Here it is, my favorite chapter so far.
Kari got up off the floor stiffly.
Seconds ago, she would have thought no miracle in the world would have saved her, but now she was looking up at the smoldering cooling tower. If she’d held on a few seconds longer, the police could’ve just closed her up in the case of the tower and buried the whole stinking mess.
Knowing the corrupt law enforcement system, Kari was sure that they’d do just that.
She pulled herself to her feet slowly, noticing that her right hand was sticky with blood. It stung terribly, but she managed to get up without jarring it too hard.
“Now what?” Kari questioned weakly. “Do you have the shit you needed?”
27 didn’t answer, and Kari could do nothing but curse some more. She tore off a strip from her T-shirt and wrapped it around the cut, but the bleeding had already stopped. Looking closer, Kari realized that the blood had cooked dry.
Suddenly, a beep sounded from the computer. Kari was surprised it hadn’t gone down with the demise of the cooling tower, but apparently the older computer was of a sturdier stock than the high-tech technology of her age.
The girl half-crawled, half-shuffled across the room to it, resting often when pain shot up her arm. She finally reached the computer seat and squinted at the dust-encrusted screen.
Estimated time until finish: seven minutes.
Estimated time until police arrive: twenty-seven minutes.
Kari furrowed her brows and tapped away at the keyboard with her one good hand. Before she could find out where the mysterious messages had come from, another popped up in the message log.
Kari, when I finish my work, I need you to touch the main transistor again.
“What the…” Kari peered at the screen, wondering if the shock had ruined it.
Kari, answer me.
For a moment, Kari felt frozen, then, as if in a dream, she put her hands on the keyboard and slowly began to type.
27?
Remember, when I need to get out, just put your finger in the same place. I will tell you when it needs to happen.
Kari stared at the computer incredulously; 27 was inside it somehow! She remembered what 27 had said about exiting in the electricity of Kari’s body, but the girl hadn’t paid attention to it at the time. Both excited and slightly frightened, Kari pounded out another question.
What happened there?
Nothing much. I left your body for the computer. When I finish my work, you can pick me back up and we’ll move on.
The way 27 took for granted that Kari would ‘pick her up’ unnerved and irritated Kari.
What makes you think I’ll do that? You’re really out of my head, right?
Do you need more reminding, Kari? What did I tell you in your apartment?
Kari smirked, 27 was running on steam now: she wasn’t going to stick her finger back in the machine. She hastily typed a last message and then got up without checking for an answer.
Goodbye, 27.
Kari walked over to the Wasp, her fingers trembling with excitement as she imagined grasping the leather-cushioned joystick and doing barrel-rolls through the city skies. She stepped cautiously onto the raised platform it was resting on and, after a few minutes of searching, realized that the entire thing was an elevator. A quick press and the ceiling opened above her. The winch gears protested creakily, but managed to lift the Wasp onto the roof.
“Unbelievable,” Kari whispered. “Stinkin’ unbelievable: the only racing V-class on the whole planet…right in front of me.”
She traced her finger down the smooth enamel finish and lovingly caressed the flames painted there. The skulls left something to desire, but she could fix it up easily at any repair shop…right after a little race at the Canay Loop for some pocket money.
Pocket money. Kari chuckled.
She put her hand on the catch and the door flew open easily. Settling in was like a dream: the leather head-rest was perfect for her, and the monitors were placed in such a way that she never had to turn her head.
“On,” Kari commanded, hoping the Wasp was new enough to have been programmed to a factory default.
It was, and she was able to get the beauty running without having to cut a single wire. The lifter pads brought the Wasp to ten feet above the roof, and then Kari set the main thrusters to max. Instead of feeling herself pressed into the chair with exhilarating G-forces, Kari felt nothing: the high-tech inertia dampers were working too well for that. Only then did Kari realize that she could easily reach hyperspace speeds within milliseconds and not be afraid of the slightest bit of pressure. Sure, it would be trying on the outer material of the ship, but going hyperspace in a small craft just once was an experience she had to try.
Back in the hotel, the screen was still glaring Kari’s last words…and 27’s reply.
You will scream, Kari.
“Unregistered Wasp, reduce speed or you will be taken down.”
The command came from the uplink radio and Kari knew she had the police to deal with. Her rear-view camera showed three police VAV-cruisers just behind her.
“Sweet,” Kari said to herself, before picking up the receiver and opening to the police channel. “Why?”
Kari knew they’d have her single word processed and analyzed on every data-list they had. She knew that robots worked around the clock to eradicate criminals like her. She also knew that the policeman behind her was given the order to chase her down or shoot her out of the sky, but none of it mattered in the ship she had. An IV-Wasp would have no chance against the police cruisers (which could hit a mountainside at Mach 4 and not vaporize) but a V-Wasp was an entirely different story altogether.
“Unregistered Wasp, you are infringing on legal codes seven, fifty-two and ninety-four. Prepare to receive boarders.”
Kari screamed a final sentence into the receiver. It might have been something like, “Kiss my ass!” but the officers were still rubbing their ears as the sonic boom broke over them.
“After her!” the commander shouted, forgetting that he was still tuned to Kari’s channel.
A few minutes followed, involving mainly a chase through the downtown area of Seljik. Dockyard-cranes, flagpoles, antenna and even people came within inches of being clipped entirely in half as Kari and her three pursuers flashed past.
“Having fun?” Kari shouted into the receiver. “Try this!”
Kari jerked her joystick hard to the left and shot through a sheet of water thrown into the air by a fountain. She pulled up at the last possible second as the city hall loomed before her, coming within a hair’s distance of certain death. The VAV cruiser, however, fared differently. The pilot splashed through the fountain, but couldn’t pull up in time to avoid a crash. Kari winced as there was a blood-curdling shriek of metal on concrete.
“That’s gotta hurt!” she taunted the remaining two.
“Unregistered Wasp!” the officer sounded desperate now. “Please avoid further damage and loss of life! Pull over. Now!”
“Bite me, copper boy,” Kari giggled: she’d never felt so happy before in her life.
Kari slowed down and allowed her two opponents to line up on both sides of her. She could see their faces through the windshields, but a silver tint kept them from doing the same to her. The pilot on her left mouthed the words, “Pull over!” but she ignored the command, keeping on a beeline course towards a group of smoke stacks. The chimneys served the purpose of funneling toxic dust out of the atmosphere and into space, but now they made the perfect maze for her dogged trailers.
One cruiser wisely pulled back and attempted to fly around to the other side, but the other followed Kari, dodging the stacks with dexterity that matched even Kari’s.
“I’ve got you in my sights now,” the threat was panted through the uplink radio; he was obviously being tossed around without the state-of-the-art inertia-dampers Kari had. “Gonna fry your ass, girl.”
Kari saw a red light on her control panel that blinked the words ‘Missile Lock’ over and over: he was serious.
Unfortunately, Kari was not. She wanted to play.
“A little closer,” she murmured, edging her throttle ever slower, until she was in the perfect position for getting shot down. “Come on baby, let’s see if we can get this one right.”
Kari had only tried the trick once before: let the VAV come close and squeeze off a shot, then shoot up and back, going in a perfect loop that ended up directly under the cruiser. The missiles would continue to follow their lock, punching foot-wide holes through anything in the way… even police VAV’s. Unfortunately, the single time she had tried ended with her spending three months in a coma, and then three years in the slammer.
The world seemed to slow for Kari. Whether it was the after-affects of the electric shock or the amount of adrenaline pumped into her veins, Kari couldn’t tell. But she seemed to see every detail of the white flare as the heat-seeking missile launched from its port in the wing of the VAV.
Up, up, as quickly as possible.
Ahead, the chimneys thinned out like trees at the edge of a forest.
The world turned completely upside down and then settled itself before Kari could get the butterflies in her stomach. Above her she heard the sound of metal being cut completely through by the hollow, armor-piercing cap of the missile and then the sound of an explosion as the missile cut through the plasma center of the VAV.
As Kari sped on, a fireball burst behind her like a beautiful blooming flower. White-hot metal flew in fragments for a hundred yards in every direction, trailed by a black tendril of smoke. The cockpit itself, the strongest part of the entire ship, fell like a stone and smashed through a three-story apartment building before coming to a full stop in a busy street. Kari knew that the missile had probably melted the outer layers of metal and that the pilot would have to be cut out of his steely coffin.
Before he ran out of air.
Kari sighed, wondering how she’d ever lived without the pleasure of a good chase.
There was one last VAV to deal with, the one that had gone around the chimneys instead of daring them like his wingman.
Smart guy.
But, before Kari could swing around and start looking for him, a voice cut across the uplink, clear and crisp, with only the slightest edge of annoyance.
“Unregistered Wasp, this is fleet commander Jacin Wells.” Kari listened with interest to the new voice, her eyes sparkling like a child anticipating a new toy. “Already you have caused hundreds of deaths and millions of credit’s worth in damage from reckless driving. Cease your uncontrolled behavior at once.”
“And who’s gonna stop me?” Kari shouted back, throwing a careful look at her rear-view cameras at the two remaining VAV’s that followed close behind. “You got an army, buddy boy?”
“Actually, yes.”
Before Kari could react, a billowing cloud of gas erupted on her, hiding everything from view. Instinctively, she pulled back on the joystick, getting up and away from the ground as quickly as possible. Once clear of the cloud, Kari looked back at it wondering what new tactic the police were pulling on her. She been out of the whole racing business for a long while, and maybe they’d developed new tricks for catching racers.
Shrugging, Kari returned to her main screen…and froze. A fleet of red V-Class Wasp racers were headed directly towards her, each one armed with deadly heat-seeking missiles and armor-melting rounds.
“Surrender or die, Kari Mentrolli,” Jacin ordered. “My fleet will remorselessly take you out of the sky.”
Before Kari had time to panic (and even before the V-Classes had time to pull into a firing positon behind her) a message beeped across her log.
Hand the controls over to me, it read. Watch and learn, Kari-baby.
Suddenly Kari’s Wasp banked a sharp left towards a warehouse. Instead of pulling up sharply (as Kari was trying in vain to do) the Wasp smashed directly through a large window and flew into the spacious warehouse.
Three of the four Wasps followed her in, but only two made it past the window. The third pilot slipped up and crumpled like an accordion into the heavy steel wall. It was a morbid reminder as to why police normally used VAV’s for chasing racers.
The three Wasps must have been thinking that, because the first in line failed to turn in time at the end of the warehouse. He crashed where Kari’s Wasp had looped expertly away, the other two coming back to their senses in time to avoid his fireball and shrapnel debris.
Kari now completely gave up: the ship wasn’t responding to her orders, and nothing from moving the joystick to switching off the engine could change it.
I warned you, Kari, another message popped up. Wait until later: I’ve got something special prepared for you.
Kari knew that it was 27 talking to her and –by putting two and two together– realized why her ship wasn’t working anymore. It was just like her mind games. The ship was completely given over to her control; all Kari could do was sit and watch.
After a few loops around the warehouse, 27 turned the ship out the window and around the warehouse. The other Wasps followed suit and locked their missiles the moment they had a clear shot.
“Goodbye, Kari,”
Ignore him.
“Missile lock! Missile lock! Missile lock!”
Trust me.
“Fire.”
“Missile lock! Missile lock!”
Because I’m not going to kill you.
Kari saw the missile erupt from their pods, racing towards her with frightening speeds.
Yet.
BOOM!
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