Hover Car Racer by Matthew Reilly Read Free Book Online Page B

for home.
    But Jason just kept watching Ariel’s hover car. It was now shuddering violently and listing away to the right - the absolutely wrong direction - shooming off into the distance in a superwide right-hand arc.
    ‘Something’s wrong,’ Jason said. ‘If she missed the turn, she would have pulled up by now…’
    Then came the realisation.
    ‘She’s lost control of the car.’
    And as he said those words, Jason saw the final hairpin approaching, and suddenly he had a choice: he could finish the race - and get the 6 championship points for coming 5th - or he could help Ariel.
    The Bug pointed out that the School would send out recovery vehicles to get Ariel.
    ‘No,’ Jason said. ‘Look at her. She’s too far gone. They won’t get to her in time. We’re the only ones who can help her.’
    And with that, he made his decision.
    Instead of taking the final left-hand hairpin turn himself, Jason banked the Argonaut right, booming off after Ariel’s out-of-control hover car.

    The commentators had never seen anything like it.
    That the Pied Piper had missed the final turn under intense pressure was nothing new. But that the Argonaut had shoomed off into the distance after it was!
    Two orange-painted truck-sized recovery vehicles were dispatched from Race HQ - standard practice for a race mishap. They couldn’t know that this was no ordinary mishap.
    The Argonaut zoomed low over the ocean, came alongside the tail of the red-and-white Pied Piper , both cars turning in a wide right-bending arc.
    ‘Sally! Get me Ariel’s radio frequency!’ Jason yelled into his radio-mike.
    Sally did so, and as the Argonaut pulled alongside Ariel’s shuddering car, Jason saw Ariel grappling with her steering wheel.
    ‘Ariel! What’s wrong!’
    ‘ I’ve lost power in all my right-side magneto drives, Jason! They all switched off at exactly the same time, just as I was about to take that last hairpin! ’
    ‘What kind of control have you got?’ Jason asked.
    ‘ Nothing! It’s like everything just cut out at once! Thruster controls are gone! Electronics are unresponsive - I can’t even shut down - and my other mags are losing magnetism fast. ’
    This was bad. Ariel’s left-hand magneto drives were bearing the weight of her whole car, and were thus losing their power twice as fast as they should have been. They were also driving the car in a wide circle, banking right.
    What made it worse was the sight looming up ahead.
    The southern coastal cliffs of the Port Arthur Peninsula rose up out of the ocean like a gigantic wall. High ocean waves crashed at their feet. Ariel’s wide right-bending arc had brought her round a full 270 degrees: she was now rocketing northward, about to crash into the coastal cliffs.
    ‘Ariel! You have to eject!’ Jason yelled.
    ‘ No! ‘ Ariel shouted back.
    ‘No? Are you crazy! Why not!’
    ‘ Jason, if I eject, the Piper will smash into those cliffs, and I won’t have a car anymore. And without a car, I’ll be out of Race School! ’
    ‘And if you die, you’ll also be out of Race School!’
    ‘ I am not going to eject! ’
    The cliffs were approaching. Fast. Wide. Immovable.
    There couldn’t be more than ten seconds to impact. Jason thought quickly.
‘All right…’ he said.
    He gunned his engine and swung the Argonaut in underneath Ariel’s speeding red-and-white car.
    The cliffs rushed toward them.
    Nine seconds…eight…seven…
    The body of the Pied Piper cast a dark shadow over Jason and the Bug, blocking out the sun. Jason saw the underbelly of the Piper less than a foot above his open cockpit.
    Six…five…four…
    The cliffs were very close now.
    Then Jason pulled back on his stick, causing the Argonaut to gradually rise…
    Clunk! The arched hunchback of the Argonaut clanged against the underside of the Pied Piper . Its wide flat tailfin also touched the bottom of Ariel’s speeding car, providing a kind of three-point stability.
    Three seconds…
    And Jason gunned his