Chapter 42: Her Dunes
The sand rose fast on the left side of the trough, and she was already through it before it could fully become a problem. Which, when you think about it, is the entire philosophy of speed. If something turns into the past before it finishes becoming the present, does it even count as an obstacle?
She was ahead.
Ahead the way a shadow gets ahead of the body at sunset, stretching forward before anything else arrives. Ahead.
Boost at the start had done exactly what it promised. No tricks, no fine print.
The dunes were hers now.
She had decided that somewhere between the starting line and the walls of sand, and the decision had been firm since. Or maybe it simply refused to change. There’s a difference, but she wasn’t interested in finding it.
She had the window down.
A drone appeared nearby together with a truck.
It was small and fast. It crossed the distance between two dunes at a diagonal and clipped her rear panel with the accuracy that made one thing clear.
It had been aimed.
"The hell?!" She leaned her head out the open window into the rushing heat. "Which one of you decided that was worth dying for-"
A second drone appeared.
And from its direction, she found the truck.
It had a drone housing mounted above the cab. Units stowed, launching in sequence. And the driver behind the windshield sitting very calmly for someone who had just made what Nyx considered a grave mistake.
"Hey!"
Nyx shouted, loud enough to cut through the engine, the wind, and the general noise of the desert. "Hey! You piloting those budget-ass mosquitoes! Did you build those yourself or did they come broken out of the box?!"
The drone hacker did not respond.
She launched a third.
"Oh, she’s quiet," Nyx said, to nobody in particular. "The quiet type. That’s fine. I’ll do the talking."
I am detecting external contact on the rear panel.
Clippy appeared near the passenger seat with the calm of an artificial intelligence.
I have three recommendations for responding to drone-based proximity threats. Would you like to hear them?
"All three. Yes. Immediately," Nyx said.
Wonderful. Recommendation one: activate a dispersal-
"Actually, I’m going to Slip them," she said. "But thank you."
You’re very welcome. That was also my recommendation.
"We are so in sync," she said, and activated it.
[ Slip ]
The field discharged around the truck.
The nearest drone caught it mid-approach, veered hard left and dropped into the sand at the base of the next dune in a spray.
The other lost its direction and climbed in a useless arc.
The drone hacker’s truck caught the end of the field and drifted right for two full seconds before the driver managed to steer it back.
Nyx leaned halfway out the window.
"Did you see that?!"
She shouted across the distance. "Did you see what just happened to your little drones? Want to send more fucker? Don’t get shy now! I’m farming you for confidence at this point!"
The drone hacker was already resetting her racks.
Patiently, which was just another way of saying dangerous, but in a quieter tone.
"Noob ass bitch," Nyx said, pulling herself back into the cab.
She said it with all the toxicity of an online gamer.
"She really thinks she’s built for this."
She took the next dune face without braking.
Confidence or recklessness. The distinction wasn’t relevant for Nyx
At the top, the field opened behind her for half a second.
Just enough.
His truck was there. Dark, as if it was brooding like him, and voving steady. Exactly where it should be.
Of course it was.
She smiled at the windshield and prepared herself.
The descent came fast.
More speed than before. More momentum from the climb. The bottom rushed up with a very clear impression about what she was doing.
She had already chosen her route before the top, so she kept it. Let it prove itself right.
It did.
The truck steered in the trough.
There was already a truck in the narrow.
It hadn’t forced its way in. It had simply arrived first and taken the line through the narrow distance between two dunes without knowing she was behind it.
Which, from Nyx’s perspective, was not a valid excuse.
"Get the hell out," she said, casually, to a driver who could not hear her.
The front left of her truck met its right rear of their truck at a speed that made the impact all the more relevant.
The other truck spun and slammed into the dune wall.
She went through it still accelerating and shouted back over her shoulder, out the open window, "Stay down there! That’s where trash belongs!"
Fortunately, the game had no report button for toxicity.
A second truck appeared from the left.
Quietly, the distance closing while Nyx had been looking at the drone hacker.
The front intake glowed flat white.
[ Ram ]
"Oh, you bastard didn’t fuck dare-"
[ Feint ]
Nyx’s truck went right.
With full commitment in the wheel, enough to sell the lie.
The other truck believed it.
It rammed into the space she was supposed to be in.
And found nothing.
All that momentum pushed it sideways into the loose sand at the sides.
"Fucking-!" she shouted back as she cleared it. "Fucking idiot! Buy a pair of glasses next time!"
She was still laughing when the ground moved.
The sand dropped under her tires. About half a meter.
Then rose again.
The entire dune field dropped with it.
Wide enough that two trucks on either side of her lost their direction at the same time.
One slid sideways into the dune it had been climbing.
The other spun in the narrow and stopped hard against a sand bank.
Nyx kept her grip on the wheel and drove through it.
"What the hell?"
The ground answered by doing it again.
Bigger.
The dune ahead trembled at the top and poured sand down its face in one long, unbroken sheet.
And somewhere deep under the desert, something had moved.
And the desert above it had not yet decided how to respond.
She hit the accelerator and went straight at it.
Reviews
All reviews (0)