Kennin shook his head.
“You’re digging yourself in deeper and deeper,” Neilson warned.
“Like I have a choice,” Kennin replied bitterly.
Neilson straightened up alertly. “You do, Kennin. You can tell me what’s really going on.”
There was no answer Kennin could give. Neilson pursed his lips and shook his head sadly. “I’ve told you this before, Kennin. You seem like a good kid who’s in a bad spot. I’d like to help you, but only if you help me.”
Kennin hung his head. Neilson said something to the two uniformed officers. Then he headed for Angelita. Kennin watched while Neilson spoke to her. He couldn’t hear what the detective was saying, but he could see Angelita’s face fall as he gave her the news that the Corolla was being impounded. And then Neilson gave her one more piece of information. Angelita’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open. She stared in horror at Kennin. Then tears burst out of her eyes and she bolted from the paddock area.
24
to watch the next heat. He got back to the paddock area just in time to see his sister run away crying and the cops take the keys to the Corolla from Kennin. “What’s going on?” he asked Kennin.
Kennin pointed at the police cruiser with Tito’s cousin in the back. “They got Raoul and they’re impounding the car.”
“What?” Tito gasped. “They can’t do that!”
Other drifters and crew started to gather as the word spread that the Corolla was being impounded by the cops. Meanwhile, two guys had gotten out of the police department tow truck and were winching the Corolla.
“It’s DQ time,” Ian said with a satisfied smile.
“That is so unfair,” said Driftdog Dave. “Dude, you can use my car. I probably wouldn’t even have it if it wasn’t for you.”
Kennin shook his head. “You’re still in this competition. You should drive.”
Seemingly out of nowhere, Derek lumbered up to Neilson and began speaking in hushed, excited tones. Neilson listened, then shook his head. Derek grew more agitated, gesturing and stamping his foot on the ground. It was obvious that he had a lot to lose if the Corolla went away. But no matter what he said, Neilson wasn’t to be swayed. Finally the detective turned and walked away.
Mariel came through the crowd. Kennin watched how her eyes went to Chris first before she turned to him. “I hear you need a car?” She reached into her bag and handed him a set of keys on a black Lexus fob. “Here you go.”
For a split second Kennin was tempted. A production IS300 might stand a chance. He stared at the keys in his palm and then at Chris, who had an annoyed look on his face, as if he knew she was doing this just to annoy him. That’s all it would ever be with her. Kennin should have known that all along. He handed Chris the keys.
“This is your problem,” he said, and then turned to go.
“Where’re you going?” Tito asked, hurrying behind him.
“To find your sister,” Kennin answered.
“What about the competition?”
“I just lost my car, remember?” Kennin said, walking through the paddock, looking for Angelita.
“What about Mariel’s Lexus?” Tito said.
“No way,” Kennin said. “I’ve had enough of that BS to last a lifetime.”
“Then why are you looking for my sister?” Tito asked.
Kennin didn’t answer.
“You promised you’d leave her alone,” Tito said.
“That’s when I thought you really cared about her,” Kennin said.
“You saying I don’t care about her?” Tito sputtered.
“If you did, you’d want her to be happy,” Kennin said. “And you wouldn’t be so quick to sabotage her car.”
“I told you, I was forced to do that,” Tito said.
“I don’t think you argued too hard,” Kennin said.
“But …”
Kennin didn’t listen. It didn’t matter what Tito said now. The police tow truck started up and pulled the Corolla out of the paddock. Kennin found Angelita sitting against a fence in the dark behind the stands.
“Can’t see much from here,” he said.
“Go away,” she said.
“I lied to you because I didn’t want to hurt you,” he said.
“Gee, thanks,” she shot back bitterly.
“I’m finished with all that now,” he said.
“Oh, sure,” Angelita said. “I believe every word.”
Engines were revving in the background. Another heat was about to go off.
“I want to go with you,” Kennin said.
Angelita looked up in the dark with a puzzled expression on her face. “Where?”
“Wherever you go,” Kennin said.
“Why?” she asked.
“You know why,” Kennin said.
Angelita stared at him. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“What reason would I have to lie?” Kennin asked.
“Excuse me,” a voice said in the dark.
Kennin turned to find a man in a gray uniform. It was Joe, one of the security guards from the Babylon. “Kennin Burnett?”
“Yes?” Kennin said.
“Mr. Mercado wants to see you,” the guard said.
Kennin looked at Angelita.
“It’s okay,” she said. “You can go.”
Kennin turned back to the guard. “She comes too.”
“Mr. Mercado said just you,” the guard said.
“I don’t go if she doesn’t go,” Kennin said.
Joe led them through a service entrance at the back of the casino and up in an elevator the room service waiters used. The outer office of the penthouse was dark and Laney’s desk was empty. Joe knocked on the wooden door and Mike Mercado answered it. His sleeves were rolled back and his tie was askew, and he looked like he’d had a long day.
“Who’s this?” he asked, glancing at Tito’s sister after Joe left.
“This is my friend Angelita,” Kennin said. “I wanted you to meet her. She’s the one who built the car I was driving.”
Mercado extended his hand. “Hello, Angelita. I see Kennin has good taste.”
Angelita blushed, and Mercado asked them to come in and sit down. Kennin noticed that the curtains were pulled back. From his office at the top of the casino, you could see the lights of Las Vegas and the silhouettes of the mountain peaks in the distance.
“So, Kennin,” he said once they’d settled down. “I assume you have something to tell me?”
“I’m leaving town,” Kennin said.
Mercado nodded.
“And I didn’t use the entire five grand on the car,” Kennin said.
Mercado smiled. “Didn’t expect you to.”
Kennin blinked. “Serious?”
“This is Las Vegas, Kennin,” Mercado said. “Everyone cons everyone. The only way you survive is by staying one con ahead. But I appreciate your honesty. So what did you do with the rest of the money?”
“I paid someone I trust to take my sister to LA and put her in a drug rehab,” Kennin said. “I’ll pay you back.”
Mercado grinned. “You already have.”
Kennin frowned.
“We did twice what we expected at the gate tonight,” Mercado said. “Maybe as much as forty thousand.”
“You’re not mad?” Kennin asked.
“Mad? I’m delighted!” Mercado said. “Why would you think I’d be mad?”
“The odds were against me,” Kennin said. “Everyone expected me to lose. Whoever’s betting for me lost a lot of money when I dropped out.”
Mercado raised an eyebrow. “Who said you were dropping out?”
“The cops took the car.”
Mercado smiled and stood up. “Come over here.” He walked to the windows and pointed down. Kennin and Angelita saw the lighted drift track below. The police tow truck had returned to the paddock and the guys in the coveralls were lowering the Corolla.
“How?” Kennin began to ask.
Merca
do smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “This is Las Vegas, Kennin.”
They turned away from the window. “There’s just one thing,” Kennin said. “I hope you don’t expect me to outdrift Chris Craven’s 240 SX.”
“If that’s what happens, so be it,” Mercado said.
“But the betting … ,” Kennin said.
“The house wins either way,” the casino owner said. “We get a percentage of every wager. Win or lose, we make money.”
Mercado led Kennin and Angelita toward the doors. “I was impressed with your driving against that idiot in the Cressida. What was his problem? Looked like he was more interested in smashing into you than he was in winning.”
“It’s a long story, sir,” Kennin said.
Mercado opened the door for them. “Sure I can’t talk you into hanging around?”
“Thanks, Mr. Mercado,” Kennin replied, sliding his arm around Angelita’s waist. “But it’s time for us to get going.”
“California, huh?” Mercado said.
Kennin was surprised, until he realized that he’d said he sent Shinchou there. “We have to establish residence so Angelita can go to college.”
“And what about you?” the casino owner asked.
“I don’t know,” Kennin said with a shrug. “Guess I’ll do something with cars.”
“You need a reference, I’ll be glad to give you one,” Mercado said.
“Thanks,” Kennin said. “Really. Thanks for everything.”
“My pleasure,” Mercado said. “Just one thing. Give me a call or drop me a line once in a while, okay? Just to let me know you’re okay.”
“Sure thing.”
Mercado patted Kennin on the shoulder again. “Now go down and run the last heat.”
Tito was waiting for them when they got back to the paddock.
“What’s going on?” he asked, looking back and forth from Angelita to Kennin.
“Nothing you need to know about right now,” his sister said, as she glanced over at the Corolla.
“First the cops take the car away, then they bring it back,” Tito said, bewildered.
“Strange how that happens, huh?” Kennin said, picking up his helmet.
Over the loudspeaker they were announcing the final heat.
“Guess I better get going,” Kennin said, and got into the Corolla.
Angelita reached into the car and patted him on the helmet. “Have fun.”
He lined up next to Chris in Slide or Die. The two drivers nodded at each other.
Derek stepped between the cars and bent down so he could speak to both drivers at the same time. “Glad you two could make it,” he said, obviously pleased that Kennin and Chris were running against each other in the final heat. “Now remember. It’s not just about winning. It’s about the show.”
Suddenly Derek must have heard something that made him straighten up. “What the hell?” he grumbled. Kennin looked in the rearview mirror and saw Detective Neilson and a uniformed police officer coming toward them. From the look on Neilson’s face, Kennin could tell it wasn’t good news.
Derek quickly spun to the starter and gave him a nod. Then he rushed toward the detective, blocking his path.
The starter raised his hand and quickly dropped it.
The heat was on.
25
show meant popping the clutch and spinning the tires to create the squeals the crowd loved to hear and the smoke they wanted to see. But drifting against Chris meant that Kennin had to make a decision. Generally, Kennin preferred to be the chaser, staying behind the other car and pressing the lead driver harder and harder to perform until the driver lost either his control of the vehicle or his nerve.
But up against Chris in a 240 SX beater running nearly five hundred horsepower, it would be hard to apply much pressure. It was more likely that Chris would jump out to a lead and put on a major drifting show while Kennin struggled to keep up. The only choice Kennin had was to go into the lead and see what happened.
But even that wasn’t going to be easy. With all that horsepower, Chris was quickly five car lengths ahead when he started drifting into the first turn. Kennin should have drifted too, but with five car lengths between them, it wasn’t exactly tandem. Given all Mike Mercado had done for him, the least Kennin could do was put on a show.
While Chris drifted sideways through the first corner, Kennin shot low past him on the inside, coming out with a late drift in the straightaway while Chris whipped around and chased him.
Kennin had no doubt that Chris wasn’t happy to see him blitz that turn. To the untrained eye it probably looked like Kennin, in the smaller, slower car, was showing him up. Chris took the bait and charged after him, tucking the 240 SX in tight as they plowed through the next turn. With barely inches between the Corolla’s rear bumper and Chris’s front end, they whipped around the next corner, Kennin bracing himself and turning the wheel hard while heel-and-toeing to keep the rpms over four thousand.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Neilson and a uniformed cop standing at trackside, watching. Something about the way the detective’s arms were crossed and the steely gaze in his eyes confirmed what Kennin had already suspected—they were waiting for him. And this time Kennin wasn’t going to be able to talk his way out of it.
But that would be later. Right now, an unrelenting Chris Craven bore down on him, pushing harder and harder through each turn, forcing Kennin into more and more extreme drifts. As they went into the next corner, Kennin forced the front end of the Corolla deep into the curve. He could feel the rear end swing out, and the tires screamed, giving off a cloud of smoke so thick he could no longer see the car chasing him.
Suddenly the rear end slipped. In an instant Kennin knew he’d burned through the tire tread to the steel belt below. The Corolla started to spin. The engine stalled, and in no time Kennin was backward in a thick cloud of smoke. A split second later the bright red nose of Slide or Die came through the haze straight at him.
Crunck! Chris’s front bumper smashed into Kennin’s, punching the Corolla backward, the impact driving Kennin’s face into the steering wheel.
Both cars stopped on the track, facing each other. Kennin felt a bolt of pain across the bridge of his nose and warm moisture began to course over his lips. He had a feeling his nose was broken, but right now the pain wasn’t too bad. Meanwhile, the crowd in the stands had gone silent. The only sounds were Slide or Die’s idling engine and the clink and clatter of broken pieces of car body falling to the ground.
As the last of the smoke drifted away, Kennin stared through the windshield at Chris. They locked eyes, and suddenly Kennin had a feeling they were thinking the same thing. It was all about the show. And if the cars would still run, why not give it to them?
Kennin twisted the key in the ignition and restarted the Corolla. He jammed it into reverse, punched the accelerator, and whipped the nose around. Centrifugal forces sent more pieces of car skittering over the asphalt. Was it his imagination, or did he actually hear the crowd roar with delight? With the dented nose of the 240 SX tight on his tail, he gunned the Corolla into the next turn, the right front fender clanging and flapping like a bird with a broken wing.
This time Chris came around the outside, the front bumper of Slide or Die hanging at an angle like a crooked smile. They both careened through the next turn, the torque and g-forces causing the broken cars to groan and wobble. Something long and red flew past Kennin. It had to be Chris’s bumper.
Both cars powered out of the turn side by side while a couple of pit crew guys jumped onto the asphalt to clear away the debris. The next corner was a hairpin right. In unplanned synchronicity Kennin and Chris both feinted left and yanked hard on their wheels. Thwank! The momentum of the heavier 240 SX slammed it sideways into the Corolla. Kennin was jarred, but he somehow managed to keep control. He hated to think of what the left side of Slide or Die looked like. One thing was certain: Chris’s car was no longer a glossy, lacquered thing of beauty.
Out of the hairpin they swept together into a left, doors nearly touching. Running on the steel belts, the Corolla made sounds Kennin had never heard before, throwing showers of hot orange sparks. As they came out of the turn, Kennin knew the tires were in their death throes. Both cars were right in front of the stands. There was only one thing left to do.
He gunned the Corolla’s engine, veered off to the right, and then, in a pyrotechnic shower of sparks and smoke, snapped the car back into a 180. Pow! Pow! One after another the rear tires blew. Meanwhile, Chris took the hint and veered to the left and did the same. Bands of steel and chunks of black rubber flying, the cars screeched together and came to a stop, facing the direction from which they’d come.
The crowd went crazy. Kennin climbed out of the Corolla. What was left of the tires was still smoking, and shreds of steel bands glowed red hot. He pulled off his helmet and the head sock, damp and darkened with blood. Chris got out of Slide or Die.
“You okay?” he asked when he saw Kennin.
“Yeah. It’s just a little blood.”
Chris smiled. “Guess we gave them a show.”
“Looks like it,” said Kennin, aware that Detective Neilson was approaching with the uniformed officer, who was pulling a pair of black handcuffs off his belt.
“Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” Neilson said.
Kennin did as he was told.
“What’s going on?” Chris asked.
Neilson ignored him. “Kennin Burnett, I am arresting you for grand theft auto. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense.”
Angelita and Tito arrived. “What’s this for?” Angelita asked.
“Something I didn’t do,” Kennin replied.
“Kennin, take my advice,” Neilson said. “Remain silent. How’s that nose?”
“Not sure.”