Sleeper Shift

by Liz Marsham

  “What did you do to Gary’s remote?!” Ms. Nowhere demanded.

  “Improved it,” said Frostee gleefully.

  “Aw, man,” Gary said.

  Ms. Nowhere cleared her throat. “As I was saying. The plan is for you to catch her, not her router. The pickup could be a distraction.”

  “South, the signal is definitely south!” Frostee cried.

  Tony wrestled with the wheel, threading through traffic without losing speed and turning left onto the Pacific Coast Highway. “This would have been easier in the middle of the night,” he muttered. “So many tourists!” He checked his side mirror. Echo and Cisco were right behind him.

  “Tony, look out!” Echo shouted.

  Tony snapped his eyes to the front. The guard drone from the previous night was diving right toward him!

  “AAAAAH!” he screamed, downshifting and twisting the wheel. The muscle car slewed into the oncoming lanes, narrowly missing the drone. Tony quickly regained control and upshifted as Echo and Cisco shot by him. He swerved back to the southbound lanes and took up position behind them.

  “Where’d it go?” he called.

  “I’m right here,” a staticky voice said from right beside his ear.

  “AAAAH!” he screamed again. The drone was pacing his car just outside his open window.

  “You’re a screamer,” the voice observed.

  “You can hear me?” Tony sputtered.

  “And a thinker,” the voice added.

  “Is the drone talking to you?” Cisco asked.

  Tony opened his mouth to respond but waited as a plane passed low overhead on its way to the airport. When the noise of its engine had subsided, he yelled, “It’s Alecto!”

  “Definitely a thinker,” said the voice dryly.

  “Keep her talking!” ordered Frostee. “I can use the drone’s broadcast frequency to help track her! Arrgh, she must be using relays to bounce . . .” His voice got softer as he muttered to himself.

  “Why are you doing this?” Tony shouted out the window. He figured that was as good a conversation starter as any.

  “Why are you doing this?” Alecto countered. “Trying to stop me?” A loud, staticky roar came from the drone’s speaker, drowning Alecto out for a moment. Then she continued, “I’m doing this for you!”

  “You’re what now?”

  “You and your friends are just kids! You deserve to grow up in a world where shady corporations are forced to play by the same rules as everyone else. My friends and I worked for that our whole lives, and I’m so close. Back off, and I can finish my life’s work and give you this gift!”

  Echo’s sleek electric car dropped back to pace the drone on the other side. Tony saw her listening intently through her open window.

  “If you use what you’ve stolen,” Tony argued, “it’ll expose private details about a lot of innocent people. The people who use those banks and stuff don’t deserve to be punished.”

  “Justice always comes at a price,” Alecto told him.

  Tony shook his head. “Your price is too high.”

  A laugh came from the drone’s speaker, followed by a rising whining noise. Tony looked over quizzically. Were those sirens?

  “You sound just like my old crew,” Alecto said. “Always wanting to play it safe. And what happened to them? They got caught, and I didn’t. I’m better off on my own. No one can let me down this way.”

  “Tony, look left,” Echo said. Tony cut his eyes over, past the drone, and saw a knot of fire trucks pulling to a stop around an accident in the far lane, their sirens winding down. “The sirens. The plane engine. We heard them through the drone.”

  “The signal is moving!” Frostee shouted suddenly. “That’s why I can’t pin it down!”

  “She’s driving on this road!” replied Echo.

  “She must be right in front of us!” Tony added.

  “Rule number two, Tony,” said Ms. Nowhere. “We can clear the roads for you and set up a roadblock. Just make it to the pier.”

  Tony grinned and floored the accelerator. He could make it anywhere with his crew, never mind the few miles to the pier. And with the sun just starting to set over the ocean, it was a great evening for a race. “We’re on it, boss,” he said.

  “Well, then,” said Alecto. “Time to make this interesting.”

  CHAPTER 6

  FRIDAY, 7:55 P.M.

  Ahead of them, Tony saw a sudden commotion on the road. A boxy yellow car cut across oncoming traffic, smashed through the guardrail, and drove straight up the embankment that ran to their left.

  “Change of plans, Ms. Nowhere!” shouted Tony. “Alecto’s headed for Ocean Park!”

  “Copy,” said Ms. Nowhere tersely. Tony heard her muttering as she gave orders to her people in the background.

  “That is no ordinary hatchback,” Cisco said appreciatively. “It took that hill like whoa.”

  “She must have stolen another sleeper,” said Tony.

  “Still the thinker, I see,” came Alecto’s voice through the drone. “But no. This one’s mine. Bye, kids.”

  The roar of a rocket engine came through the drone’s speaker as a burst of flame shot from the hatchback’s tailpipe, and the sleeper rocketed into the park, smashing the fence that ran along the top of the hill. The drone lifted away from Tony’s car and took off after the hatchback.

  “She’s in the park!” shouted Tony.

  Ms. Nowhere spoke rapidly in his ear. “Here’s the plan: Frostee, keep tabs on that drone. Tony, you stay on Alecto. If you can, herd her away from town and onto the beach; that’s the safest place for a confrontation at this time of day. Echo and Cisco, peel off onto the beach and pace Tony from there. My people are setting up a roadblock just south of the pier and managing the civilians. If she insists on staying close to the crowds, we’ll pen her in there. GO!”

  “Already gone,” Tony said, and pushed the button on his steering wheel for the rocket boosters. The car leaped forward. He gauged the oncoming traffic, expertly spotting his window, and twitched the wheel to the left. The muscle car shot through the narrow gap in traffic and through the hole Alecto had made in the guardrail. Tony felt the tires sink into the loosely packed earth of the hillside and begin to spin out. He tapped a button on his display, and a grappling hook shot from the front of the car, catching on the fence. He reeled in the line, and the car tilted up at a forty-five-degree angle as it climbed the hill, tires catching on firmer ground. The rocket boost was almost gone. Tony released the hook and pushed the gas pedal all the way to the floor, and the muscle car shot over the top of the hill, catching air. A second later, the car landed in Ocean Park with a crunch.

  Tony quickly took in the scene. To his left, people stood along the asphalt paths of the park or sat in the grass, frozen, staring at him. To the right was chaos. A vendor cart was tipped over. People were lying flat in the grass, having thrown themselves to safety, and the cable fence that bordered the path was smashed flat. Tony shifted into gear and took off to the right.

  He spotted her right away. The boxy car was weaving from the path to the grass and back again, dodging pedestrians and benches, smashing into trash cans as it hurtled south. “I see her!” he cried. “She’s headed straight for the pier.”

  “Roadblock’s in place, Tony. We’re evacuating the last of the civilians as I speak,” replied Ms. Nowhere. “Stick to the plan, and whatever you do, do not lose her. That is an order. Echo and Cisco, are you in position?”

  “We’re on the beach,” came Echo’s voice, “but we feel like we’re missing the fun up there.”

  “I’ll try to bring the fun to you,” Tony said with a grin, and gunned the engine. Just ahead, Alecto swerved to the right to avoid a large decorative cannon set into a wide part of the path. Tony upshifted, screeched around the cannon to the left, and tried to cut her off. At the l
ast possible moment, though, she fired her rocket engine again and shot by him.

  Tony swore under his breath and brought his car around after her. He was running out of room to get Alecto onto the beach: the pier was coming up fast on the right, and straight ahead he saw a tight line of sleek black cars stretched across the path, curving around to the left to block escape on that side.

  “What is she doing?” he muttered. Alecto seemed to be headed straight for the roadblock. “Look out, she’s gonna ram it!” he yelped.

  But just as he cried out, Alecto’s car went into a skid, drifted gracefully around to the right, and took off down the deserted pier.

  “We’ve got her!” Ms. Nowhere crowed.

  Tony frowned. “Where is she going?”

  “There’s nowhere to go!” said Ms. Nowhere. “It’s over!”

  Tony shook his head. “Not yet,” he said, and wrenched his wheel to the right. The muscle car took the corner at speed, and Tony headed down the empty pier after Alecto.

  The wide concrete bridge arced down to a series of shops and restaurants on either side, and soon Tony’s car was bouncing over wooden slats where the pier jutted out over the water. He glanced to the right and saw Echo’s and Cisco’s cars speeding in his direction across the beach below, their tires spraying arcs of sand. The wooden path narrowed as deserted vendor carts pressed in on both sides. Ahead of him, he saw Alecto’s hatchback screech around the corner to the left, heading into the amusement park.

  “She’s headed for the rides!” Tony called.

  “Good. She can have one last thrill before we arrest her,” Ms. Nowhere said.

  “Tony, what do you think she’s up to?” Echo asked.

  “I have no idea,” Tony admitted, taking the corner into the fair. He saw the hatchback thread its way past the game booths, headed for the bigger rides behind them. The park had clearly been abandoned in a hurry: the pirate ship ride, which usually held thirty people on its huge covered boat as it swung back and forth in a wide arc, was still swinging with no one aboard, and above it he saw an empty car shoot by on the roller coaster that ringed the park. “But I know it’s something—whoa!”

  Alecto had just accelerated sharply. As Tony watched, agape, she crashed through a flimsy pedestrian barrier, sped up the ramp that formed the line for the ship ride, and shot off the ramp . . . right onto the swinging fake wood canopy of the ship. She gunned the engine as the ship swung to the right. Her car sailed off the end of the thin slab, caught air, and then ka-TANG! With a howl of rubber and metal, the hatchback landed on the roller-coaster track and began to drive along it.

  “Has she lost her mind?” came Ms. Nowhere’s voice.

  Tony eased off the gas for a second, letting the ship complete a swing to the left. As it did, his eyes tracked Alecto’s car, following the orange tracks around in a tight arc. As the hatchback came zooming around, passing along the tracks over his head, he saw Alecto in person for the first time. She looked out the window and locked eyes with him. In her gaze, Tony saw stubbornness, pride, and desperation. And then she was gone, climbing the track in a tight spiral at the landward end of the park.

  “She knows exactly what she’s doing. Whatever it is.” Tony focused on the ship, which was beginning a swing to the right again, and took a deep breath. “Well,” he said, “I guess this is happening now.”

  He floored the accelerator, and his car bore down on the ship ride, up the ramp, and through the air. As soon as the front tires touched the canopy, he spun the wheel to the right, aligning the car with the length of the ride. He gave the car more gas, and at the top of the ship’s swing the car hurtled up, out, and toward the coaster.

  CRUNCH! Tony winced as the muscle car’s front corner collided with the metal tracks. He twisted the wheel to line up the back end before the car lost traction and fell from the ride. The car rocked alarmingly for an instant, then settled, and Tony breathed a sigh of relief as he accelerated.

  As he bent around the arc on the far side of the park, he craned his neck to find Alecto. Her car had just come out of the spiral and was pointed toward the ocean, speeding up an incline into a steep drop.

  “Toretto, I know you do not like to be outdriven,” said Ms. Nowhere, “but may I remind you that roller coasters go in a circle? You are chasing your own tail here, and for what? What’s your plan?”

  “I don’t know,” Tony muttered.

  “Drone coming in high from the north!” shouted Frostee.

  Tony, headed for the spiral, looked to the right. He saw the drone banking in to hover over the water near the coaster’s drop. At that same instant, he heard a FWOOM as Alecto hit her rockets again, and the car streaked up the incline toward the drop. Then he saw the driver’s-side door open.

  Suddenly he understood. “Echo, Cisco, get under the pier to the north side. NOW!” he cried.

  The hatchback popped up off the incline and sailed out over the ocean. Alecto threw herself from the car and grabbed the drone, wrapping her arms around its sleek body.

  “Toretto, report!” demanded Ms. Nowhere.

  “She’s using the drone to get past the roadblock,” Tony replied, turning into the spiral.

  “She can ride it down into the city, steal a car from there, and disappear,” added Echo. “Unless . . . oh no, Tony, look!”

  Tony screeched around the spiral leading up to the coaster’s big drop-off and saw that the drone was bobbing erratically in the air, with Alecto struggling to control it. “It’s not strong enough to carry her,” he realized. “She’s going to fall!” He took the last loop of the spiral, losing sight of her again momentarily.

  “This is gonna be bad,” Cisco’s dismayed voice said in his ear.

  Tony careened out of the spiral and toward the incline. Time seemed to slow as Tony flashed on Ms. Nowhere’s lectures from the last two days: Stick to the plan. Tony, you stay on Alecto. Trust your resources. And finally: Do not lose her. That is an order.

  “I can reach her,” Tony said. “My suit—”

  Cisco cut him off. “But your suit won’t—”

  “I know,” responded Tony. “Frostee, can—”

  “Yeah,” said Frostee, “but it still—”

  “I got you,” Echo Pearl cried. “Cisco, come on!”

  Tony nodded. My crew, he thought. Best in the world.

  “Toretto, what are you DOING???” screamed Ms. Nowhere.

  Tony let out a low chuckle. “Respecting the rules,” he said. He thumbed the button on his steering wheel to fire up the rocket boosters, and the muscle car bucked under him, shooting forward. He barreled up the incline and held his breath as his tires left the track. With his car now above the ocean, Tony hung suspended and weightless. He unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door . . . and stepped out into nothing.

  CHAPTER 7

  FRIDAY, 8:01 P.M.

  Falling through the air, Tony clawed out of his shirt and dove toward Alecto and the struggling drone. He held out his arms and let the air catch the flaps of his wingsuit, hearing a whoosh as his momentum slowed.

  “Alecto!” he called over the rush of wind. Alecto’s head turned up and her eyes widened in surprise. Tony held out his hand as he closed the distance, using his suit to maneuver to one side of her. She shoved the drone away from her and used the momentum to close the gap between them, throwing her arms around him.

  Tony wrapped an arm around her, and with the flap on that side of his suit closed, they immediately began to plummet toward the ocean. He looked wildly over his shoulder toward the beach . . . and Frostee’s drone backpack, right on time, swooshed up to meet him. Tony hooked his free arm through the strap and once again felt his momentum slow.

  But the drone backpack was meant to carry Frostee, not Tony plus another person. Right away, the drone began to struggle and dip. They were falling again, more slowly, but not slowly enough.
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br />   Alecto snorted as the ocean came closer. “This was your plan, kid? What’s the point? You should have just let me fall.”

  Tony shook his head. “That price is too high. And besides,” he said, “my crew never lets me down.”

  The roar of a motor reached his ears, and he grinned at the sight below him. A large Jet Ski was chopping across the waves toward them at top speed, Echo at the wheel and Cisco on the back. The backpack banked toward the Jet Ski, and Tony raised his gaze to see Frostee, standing on the beach and piloting the drone, give him a thumbs-up.

  The drone wavered and gave out one last high whine of its rotors. Tony and Alecto slowed just before they hit the water. Cisco reached out and snagged them from the air, pinning Alecto’s arms to her side. Tony swung around behind him, and Echo turned the now-very-crowded Jet Ski back to the beach.

  A fleet of black cars met them as they stepped onto the sand. A half-dozen large men in suits spilled out of the cars, jogged forward, and surrounded Alecto.

  Alecto held out her hands to be cuffed and shook her head. “Should have given you more credit, kid,” she told Tony ruefully. “You are a thinker.” As the men steered her toward one of the cars, she looked at Tony, Echo, Cisco, and Frostee in turn. “You make a good crew,” she said. “Never take that for granted.”

  “You don’t gotta tell us, lady,” laughed Echo.

  The rear doors of the nearest car opened, and Ms. Nowhere and Gary got out. “You picked quite a time to start following the rules, Tony,” she said wryly. “How did you know she had another trick up her sleeve?”

  Tony shrugged, grinning. “What can I say? I’m a spy!”

  “A spyyyyyy racer!” Frostee sang.

  “Yes, well,” said Ms. Nowhere, “there was rather more racing on this mission than I had anticipated. But, in the end, you all handled yourselves well. Even if you did ruin a very expensive car.” She nodded toward the backpack drone in Tony’s hand, now sparking and wheezing. “And a fairly expensive drone.”