Handcuffed

A Race To Die

High school was over and all its festivities were just a memory. Mechanics school was the way to go for someone always fooling around with car parts. The Dean pushed Steven to take the mechanics course while working as an apprentice in an auto repair shop. He didn't really need the push, since it was exactly the direction and course of action Steven mapped out for himself. To his credit The Dean did help contact the right people and schools for a top job and top school.

After he graduated from mechanics school, Steven received a letter from The Dean saying he applied for him to get a job as a racecar mechanic. Would he be interested? Steven did a little bit of research, and liked what he heard. The job was landed pretty quickly, which he attributed to The Dean doing things behind the scene, and things were going nicely. Years of hard work still found Steven as one of the most junior mechanics on the team, so he decided to try to prove himself.

He had an idea. If it worked it could help almost everyone. He started with his team racecar. Little did he know how badly things would snowball.

Magnets always amazed him. The north and south pole of two separate magnets attracted each other. Two north poles would repel each other as would two south poles. Even most metals, though they couldn't attract, a magnet would attract or repel them.

He tried to come up with magnets placed on all four sides of the car that will repel any other car if it got within a certain amount of inches. This would minimize the amount of accidents on the road.

One problem took a long time to sort out, how to make sure the magnets wouldn't attract the car next to it. For six months he grappled with this issue and finally got an answer. He created a gadget that could tell whether the side closest to it was north or south. He perfected this PoleFinder so that from a few feet away the computer could pick up which pole it was facing.

As a test run he took two children's remote control cars and doctored one of them a bit. Each of the four sides of the car were given two magnets one on top of the other, one facing north and the other south, running along the full length of its side. Each magnet was given power by eight batteries put inside the car. The batteries were connected via remote, to a computer set to use the PoleFinder. When the PoleFinder would find a magnetic pole, the computer was set to shut off the magnets that would attract, leaving the repelling magnets of that side to keep the two cars from colliding.

His ecstasy knew no bounds. He was so excited as it succeeded many times in his studio apartment. He scheduled a meeting with the retiring head mechanic Arnold, his right hand man Lefty, the main race driver Paul, and the owner of the car, Mr. Richie. On the large conference table he demonstrated the idea and everything looked great from there.

Paul was excited. He was nearly shouting with joy when he exclaimed something that startled Steven. "I can drive without slowing down if I get too close to another car."

There was another thing he hadn't thought of. Mr. Richie asked not to publicize it, though looking back maybe it was a good thing. From a business standpoint, he did not want the public, or worse, his competitors to know he had a secret edge. Everyone gave their word to keep it quiet and for the next few months, Arnold, Lefty and Steven worked on designing the car in a way that nobody would see a difference. When all was done they showed it to Mr. Richie and Paul and had a few test runs. Everything went smooth as jello.

Mr. Richie was so please with the idea and the work, that Steven was given a substantial raise with a new position. He was no longer a lowly mechanic. He was the new assistant to Lefty who was going to take over for Arnold after the next race.

The first real test came in the form of the Indy 500. Every time Paul got close to another car, it looked like the other car slowed down and pulled away, however Steven knew the reality was quite the opposite. The magnets were pushing the car away causing the driver to get nervous and tap the brakes.