The Blood Racer (The Blood Racer Trilogy Book 1) (37 page)

              “Stop worrying,” he said, looking up at me with a grin. “We didn’t miss anything.”
              “Shut it,” I snapped. “Just making sure.”
              Suddenly feeling even more nervous, I crouched down beside him and fixed my eyes on his bandaged shin. “How did it happen?” I asked, searching for a conversation topic that could distract me.
              Rigel looked up, his eyes appraising me for a moment before answering. “I got too close,” he said finally. “I was delta sierra.”
              I gave a tiny smile. “When are you not delta sierra?”
              He laughed and then coughed, wincing as he placed a hand over his ribs. Was there another injury? Or just a bruise?
              “Good point,” he said with a smirk. “I was just gonna pass her. I thought I could rattle her, maybe…I don’t know. She saw me coming, though. Popped off a few shots from that hidden gun, and one hit me right in the engine.”
              I clenched my jaw. Just what I needed…another reason to hate Audra Carina.
              “At least you thought quickly enough,” I said. “You somehow got that pack around you, I mean.”             
              Rigel puffed his cheeks out and blinked his eyes. “
That
was definitely an adventure. When I jumped ship, I wasn’t even wearing it. I had to slip it on while freefalling through the clouds.”
              My jaw dropped. “How’d you do that?” I asked.
              He frowned and thought for a moment. “Hm…adrenaline, I guess. I can’t really remember it that well. It was intense, though.”
              I laughed loudly, feeling my smile growing wide enough that it almost hurt my cheeks. I was nearly overwhelmed with the urge to pull him into another hug. Before I could move to do it, though, Rigel’s eyes snapped toward the cockpit.
              “What time is it?” he asked urgently. “Are we almost home?”
              I didn’t know, but I could suddenly sense the familiar air just as he had. I stood up promptly and scuttled back to the pilot’s chair, spinning around to look out the windscreen. Sure enough, in the distance, I could make out the ghostly silhouette of Mt. Adams on the horizon. Also, just a couple clicks ahead, and to my starboard side, was the unmistakable shape of the
Mistress
.
              Immediately, my eyes narrowed at her. She was a couple thousand feet below me, skirting just above the Veil. I doubted that she even knew I was there. Now that I thought of it, I could swoop down on her high side and strafe her from this vantage. She would never see me coming. One shot into her engine, just like she’d done to Rigel, and she’d sink into that ocean of black fog for good.
              No. No, I wouldn’t do that. At least not while Rigel was watching.
              “You’ll never guess who’s just in front of us,” I said darkly, turning back to Rigel. “Looks like she’s-” My words cut short when I saw what was in his hand.
              “You told me that you’d read this,” he said, staring in confusion at the envelope that he had left for me with Toby. I had meant to read it. He had obviously wanted me to, and I had lied to him when he’d asked about it in Shiloh. Where had he found it? The mechanics on Ravencog must have dislodged it from somewhere.
              “Oh,” I said, suddenly at a loss for words. “I…well, I wasn’t sure…”
              Suddenly, he was laughing, his eyes sparkling wildly. I was too surprised by this to even finish the half-baked excuse I was about to come up with. I was expecting him to be insulted or hurt, probably even angry at me for not being honest. But, as weird as it was to me, he was almost…happy. He chuckled for another moment and then let out a strangely relieved sigh.
              “It’s okay,” he said, still grinning. “It’s okay. Really, it’s…it’s good.”
              I blinked at him for a few more seconds before I could will my mouth to form words. “It’s…good?”
              He nodded. “Yeah! In fact, I think I’m gonna just keep this.” He folded the envelope in half and smiled once more. “Actually, I’d probably better tear this thing up.”
              “Why?” I asked. “What’s in it?”
              He smiled, shaking his head. “Nothing, nothing.” He gripped the envelope in his hands and twisted the paper, trying to tear it
              BOOM!
              Without warning, the air in the ship was ringing out like an explosion. A bullet had ripped through the hull just above Rigel’s head and exited out the opposite side of the ship. We were flying at a pretty low altitude, so the pressure difference wasn’t that big, but a sudden hole in the hull of the ship was enough to turn the entire cargo area into a typhoon.
              Moisture from the clouds outside was spraying harshly all over the
Kicker’s
interior. It was whipped back and forth by the violent wind, spraying my face and neck. Instinctively, I pulled the goggles down over my eyes, flopping onto my hands and knees as the ship began listing to the starboard side. As I pushed myself up, I saw the gale-like wind rip the envelope from Rigel’s hand and blast it somewhere toward the back of the hold. As he wiped his eyes, Rigel got to his knees.
              “Do you have patches!?” he bellowed.
              I pointed behind him, to a small toolbox that held my scrap metal and bolting gun. As he made to open it, I wasted no time scrambling toward the cockpit. By the time I pulled myself into the pilot’s chair, the ship was careening toward the Veil at a dangerous level. With a loud grunt, I wiped the lenses of my goggles and pushed to yoke hard to port, feeling its powerful resistance. With air flowing savagely through my hull, the ship’s balance was way off. I reached up and pulled back on the throttle, but I could barely push the stick hard enough to level off.
              Out the windscreen beside me, I saw Audra Carina’s ship skimming my starboard side. Of course the gunshot came from her. I should have known. As I fought to keep my ship from pitching into a spiral dive, she jetted on ahead, leaving me in her wake. I could practically hear the maniacal cackling as she went.
              From the hold, I could hear the sound of the bolt gun as Rigel struggled to rivet the thin sheets of metal over the bullet holes. “Almost got it!” he shouted up at me.
              “Hurry!” I called. “She’s getting away!”
              In my hands, the yoke slowly began to steady. Under my feet, the pedals were beginning to respond. I chanced a look over my shoulder and saw Rigel, teeth gritted tightly as he forced the jagged metal piece into place over the second bullet hole. Holding it there with one hand, he brought up the clunky bolt gun and fired four steel rods through the patch, nailing it to the hull and quelling the storm inside the ship.
              Now with full control once again, I veered starboard toward Audra and hit the throttle, maxing it out. With a couple of short bursts from my hydro thrusters, I was practically on her tail again. I made sure to do a little weaving, though, just so she couldn’t land another shot on me. Rigel did his best to secure everything in my hold, and in just a few short minutes, I was pulling my radio cord down to my helmet.
              “
Cloud Kicker
hailing the Gap,” I said into my microphone, just as I had done a hundred times.
              Crackling back at me, the familiar voice of Jack Dodson sounded in my ear. “Number eleven is open for you, Elana.” I could tell he was excited to see me, but he was trying to remain professional over the radio. I couldn’t blame him. I was excited to be back, but I couldn’t even give him a greeting without running the risk of being disqualified. The Archons would probably take any excuse they could. They’d already tried to kill me, after all.
              In a process I’d completed a million times before, I swooped in on cradle eleven as it extended out, and used my turbines to slowly set the ship down. Audra had already touched down and vanished into the town, and I couldn’t be left behind. Before we had even stopped moving, Rigel hopped out and helped Toby - who was already waiting - secure the mooring lines. I didn’t even wait to hear my ship power down before I was stumbling out my side hatch. With the both of them there, I knew the
Kicker
was in good hands. Next to me, Rigel joined me in stride as we ran along the cradle toward the docks. Just like in every other city, there were dozens of people that had gathered to cheer and jeer at the contestants. But it was different here. Everywhere I looked, there was the face of someone I knew. These were my people. I actually cared about these people.
              “The center of town!” shouted Mr. Pipkin above the crowd. His face, just like those around him, looked almost frenzied. “Go! Hurry!” The people here were forbidden from helping us, just like in the other cities, but Adams and its populace had always had a healthy contempt for the word of the Dominion.
              “I’ll stay here and prep your ship,” Rigel said to me. “I’ll have everything good to go by the time you get back.”
              “Thank you!” I shouted over my shoulder at him. Pushing my body for everything it was worth, I ran. Along the docks, it seemed like everyone I had ever known was lined up on the sides of the streets, clapping and cheering for me. I caught flashes of familiar faces. Mr. Dormeur, who had dragged himself out of whatever hole he had been hiding in, Alice Butterfield, Dr. Pinbacker, Nichols, who looked more excited than I had ever seen him, and even Sparks, who was standing with his hands on the shoulders of Zanna and Echo. I cried out when I saw their faces, and felt my footsteps give a stutter. I had to fight the urge to stop and hug them.
             “Go! Go!” Zanna shouted at me, smiling wildly. Echo was clapping beside her, giggling like a lunatic. I almost burst into tears at the sight of them, but without a word, I listened to my sister. I needed to make up as much time as I could, and I knew the best way to do it. Audra didn’t know the town like I did, after all. As I took off again, I started cutting through the tiny, narrow alleys and the cracks between buildings, utilizing every shortcut I had learned over the course of my life. I knew I was gaining on her, and sure enough, as I made it to the center of town, she was just a few seconds ahead.
              In front of me, however, was something I had never seen. Set up in the town center, which was usually empty, aside from a few wandering citizens, was a large section of property lockers, just like the ones in the plant. The workers used them to store their lunches and other personal things before they went down to work. What they were doing here, I couldn’t say. My confidence was faltering already. In front of the lockers, Mayor Westward himself stood with his arms held out, welcoming the two of us.
              “If you’ve made it this far, you must have a key,” he said loudly, his eyes on me. “It opens one of these boxes. Which one…no one knows. But your final clue rests inside.”
              I stared back at him as Audra rushed forward to the lockers. What key did he mean? Was there a clue that I missed when I diverted to Ravencog? Maybe Rigel had been wrong, and that refueling platform had actually been a scheduled stop on the race.
              I moved forward slowly, suddenly very conscious of all the cheering people around me. They were all expecting me to represent them, to win for them. No one from Adams had ever made it as far in the race as I had, and they were all extremely hopeful. I didn’t want to let them down, but…I didn’t know what I needed to do. I threw a glance over at Audra, who had a key, and was going through the lockers one by one, sliding it into the locks and trying to turn it. Her key was small and metallic. Where had she gotten it?
              In my head, I started to go over the clues that I
had
received. It only took a moment for me to remember. Instantly, I dropped my satchel and started digging into the left pocket of my pinstriped slacks. There
was
a key. I had gotten it from Willow Timbre back in New Eden after I’d handed her my hazelnuts. That seemed like a lifetime ago. No wonder I’d forgotten it. Instantly, I hunched over the lockers and began putting the key in just like Audra was doing, one by one. Each time I twisted it, though, the lock wouldn’t budge. I took a second to survey just how many lockers there were, and sighed. There had to be at least fifty of them. Still, I kept at it, trying to focus on the task at hand, trying to block out the screaming spectators, and trying to not notice Audra as she wrenched open one of the lockers and reached inside. I didn’t see what she pulled out, but I did notice her climbing to her feet and running back toward the docks.
              I was frantic. My hands and fingers were trembling so badly that it was making my key almost impossible to use. The urgency was screaming at me in the back of my head, telling me to hurry, to catch up, to not let Audra escape, but none of the lockers were opening.
              I had almost begun to believe that they key was broken in some way, when I finally felt one of the locks give way and twist to the left. I’d tried over half of the lockers, but I’d finally found the one. I threw the door open, relishing the applause that accompanied it, and grasped what was inside: a thick, brass medallion, embossed with the upside down triangular Dominion logo.
              Rainier.
              That was final stop of the race. The winner was always the one that put their medallion into the velvet podium, and the race always ended where it began. Clutching the medallion in my fist, I grabbed my satchel from the ground and took off back the direction I’d come, gritting my teeth as I tried to urge my legs to move faster. The cheering had reached a fever pitch. I was still a minute behind Audra, maybe two, but I could do it. If I could catch her in the air, I could actually win this thing.