Car Sinister

by Robert Silverberg

  “Mr. Ronnie Lee Hauptman of Dallas has asked for first challenge, and is, at this moment, speeding toward you with an ETA of 6:15 this evening. In the event Mr. Hauptman does not survive, you have waiting challenges from Mr. Fred Bull of Chatsworth, California . . . Mr. Leo Fowler of Philadelphia . . . Mr. Emil Zalenko of . . .”

  George did not hear the list. He was trying desperately, with clubbed fingers, to extricate himself from the strangling folds of the g- and crash-suits. But he knew it was no good. He would have to fight.

  In the world of the Freeway, there was no place for a walking man.

  The author wishes to thank Mr. Ben

  Bova, formerly of the Avco Everett Research

  Laboratory (Everett, Massachusetts), for his

  assistance in preparing the extrapolative

  technical background of this story.