The Drifters

Lessa rolled up next to West and glanced over at him giving him a nod, she had heard about this man and was excited to give him a run for his money.

Seeing the motion West gave her a little, clearly confident smile back. He was excited to see if she was as good as he had been hearing. When the racers were lined up there was a moment of silence, broken by the shot of a gun which signaled the start of the race. Immediately he shifted his car into gear and raced off.

Lessa was hot on his heels as she flew though the gears, it's been quite some time since she has had a real challenge. Though the first turn she was only inches behind his bumper.

While everyone was distracted by the race Rachel stepped over to one of the event runners to report Serith and his very odd behavior.

The event runners were clearly concerned and immediately sent out a group to apprehend Serith who, seeing the larger guys moving toward him, immediately tried to duck out of the crowd. He was pursued and soon found himself on a foot race through the city streets to avoid them, during which he stepped directly onto the track.

West was smiling broadly as he lead the race around the first turn. It felt so good to be back out on the streets. As he rounded the second turn a blonde haired man raced directly out in front of his car, forcing him to curse and slam on the brakes. His car skidded and swerved but by pure luck he managed to avoid hitting anything. Serith, clearly a bit startled by the near hit, immediately raced off into a nearby alley.

Seeing her chance Lessa pushed pass West to take over the lead, she had never even seen Serith. After the next turn she found a straight away and she opened it up hitting 120 in a matter of seconds.

Seeing the other cars race past him West swore and immediately raced back out onto the track. He could feel that his car was running a little rougher and was certain that he had damaged something but, much to his relief, it still seemed willing to work for him. The other racers had already fallen well behind Lessa and, despite his best efforts, West was barely able to finish in fourth out of the six racers.

When the race was over Lessa walked over to West, "you were good out of the starting gate, what happened around that second turn?"

"Some idiot stepped out onto the track," West sighed in clear frustration as he pulled off his helmet and attempted to straighten out his sweaty hair. "You did well though. You might have beaten me even without that happening."

"Who knows but I'll take that as a challenge for another time," Lessa said with a little smile, "next time look into a disengager, it will save your engine if you have to slam on the breaks."

"That's a good idea," West agreed with a small but clearly grateful smile. "Thank you." With little else to say he turned back to check on his car. While he worked it was announced that the second place finisher had been using illegal parts, which had disqualified him and moved West into third place, qualifying him for the next round much to his relief.

Lessa smiled and walked off just as Reid rolled up to the line. He placed second in his own race and when it was over he headed over to West. "I heard her growling a bit when you rolled in, what happened out there?"

"Some guy stepped out onto the track around a blind corner and I had to swerve to avoid him," West admitted with a frown as he closed the hood of the car. "I think she'll make it home if I take it easy enough. Guy was lucky I didn't kill him."

"Well I'll climb under her tomorrow and see what I find, until then I think you owe me a beer." Reid said as he patted West on the back.

The next morning there was a file on Serith desk filled with information on race cars as well as a new little notebook.

West agreed and would spend much of the next day attempting to repair his car.

Serith paused as he caught sight of the folder. What the heck was that doing here? Did someone know who he was? Slightly frightened he tried to ask around the precinct as discreetly as he could. Maybe it was just a prank.

Everyone said the same thing when questioned, the folder had been there since they arrived that morning.

"Any ideas on what it might be yet?" Reid asked as he stepped over to check on West.

Increasingly confused Serith eventually grabbed his keys and set out on patrol. He figured he could try to solve the mystery later.

"I think it's a problem with the spark plugs," West admitted with a frown. "And maybe the brakes as well. Figured I'd tune up as much as I can before the next race just in case. We have a couple of days at least, and Seria has been so busy at work that she hasn't noticed that I've been away for more time."

"Just be careful and don't pass her off again, I don't have anything left to fix." Reid joked lightly.

That day Lessa sent a message to her boss, 'I think I have a few independent drivers that we can recruit to help shut down the weapon smuggling, I'm just waiting for your go ahead.'

"That's true," West had to agree with a sigh. He really didn't want to get murdered, at least before he could make his real comeback.

The boss eyed her message thoughtfully for a moment and within an hour he had replied. 'We could certainly use more assistance. Send me what info you have on them. Are they trustworthy?'

Lessa made quick work of hacking into their files and pulling all of West's and Reid's information and creating files for her boss. 'I'm sure as long as we can keep them out of the police system they will stay loyal.'

The Boss looked thoughtfully over the files for some time before he replied. 'See if you can convince them to come in for a meeting. They look promising but they will need proper training.'

'I'll talk to them at the next race and get back to you,' Lessa assured her boss and when the next race came she walked up to the pair as soon as they arrived. "Hello gentlemen, have a moment to talk?"

"Sure," West shrugged with a quick glance at Reid. "We have a few minutes. What would you like?"

"Did you manage to get that disengager? She sounds like she's running better," Lessa asked as she looked over at West's car.

"Yeah, she's doing much better," West admitted with a small, clearly pleased smile. "Took her out yesterday and she ran like a dream. Thank you for the idea. I really appreciate it."

"Glad I could help, I wouldn't want an unfair race but she must have cost you a small fortune." Lessa observed carefully, she knew she had to be tactful in this.