Malachi clamped a hand over the mic and shouted at Jayce. 'Jayce, we need a way out.'

Jayce quickly scrubbed through the drone footage and checked maps. 'Umm...'

'Not good enough, Jayce! We're running out of time.'

Jayce cycled through the video feeds, looking for an option. His finger stopped on one image, and he looked up. 'Not just time. You're running out of canyon.'

Malachi snatched the datapad from Jayce. 'Give me that.'

Jayce's data corroborated his own. He pressed it back into Jayce's chest and touched his finger to his ear. 'Ellie, it's a dead end.' He only heard static in reply.

'Ellie?'

'...It's okay...'

'Ellie, it's not okay! You need to slow down!'

* * * * *

'Mal? Mal?' Ellie shouted into her mic.

She looked up.

'Oh no,' she said.

* * * * *

'Ellie!?' shouted Malachi. The radio gave one last crackle, and then nothing. Not even static. He stabbed a finger at Jayce. 'Get a camera drone over there, now!'

Jayce called out to one of his friends, who called to someone else, who gave Jayce a thumbs-up. Jayce tapped the datapad and the view changed to a wide overhead shot.

Both canyons were visible. On the left three skimmers powered forward, Blake and Kian still working together to deny White a way past.

Their canyon swung right toward the third waypoint. Here, tributaries had fed and swollen the stream so it was now a river, and at the cliff edge, intersecting the third waypoint, it tumbled over the edge. The waterfall was cloaked by the spray and a fine mist, and Jayce couldn't see where it thundered into the river below.

Parallel to the main course ran a second canyon, where Ellie has landed, but Jayce couldn't find her.

* * * * *

'I don't see her,' said Jayce. 'Did she stop? Did she crash?'

'There's no smoke. No wreckage,' said a relieved Mal.

'So where did she go?'

Mal stared helplessly at the datapad. 'Come on Ellie, where are you,' he whispered.

  * * * * *  

Back in the main canyon, Blake exchanged a glance with his co-racer, who nodded in return. Kian slowed and moved behind Blake. As Blake moved ahead Kian swung from side to side, doing everything he could to deny White a clear view of the course ahead.

In first place, Blake could see everything. His skimmer flew over the waterfall and passed through the centre of the waypoint. His navigation system beeped and the fourth and final waypoint appeared: the finish line. Nose to tail, Kian followed. He pushed his skimmer over the lip of the waterfall and aimed straight down.

  * * * * *  

Mal frowned and touched his ear. 'Did you hear that?'

'Hear what?'

Mal ripped the headphones off and held them between their ears. 'Listen.'

Jayce listened. The silence had turned into static. Then it crackled.

A fourth blip appeared on the datapad, and Ellie's skimmer burst through the waterfall ahead of Kian.

The bright white glow of her engines refracted through the falling mist so that Ellie flew through the centre of a rainbow ring.

'Wooooooooo!'

  * * * * *  

Malachi pressed his forehead into the palm of his hand and closed his eyes.

'I don't think I can take much more of this.'

  * * * * *  

Kian and White immediately swerved to avoid crashing into Elie. Blake, in the lead, saw nothing. He pulled out of the dive with ease and aimed at the final waypoint. The finish line.

Ellie pulled up and levelled out a second later. Kian and White zigged and zagged in an effort to regain control and not crash into the ground or each other. They succeeded, but now they were too far behind to make up the distance.

'One to go,' said Ellie.

Camera drones zipped over the field, providing wide-shots and close-ups of the race. Others sped over the grass to feed low-angle tracking shots of the two skimmers still in contention. But despite the crystal-clear feeds from the drones nothing could compete with the real thing.

Someone cried 'There they are!', and then all eyes of the crowd were on the scene in front of them.

Malachi grabbed Jayce's arm and pulled him toward the finish line.

Jayce looked from the screen to the hill and back to the screen in despair. 'She's behind him, uphill on a sprint finish.'

'Come on, it's not over yet.'

'But it's impossible. How can she win?'

'If you knew her like I do you'd know she always finds an answer to that question.'

'But she can't win?'

'Don't tell her what to do. Now, come on!'

Blake hit the final hill climb a second before Ellie. He knew there was nothing to stop him now. The race was over. The only thing between him and the finish was empty air.

As Ellie's skimmer bounced onto the final slope, she had a different opinion. Only one person stood between her and victory, and she didn't like that situation. She didn't like that person. She didn't like this at all.

Her hands moved over the controls while her eyes stayed fixed on the skimmer in front of her. When this was her classroom she was a quick learner. She adjusted flaps and the angle of her climb, feeling the difference it made in the space between the seconds. With skill, determination and a little bit of luck, she eked out every last measure of speed from her skimmer.

And somehow, somehow, it was starting to work.

  * * * * *  

'Is she... is she catching up?' said Jayce. He switched the view on his datapad to an overhead camera. He toggled a button and a graphical overlay flashed onto the screen confirming that that distance between the finalists was indeed narrowing.

A smile slowly spread across Malachi's face. 'Blake's racer has a bigger engine, right?'

'Right?'

'That means bigger intakes, bigger power feeds, bigger housing.'

'Okay?'

'That means bigger weight. He's overcompensated for all that extra power'

'She's catching up because she's lighter than him?'

'Partly.'

'Partly? What else can she do from there?'

'She was right. She is a genius.'

'She is?'

'I can't believe she learned how to do that her first time in an atmosphere.'

'Do what?'

'I told you not to count her out.'

'Okay, but do what?'

Malachi's broke into a grin. 'She's slipstreaming him.'

  * * * * *  

It was the subtlest of feedback that Ellie noticed. The smallest of details. Each time she edged left or right to consider overtaking Blake, something changed. The handling, the smoothness of the way the craft cut through the air. Ellie didn't know what it was, but when she stayed behind Blake it felt faster.

Centimetre by centimetre, Ellie moved closer.

  * * * * *  

Malachi turned away from Jayce mid-sentence. His ear was crackling. 'Ellie?'

'I've been yelling at you for ages! Where have you been?'

'The comms went down.'

'Well, they're back, and I'm coming.'

'We see you. You're almost there, Ellie. You're doing great.'

'I'm catching up but how do I get past him?'

'I'll tell you when. We can see everything from here. It's almost over.'

As Malachi said those words Tila realised the same thing, and she knew what was going to happen.

I have to tell him.

She broke into a run, shoving aside everyone in her way without a care for anyone but Ellie.

'Mal!' Tila waved to get his attention but there were too many people in the way, too much noise around her.