Faster

by Alex Schuler

  “Yeah, you’re probably right. Let’s go check out the Prius.” Ted snatched the bandana from Harry and used it to dab Harry’s forehead. “And relax, Harry. I’ll do the talking.”

  As they reached the Prius, Harry nodded to Portly Guy. “Welcome to the Mojave,” Ted said. “Nice set of gear you have on the roof. Mind if we take a look?”

  “Sure thing,” the young man replied.

  The Prius had clearly been heavily modified. The upgraded off-road, all-terrain tires first caught Ted’s eye, followed by the front-mounted roof rack that held four lidar arrays, stereo cameras, a radar unit, and a center-mounted camera. Ted was surprised at the limited number of sensors mounted on the vehicle. Unlike Cyclops, the Prius had no gear mounted on the fenders or bumpers or any other part of the vehicle.

  Ted didn’t need the step stool to reach any of the equipment. He ran his hands against the roof rack, grabbed the corner of the mount with both hands, and gave it a good pull. It wouldn’t budge.

  “Aren’t you worried about the rough desert terrain?” Ted asked. “I thought you were having trouble with steadying the sensors.”

  “Excuse me?” the young man asked. He stepped back and looked Ted up and down. “Do . . . do I know you?”

  “I’m Ted. Ted Wolff from DSU.”

  “I’m Ralph.” The young man grabbed Ted’s hand, shaking it vigorously. “Ralph Lorenski.”

  “Oh. Sorry,” said Ted, taken aback. “I’d exchanged sensor configuration emails with someone named Sam from Ashton. I assumed it was you.”

  “Oh, you’re the guy.” Ralph smiled and briefly glanced at the rest of the Ashton team, standing off to the side. “I do the hardware configuration. Sam does software. I heard about those emails.”

  “Was our code helpful?”

  “You’d have to ask Sam.” Ralph looked at the top of the Prius and then back to Ted. “What were you looking for with the roof rack? How did you end up solving the shaking?”

  “We built a custom gimbal.” Ted leaned back against the Prius and folded his arms across his body, puffing out his chest. “There’s a lot of proprietary tech in it. We can show it to you after the competition tomorrow.”

  “A gimbal?” Ralph asked. “Does it spin?”

  “Yup. It lets us see almost everywhere.”

  Ted looked over at Nico, Lori, and Harry. All but Harry, who looked nervous and uncomfortable, were smiling along with Ted.

  “Same here,” Ralph said. “We have an extremely wide field of view, front to back.”

  Ted’s smile faded. He lowered his arms and slowly turned to again inspect the gear secured to the top of the Prius. Nico joined him, pointing to the individual mounts supporting each sensor array.

  “Is that how you’re dealing with the rough terrain?” Nico asked. “Instead of a gimbal?”

  “We use a digital gimbal,” Ralph replied. “The software steadies the images for us.”

  “A digital gimbal?” Ted asked. “I’m guessing Sam wrote that code.”

  Ralph nodded. His broad smile was beginning to annoy Ted.

  “So, where is he?” Ted continued. “I’d like to talk to him.”

  One of the members of the Ashton team stepped forward. His black hair was cropped short. He stood well over six feet tall and had the build and presence of Rusty. The large man, along with the rest of the Ashton team standing beside the Prius, stepped aside, allowing room for the blonde with the aviator sunglasses to emerge from behind them. She walked in front of her team and stopped a few feet in front of Ted. Her hair was pulled through the back of her royal blue Ashton baseball cap. She lowered her glasses and peered over the gold metal upper rims.

  “I’m Sam. Sam Lavoie.”

  Ted felt his cheeks flush once again. He was suddenly aware the entire Ashton ensemble was staring at him accusingly. He quickly looked over toward his team. Nico had no expression on his face. Harry was sweating and staring at his feet. Lori had her hand over her mouth, desperately trying to suppress her laughter. Ted stepped forward and shook hands with Sam.

  “So, it’s Samantha?”

  “Everyone calls me Sam. Even my family.” Sam flipped her sunglasses over the visor of her cap and walked around to the back of the Prius. She opened the hatch and waved the DSU team closer. “So, what do you think of Athena?”

  “Athena?” Lori asked. “As in the Greek goddess of war?”

  “Also of wisdom. It seemed an appropriate name given the level of technology we were building for the competition.” Sam waited until everyone from DSU was standing beside her. “We’ve got eight Pentium computers crammed in back here. In addition to the upgraded tires, we’ve also raised the suspension and reinforced the entire underside with skid plates.”

  Ted glanced around the vehicle’s interior. He was shocked at how organized everything was. The lack of mechanical hardware inside the car confused him and he felt an overwhelming wave of anxiety. Harry was standing beside him. Ted snatched a bandana from Harry’s pocket and used it to dab the beads of sweat forming across his brow.

  “How does it steer?” Harry asked.

  Ted was relieved he didn’t have to ask the same question.

  “It’s all drive-by-wire,” Sam replied. “We try to use as little hardware as we can. Hardware can break too easily, especially in these conditions. But you guys must know that, right?”

  Ted’s nerves began to subside as Sam’s cocky attitude became more apparent. She was a few inches shorter than Ted. He stared into her eyes in an attempt to look dominant. Her bright green eyes sparkled in the desert sun. Ted looked away to hide his confusion and anger.

  “I mean, you guys couldn’t tell the difference between trees and people.” Sam smiled as she closed the back hatch, almost catching Ted’s shoulder. “Did our code help?”

  “We figured it out on our own,” Ted said dismissively.

  Sam shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out an iPhone. Ted tried to suppress his excitement over seeing the device. Apple had only launched it a few months ago. The DSU team had been so busy prepping for the trip to the Mojave that no one had gotten any hands-on time with an iPhone yet. He tried to ignore it. Ashton’s tech already seemed formidable enough. He didn’t want to start gushing over Sam’s cell phone.

  “Wow!” Harry shoved Ted aside and grabbed the phone from Sam. “I am dying to get one of these. Do you love it? Is it as amazing as it seems? I watched the keynote address Steve Jobs gave. I have to have one. I have to!”

  “It’s the future.” Sam gently pried the phone from Harry’s sweaty hands. “Do you have one, too?”

  The question was directed toward Ted. Sam was pointing at his jeans. Ted looked at the earbud wires peeking out from his front pocket. He slid his fingers inside and pulled out his iPod.

  “An iPod?” Sam grinned. “That’s cute. So, what vehicle do you guys have under that tarp back at your camp?”

  “Did you try and sneak a look yet?” Ted asked.

  “No. I’m too busy preparing for tomorrow. Other teams have said you guys have something big hidden. MIT thinks it’s a tank. So, what is it?”

  Ted slipped the iPod back into his pocket and looked over at Harry, Nico, and Lori. They were obviously going to let him take the lead on the response.

  “We have a Hummer.” Ted did not attempt to control his anger at this point. Sam’s smug attitude had become annoying. “It’s been heavily fortified. Lori’s team has mapped this entire area down to the inch. Our gimbal system is superior to everything else out here. You can count on it.”

  “Wow, you have a brand new Humvee?” Sam asked in feigned surprise.

  “No. No, it’s, um, it’s an older one. But that doesn’t matter.”

  “It’s a 1988,” Harry said. “Rusty got a great deal on it and—”

  “And it’s going to crush everyone!” Ted shot H
arry a look of disappointment. “Including that beast from Oshkosh.”

  Ted glared at Sam one last time, hoping she would drop her smile. Her facial features remained unchanged. She stood there, smiling, happy, and confident. He turned around and pushed his way past his DSU teammates.

  “Ted, can I ask you one more thing?” Sam took a few steps forward and waited for him to turn around. “Do you really spell your name with two ‘F’s? That’s how it was on the emails.”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “I was wondering what the extra ‘F’ stood for?”

  “Oh, that’s easy.” He smiled a wry grin as a wave of confidence poured over him. “It stands for first.”

  “Really? Huh. With that ancient iPod and twenty-one-year-old Hummer, I would have guessed it stood for ‘futile’.”

  The Ashton team erupted in laughter and applause. Sam began to high-five Ralph and the others standing around her. She slid her aviator glasses back on and put her arm around Ralph to lead him over to the front of Athena.

  Ted spun around, unable to contain his anger and embarrassment. Beads of sweat ran down his face. His floppy lock of hair seemed to be permanently plastered to his forehead. Clenching his fists so hard his fingernails bit deep into his palms, his strides were long and rushed as he made a direct line back to the DSU camp. Harry, Nico, and Lori ran to catch up to him.

  “Slow down, Ted,” Lori called out.

  “They named it Athena,” Harry said. “Remember Rusty telling us someone told them we had a Hummer? Do you think they knew we went with the name Cyclops?”

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” Ted stopped and spun around, casting a worrisome glare back toward the Ashton camp. “We’re going to crush those ash-holes at Ashton. Do you hear me? Crush them!”

  13

  Ted grabbed his iPod and shoved it into the front pocket of his faded denim jeans. He sat down at the edge of the RV’s dinette, drumming his fingers on the white Formica tabletop beside him. The coffee pot across from him hissed and sputtered as it finished brewing a fresh carafe. The digital clock on the small microwave over the stove showed 7:50 a.m. as the scent of hazelnut and cinnamon filled the RV’s interior—Lori had picked the flavor of coffee. As soon as the pot stopped brewing, Ted filled two Styrofoam cups, slapped covers on them, and stepped out of the camper.

  In the DSU site, Ted needed only a few dozen long strides across the sandy desert floor to reach the back end of the semi. He passed Nico and Harry busy inspecting the sensors on Cyclops. They were so focused, they didn’t even notice him as he walked past.

  A tiny staircase led from the ground to the back end of the semi. As he carefully pulled himself up and inside the truck—making sure not to spill the coffee—the chaos of activity engulfed him. The whirs and hums of equipment competed with the arguments of four students who were running back and forth between a computer and a whiteboard. Lori was seated at a workstation hunched over her keyboard, staring at her computer monitor. He chuckled as he placed one of the two cups of coffee beside Lori.

  “Thank God.” Lori popped the top off the lid and took a sip. She looked at the four students. “Some people don’t understand the value of flavored coffee.”

  The arguing students stopped talking, looking back and forth for several seconds, then picked back up, but at a lower volume.

  “How’s everything looking?” Ted asked. He pulled up a chair and took a seat next to her.

  “It’s fine. I mean, it’s more than fine. DARPA gave us the details on the nasty nine a couple of hours ago. There’s some debate about the last one, but I think we’re all set.”

  The “nasty nine” was the nickname the team had given to the nine tests along a five-mile course of the Qualifying Stage.

  “What’s the problem with the last one?”

  “The first test is a slalom course. The last one is another slalom course, but it will be through ruts and puddles. DARPA was vague on how deep the ruts are and how much water will be involved.”

  “Cyclops is tough, Lori. What’s the concern?”

  “They’re debating over what speed to have him run the course. DARPA’s been tight-lipped on scoring, too. The slalom courses have a minimum speed of fifteen miles per hour. We’re just not sure if we will score higher if we go faster.”

  “Cyclops is a beast. We ran lots of slalom simulations with him doing twenty-five, sometimes thirty, depending on the radius and spacing of the cones. Even real-world testing showed he could handle higher speeds.”

  “But Ted, we don’t want to push it. We only get three tries.”

  “Set it to twenty-five, okay?”

  “If you say so.”

  He flipped back the plastic tab of his coffee cup and took a sip, closing his eyes and allowing himself to take a moment to enjoy the warm nutty flavor. When he opened his eyes, he noticed a table beside the whiteboard had a box of Entenmann’s danishes opened. The team had packed both RVs and the semi-truck with plenty of packaged foods before their arrival in the desert. DARPA was supplying food and meals for all participants, but Rusty made sure DSU arrived fully stocked. Ted stood up, snatched a napkin, and balanced a couple of pastries on top.

  “Rusty wants us at the big top on the hour,” he said to Lori. “Are you ready?”

  “Almost.” She grabbed her coffee, putting the lid back on, and then turned her attention to the four. “If any of you touch my data, you’re dead.”

  Ted laughed as Lori marched past him and out the back of the semi. Cyclops was parked a short distance away. Nico and Harry had moved him to the front of the site. Members from several other teams were gathered around the vehicle. Ted grinned as he watched Harry, smiling for once, perched on a step stool pointing out the vehicle’s technology.

  “Sorry to break up the party,” Ted said as he walked between Nico and Harry. “The event starts soon. We need to get to the tent.”

  Harry hopped off his stool and briefly shook hands with a few people as they turned to leave.

  “You look happy,” Ted said. “Should I assume the competitors are impressed?”

  “Half the teams have only one lidar,” Nico said. “A few have multi-arrays, sort of like Ashton. But honestly, Ted, I think our rotating gimbal with your magnetic dampers is lightyears ahead of anyone else here. Even the Oshkosh guys were impressed.”

  “I think we made everyone nervous,” Harry added.

  A familiar figure caught Ted’s eye. He looked over Harry’s shoulder to see a tall, lean man approaching the DSU camp. The man was dressed in a green and white checkered shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, exposing his heavily inked arms. His lightweight khaki pants fluttered in the gusty winds cutting across the desert. A narrow-rimmed olive hat with a black band covered his head. He had the rear back-flap lowered to protect his neck from the extreme sun that would soon dominate the sky. Despite the extended flap, his signature blond ponytail managed to dangle across his back. He stopped and briefly admired Cyclops.

  “You’ve built one hell of a vehicle,” Kyle Fisher said. He stepped forward and gave Ted a big bear hug. “You look good, Ted. How’s Rusty been treating you?”

  “Guys, this is Kyle Fisher. I worked for him before I came to DSU.”

  “So we have you to blame for this guy?” Lori asked with a grin. She winked at Ted just as Kyle stepped forward and hugged her. “Oh. Uh, okay.”

  “You’ll have to forgive me,” Kyle said as he let go of Lori. “There’s just not enough love in the world, you know?”

  “Sure.” Lori went into smile-and-nod mode and glanced at Ted with a raised eyebrow. “So, you worked with Ted in Nevada?”

  “My headquarters are in San Diego. Ted worked at one of my test sites outside Reno.” Kyle put his arm around Ted and pulled him close. “Kevin still gets calls from clients asking for this guy by name. He does great work.”

 
“Thanks, Kyle,” Ted replied.

  Kyle quickly shook hands with Nico and Harry before doing a quick stroll around Cyclops.

  “I’m impressed.” Kyle slapped Nico on his back. “I need to go find Rusty. Should I assume he’s already in the main tent angry you aren’t there yet?”

  “Probably.” Ted ran his fingers through his hair, trying to keep his locks out of his eyes. The wind was starting to pick up. “We’re heading over there soon.”

  “Best of luck.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Harry waited until Kyle Fisher was out of earshot. “That’s the billionaire who owns Fisher Tuner?”

  “Yup,” Ted said.

  “He looks like he just emerged from the Australian outback. Why do people with tons of money never look rich? I swear, sometimes”—Harry paused mid-sentence.

  “Sometimes what?” Ted asked.

  Harry’s jaw was open, and his eyes were fixated just behind Ted. Ted turned around to see a heavyset man rapidly approaching on a Segway. The personal transporter slowed to a halt a few feet from Ted. The man did not step off. He ran his fingers across his short beard as he studied DSU’s vehicle.

  “Is that a three-axis gimbal?” Steve Wozniak asked. “With a lidar on top?”

  “It is,” Ted said. He didn’t recognize the man, but given Harry’s reactions, he had a feeling Harry did. “Harry?”

  Harry took a few steps forward until he was standing less than a foot from the Segway. He started to raise his arm to run his hand across the tiny vehicle but stopped himself. Harry cleared his throat and looked up in awe at his idol.

  “Woz up?” Harry asked with a nervous grin.

  Steve Wozniak glanced down at Harry, but did not react to his question. He turned his attention back to Cyclops and nodded each time he noted one of the other sensor arrays.

  “Good luck today.” Steve leaned forward, piloting his Segway to the next campsite.

  “Was that?—” Nico began to ask.