Neon Grave

Chapter 30 Public Enemy

Jessica traversed the city streets like a Pizza-Taco delivery girl. Because curiosity loomed around every traffic light, even when there were no surprises. A mental map was the key. She memorized the city layout after Cairo gave the tour one time, and the walls were transparent. She pushed through holograms of her face. Everywhere, the images of a pre-recorded Jessica recited warnings to all the crazy dwellers high and low.

"This is the Lynx. For Einstein's sake, avoid all rotary intersections and stay away from sky bridges. Or die, whatever..." On and on, neon eyes of the Lynx logo burned across the neon skyline. Up and down, the sprawl cranked like the inside of an old bell tower. Gears and hydraulics looped underneath and across the megablocks, around her head. She dragged the Mark IV sideways to perform a melon grab on office windows. The Shaz'ra followed her across the border into the next wily district.

Crete Capital was some old-town acres of interwinding hovels, a jungle gym where many lives crammed into conjoined buildings. In other words, foot traffic was polluted and incessant. Luckily, the smart elevators afforded four-dimensional travel. Up, down, sideways, bed, bath, and beyond. Which is why Jess led the Azarean elite in a multidimensional race.

Between monumental urban slabs, the McFly propelled in zig-zags. Alien bumpers flew closely in tandem, deftly avoiding the arches and impending fender benders. Every little block of hazards quickly deformed into a surf; the streets and skylanes a dynamic animation of obstacle courses. Together, Jess and her pursuers cleared a path.

'Round and 'round, they never lost sight of each other.

The Azareans were faster, tireless; to call their technology advanced was an understatement. She knew because even after a year of studying Goliath's best-kept secrets, she could never close the gap. The information did not exist, not on Earth. Before the Hall of Memories, there was never a wisp or whisper about Xynocephles. Not him nor the inhuman Shaz'ra. These Azareans were disconnected from those who lived on Earth, which didn't make enough sense.

Jess would give an arm and a leg to find a weakness. "Can you identify their power source, Babel?"

"Impossible to scan, crazy woman!"

"Clean and succinctly, Babel!" she snapped.

"Those damn speeders utilize omnidirectional rotation! Only freakish computational power has that kind of reflex! So we must be swift! Must be Savvy! Must be super-dupercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"

To look back was difficult while high winds slapped her in the face. "We can't assume anything. These Azareans are different!"

"And their acceleration rate makes no damned sense!"

"Babel, isolate traffic control commands to this specific quadrant and surrender the McFly's automation on my mark!"

"You want manual control?"

"Manual!"

"Manual?"

"Yaaass!"

Every second on the run made Jessica's heart flip faster. If she skated in a straight line, the Azareans would trap her quickly. One of the bastards even arrived within arm's length, but she evaded its ivory clutches. Their speeders were that fast, the riders extremely coordinated. Their disadvantage, however, lay in the city. They couldn't navigate Siren like someone in control, and she had yet to reveal her best tricks.

She hugged the ground, high-tailing another street corner. One by one, in a perfect slither, the Azareans curtailed the curb, confined by the width of the lane and their formation. Jess had chosen a route with narrow lanes, keeping her chasers too confined for an encirclement. That changed when she skated into a deserted corridor. Déjà vu hit hard because she had led them in a circle, a tour through the exact same scenery and exact same megablocks and Pepsi machines on both sides.