Dr. Metcalf beeped.
I have received the map data. Analyzing now. I’m probably analyzing it a lot slower than all the other teams in this heat. Did you know that Janice, who is the GPS unit in the Lady Dominators’ car, is now completely upgraded? She’s a snotty bitch, and now you’re forcing me to be seen in public next to her with no upgrades whatsoever. Do you know how humiliating that is? Do you?
“All this negativity will cause your hair to prematurely shed, my princess,” Dorota said.
Shut the fuck up. I will fucking kill you.
“Dr. Metcalf,” I said, trying to keep the frustration from my voice, “we ran out of upgrades. I’m sorry. We will be following the Lady Dominators, but we’ll need to know what’s ahead. Can you do that for us?”
We had just over a minute.
The map appeared on the screen.
Fine. It appears there are many wide-open spaces mixed with narrow tracks, but we must traverse from one section of the factory to the next. It’s straightforward, though the factory itself will be active. We enter through the receiving bay and exit through shipping. There are no obviously safe paths. It appears there are multiple neighborhood bosses in the middle area. The entire floor in this room is molten metal, so we will have to either drive on the walls or ceilings. The bosses live within the molten metal and will likely put me out of my misery.
“Okay,” I said, looking over at Osvaldo, who was the one holding the reins of his gnu. I’d already talked to him, and I was going to let him go ahead of us so we could zip to the left and get behind the Lady Dominators. Prepotente and Jurgen were going to help as well if we were in proximity to one another.
We were only going to get one shot at this.
Ahead, the starting lights appeared.
“Are we ready?” I asked, revving the engine. This race had a time limit of only thirty minutes, and the total distance was twenty kilometers. “It’s gonna go quick.”
“Ready, Carl,” Donut said.
“To battle,” Dong said from behind us.
The light turned green, and we were off.
[ 63 ]
Tires squealed,and four of us lurched off the starting line, zooming toward the entrance to the massive factory. Sparks flew off the neon factory sign as we approached.
I had set up a group of tiny explosives on the roof of the truck, and I activated them.
Bam!Fiberglass shattered, and the drum barrel of the tommy gun blasted away, clearing my windshield.
Osvaldo: Careful,puta! That shrapnel hit our ass!
Carl: Sorry!
“Carl!” Donut called, looking in the mirror. “Dwight is just sitting there on the starting line! He’s not going!”
“Don’t worry about him,” I called as the fast-moving Bruna rushed ahead. I swerved to the left, moving directly behind the GTO, which was also rapidly gaining distance. I hit the pedal, and we accelerated. If we didn’t make our move soon, we’d lose them. “Eat the page!”
We passed under the entrance gate.
Entering the Gasworks Screw Factory, Steel Mill, and Doll Workshop.
Thwum!
The containment appeared and then turned invisible. A light in the corner of Dr. Metcalf’s interface blinked green, indicating it as active. We had to keep out of contact with the other vehicles. Any continuous contact for more than five seconds, and our containments would merge.
Ahead, we entered a giant industrial room filled with what appeared to be piles and piles of banger spheres. The dirty floor was made of concrete, and the distant walls appeared to be corrugated metal. The lights were off, but a red glow filled the far side of the dusty, dingy room, making the shadowy piles of spheres look like the shells of giant beasts until you got too close.
There were dozens of these piles, all reaching to the high ceiling, which was at least fifteen meters. These were, I assumed, metal pellets to be melted down, and we had to swerve around them. The room itself was many times that in width, reminding me of the football-stadium-like room where we made secondary-class selection on the sixth floor.
A wave of heat washed over us the moment we entered, and I knew without the containment, it would already be deadly hot, and this was just the entrance.