By Adeline Johnson
I peered down the prison ward’s empty hallway—shiny and sterilized like everything else in the Domand Empire. “All right, I’m here.” My whisper echoed off the metal walls. “Which cell is Colton’s?”
Alexander’s tiny voice crackled in my earpiece. “B-5.”
I headed down the hall. “The guards are still busy, right?”
“Why? Is my fearless sister afraid?”
“There’s a reason I leave the field work to you guys.” A glance over my shoulder confirmed the coast was clear. “Fixing vehicles is more my style.”
“You mean racing them like a madwoman,” Alex grumbled. “But Mom and Dad are busy, and the Resistance has other priorities. It’s up to us to rescue Colton.”
“I know, I know.”
B-5.
I stopped in front of a narrow door. This was it. Shooting one last glance down the hallway, I plugged Alex’s gadget into the authorization port. Supposedly, it would give him remote access to the lock so he could work his tech magic.
“Oh good,” Alex chirped. “An easy one.”
A frown creased my face. “Since when is hacking Domand military encryptions easy?”
“Well—”
“Never mind. Just focus.” Now was not the time for another of Alex’s hacker rants. I’d already gotten one on the way over.
“Done!”
The panel slid open to reveal Colton sitting on the bunk of the otherwise empty cell. He stood up, eyebrows raised. “Rysha? What are you doing here?”
“Rescuing you, of course! Were you expecting the tooth fairy?”
Alex snorted, sending static through the earpiece.
Colton smirked. “I’d take the old man with reindeer if I thought he could get me out of here.” He strode forward and wrapped me in a tight hug. “Glad to see you, Sis.”
Red lights began flashing in the corridor as an alarm wailed.
Alex cleared his throat in my ear. “Hate to crash the party, but we’ve got incoming.”
“No kidding!” I pulled away from Col’s embrace and scanned the corridor. “How much time do we have?”
“I suggest you run.”
***
I rounded the corner, breathing heavily. Angry shouts and pounding footsteps grew louder as Colton reached the exit ahead of me and jammed Alex’s hacking device into the lock mechanism.
I growled a word that I hoped Alex wouldn’t hear. “They’re gaining on us!”
“Come on, Alex,” Colton muttered at the blinking display light.
The lock beeped, and the barrier slid sideways. I barreled into Colton, sending both of us tumbling onto the pavement outside. The door slid closed behind us, cutting off the sounds of pursuit and leaving us gasping in the muted neon lights of the city’s night life.
Col recovered first and pulled me up with him. “Let’s go, they could get here any—”
Something clicked behind me.
Colton and I whirled around, peering into the darkness. The front end of my green and brown Link Chariot racer peeked out of the shadows. A relieved grin spread across my face. Alex must have unlocked it for us.
Colton groaned. “Oh, please don’t tell me that that hunk of junk is our getaway.”
“Okay, I won’t,” I scoffed. “But I will tell you I’m driving.”
A look of horror crossed his face, but before he could say anything, muffled shouts came from behind us. I smacked Col on the shoulder, taking off toward the Chariot. “No time to argue. Get in!”
As I hopped inside and revved the engine, Alex popped up from the back seat. “There you are! Took your sweet time.”
The door we’d just come through burst open, and several armed guards swarmed out. They saw us two seconds too late—by the time they had their weapons ready, I was already tearing onto the road.
Alex glanced down at his interface. “Rysha, I’ve got us a route. You need to take—”
“Forget it.” Six Domand trucks were pulling up behind us. “We’ve got to lose these guys, and I can only do that on the Raceway.”
Alex sputtered incoherently. Colton’s jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious,” he said. “There’s no way this scrap pile will hold together on the track!”
I made a sharp right as one of the trucks tried to pull up next to me. “Looks can be deceiving. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into modifying this baby.”
Tires screeched as I dodged around a car turning left. Horns blared behind me. “It may not be shiny,” I said, “but it’ll outrun anything the Doms send after us.”
Never mind that our city’s Underground Raceway was far and away the hardest track in the region—and the most dangerous. I nearly got scrapped in the last race, but they didn’t need to know that.
The six trucks were still behind me. Col and Alex braced themselves against the seats as I swerved around a tight corner. Col gritted his teeth. “I hope you’re right about this.”
Ahead of us, the entrance to the raceway tunnel loomed large and bright. I floored the accelerator, grinning in anticipation.
This was gonna be fun.
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