Hover Car Racer by Matthew Reilly Read Free Book Online

lost.
    Shoom!-shoom!-shoom!
    The hover cars that had previously been behind him now whizzed past the pits.
    ‘Come on! Come on! ‘ he whispered.
    00:08
    00:09
    A ten-second pit stop would be great.
    Shoom !
    Suddenly the last-placed car shot past the pits. They were now officially last.
    The Tarantula was almost done. Only the coolant hose was still connected to the Argonaut . Jason, keen to rejoin the race, leaned forward on his accelerator, creeping forward -
    ‘ Pit Bay Violation! Car 55! ‘ a shrill amplified voice boomed out from some track-side speakers. ‘ Fifteen second penalty! ’
    ‘What!’ Jason yelled.
    And then he saw the Pit Bay Supervisor - the teachers took it in turns to be Supervisor and today it was Professor Zoroastro, Barnaby’s mentor and also the mentor of the mysterious boy in black. Right now, he was pointing at the Argonaut ‘s front wings.
    They were exactly two inches over the pit bay line. ‘Oh, no way!’ Jason shouted.
    A red boom gate whizzed down in front of the Argonaut , preventing it from leaving the pits. A digital timer on the horizontal boom counted down from 00:15. Now every second seemed an eternity to Jason.
    00:10
    00:09
    00:08
    Jason looked over at Sally. Behind her stood Scott Syracuse - his arms firmly folded.
    00:02
    00:01
    00:00
    The boom gate lifted and the Argonaut shot off the mark, blasting back out onto the course.
    The six brand-new magneto drives under him gave Jason a new lease of life.
    The Argonaut flew like a bullet, gripping the tight turns of the rainforest section as if it were travelling on rails.
    With its new mags, it had a grip advantage over the other cars, whose own magneto drives were now nearly six laps old.
    Sally’s voice: ‘ You’re twenty seconds behind the second-last-placed car, Car 70, and gaining. Nineteen…now eighteen seconds behind… ‘
    The Bug spoke.
    ‘I know,’ Jason replied. ‘I know.’
    They were gaining roughly one second for every kilometre. But the course was only 25 kilometres long.
    At this rate - provided Jason raced an almost perfect lap - they’d only catch Car 70 right at the Start-Finish Line.
    Whipping past Russell Falls.
    Ten seconds behind.
    Out round the cliffs, onto the ocean straight - just in time to see Car 70 whip around a faraway bluff.
    Six seconds.
    Weaving through the S-bends of the coastal arches - and suddenly, the tailfin of Car 70 was close.
    Four seconds behind.
    And then Jason saw the Port Arthur hairpin up ahead, saw the building-sized rock pillar that was Tasman Island.
    That was the passing point.
    And he had new mags and the other guy didn’t.
    Car 70 hit the hairpin.
    The Argonaut took it wider, cutting inside 70’s line.
    And the two cars rounded the curve together, flying dangerously close to the jagged rocky pillar - and the Argonaut emerged with its winged nose level with Car 70’s bulbous snout!
    The crowds on the grandstands leapt to their feet.
    The local TV commentators went bananas at the audacity of the move.
    Car 70 and the Argonaut raced down the Derwent side-by-side, neck-and-neck until - sh-shoom! - they crossed the Start-Finish Line together.

CHAPTER SIX

    RACETIME: 18:02 MINS LAP: 7
    The official loudspeakers blared:
    ‘End of Lap 6, eliminated car is Car 70. Racer Walken.’ The crowd cheered.
    Jason floored it - while Car 70 slowed, its driver punching his steering wheel before pulling off into the Exit Lane at the end of the straight.
    The Argonaut was still in the race.

    RACETIME: 01:15 HOURS LAP: 25
    Almost an hour later, Jason was still in it. Coming in 6th.
    The end of Lap 25 saw the final eight cars enter the pits more or less together.
    Jason stopped the Argonaut on a dime. The Tarantula descended, did its stuff.
    Entering the pits just in front of Jason had been the boy in black.
    His car was a super-sleek Lockheed-Martin ProRacer-5, painted entirely in black and simply numbered 1. It was rather presumptuous to number your car ‘1’, since in the pro