Triple Digits

Claire Miles

Mid-City's underground passageways were normally reserved for the lowest of the low in the city, but one such tunnel, decked out in LED lights that shone blue and white, was the home to Helix Boudaire, one of Claire's closest allies in the street-racing world, although he would help most people if they were willing to pay his exorbitant prices.
Tonight, Helix was sprawled on his grungy, stained couch, a joint hanging from his fingers, a dazed look on his face that sharpened the moment Claire and Maddy strode in, their shoes coated in mud and dust from the walk down.
Claire's clothes were still soaked in blood from the accident, not that she particularly cared.
She had less than six hours to source a car for her race, and if anyone could do it, it was the twenty-two year-old man in front of her. Studying her, he let out a huff of a laugh, the sound grating and rough, like he had been gargling gravel before meeting with her, waving his hand for them to join him in the filthy alcove he called his living room.
"Hittin' a spike strip at one-fifty would take most people out. You some kinda Immortal, Miles?" He drawled, extinguishing his joint and sitting up. He wore the same clothes she had seen on him over a week ago, although they were now significantly dirtier, coated in a fine layer of grime and what looked like sauce from the burgers he liked to eat, and his blue hair was a mess. Claire doubted he even knew what a hairbrush looked like, much less owned one. The only thing he kept reasonably clean were the piercings dotting his face.
"Not Immortal, just lucky," Claire grinned, Maddy picking up a discarded newspaper to brush a pile of rotting food from the couch, the two of them sinking into the fabric, her best friend's nose wrinkling in disgust. It smelt distinctly of alcohol and fried food that had been left in the summer heat for a week, and there was an undertone of mould, like everything in this place.
"What can a lowly human do for the amazin' Triple Digit?" Helix questioned, arching an eyebrow. Rolling her eyes, Claire leaned forward on one elbow, the other still in a sling. The painkillers the nurse had given her were beginning to wear off, her body aflame. Once she had found a car, Claire was going to return home, and take a damned nap. Maddy could sort out the rest of the semantics for the race.
"I need a car. Something to win me tonight's race."
"Ballsy request. That's less than six hours."
"Like we don't know, Helix!" Maddy barked, eager to get out of the filthy tunnel, "Can you do it or not? This race is high stakes!"
He lifted three fingers, pointing to them with his other hand and giving them a toothy grin, laughing, "Three people. That's how many people have come to me for help with tonight's race. You, lovely, would make four."
Maddy hissed, ready to start yelling, Claire grinning.
She had known Helix since she was fourteen and he had been seventeen and living in the same disgusting tunnel. Having arrived at Mid-City with nothing other than the clothes on her back and enough money to buy herself an apartment, he had offered her sanctuary, and in exchange, she had bought him items he hadn't had for a long time; clothes, decent food, water, medicine- things that one needed to survive. Cutting a long story short, however, the mere fact that Helix was talking to them and not throwing them out of his rat-infested home screamed that he was going to help them, however difficult their request.
Slapping his knee, Helix rose, kicking an empty beer bottle aside, striding for the computer he had set up against a waterlogged wall, the cables coated twice in water-proof tape just to be certain, taking a seat on the rolling desk chair she had bought him for Christmas last year, the fabric already tearing, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he entered in his password, sighing.
"I dunno how much I can help you, Miles. Six hours to find a car?"
"I know it would be hard," she pleaded desperately, Helix softening under her gaze, "But could you do it anyway? For me?" Pinching the bridge of his nose, dragging up tab after tab on the ancient monitor, he studied a handful of the options, questioning, "Does it need to be legal?"
"Not at all," Maddy purred, "Just fast."
Cracking his fingers, Helix laughed, replying, "That's what I like to hear. I've got a car here... Ten grand up front, and it's yours."
"Where is it?" Claire asked, her interest piquing when Helix replied, "Down near the docks. Seller wants it gone by tomorrow or he's dumpin' it."
The docks of Mid-City were where you could find anything illegal, and it was also where the tunnels that Helix inhabited exited out to.
If there was someone selling a car there, it had been involved in a crime, and not a pretty one. Murder, maybe, or worse. Did Claire really want to drive a car that someone might have been murdered in?
"Anything else?" She begged, Helix dragging up another tab, saying, "This one is ten grand as well. Needs work on the engine, though..." Running his ash-covered fingers through his hair, he muttered, "That won't do. We need a car that's actually runnin', hey, Miles?"
Maddy sighed, crossing one leg over the other and studying her manicured nails, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone, tapping out a message that she fired into the aether.
A moment later, her phone pinged, receiving a message back, Claire's bestfriend rising from the couch, singing, "I need to go. Good luck, Claire-Bear. I'll see you at the race tonight."
"Where are you going?" Claire questioned, "I need your help, Maddy!"
"I'm getting you a car, since Mr. Blue hair over here is useless on such short notice."
Maddy vanished out the way they'd came, calming Claire just a little. At least she wasn't heading to the docks...
Facing Helix once more, Claire crossed her good arm over her chest, the male watching her, his hands hovering over his keyboard, ordering, "Keep looking."