requiring use of the hand brake to make the
inside of the curve. About halfway through,
the course formed a spiral, forcing the racers to
make a right turn for nearly a full minute.
Once he made it past the spiral,
A11_4_ON3 checked on the other racers’
positions. He had a comfortable lead. His
teammates were still lagging behind in the
bottom three positions. He smiled to himself
again.
That’ll show them.
After a few more turns and curves, he saw
the finish line. He pushed the throttle all the
way down, bringing his pod to max speed for
the big finish. When he crossed the line, the
pod slowed to a stop. The rest of his team
had not improved their position despite their
best efforts, coming in fourteenth, fifteenth,
and sixteenth place. They’d made up some
of the ground they had lost after the crash,
but not enough to get a respectable finishing
position.
As ECHO crossed the finish line in last
place, the teams’ standings appeared on the
dashboards of the pods. A11_4_ON3 frowned
15
