Page 68 of Hyperspeed
Being here must have helped him feel like himself again. More in control. It was something familiar, rooted in who he was, and I realised howmonumentalit was that he’d invited me.
I’d asked him to bring me along, but he could’ve said no—told me to fuck off into the nearest sun like he usually would—and yet he hadn’t. He’d told me I could come, shared the correct details, without knowing how I might react to it all. He’d lowered his guard just enough to let me in.
Despite everything between us, Rev had allowed his two worlds to collide with no safety net.
He’d been adamant that Korvi was brave for putting himself out there. For doing what the rookie hadn’t been able to do in the past. But right now?
I thought Rev was pretty fucking brave too.
Given our usual state of play, I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
The tension in Rev’s shoulders eased when I grinned at Al. “Great to meet you, mate.” I gestured to the vehicle behind him. “You build that?”
It looked similar to the standard X-9 Stratos we drove in the ASL, but there were a few interesting additions.
“I sure did.” Al circled the vehicle and started pointing out the features. “Added some mag-thrust boosters for an extra surge on the straightaways,andit uses a dual-ion fuel mix.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” I asked, brow furrowed. “It has a major burnout risk.”
“High risk, high reward, my man,” he laughed. “You’ve gotta be careful. Too much can overheat the engine quickly, but used at the right time, the burst ofspeed isinsane.” Al nudged Rev, whose lips curled up in a smirk. “How do you think this one got his nickname?”
“So this is where you inherited your death wish,” I remarked. “Duly noted.”
“You’d cream your pants if you could use it in the league, Mercer.” He tapped Al’s chest with his knuckles. “Tell him about the rest.”
“Rev’s is pretty similar.” Al pointed at a second vehicle. “Same fuel mix, similar thrusters, but it has chameleon paint, which reacts to the surroundings. It can mind-fuck the competition when you disappear from behind and reappear up ahead.” He waved me closer, pointing to the cockpit. “The best part is the Holo-HUD with a RaceNet tap-in—”
“What’s RaceNet?”
“Live analytics for the race, only accessible by the event organisers. It’s like what your engineers see, I guess, because you can view everyone’s positions and vehicle conditions . . . but only if you can hack your way into it.” He straightened up and folded his thick arms over his chest. “Very black market, but not against the rules. In the underground, if you’ve got the means to get it, you can have it.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“It’s an illegal underground racing league.” Al cackled, like I’d told the galaxy’s dumbest joke. “Fairness isn’t part of the rule book.”
“Touché.” I looked back at the vehicles. “You built both of these beasts?”
He bumped his hip against the first vehicle. “Nah, this baby’s mine. But this one . . .” He laid a hand almost reverently on the rear wing of the second. “This one’s all him.”
I looked at Rev. His ears twitched, skin glittering with a mixture of orange and yellow. He kept his eyes fixed on the floor, as though the concrete was more interesting than our conversation.
“You built this?”
His head snapped up and he grew defensive. “You don’t have to sound so surprised.”
It stung that his first thought was that I’d rip it apart. That I’d zero in on the flaws and dismiss the rest. But thinking back to how I’d treated him early on—and even recently—I couldn’t say he was wrong to expect it.
“Rookie, it’s—”
“I don’t want to hear it, Mercer.”
“Wait, hang on—”
“No.”
“Will you let me sp—”
“Don’t say anythi—”
