Jasper stood at the edge of the roof while the team talked quietly behind her. The setting sun bathed the city around them in shades of red, but no matter which way she turned her gaze, it was hard to focus on anything but the impending race.
Tonight’s course was a straight shot across Sagev, through the Silvium Center, followed by a loop in the desert around the city. She was determined to do well this time. Holly had a point about not drawing attention, but Jasper couldn’t stand all those smug villains thinking they were better than her.
So, she had a few tricks up her sleeve for this race.
“I’m going,” Jasper finally announced.
“Good luck,” Grace said.
“Thanks.” Jasper lifted her helmet and inspected the visor for smudges. “But I don’t need luck.” She’d learned to make do without it a long time ago.
“Quit being dramatic,” Holly said. “I’d tell you to keep a low profile, but I feel like that’s out the window at this point.”
“It’s not just out the window, it’s in a whole different neighborhood.” Jasper slid on the helmet and gave the team a thumbs up. “But thank you all for the words of encouragement.”
Thea raised an eyebrow without looking up from her tablet. “Grace is the only one who said anything remotely encouraging, and you dismissed it.”
“I’d say good luck too,” Dax began. “But—”
“All I hear is praise and admiration.” Jasper laughed. “See you nerds later.”
She jumped off the roof and landed on an apartment balcony. From there it was a few short drops to the ground where her motorcycle waited. The roar of engines in the distance grew louder as the racers converged on the starting point nearby: an abandoned construction site waiting for demolition.
Jasper rolled up to an empty spot at the edge of the pack. When the race countdown she’d added to her screen reached zero, Ringmaster emerged from the shadows above, stepping into a shaft of red sunlight on a metal rafter.
“On your marks, racers.” His voice echoed around the skeleton of a building. A golden platform appeared in the air in front of him. He jumped onto it.
Jasper performed one last quick check of the tools she’d added to her belt: a few of her stronger smoke bombs, extra explosives, and a container holding a deep sea neoworm she’d nabbed from a pet store. She’d also strapped her longest sword to the side of her motorcycle. It wasn’t strong—she doubted it could handle more than a few bullets, if any—but it would work for her purposes tonight.
“Get set.” The platform carried Ringmaster upward. “Go!”
Jasper accelerated faster than most of the bigger vehicles, quickly shooting from somewhere in the middle of the rankings to near the front. As she approached the edge of the building, Ringmaster’s platform carried him even higher, out of the construction site entirely. Why was he getting out so fast?
Jasper passed through the opening and glanced back as Ringmaster, now high above the construction site, lifted his hands. A golden orb appeared in the air in front of him and dropped down into the building. A detonator formed from his energy. It was one of his signature moves.
Jasper was forced to slow as the course merged with traffic on Oasis Street. Without her consciously thinking about it, a countdown had popped up in the corner of her screen. The amount of time it typically took for one of Ringmaster’s energy bombs to go off.
She pulled onto the median between the two opposing directions of traffic and zig-zagged around the palm trees lining the center of the road. The ground shuddered. She threw another glance back.
The bottom sections of the building groaned as they collapsed. The upper levels quickly followed.
“Leave it to Ringmaster to blow up a building for the drama,” Jasper muttered, though some part of her wondered if he was trying to get people killed. Maybe he didn’t want any winners at the end of this.
“That’s rich, coming from you,” Holly replied.
“I wouldn’t blow up a building!”
“You blew a hole in the roof of the Silvium Center just yesterday,” Thea pointed out.
“And Atzy’s,” Grace added, quieter.
“Wait, when were you at Atzy’s?” Holly asked.
Jasper ignored the question. The course shot under an overpass, and she veered up onto the ramped concrete side, using the higher ground to survey the other racers. She spotted South Siren near the front, hekten wrapped around her upper arm.
Perfect. Jasper eased back down into the flow of traffic. The Silvium Center’s dome glowed up ahead against the darkening sky. The first racers left the road and headed up the long set of stairs leading to the mall’s north entrance. When Jasper reached the stairs, she hopped onto the railing instead. She wobbled but managed to keep her balance as she shot past the vehicles climbing the steps.
She flew off the railing at the top and landed right behind South Siren. As they passed through the front entrance, South Siren extended the arm her hekten was perched on.
Jasper’s hand darted to the neoworm in her pocket. She popped the lid off its container and swerved to avoid the first blast from the hekten. The fluorescent green worm inched onto Jasper’s gloved hand. She held it up.
The hekten hissed and scrambled up to South Siren’s shoulder.
“That’s right, you spiky monster!” Jasper flung the worm onto the hekten’s head. It latched on tight the moment it landed. Even if South Siren was able to rip the thing off immediately, it was already laying its eggs. That should put the hekten out of commission for a week or so. South Siren yelled a string of curses as Jasper passed her.
Jasper navigated the tables in the food court—and the people running around them—with relative ease. Larger vehicles were forced to take the long way around. They would also be forced to take the central staircase up to the second floor.
With her motorcycle, Jasper was able to instead aim for the nearest up escalator. “Outta the way!” she shouted at the last few people scrambling off.
From there, the course ran along the same path Jasper and the others had used during their little joy ride they day they’d arrived. Jasper tipped her head back and laughed as she flew off the roof and sailed through the air.
She whizzed through the parking lot and onto Silvium Drive. The sky was all purples and pinks and blues now. Jasper lifted her gaze to take it in.
Storefronts and restaurants and casinos and dance clubs flew by, a blur of flashing lights and glowing signs. As traffic lessened and buildings became shorter and father apart, a bang went off in a passing alleyway.
“Was that a gunshot?” Jasper asked. She glanced back, but there was no sign of anyone behind her.
“Where?” Thea asked.
“Right by the intersection of Silvium Drive and Sunshine Boulevard.”
Grim Machine’s tank form was coming up on Jasper’s right. She frowned when a long pipe emerged from his side. That had to be some kind of weapon, right?
More racers broke free of the city traffic and turned onto the older road leading out into the desert. Grim Machine summoned a surprising burst of speed and passed Jasper. As he did, a dark cloud shot out of the pipe.
The racers that drove through the cloud didn’t show any immediate adverse reaction. Still, Jasper steered clear. “I don’t suppose anyone could tell me what this weird cloud is.”
“Hold on, I’ll bring up a camera feed,” Thea replied. “Make sure your smartsphere is pointed forward.”
After a moment, Dax said, “Looks kind of like bird seed.”
“What? How do you know what bird seed looks like?” Jasper asked.
“I go bird watching sometimes.”
“There aren’t any birds in Kronos.”
“There are in the Tide District,” Thea said.
“Don’t those birds eat people?” Holly asked.
Grace chimed in. “I thought that was a myth.”
“This debate is completely pointless, because there is absolutely no reason for Grim Machine to put bird seed in the air during a race.” Jasper opened her own camera as the robot fired off another cloud. “I’m going to send Thea a close picture so someone with more than half a brain cell can tell me what it is.” She zoomed in, snapped a photo, and sent it to Thea’s tablet.
“Oh, yeah, that’s definitely bird seed,” Thea said.
“Yep,” Dax confirmed.
Jasper’s brow furrowed. “Really?”
“Specifically, it’s the seed of a plant that produces a rotting meat smell,” Thea explained. “This particular brand adds a bunch of chemicals to increase its potency. It’s meant to lure in carnivorous birds from over a mile away.” After a brief pause, she added, “It’s pretty disgusting that he’s using it, actually. Those chemicals are awful for the environment—”
Something shrieked in the distance, and a long-forgotten memory stirred in Jasper’s mind. A memory of desperately seeking cover. Of watching people get snatched up like mice. Her heart dropped. “No, no, no, no, no—”
“Jasper? What’s wrong?” Dax asked.
“This is bad.”
“Jasper?” Grace pressed.
Focus. She needed to focus if she was going to get out of this alive. “Snatchawks.” Jasper fought to keep her eyes on the road and not the sky. “Invasive species. Brought in during the Waste Wars to destroy armies.”
“Oh?” Holly’s tone was more intrigued than concerned. “I’ve always wanted to see one of those in person.”
“No, you don’t,” Jasper told her sharply. “They’re monsters. And Grim Machine’s summoning them to pick off racers.” He had nothing to worry about, being a massive hunk of metal. Even if the birds were strong enough to lift him, they had no interest in something they couldn’t eat.
The shrieks sounded again, closer now.
“You sound like you’ve seen one before,” Holly said.
Jasper didn’t answer Holly. She barely heard the statement. She squeezed her handlebar with painful force as she watched the first of the red, helicopter-sized birds of prey appear on the horizon.