It had been a couple of days since Cass had met Nia at Circuit’s End, and he had yet to hear anything from her. Every attempt to contact her had failed. For someone supposedly so good at communicating, she was remarkably hard to get in touch with, and Cass was not holding out any hope that she could secure funding for the team.

  Not that funding was their only issue. Cass was standing next to Vex, his chief mechanic, as Vex tried to explain all the issues with the car’s AI.

  “I honestly think it has a mind of its own,” said Vex.

  “It can’t,” said Cass. “It would be against the rules. These cars are only supposed to be semi-sentient.”

  “We bought the AI black market,” said Vex. “I don’t think our seller was all that truthful about it.”

  Cass winced, a shot of pain running through his old, fried implants. “He had good references,” said Cass. “I trusted him.”

  Vex shrugged. “I’m just telling you what I’m seeing. These AIs are only supposed to control the car’s inputs in accordance with the driver’s direction. I don’t think Aurora is doing that. It’s making its own decisions, which clash with mine, and then it crashes.” Vex then looked around, as if suspicious that someone else was in the garage and might overhear what he said next. “It turns on by itself sometimes.”

  Cass had heard Vex complain about this several times in the past few days, but had never witnessed it himself. Based on what he knew about the other teams, he suspected one or more of them were trying to tamper with his car and had hacked it. Whatever the truth was, the car was sitting quietly now, making it easy to hear Cass’s phone ring as a message came in.

  “This has to be some bad joke,” said Cass, looking at the message. His tone was flat as his face went slack.

  “What?” said Vex, coming over and reading over Cass’s shoulder. “That’s impossible.”

  All three drivers Cass submitted as candidates to drive for them this year failed their implant reaction tests. Ultracar required extremely fast mental reflexes and a tight connection to the neural implants. Not everyone had the synapses for it. Even experienced drivers from lower levels were not always capable.

  “We sent three,” Cass said to Vex, as if trying to explain it to himself. “Both drivers we used last season in the junior league, and a spare. There’s no way...”

  Vex shook his head as he sat down on Aurora and let out a long breath. “I know most drivers fail the tests, but I thought all of ours would pass. They’re good drivers. They should have passed.”

  “Most people fail them. Drivers who reach the levels ours did usually pass,” said Cass.

  “That’s another anomaly,” said Vex.

  “Those tests were not cheap,” said Cass, thinking about their bank account. All that money spent and nothing to show for it.

  Vex looked at the car. The survival tube was open, showing the gel that protected the driver from the insane G-forces of a race. “Can you still drive?”

  Cass shook his head. He had been an Ultracar driver, once. But not anymore. He looked at the tube and had to swallow a bit of sick at the thought of getting in one again. “I’m out. Even if I wanted to, my implants are too fried. I would never pass the test anymore.” He put his hands on his hips. “How?” he yelled.

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  “I know you think our AI is being hacked,” said Vex.

  “You think someone sabotaged the tests?” said Cass.

  “Just trying to think of a good reason,” said Vex. “You know this sport better than I do.”

  “No,” said Cass, shaking his head even though he thought Vex might have a point. “Those tests run through the Ultracar organizers. How would a team get to them?”

  “Does Ultracar run the tests, or do they outsource them?” said Vex.

  Cass ground his teeth. He remembered the bill. It had not been to Ultracar, but to some other organization. “Outsourced,” said Cass. “But they should still be reputable, right?”

  Vex twisted his face to suggest he did not think so. “So, where does that leave us?” said Vex.

  “Nowhere,” said Cass, who sat down beside Vex. Both men stared at the floor in silence for a moment. They had come far together; it hurt that the road might end here.

  “Hello there,” came a woman’s voice. Cass looked up to see Nia walking in.

  “What are... wait... are you?” Vex pointed at Nia while looking over at Cass for an explanation.

  “Yeah, she is,” said Cass. He had not been expecting Nia and, having written her off, was not thrilled to see her again.

  “Don’t look so happy,” said Nia, walking in. Behind her came a man wearing a very conservative suit. None of the usual luminescent accents so popular with business people these days. “I’d like you both to meet Kade.” Cass and Vex looked at each other. Vex looked like he wanted an explanation, but Cass had none to give. “I got the money,” said Nia.

  “Whoa,” Cass held up his hands and shook his head a little. “Back up. What money, and who is this?”

  “I talked to Arch-Tech, and they have agreed to a deal,” said Nia. She found a chair, moved a few parts that were sitting on it, and sat down herself as if she owned the place. “It does come with a few strings attached, but it should be enough to get us going.”

  “Us? We have money?” said Vex, his eyes wide and excited.

  “What strings?” Cass had folded his arms across his chest. He did not like the sound of this.

  “Just a few things. I’ll let Kade explain,” said Nia, looking over at Kade, who looked uncomfortable but was trying to hold together a professional demeanour.

  Kade seemed surprised to be put on the spot, but he pulled himself together. “Arch-Tech is willing to provide you with 50 million credits as a start to help you develop and test your cars, as well as compete in the first few races of the championship. The money will not be given all at once, but released when certain milestones have been achieved.”

  Kade stopped talking, and everyone just stared at him until he realized he had to continue. He pulled out a phone and opened what appeared to be a document with the terms. “Within four weeks, you will have a functioning car and a full set of drivers. Also, by then, you will be setting competitive lap times in testing.” He looked up at them. “That’s the first milestone. When the season starts, you will qualify for the first race and not finish last.”

  “And why are you here?” said Cass.

  “I will act as an observer to ensure progress is being made and the money is not wasted,” said Kade.

  “Are you familiar with Ultracar?” said Cass.

  Kade looked at the floor. “Not really,” he said. “I’m an accountant.”

  “Great,” said Vex in a loud, sarcastic voice.

  Cass looked at Nia. “Can I speak with you?” He walked out of the room without looking back, but Nia followed him until they were outside. “What. Is. This?”

  “You needed money, and I got it,” said Nia. She had dropped her smile, but Cass could still detect a sort of pride in what she had accomplished.

  “With terms like these?” said Cass. “You aren’t even part of the team.”

  “Our deal was that I would be if I got the money,” said Nia. “And I did. And frankly, you don’t have a choice. I can try rounding up some smaller sponsors to fill the gaps, but you need a big backer to really make things happen. I’m sure you never saw this side when you were a driver, but this is the reality of Ultracar. Scraping by with small sponsors, used parts, and a dream doesn’t cut it here.”

  Cass turned away from her and looked around. In front of him was their small test track. He knew Nia was right and hated it. He took a breath and spat on the ground. Pain shot through his head. He was powerless here and hated it more than anything. “Fine,” he said, facing away from her. “We’ll do it your way.”

  “It’s not my way,” said Nia. “It’s just the way it is.”

  Cass took stock of the situation. “We need to have drivers in a few weeks, right?” He let out a dry chuckle.

  “Yes, why?” said Nia, looking worried for the first time.

  “This deal may not last long. We found out all of ours failed their tests today.” Cass laughed some more.