Psycho Pass: All Alone With You

Drift! Chapter 10

 Despite the ability to choose the path to the crossings, Virgil's selected GPS points led Kogami on a meandering route through the city of Los Angeles. Kogami was growing ever more concerned that the overlapping back and forth travel would be his undoing and even considered pulling into the Los Angeles Police headquarters the second time a crossing led them passed the station.

He was still bleeding, and the Enforcer knew that he would not last out the hour without proper medical care. This forced him to consider Akane's safety. That was when he noticed the first tail in the rearview mirror. It was the first sign that he was on the right path. Touching Akane's thigh, he nodded for her to look behind them.

"Is that who I think it is?"

"There can't be too many lavender Supras, even in this city," he replied. As they drove through the third checkpoint, the Supra was joined by a blue Nissan Skyline. Within moments, a black RX-7 fell in line behind them. "Luda reinforcements? Vigil?"

"Confirmed, Cerberus. Patriarchs Beatrice, Charon, and Wraith are all online as your security detail. Various Denizens have been dispatched to run interference if the need arises."

"Have we been followed?"

"A careful route to avoid city surveillance and your costume change have been effective strategies. There are no signs of pursuit. Standby. Incoming message from Patriarch Tsuki."

"You alright up there, Kogami?"

"Define alright," he replied. "I sure could use a beer."

"Copy that. The Pit Boss says to skip the crossings, drop the hammer, and bring it in." As she spoke, the multiple crossings faded from the map with one exception, the crossing on the coast.

Kogami downshifted aggressively. The Porsche's tires hissed against the asphalt. To his delight, all three cars responded in similar fashion. Revving the engine, he spun out for a moment and raced down the street ahead of them toward the last and final checkpoint on the map.

"There lies our way, and that our passage home. Welcome to Purgatory," Virgil said. An interactive, three-dimensional, holographic map was displayed above Akane's lap.

Luda's sanctuary was a massive, 500-acre scrapyard sprawled on the edge of an isolated marina on an even more secluded section of beach and rocky coastline. It was an appropriate name for the final resting ground of junked metal, a place where cars and people went to be discarded, only to resurrected to new purpose.

The location of the outlaw haven was no mistake nor was the sanctuary's design. Surrounded by a 30-foot metal fence, the junkyard was arranged like an amusement park with separate zones dedicated to a specific activity featuring cars. There was a drag strip, a quarter-mile track, a pillory for drifting, a rally gymkhana track, and even an obstacle course to test tactical driving skills.

Situated at the crowded entrance as a clear deterrent to unwanted company. The first of three figure-8 tracks greeted new arrivals with the roar of eight sprint karts vying for position. A digital sign was posted above the gate: Abandon hope all ye who bank on a pink slip. The fierce racing heat that was in progress was halted to let Kogami and the other Patriarchs through the gates.

"Do they ever sleep?" Akane asked. She watched through the window as they passed by a Carousel Circle where two cars were engaged in tandem drifting. Tires fighting to catch a grip on the road, the vehicles swung in unison on a track slicked with traffic paint. Towers of tires, new and old, were arranged in stacks at the center of the loop and hid the cars from view as they drifted out of sight.

Among the ruins, there was a full-length race track designed around the layout of the scrapyard. Four street cars raced breakneck down a short straightaway before their drivers braked abruptly and then banked into an S-curve and that lead into a tight hairpin. Stopped by a racing steward in a caution yellow miniskirt and matching thigh-high boots, Kogami paused at an intersection before being waved across the track to avoid any possible collision with the zealous racers.