Jason swallowed. He had to stay close to Xavier - since Xavier knew the way through.
The black entry tunnel to the mine rushed toward him like the open mouth of a hungry giant. Jason drew in a sharp breath.
"Hang on, Bug. Here we go!"
And with that the Argonaut shot underground, disappearing into the blackness of the mine.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
THE SHORT-CUT LABYRINTH.
LAP: 17 [OF 20].
Rocketing through darkness.
The close square walls of the abandoned mine whipped past Jason at astonishing speed, the whole underground world illuminated only by the sabre-like beams of his headlights. Each tunnel was about the width and height of an old railway tunnel.
Up ahead, he saw the glowing red tail-lights of the Speed Razor descending into the bowels of the Earth, following the steep entry tunnel straight down. Then without warning, the red lights cut left, having arrived at the bottom of the entry tunnel.
Jason shot off after them. He had to keep those taillights in view - The Bug said something.
"I know! I know!" Jason yelled back. "I"m trying to stay with him!"
The Speed Razor swept momentarily out of sight, and Jason followed it, only to find himself staring at a fork of two tunnels...and no tail-lights in sight.
A bolt of ice shot up Jason"s spine.
No...
Then he saw the tail-lights way up the right-hand fork and relief swept through him and he took off after them.
The mine flattened out and the Speed Razor swept through it at rocket speed, taking turns easily, a sharp left here, a sweeping right there, with the Argonaut close behind it.
And then Jason noticed that the tunnels had started to slant upward. They were approaching the surface. Trailing close behind the Speed Razor, he rounded a final bend before - blinding sunlight a.s.saulted his eyes.
They were out!
They"d got through the short-cut maze.
The eastern coastline of Tasmania stretched gloriously away to the left, with Prince Xavier"s Speed Razor rocketing away along it.
The Argonaut blasted out of a trapezoidal pipe halfway up the coastal cliffs and banked sharply to avoid the specially placed set of demagnetising strips at the junction of the short cut and the regular course, just as - shoom! shoom! - two cars boomed past him on either side.
Varishna Krishna and Isaiah Washington!
The former race leaders!
And suddenly Jason"s eyes widened.
Thanks to the Black Prince, the Argonaut was back in the race.
The next lap-and-a-half saw some of the fiercest racing of Jason"s life.
Through the S-bends up at the top-right corner of Tasmania, winding between Cape Barren Island and Flinders Island - trying to avoid the demag strips while also trying to overtake his foes.
And then Varishna Krishna tried to slip past Xavier at the hairpin next to Pit Lane, but Xavier cruelly rammed him, forcing the Indian out over the ripple strips.
Krishna reeled, skidding wide, and as he did so, Washington managed to slip past him. Jason tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the opportunity as well, but Krishna regained control of his car at exactly the wrong time, and not only did he shut Jason out, he also made him slow down a fraction.
Jason swore.
And so, by Lap 18, with only two laps to go, he was still in 4th, in what was now essentially a four-horse race, behind three of the best drivers in the School: Xavier, Washington and Krishna.
With the race almost eight hours old now, everyone was running on depleted mags, depleted nerves and depleted energy levels. The sheer intensity of their battle had meant that all of the top four racers had at some point touched the ripple strips in the last few laps, thus further losing traction.
Which meant, with two laps to go and their magneto drives starting to feel slippery, they"d each need to make one last pit stop.
Halfway round Lap 18, Sally McDuff"s voice came through Jason"s earpiece.
"Jason! The other crews are preparing for their final pit stop. You wanna come in with them now or wait till the next lap?"
Jason pursed his lips, a.s.sessed the situation.
His magneto drive levels were at 39% of full strength. Two laps on this course would consume about 30%: 15% per lap. The remaining 9% allowed him maybe three b.u.mps on the ripple strips.
You have to win. Second place isn"t an option today.
The Bug seemed to read his mind, and said so.
"Thirty-nine per cent. We can make it..." Jason said.
The Bug was doubtful.
Sally, listening in on the radio, said: "Jason, no. Not again. Don"t even think it."
"They won"t be expecting it," Jason said.
"Jason, it didn"t work in that training race with Wong and Washington. And you remember Syracuse"s stats. Skipping the last pit stop has a success rate of 0.005 per cent."
At that moment, the Bug reminded Jason of another piece of Scott Syracuse"s wisdom: To err is human, to make the same mistake twice is stupid.
Jason"s eyes narrowed.
"We"re gonna do it."
And so, as the three lead cars decelerated into the pits for their final pit stops, to the absolute amazement of the crowds, the Argonaut swept past the pit entry and zoomed off down the track, trying to put as much distance between it and its rivals before they came out of the pits, hungry to chase him down.
Jason hit the short-cut tunnel on the fly and, guided by the Bug"s photographic memory of their previous trip through the labyrinth, took the same route they"d taken before.
They emerged from the other side, banking wildly, and Jason touched the demag strips on the outside of the track there and his magneto drive levels dropped 3%.
" The others are out of the pits now, Jason!" Sally"s voice warned in his ear. "They"re hunting you down!"
The Argonaut swept round the course.
Jason concentrated intensely.
His magneto counter ticked steadily downwards.
The other three cars gained on him, rocketing round the course on fresh mags. But Washington and Krishna didn"t have the nerve to follow Xavier through the short-cut tunnel and they fell behind, taking the long way round, and in doing so, effectively put themselves out of the running.
The Black Prince, however, took the tunnel fearlessly, and as such, he kept gaining on the Argonaut.
Then, on the other side of the course, Jason hit the demag strips bounding the Cradle Mountain hairpin, just a glancing blow, but enough to send his mag meter whizzing down another 3%.
The Speed Razor kept coming. On the long straights, Jason could see it looming in the distance in his mirrors.
Mag levels: 18%.
The Argonaut came to the sharp hairpins near the pits. Despite the fact that he took them extra carefully, to Jason"s horror, he clipped the ripple strip on the super sharp right-hand hairpin just before the Start-Finish Line and suddenly his mag levels were at a bare 15%. Jason knew what that meant.
With only one lap to go, on ever-declining mags, and with a ruthless compet.i.tor looming up behind him on a fresh set of magneto drives, he had to do a perfect lap.
CHAPTER NINE.
LAP: 20 [OF 20].
The Argonaut cut left, banking toward the short-cut isthmus, commencing the final lap.
The crowds in the stands were on the edge of their seats. Among them, Henry Chaser sat with his hand held to his mouth. Martha Chaser seemed quite content beside him, head bowed, doing some knitting.
The Argonaut raced into the short-cut tunnel for the last time. The Speed Razor also banked left, heading for the isthmus, starting the final lap.
The Argonaut zoomed up the coast.
The Speed Razor entered the short-cut mine.
The Argonaut zig-zagged between the upper islands. The Speed Razor roared up the coast.
At Cradle Mountain, Jason slowed dramatically to take the turn that had cost him some magnetism on the previous lap. The Argonaut was sliding all over the place now, handling like someone trying to walk on an ice skating rink, going at a torturously slow 450 km/h. The Speed Razor was doing 600 km/h and accelerating. Halfway round and Jason"s mag levels were down to 7.5%. Just enough to get home - if he didn"t touch any ripple strips.
Down the wild western coast of Tasmania - with the Speed Razor now looming large in his mirrors.
Xavier"s car moved surely and securely, always gaining. The Argonaut slipped and slid, limping home.
Everyone could see where this was heading.
At their current speeds, the Speed Razor was going to catch the Argonaut right at the death.
Mag levels: 3% Jason floored it down the last long sweeper, bracing himself for the series of dreadfully tight hairpins guarding the Finish Line - hairpins that he was going to have to negotiate perfectly. One touch on the ripple strips now would end his race.
Mag levels: 2% "Come on..." he willed himself. "Come on..."
Prince Xavier"s black Lockheed now filled his mirrors. The Argonaut took the left-hander into Storm Bay at a pathetic 325 km/h. Glowing red demag lights whizzed by it on either side.
The Speed Razor took the same turn a split-second later, doing 450.
The Argonaut shot past the pits, slowed to a crawl to take the first right-hand hairpin.
The Speed Razor launched itself into the same turn. The two cars were almost level.
Mag levels: 1%.
Jason swung left, into the second-last turn of the race - a left-hand hairpin - just as the Speed Razor came alongside his tail.
Then it was into the last corner of the race, a tight righthand hairpin, and here Xavier made his move, tried to overtake Jason on the outside!
The two cars roared round the final turn side-by-side. Henry Chaser leapt to his feet.