to protect making a run towards the ramp. If he fired his missile to hit the MIT car, he could damage the split car. He wasn’t sure that he cared anymore. Judging by how fast it was moving, he didn’t think it would make it up the ramp anyway. The only thing he cared about was destroying the MIT car. He waited until just the right moment, timing was everything.
~~~
“I can’t see the helicopter. Did it crash?” Katrina asked.
“I don’t think so. Keep an eye out.”
Katrina stopped searching the sky for a moment to reach under the dash. She pulled out a long wire with a bundle of black electrical tape at the end. She yanked the tape off and threw the ball out the window.
Richard had no idea what she was doing. “What is that?” he asked.
“That’s our ramp. Remember back at the Cadillac dealership when I was working with the techs? Well this is the solution. This is how we’re getting up on the dais.” Katrina explained.
“Are you kidding me?” Richard said back. “How is that supposed to work? I can use their ramp and do the same thing.”
“No you can’t!” Katrina said. “At this speed you’ll have to run over the other car, not to mention the danger of balancing the car on one ramp.”
“How is your way better?”
“I have an airbag deployment charge at the end of these wires. Once I connect these two wires the charge will go off and it will open our folded ramp, Just hit fifty-three miles per hour and I’ll do the rest. You have to trust me.”
Richard tried to process their options. He knew that he could run up the ramp on two wheels. He had done many times in driving school. It was a breeze. But the split car being in the way could cause a problem if they arrived at the same time aiming for the same ramp. Their cars didn’t have metal bodies and the push plates were only on the front and back. He couldn’t just push the other car out of the way from the side. The plastic body panels would either shatter or end up melted together. And where was that helicopter?
~~~
The shooter watched the two cars racing toward the single ramp. He had no idea why the MIT car thought they even had a chance with only one ramp. He almost wanted to hold back to see what they were going to do. Though the split car was moving pretty slowly it should still make it to the ramp before the MIT car. Maybe he didn’t have to do anything at all. The split car was going to win anyway.
Even if the split car were to win, he still wanted to kill the driver of the MIT car. The shooter positioned his thumb over the firing switch and prepared to fire.
~~~
Richard decided that Katrina was right. She was right almost as often as he was when it came to maneuvers. As he sped towards the ramp, positioned in front of the loop, he could see that the split car would arrive before him. He just hoped that they were going fast enough to make Katrina’s contraption work. Then something else occurred to him.
“Which air bag did you use to make this thing?” He asked.
Katrina ignored him.
Richard repeated his question with more intensity. “Which air bag did you use to make this thing?”
“It’s the passenger side airbag from this car.”
Richard didn’t say a word. He knew that if they made it through the loop, win or lose, they would come down hard.
~~~
Cosgrove stepped out of the crashed helicopter. His head was a ball of pain. He turned to look toward the finish loop and saw the enemy helicopter hanging in the air pointing at the two cars. He knew that he could do nothing further to alter the outcome of the race.
He pulled his pistol from his belt and pointed it at the chopper. He knew that he would never be able to take out the pilot but he could at least distract him. Carefully through the haze in his head he pointed his weapon and squeezed the trigger.
~~~
The shooter was counting down to his last shot, five, four, three… when a bullet hit the rear control blades causing the entire aircraft to shift his aim out of lock. He had to reposition the aircraft. The shooter yelled in frustration. He had missed his best opportunity. He realigned and began to depress his thumb on the firing switch.
The laser head attached to the chopper’s engine casing glowed red hot. Suddenly it blew up. It produced a spectacular explosion causing the engine to partially disconnect from its mount, turning it sideways over the body of the helicopter. The rotors were turning at an opposing angle to the central axis of the body in crazy arcs as it spiraled out of the sky.
~~~
Richard could see the explosion out of the corner of his eye but had to ignore it. He was concentrating on his direction towards the dais and his speed. The sand slowed his acceleration and it was difficult to imagine reaching fifty-three miles per hour before he crashed into the back of the split car. The gap between the two cars was closing quickly.
Fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two miles per hour. With his right hand he released his seatbelt clasp.
Katrina was completely focused on the job ahead. She silently counted down until she reached zero and then touched the wires together.
The deployment charge detonated when both wires came together. Their single ramp, which had been reconfigured back at the Cadillac dealership, blew off the underside of the front bumper area, planted itself into the sand and lifted the car off the ground. At the frame’s main cross member, under the firewall, the other side of the ramp pivoted launching the MIT car into the air. They flew over the split racecar as it drove up the ramp in the traditional way. The MIT car was still gaining speed from their momentum and the boost from the ramp’s launch.
Richard dove from his seat position to cover Katrina. He didn’t care if they won. If she died, he would lose his only friend. He didn’t care what happened to him.
The two cars moved into the loop, one on top of the other. The MIT car’s only drag was the air that pressed against it. The split car was fighting to climb the ramp with failing power and flat tires that dragged against it.
The lights that were embedded in the concrete loop changed colors from white to blue indicating that someone had won the race. The MIT car landed partially on top of the other car, dragging it through the loop and off the other side of the dais. Both cars flipped over before hitting the ground. Both vehicles had been reduced to clumps of smoldering metal and plastic. Nothing moved except for the smoke pouring from each engine.
~~~
The Corolla stopped and watched in shock. They had no idea who might have won and if anyone would be left alive after the crash.
Dillon sputtered almost incoherently. “We were all in the same shop when we built that car. When did they install a device that would make the car fly?”
No one answered him as they all abandoned their car and ran to try to help Richard and Katrina. �� �����UC��f