Under the Microscope (Book One of Three)

Chapter 10

Ready for some villain-era Elodie? Double update, please comment and let me know what you think!

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A missile strike had hit an area "far away" from the track the FIA had tried to tell the drivers and their teams.

"Bullshit," I said, speaking up for the first-ever time during a driver meeting. "I could see the smoke from on track, it must have been about 15km away maximum," I said outraged that they were trying to minimise such a clearly dangerous event. That got me a dirty look from the head of Formula One, Stefano.

"No need to be so dramatic," he said, "don't get so worked up over it." Stefano leaned back in his chair crossing his arms and served me a warm glare. A glare which I returned, trying to decide if pissing off the CEO of Formula One was on my bucket list for my rookie year.

"Dramatic? Are you kidding me?!" I exclaimed angrily standing up. All eyes were on me but I tried not to focus on that, "it cut out the communication between my team and me. I'd say it was pretty dangerously close." He opened his mouth to respond but fortunately, another driver spoke up.

"She's right," Sebastian voiced from his front row seat. "I was told it was only 10 miles away," I smirked at the annoyed face of the CEO, before I could say anything to gloat further, I felt a tug on my sleeve. It was George, trying to get me to sit back down. I nodded and sunk low in my seat, readjusting my cap. "Is it safe for us to race? Was that a warning or test run?" He asked the CEO and race directors that were sitting next to him.

Stefano sighed and sat forward. "Of course, it is safe. It looked much worse than it was because it hit an oil depot, that's why there was so much smoke because the oil was burning. It's really not that big of a deal," his voice was measured and calm, trying to placate us. I huffed, muttering under my breath which garnered me yet another glare from him. There were some murmurs around the room, and the grumblings seemed to suggest that the other drivers were not convinced. "No one was hurt." He continued.

"This time, what if they try it again and hit the track?" Sebastian spoke again, concern evident in his voice and I was grateful that it wasn't just me. Stefano sighed and the meeting continued like this, largely going round in circles until eventually, they said that the meeting was over and told us to get ready for the second free practice.

I walked out alongside George, Lando and Alex. "This is ridiculous. I can't believe they want us to go out there again right now." While the smoke had largely gone away, I could still see a small cloud of black smoke rising into the sky in the distance. "We can still fucking see it," I seethed motioning in front of us as we walked down the paddock. The guys just shrugged, seeming unphased, but I could see in their faces they were equally unsure about getting into the cars right now. Alex and I said our goodbye's as we walked down the paddock to the Williams garage in silence.

"This feels wrong," he says as we get to our driver's room, pausing before opening his door. I look up to meet his eyes and nod solemnly, agreeing. "Can they make us race if we don't feel safe?"

"Don't ask me, I'm the new kid," I try to joke lightly before asking more seriously "I don't know, can we refuse?"

He shrugged in response, clearly, neither of us really knew what the next steps would be. Sighing he opened his door and entered his driver's room; I mimicked him and went into mine. I was immediately met with JC, Rachel and Olivia. They immediately came to me, each throwing questions at me one after another. "I know nothing okay? They just told us to go get ready for practice. No more discussion." I explained.

"They're still going ahead with everything?" Olivia gasped and I nodded. I didn't need to change, or anything given that I had never gotten out of my race suit, to begin with having been hurried to the drivers' meeting.