Les Grands Chantiers (Wattys 2022)

25. Boom (I)

"Are we in range for Roncalli?" Aiden wondered. "His rants are always bangers."

"I think you have to be north of Mantello Road for that," his twin replied. And we are..."

"Well south of Mantello road," Aiden completed the sentence seamlessly.

"You just turned left on a red light." Bellan observed.

"That's legal, right?"

"There's no slip lane there, so it's not."

They bickered about some more stuff. Brendan looked at Adrian seated across him in the backseat. It was always a bit awkward being a passenger in a car, but this was even stranger. 

It had been midday before they got moving. None of them had woken up before eleven o'clock, and it had taken them even more time to get ready. Time seemed to move slower in this part of New Carinthia. The long journey across the Industrial Zone, then the queue at the border checkpoint, then the slog through heavy Wythaven traffic. Brendan was a little worried that they would miss their connection. Not that it mattered too much.

Brendan had never really ridden in a car this nice, except for Adrian's Jag which wasn't really his. He was marvelling at the fit and finish and the texture of the soft-touch plastic. This felt like a weird distraction, but he couldn't be helped.

They were driving slowly down Wythaven's Ruth Gray Memorial Avenue. It did not have four tram tracks running down the centre median, but it did have fully segregated bike lanes on both sides. 

He kept an eye on the black Honda that had been following them for some time now. Every red light, every bit of traffic, every tiny delay was weighing on him.

Next to him, Adrian was asleep. Or he was just very tuned out. It was hard to tell. When they had returned from the beach it had been around four o'clock in the morning. No matter how hard he tried he had not been able to get back to sleep. He had chosen to use to the time to study a map of the Wythaven Metro that he had found somewhere in Adrian's sprawling house. An industrial amount of coffee had helped things somewhat but Brendan could feel the sleep clawing at his eyeballs.

He held on to his backpack on his lap, ready to be grabbed at any moment. Inside were the suits and a change of clothes, just in case.

They drove further into the city, through more bumper to bumper traffic. The Honda was now a few more car lengths away, stuck behind a box truck. He woke up Adrian.

Another box truck attempted to pull out in front of the first truck. The drivers exchanged blasts of the horn. Typical Wythaven traffic moment. The important thing was this had completely obscured the field of vision of the Honda's driver.

"Now." They quickly pulled the two dummies into position on the backseat. Then they ducked out of the passenger-side rear door and made a run for it, ignoring the odd glances from passers-by.

"Good luck," the twins said in unison. The delivery almost made Brendan burst out laughing. But he managed to hold it in and not trip over the gutter.

A few metres ahead of them was the entrance to Museum Station. The big Wythaven Metro totem stood above. People were streaming in, so much that the steps up to the entrance were obscured.

They joined the queue of people on the escalator. Brendan didn't look back to see if the people in the Honda had spotted them.

***

The train accelerated and stopped with minimal fuss. It was quite disconcerting for someone who was used to crawling along and being stopped at signals to be watching the tunnel walls rush past in the front window and entering stations at these kinds of speeds, but soon Brendan got used to it.