Six Blades. The team could handle six Blades. Still, Jasper couldn’t help feeling on edge as she navigated the first part of the race course. Her apprehension increased as the first racers entered the neighborhood she and Thea had crafted the fake flyers for. Even if her plan worked, she had to make sure no one else used the ramp. She let herself drift to the back of the pack, ignoring smug looks from people who passed her.
The blaring of horns, confused shouting, and angry yelling reached Jasper’s ears sooner than she expected. She moved up onto the sidewalk, turned a corner, and grinned.
The street was packed with vehicles. More vehicles filling driveways blocked the path of racers seeking any gap in the crowd to squeeze through. It seemed that everyone in East Marina wanted to get their hands on the free electronics that were allegedly being handed out at this location.
Jasper headed for the carrier truck parked in a driveway at the edge of the traffic jam. The home’s owners were out of town, and the fake construction tape was holding up just fine. Jasper burst through the tape, and once she was clear of the crowd, she pressed the button on the remote Thea had given her. The vehicle’s ramp lowered. She shot across the yard.
It wasn’t until she was in the air that people noticed her.
Other racers fought to get to the ramp first, but it was already lifting up out of reach. Jasper tightened her grip and braced herself for the landing. She slammed onto a roof, slid down the side, and drove into the less crowded street on the other side of the home.
This was the best idea she’d had in a while. By the time she reached the boardwalk, a few other racers had gotten through the heavy traffic, but they were far behind her. She reached the escalators to Blue Trench and turned on the motorcycle’s antigravity, allowing her to move up onto the ceiling of the glass tube and shoot past everyone on the escalator.
She passed a group of roughly forty teenagers coming up on other escalator. Their faces were covered in paint, and they were blasting music and carrying a range of party supplies.
“Weirdos,” Jasper muttered as she passed them.
The glass tunnel entered the sea, and blue light spilled onto the escalator. People behind Jasper screamed, prompting her to look back. She groaned. South Siren had reached the escalator.
“You’re not taking first from me this time,” Jasper muttered as she considered her array of weapons. She didn’t want to hit any civilians, though she doubted South Siren cared as much.
The civilians didn’t seem to care much either. Some scrambled farther down the escalator, but others paused to take videos and pictures. And scream the villains’ names.
Jasper drew the biggest dagger she had and watched South Siren get closer. And closer. She could push her speed higher, but she wanted to take care of South Siren now, before they got close to the finish line.
South Siren’s hekten—who’d made a speedy recovery from its neoworm infection—adjusted itself as South Siren raised her arm. Jasper reached the bottom of the escalator and twisted in the air to land upright to land on the tile floor of Blue Trench’s main promenade. South Siren hit the ground next to her. Jasper slashed at her tires. South Siren swerved and dodged, and her hekten fired.
Jasper raised the dagger to block the blast, and the blade exploded in her hand. The hekten’s beak opened to fire again, but a water fountain forced Jasper and South Siren to separate to go around.
The long, rectangular fountain stretched out to the next intersection. Jasper spotted a wet floor sign ahead. She drew a knife and threw it at the sign to knock it flat against the edge of the fountain. As she passed a table in front of a cafe, she grabbed an empty chair.
The sign worked as a ramp, but Jasper didn’t get enough air to go over the fountain, instead flying straight through the spray of water. She came out the other side and swung the chair. It smacked into South Siren hard and knocked her off her motorcycle. The vehicle tipped and slid across the ground.
Jasper continued down Blue Trench’s promenade, keeping an eye on the tiny map overlaid on her screen. Another escalator took her to an upper level of the underwater city, where she shot through the front doors of a circular restaurant and took a winding path through the tables and soft blue light.
She was halfway through when a shadow moved over her. A glance up revealed a massive golden fish passing over the restaurant’s glass ceiling.
When Jasper burst out of the doors at the other end of the restaurant, she dropped off a balcony onto a walkway. A thud came from behind her a few moments later. South Siren was back up, and not too far behind. She had a good shot at catching up to Jasper before the end of the race.
Jasper’s gaze flicked to the right, to the city below. And to the massive roller coaster standing between her and the finish line. She’d originally planned to go around, but it was technically marked as part of the path on Ringmaster’s course map.
It gave her a terrible, terrible idea.
Numbers flashed in her vision, telling her how fast the coaster was moving, how long each section of track had before it would come rolling through. She hopped onto the walkway railing, waved at South Siren, and let herself fall off.
Jasper landed on the peak of the track’s highest drop. She leaned forward, and the motorcycle rolled over the edge, sending her into a vertical drop. Laughing, she flung her arms out to each side.
As she neared the bottom, she hit the gas and shot up the next portion of the track. Up, down, around curves, and—
A loop. Small enough that Jasper hadn’t noticed it in the initial survey of the ride. She glanced back. The roller coaster was speeding toward her. She glanced down. There was nowhere else for her to go. She eyed the loop again, wondering if she could move fast enough to make it.
Eh, maybe, but her second idea seemed slightly less risky. Emphasis on slightly. Jasper looked back again as she slowed down. The timing had to be perfect. Three, two, one…
She jumped the motorcycle with as much strength as she could muster, possibly setting a personal record in the process. The coaster shot under her. She flipped herself upside down in the air and reached out with her cybernetic arm to grab the back end. It could handle a lot, but this would be a new test of strength. Maybe she should have tried the first option. Oh god, what if ripped her arm off?
It didn’t, but the pain was enough to make Jasper shout. Her eyes stung as her motorcycle slammed back down on the track. The coaster went around the loop and over another hill. As they neared the top, Jasper let go, gasping for air. Her entire body trembled.
She veered off the track and fell. Past another section of track, past a second coaster cart shooting by, past the balcony Ringmaster watched the race from, his expression unreadable.
Jasper drew her grappling hook and fired at a walkway. The hook caught. She sailed over a crowd of people yelling and pointing and let go. The landing was rough, and the grappling hook slipped from her hand, but she managed to keep herself upright. At least, long enough to cross the finish line.
First place.
She couldn’t even manage a weak smile. Her hands shook violently. Even though other racers were approaching, she stopped and stumbled off the motorcycle.
“Status?” Jasper gasped. “Are you all okay?”
“We’re fine,” Thea said. “You?”
Jasper dragged her motorcycle through the outdoor seating of a cafe. She grabbed a bottle of Nova Cora right out of some dude’s hand, ignoring his surprised cry. “I’m fine. I took first.” She chugged the entire drink in seconds and tossed the bottle into a recycling bin as she passed.
“Good. All that work wasn’t for nothing,” Holly said. “I mean, that that was entirely unnecessary, and you’ve only made yourself a bigger target. But congrats.”
Jasper didn’t have the strength to come up with a response other than, “I’ll meet you all back at the hotel.”
She dragged the motorcycle into an alley between two shops, mentally planning a route back to East Marina. Something moved overhead. A figure jumped off one of the shop roofs and landed in front of her.
“You’re insane,” South Siren said. “What made you think you could pull that off?”
Jasper shrugged. “I’m Van Terra. Idiot.” She put on a nonchalant front, but her hands tightened around the handlebar as she braced herself for an attack.
No attack. Not today, anyway. “One of these days, I’m going to kill you,” South Siren hissed before turning and storming off.