by Axel Lewis
Jimmy waved and jumped and shouted – and came to a standstill as Sammy followed Kako and was gone. “Argh!” he yelled in frustration, stamping his foot on the hard white surface beneath his snow boot. Then he climbed back on board Cabbie and sank into his seat. “So,” he said. “What do we do?”
Cabbie said nothing.
“Cabbie?”Jimmy asked.
Silence.
Jimmy pressed Cabbie’s engine starter. His engine leaped into life.
“Cabbie?” Jimmy tried again. “Cabbie?”
Nothing.
Panic made Jimmy’s stomach churn. Cabbie must have got damaged somehow.
“Say something, Cabbie!” he said, pushing another button.
Cabbie’s chassis lifted about ten centimetres off its wheels on robo-stilts – but still he was silent. Jimmy pressed the button again and Cabbie sank back down – but still Cabbie didn’t say a word.
With the panic rushing up from his stomach to his throat, Jimmy pressed another button. Then another button. And another. Nothing worked.
Then suddenly the robot was back in action. Before Jimmy could do anything to stop him, Cabbie threw himself into a doughnut – spinning in incredibly fast and tight little circles, flying around the ice slab with his emergency siren blaring. In panic, Jimmy stabbed at another button. It made Cabbie go even faster. He pressed it again. Cabbie went faster still. He pushed it once more, harder this time. Cabbie’s doors started slamming open and shut, open and shut again.
“Agh!” Jimmy cried.
Cabbie’s doors flapped wildly. Then he was off again, reversing to the very edge of the ice slab, closer and closer to the water. Jimmy grabbed the steering wheel and yanked it straight.
“Brake!” yelped Cabbie. Without thinking, Jimmy stamped on the brake pedal and they skidded to a standstill. Jimmy jumped out of Cabbie as though the driver’s seat was burning him. They were perched on the very edge of the ice slab with freezing sea water lapping at Cabbie’s front tyres. Another centimetre and they would have been heading down to the bottom of the sea again.
“Cabbie?” cried Jimmy. “Are you OK? What happened? Did you malfunction?”
“I don’t have to talk all the time,” said Cabbie quietly. “Just because I don’t feel like having a chat, there’s no need to start prodding and pressing every button you can see.”
“Don’t feel like having a chat?” repeated Jimmy in astonishment. “I thought you were broken!”
“Well, maybe I don’t feel like talking when you’ve stopped listening,” said Cabbie angrily. “It’s a waste of my exhaust fumes – especially when your decisions leave us floating around the Arctic on a giant ice cube.”
Jimmy looked at the robot, open-mouthed. A feeling of shame was slowly burning through him, making him want to run away and hide. He knew Grandpa wouldn’t be proud of him for trying to sabotage another racer. And now even Cabbie didn’t want to know him.
He took a deep breath. “Cabbie, I’m so sorry. I was being a complete idiot and I should have listened to you.”
“I know,” said Cabbie.
“And I promise,” said Jimmy, “not to ignore you from now on.”
“Good,” said Cabbie.
“So do you forgive me? Are we friends again?”
Cabbie said nothing.
“Please?” said Jimmy.
“Of course,” said Cabbie. “Apology accepted.”
Jimmy grinned in relief.
“So how do we get off this ice cube and back in the race?” Cabbie continued. “We need a plan.”
“OK,” said Jimmy. “We could...” He paused. Ten seconds passed and still he couldn’t think of a good idea. Ten seconds turned to twenty seconds. Then he said, “I know! I’ll give you a quick tune-up.”
“How’s that going to get us back on dry land?” Cabbie asked.
“It’s not,” Jimmy replied, “but I might as well do something useful while I’m thinking of a way to get off this icicle and back in the race.”
“Good idea,” said Cabbie, “and I think I might have a quick reboot and self-repair. My sensors are feeling a bit scrambled. I’ll go quiet for a minute, but I’ll be back before you know it – so don’t push any more buttons.”
Jimmy hurried to Cabbie’s boot and got out the toolkit that Pete Webber had lent him. Also in the boot was a fruit and veg box from That’s Shallot! that he’d completely forgotten about. The contents were now frozen solid, but that didn’t stop him from popping a couple of raspberries into his mouth – they tasted just like fruity ice lollies.
Jimmy had a quick look under the bonnet and cleaned Cabbie’s firing mechanism, checked his coolant, oil and brake fluid, and tightened his tyre bolts. By the time he had finished, Cabbie had rebooted.
“Ahhh,” sighed Cabbie, “that’s much better. Everything’s peachy and I’ve even managed to get Cabcom back online. Got a plan yet?”
“Not exactly,” said Jimmy.
“Not exactly? Or not at all?” asked Cabbie.
Jimmy sighed in frustration. “If only you could turn into a jet ski like Lightning,” he grumbled.
“Well,” snapped Cabbie, “I’m so sorry to let you down.”
“Or if you had a propeller like Maximus does, we could—”
Jimmy stopped talking. His mood lifted as he had a sudden thought.
“What?” said Cabbie. “What is it?”
“The propeller thing!” cried Jimmy.
“What propeller thing?” asked Cabbie.
“Your propeller thing!” said Jimmy.
“I haven’t got a propeller thing,” said Cabbie.
“No, the thing Pete put in,” explained Jimmy excitedly. “Spins round ... cuts through stuff. You know!”
“Do you mean the roto-blade?” asked Cabbie.
“That’s it!” said Jimmy. “Cabbie, we’re going to turn this ice cube into a power boat!”
Chapter 12 - Sailing Through
“I hope no one can see us,” muttered Cabbie. “This is so embarrassing.”
Cabbie was parked with his boot open at the very edge of the ice slab. He had extended the roto-blade on its long steel arm, and with a little help from a spanner taken from Pete Webber’s toolkit, Jimmy had managed to adjust the angle of the arm and bend it downwards so that the blade and its long razor-sharp teeth were under the water.
From a distance came a whirring like a swarm of flies. Out of the grey cloud flew two of the camerabots that filmed the races for television. As they got nearer, they slowed and hovered, one directly overhead, the other a little further away.
“Great,” muttered Cabbie. “How many people are watching us live on TV while I’ve got my bum in the air?”
“Millions,” said Jimmy, trying not to laugh. “So we’d better make sure this works.”
“No pressure then,” muttered Cabbie.
“Ready?” asked Jimmy. He jumped into Cabbie’s cockpit and pushed the roto-blade button. Its motor sprang into life, and from beneath the water came the whir of the blade and a rush of froth and bubbles.
“Are we moving?” called Jimmy.
“Yes!” cried Cabbie. “Yes! We’re moving!” And then he went a bit quiet. “Sensors indicate our current speed is approximately ... three kilometres an hour. Travelling at this speed, we should complete the race a week on Tuesday.”
“It’s working!” said Jimmy. “But not well enough. Adjust the angle on the blade, Cabbie.”
Cabbie lifted the roto-blade out of the water, lengthened the arm a little and lowered it back into the water.
“How’s that?” he asked.
“I think we’re going faster!” cried Jimmy.
“Six kilometres an hour,” said Cabbie. “No! Ten ... fifteen ... twenty! Twenty-five kilometres an hour and rising!”
Jimmy cheered. “It works!” he shouted. “It works brilliantly!”
Little by little they picked up more speed, and soon they were cruising smoothly between the chunks of floating ice and heading b
ack towards the ice shelf. Jimmy stood by Cabbie’s side with one arm draped affectionately across Cabbie’s bonnet and both eyes firmly trained on the ice shelf.
“Left a bit ... right a bit,” Jimmy called. “Can we go any faster?”
“Hang on,” said Cabbie, increasing the revs on the roto-blade. “How’s that?”
With a surge and a wash of foam and spray, the ice-boat shot forward.
“This is incredible!” shouted Jimmy. “We should have done this sooner!”
“I hope those camerabots are getting some good shots,” said Cabbie.
“Can you get Robo TV working again so we can have a look?” said Jimmy.
“I’ll have a go,” replied the robot. “The electronics should all be dry and warm again.”
There was a clicking noise and then the screen on Cabcom flickered into life.
“...something we’ve never seen before in the history of Robot Races,” one of the TV commentators was saying. “Incredible!” The pictures showed an aerial shot of Cabbie and Jimmy racing over the waves leaving a trail of foam behind them. Jimmy looked up and waved at the camerabot. “And hi to you too, Jimmy Roberts,” said the commentator, chuckling to himself.
“There’s no time for waving at the cameras,” came Grandpa’s voice – his face popping up on the Cabcom screen too. “You’re coming up to the crossroads where the three tracks join up again. The track gets pretty narrow after it, so whoever gets there first has a massive advantage. Me and Pete were wondering where you’d got to,” he added, “but I love the speedboat. Great thinking, Jimmy lad!” His eyes twinkled and his moustache bobbed up and down. “Go, Jimmy, go!” he shouted and the screen went blank.
Jimmy smiled proudly to himself. But not for long, as a familiar black shape sped past on the ice track. Horace and Zoom had overtaken them again.
“No time to worry about them now,” said Cabbie. “It’s time to get back on the ice.” He adjusted the roto-blade and steered them towards the ice shelf.
They were heading for the solid ice at an alarming speed – but not fast enough.
Jimmy realized they needed to time their landing perfectly if they were going to avoid getting wet for the second time that day.
“OK,” he said, trying not to sound worried. “Retract roto-blade, Cabbie. We want to glide off this ice cube and back onto the ice shelf. If we hit it too hard, we’ll smash the ice and end up at the bottom of the sea.”
The ice shelf got nearer. From the water, the ice looked incredibly thick – like a huge step they were about to collide with. It was going to be a bumpy ride.
“Ready to go?” asked Jimmy.
“Ready,” said Cabbie. “Get in, Jimmy, and get your driving head on!”
Jimmy climbed into Cabbie’s cockpit. As they neared the ice shelf, Cabbie’s engine roared and Jimmy’s foot hovered over the accelerator.
“Three metres,” said Cabbie in quiet concentration. “Two metres...” Jimmy put Cabbie into gear. “One metre ... Go! GO! GO!”
Jimmy slammed his foot on the pedal just as they hit the ice shelf with a terrific thump.
In a cloud of smoke, Cabbie flew off the ice raft and hit the ice with a massive, bone-shaking, brain-rattling thud. In one smooth sweep of the wheel Jimmy guided Cabbie back onto the racetrack and headed for the crossroads where all three routes joined once more.
“Brilliant!” said Cabbie.
“Not bad,” agreed Jimmy with a modest smile.
“Jimmy!” called Cabbie. “Look at the radar.”
Jimmy looked.
The radar’s green glowing line swept round the screen, but where there had earlier been five blinking dots, now there was just one big blob.
“Who is it?” he asked. “Has the radar gone haywire?”
“I don’t know,” said Cabbie. “My navigation says we’re on track and my sensors show all of the other racers are nearby.”
“What does it mean?”
“I don’t know,” said Cabbie.
They could make out a deep rumbling sound like the noise an aeroplane made at take-off. And then, as they rounded a bend in the track they saw a sight that made Jimmy gasp. “Cabbie, look!”
The track up ahead followed the shape of the coastline, with the ocean on the left and a cliff face towering over it on the right – a monstrous snow-capped glacier. Part of the snow cliff had broken away and fallen onto the track! As they watched, more snow came tumbling and bouncing off the jagged hillside. Tonne upon tonne came cascading down like a frosty waterfall.
After a few seconds, the avalanche eased and the rumbling of falling snow faded to an echo. As the powdery fog cleared, Jimmy could just make out five shapes sticking out of the snow like wafers in a huge ice cream. It was the other racers, in a massive icy pile-up!
Chapter 13 - Pile-up
As Jimmy carefully drove Cabbie closer, he realized what had happened. Missy must have grazed the sides of the glacier with Monster’s huge tyres and caused the avalanche. Now Monster was almost completely buried in deep, deep snow. Backed up behind Monster was Dug. At least, Jimmy thought it was Dug, but all he could see was a digger arm poking out of a mountain of fallen snow. Dug was followed by Maximus, Lightning and Zoom. They’d all been almost completely buried and they were stuck fast.
It was chaos.
“This is our chance.” Cabbie said excitedly. “We just need to get past them and we’ll be on that winner’s podium for sure!”
“But how are we going to get through?” Jimmy asked.
“The robo-pummeller,” Cabbie replied without hesitation. “It looks like there’s a way through down the left-hand side of the pile-up, but we’ll need to compact that snow so that I don’t get stuck like the rest of them. And we don’t want to slip and fall back into the sea. I’ve had enough of that for one day.”
“Right,” Jimmy said. “That special prize has got our name on it—”
But before Jimmy could finish speaking there was another grumbling and the cliff face above the robots began to moan. Jimmy could see it slowly shifting as if it were trying to tell the racers that it didn’t appreciate having visitors.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Jimmy said. “Look at that!” Jimmy pointed to the top of the cliff where a big crack was appearing in the cliff face.
It wasn’t snow coming loose now – it was a giant block of ice!
“That’s got to be as big as a house,” Jimmy said, biting his lip. “If that comes down it’ll squash them all like a pancake! Cabbie, we’ve got to do something!”
“But I thought you would do anything to win?” Cabbie said. “What does it matter what happens to them as long as we beat them? Besides, the safetybots will be along soon enough. Let’s go!”
Jimmy stomped on the brakes. “I’ve learnt my lesson, Cabbie. It’s not worth winning if you have to hurt everyone else to do it. I’m not Horace Pelly.”
Cabbie’s headlights blinked happily. “Well said, Jimmy lad.”
There was a flash of orange from deep within the snowdrift, followed by yet more groaning from the cliff face.
“Horace is trying to burn his way out with that flame-thrower of his,” said Cabbie. “That kind of heat will make the cliff even less stable.”
Just at that moment a new face appeared on the Cabcom. It was Lord Leadpipe. The multi-billionaire’s face was pale and he looked like he’d seen a ghost. “Calling all racers, calling all racers,” he said. “We’re having a ... um ... ah ... slight technical hitch with the safetybots. It appears there’s been a malfunction with their de-icers, so they’ve all frozen solid.” He coughed nervously, and then tried to put a smile on his face. It looked more like a grimace to Jimmy. “If you children could, um, keep out of trouble while we sort the problem, then I’ll have them up and running in just a jiffy.” And with that his face disappeared and the screen went blank once again.
“No one’s coming to the rescue,” Jimmy gasped. “We’ve got to do something!”
“Aye, aye, Cap
tain!” Cabbie said, revving his engine.
“Can you turn on Cabcom?” said Jimmy. “I need to talk to everyone.”
Cabcom crackled into life.
“Did you hear Lord Leadpipe?” asked Jimmy. “The safetybots aren’t coming. It’s up to us to get out of this. But everyone needs to help. OK?”
Horace’s face popped up on the screen. “I suppose you can’t make things any worse,” he said with a sneer.
Jimmy ignored him. “I’m going to dig you all out using my roto-blade, but everyone will have to be very careful. There’s a big slab of ice coming loose at the top of the cliff and any loud noises or sudden movements might cause an avalanche.”
“Thanks, Jimmy,” said Kako.
“Great,” said Sammy.
“We’re relying on ya, buddy,” said Chip.
“Cheers, mate!” bellowed Missy.
“Well, get on with it then,” said Horace.
The screen went blank again.
“Activate roto-blade?” said Cabbie.
“Yeah, but easy does it, Cabbie,” said Jimmy.
Cabbie extended the roto-blade on its long steel arm. Like a dentist performing surgery on a tooth, they carefully cut through the white snow. Jimmy edged Cabbie forward centimetre by centimetre, his nerves jangling as he listened carefully for any sound of another avalanche.
It took just a couple of minutes to get Horace free. In a shower of white dust, the metal blades cut into the snowdrift, scattering it into the Arctic wind.
“Careful of Zoom’s paintwork,” came Horace’s voice from the Cabcom. “If you damage it, you’ll have to pay.”
“I think you mean ‘thank you for rescuing us’!” Cabbie snapped.
“Right, Horace,” began Jimmy, “I need you to help me get Lightning and Maximus free now. Can you just—”
Jimmy didn’t get a chance to finish. Horace had fired up Zoom’s engines and was revving them loudly.
“Horace, what are you doing?” shouted Jimmy into Cabcom.
Horace didn’t reply. He was too busy activating Zoom’s rocket-boosters. Before anyone could say anything, huge tongues of fire shot from Zoom’s exhaust. He shot up the snowdrift where the others were trapped and skated over the top.
