Hidden Depths

Chapter 4 - Quick tour

Lauren turned out to be the most amazing, spaceship-esque, super sexy set of wheels that Rash had seen in all his thirteen years.  It was the kind of car that he'd occasionally watched those elderly idiots fawning over on the telly on a Sunday night.  He had never really been that bothered by supercars, but, up close, he began to understand what it was that made Grandpa Denim act like an excited toddler on national telly every week.

The wheels and bottom panels of the car were bright orange, while the rest of the vehicle was such a dark blue that it looked almost black.  The bald man spotted the look on Rashid's face and smiled at him with sparkling eyes. 

'Rich, meet Lauren.' 

Rashid attempted to feign an air of disinterest. 

'Who introduces someone to a car when they haven't even introduced themselves?' he said.

He was trying to hide his eagerness, but he would have got into this car with the man even if he'd said his name was Peter File. 

'Why, I'm Nikolai, of course,' said the bald man as the car beeped.  'Hop in, let's make her sing.'

Rash had no idea what kind of car it was, but inside it had Super Sport written on the seats and an unusual emblem in the middle of the steering wheel that looked like the number three encircled next to the letter B. 

'Nice car,' said Rash in a pitch that was an octave above the one he was aiming for.  

'Have you seen much of Paris since you've been here Rich?'  Nikolai asked.

Before Rash could answer, Nikolai grinned and fired the ignition.  The car made a faint high-pitched scream and then a brief growl that turned into a regular bassy throb as the engine began to tick over.  The sound vibrated through Rash's bum, up to his head and down to his toes.  He put his hand to his head then glanced at his fingers as he admitted that he'd hardly seen anything of the city.

'Well, you're in luck, as August...' 

A flash of anger appeared on Nikolai's face as he saw his passenger inspecting the injury.  He paused for a moment and looked at Rash in a way that made him feel as if he was being assessed. 

'Look Rich, you're not going to enjoy this with a banging headache.' 

The easy charm had returned to Nikolai's manner. 'I'm a great supporter of the pharmaceutical industry,' he said.  'Grab that box from under your seat.' 

Rash felt around and found a small but heavy metal box that matched the dark blue colour of the car.  He pulled it up and had a look, but there was no obvious way of opening it.  He passed it over to Nikolai who held his thumb on a corner.  The box beeped and the lid popped up with a hiss, as the air escaped from within.  Raising his eyebrows, Nikolai rummaged around for a while then pulled out a little capsule containing a red liquid. 

'This is the next generation of pain relief,' he explained. 'It's very fast acting but still in the development phase, so it's not exactly freely available to the general public, if you know what I'm saying.'

Rashid realised that Nikolai could see the doubt on his face. 

'It's perfectly safe and the pain will vanish, I promise you.' 

Rash didn't trust this man but he couldn't help but be impressed by him. He took the pill and dry swallowed it before he had time to consider his options.  The bald man looked playfully at Rash. 

'It's very fast acting but takes an age to wear off, probably best if you don't operate any machinery,' he paused, 'for a couple of days.'

Rashid wondered what he had let himself in for as Nikolai wiggled his moustache and revved the engine.