The Drifters

"Think you can get me into first before the finish line?" Lessa asked carefully as she pushed on looking for a place to pass.

The girl agreed and had Lessa divert off onto another road. Just before she turned off the driver in front's tire suddenly blew, causing him to swerve and crash into a building with a horrible crunching noise and a blast of flames.

Lessa flinched as she made the turn, she hoped maybe this would keep her safe to the finish. That was all she needed right now was to finish safely.

The girl's new path took her about a mile away from the finish line and managed to put her up by the front runners. The two cars in front were the rich boy's car and the female driver's car. Just after Lessa rejoined the race someone from the sidelines seemed to throw something at the female's car, which suddenly swerved out of line and nearly hit a building.

Hoping to avoid anything happening at the last moment Lessa hit her turbo and pushed Storm to her limits trying to cross the finish line.

Storm shot ahead eagerly and by the last turn the other racer and Lessa were neck and neck. Seeing that she was passing him the other driver attempted to swerve into her rear bumper but was distracted when his radio was hacked, causing him to slow in confusion and giving Lessa a clear shot to the finish. Just across the finish line in the back of the crowd Serith was happily turning off his phone. He was relieved it had worked.

Lessa sighed as she crossed the line and rolled past the finish when she went to hit her breaks though she found that they only caught for a second before they released again and Lessa knew that her fix no longer held. In an attempt to slow down Lessa left her foot off the gas and turned down the closest street trying to roll to a stop. It would take nearly three blocks before she managed to slow down enough to use her emergency break to stop storm.

Having seen her drive past Serith frowned in concern and immediately ran after her. It would take him quite awhile to catch up, and by the time he had he was sweating and panting but clearly worried about her safety.

Once she was stopped Lessa turned back to the radio and asked if the young woman was still there, she wanted to thank her and find a time to meet up with her.

The woman had gone silent but right around when she stopped Ortis's alarmed voice sounded through the radio. "Lessa, I lost your signal. Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm okay Ortis, I won," Lessa sighed. "It seems like someone hacked our radio, but she helped me back into the race. I want to find her, she was on our side."

"I can try to track the frequencies but it's unlikely there will be much of a trail now," Ortis admitted. "We'd have to track it when she is actively on the radio. I'm glad you are okay. Now you need to get back to the plane immediately."

"Has Serith been found?" Lessa asked carefully, she wouldn't leave here without him.

"No, we've found no sign of him," Ortis admitted just as Serith appeared around the corner and promptly tripped into the wall in shock at finding her car.

"Okay, it's going to take me some time to get back to the airport. My breaks were sabotaged before the race and my fix didn't hold as well as I hoped," Lessa admitted carefully still having not seen Serith.

"Okay, I will send the guards out to your location immediately. Be extremely careful," Ortis asked of her just as Serith ran up to her door with a shout of "Lessa!"

Lessa screamed at the sudden appearance of Serith and she flinched away from him in terror.

Serith paused in shock at the scream and stared at her with wide, concerned eyes as he spoke. "Lessa, it's me. Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Oh my god, where have you been. I thought you were missing," Lessa said after taking a moment to breath and realize that it really was Serith.

"Well, it's a long story," Serith admitted as he glanced around nervously before he turned back to her and offered her his hand. "Come on, we have to go now. I know a shortcut to get back to the hotel."

"Ortis wants us to go to the airport, he wants us to leave now," Lessa protested. She was upset that he was acting so jumpy.

"We have other cars at the hotel, it will be faster to drive to the airport," Serith pointed out hastily. "Come on, we really don't have time to argue. We really need to go."

Lessa frowned but unstrapped herself and stepped out trying to contact Ortis to let him know what was going on, as she stepped out though she realized something ridiculous. "Why don't we just take Storm?"

"But weren't your brakes cut?" Serith protested immediately, he was certain that wasn't safe.

"It just means it will take me a little longer to stop, it won't be that bad. Wait how do you know about the breaks?" Lessa asked with a frown.