Track: Gasworks Screw Factory, Steel Mill, and Doll Workshop That Is Totally Not a Front for Anything Else. This track will require vertical climb, inverted racing, and gap coverage of up to 100 meters. There will be multiple paths to the exit.
Tasks required to complete: Don’t get squished. Don’t get melted. Don’t get screwed.
Environment: Extreme heat. Containment field will protect from heat and molten metal.
Hazards: Containment theft is now enabled. If your containment touches another containment for more than 5 seconds, you may lose it upon separation.
In other words, don’t bump your fellow racers.
All paths on this race are only wide enough for two at a time, and you’ll be sharing this track with 11 other heats.
Time Limit: 30 minutes.
Donut let out a little whimper. “Carl, I don’t like this.”
“One race at a time,” I said. “The good news is, I can drive again.”
I suddenly remembered the messages we’d received during the race, and I checked them now. There were dozens of them. I cringed, reading of all the crawlers who’d fallen. I focused on that message string from Tran.
Tran: If this is my last message, know that I tried to stop them from fighting Li Na. I tried.
This was followed by a message from Imani.
Imani: Tran! Are you okay?
Tran: I’m alive. We actually won. Zhang was leading their octopus, and he let me pass. They tried to stop her, and it’s the same thing that happened in Beijing. She cast a dread, and they started killing each other. It was awful. I think of all twenty-four teams that started the race with us, only five survived. Of our heat, it was just my team and them. Zhang needs help. He was sobbing. I don’t know what to do.
Heat Four. Results.
First Place: The Royal Court of Princess Donut.
Second Place: Lady Dominators and the Gimp.
Third Place: Team Flamengo.
Fourth Place: Team Free Love.
Fifth Place: Team Sparkles.
Eliminated: One Fine Pig.
HEAT 5 OF 7
INTERLUDE
MINUS
“If the AI so much as suspects you’re anything other than a simple tourist, it’s going to pop you like a boil,” Captain Fresh of the Syndicate security forces said. He handed Minus a datapad. “This contains about five hundred hours of footage of the fairy crawler along with all the posts your brother made regarding her. You’ll have to rapid-inject it, as you’re going to onboard tonight. The tenth floor begins in just a few hours. We’re preparing a transfer, but you’ll need to watch as much as you can at regular speed, too, as the AI will be suspicious of too much brain recall from injected memory. There’s, uh, some snicks on there as well. Ones your brother made himself. Luckily, he had enough money saved up to purchase the ship, so if anyone investigates too closely, it all adds up. He was quite smart with his investments, and other than the people on the Snow Cones message board, he didn’t have any known associates. The last person he appeared to have contacted face-to-face was you.”
“That was five cycles ago,” Minus said.
“We know,” said Captain Fresh.
Minus sighed, looking at the corpse of his poor dead brother, Linus, who’d just been wasted by Syndicate security.
Minus hadn’t even known his brother had moved from the surface of Teelan-3 to one of the swanky habitats in orbit around the star. He took a hesitant step, careful not to get any of the garbage on his boot. His brother had made his fortune in biological license engineering for the Dream and had cashed out cycles ago. Minus hadn’t talked to him since that last time, which had been a month after their father’s funeral. Linus had said then that he’d purchased full citizenship. Minus had assumed he was going to keep working.
A wave of guilt washed across the soother. Even then, Minus had known his brother was lonely. He looked about the trash-filled berth. It smelled awful in here.I should have called him.