Page 19 of Hyperspeed
“Ready to go?” Sam asked over the comms.
I confirmed before pressing a button on my steering wheel, and a transparent dome of glass closed over my head. Fresh oxygen flooded the cockpit, sharpening my senses. Another button brought the electromagnetic thrusters to life, lifting the vehicle a few feet off the ground, and the whirring noise that followed let me know the tyres had retracted to be concealed in their dedicated compartments.
I directed the vehicle towards the edge of the paddock. “All good.”
“Get a move on, Mercer,” Dray snapped via the drivers’ radio, his vehicle appearing in my wing mirror. It seemed that Vortex were practicing too, so just to fuck with him, I crawled along at a snail’s pace.
“Lovely day for a leisurely drive,” I chirped.
He growled, low and rumbling, and swerved to the left, attempting to overtake me. But I cut him off at the last second, enjoying the stream of curses he sent my way. Instead of responding, I cackled and pressed down on the accelerator, zooming onto the track.
Other than Dray, I was alone on the track. Jax hadn’t started yet. I flew through the first floating ring, narrowly avoiding a rogue chunk of ice that wastrying to break away from the pack. Then I switched to my custom thrusters, built for maximum acceleration, and pushed my vehicle to the limit.
The straight opened up before me, stars streaking past in silver blurs. My pulse kicked up with the speed—fast, faster—until the speedometer was almost at its limit. I gritted my teeth and held the line. A corner surged into view. I slammed on the brakes and pulled hard, the g-force biting deep into my chest as I drifted clean through the next ring, inches from the edge.
It reminded me of Rev during qualifying, and I tried not to imagine his smug expression if he knew I was doing something similar. But at least there was no one around for me to harm. That was the difference between us.
The gap between me and Dray had grown rapidly thanks to the thrusters, and he’d disappeared from the view in my mirrors. My AI navigation system alerted me to the incoming gravitational pull, so I hit the throttle again, twisting the steering wheel to the right.
Instead of veering off course as one might expect, I tilted in a smooth anticlockwise arc. The momentum carried me into a corkscrew turn, and I released an excitedwhoopas I blasted through the next ring.
Five laps later, I returned to the paddock, parking up with just enough time to watch Jax head out, Zylo close behind him. My gaze skimmed the rest of the lineup, but Rev was nowhere to be seen.
Not that I was looking for him.
My eyes just had their own ideas, apparently.
Sam watched from the garage door as I lowered my vehicle to the ground. “How was it?” he asked once the glass dome had retracted.
I pulled off my helmet and grinned. “Absolutely perfect.”
He smiled back, taking my helmet while I climbed out of the vehicle. “I saw your little twirl on the feed. Have fun?”
“Everyone’s asking me that lately.” Frowning, I brushed strands of sweaty hair off my forehead. “I always have fun.”
He nodded, and I followed him into the garage. “I’m sure you do. Today just seemed like . . . more.”
“Has the rookie been out yet?” I asked. If he noticed my sudden change of subject, he didn’t call me out on it.
“Not yet.” He didn’t have to ask whichrookie I was referring to, and I couldn’t tell if that irked me or not. “I think all the rookies are planning to head out at the end, once the pros have finished.”
I hummed. It made sense. There were only a couple of zero-gravity tracks in the lower racing leagues, and I doubted the underground circuit had one. A track like this could be intimidating, despite being one of the easiest. When I was a rookie, I’d practiced towards the end too.
But Rev was ballsy, so I was surprised he hadn’t raced on the track with the pros to show off his supposed skills.
When Jax returned, we ate lunch, comparing the bland, protein-packed lunches our personal coaches had put together. I was the kind of guy who’d never leave a meal unfinished. I loved food, and as a growing boy, nothing came between me and my breakfast, lunch, or dinner—even if itwasjust a plain piece of chicken and salad.
So tell me why, when Sam announced the rookies were heading onto the track, I abandoned half of it to watch the feed.
“Feeling full?” Jax smirked. Of course he’d noticed something was off.
“Yep . . . so full.” I dumped the rest of my lunch in the bin, power walking to the other end of the garage before he could say any more.
Ailor was already there, studying the live feed as rookies began leaving the paddock. On the desk was a tablet, full of annotations I didn’t understand. They routinely watched the other teams during practice and qualifying—analysing their decisions and reactions, seeing how they could play into our team’s race-day strategy.
I pulled up an empty chair, settling in to watch as high-speed drones followed the rookies around the track.
“You don’t normally watch the other teams practice,” Ailor stated.
