Day 106

[from Street Racer]

As his fingers curled around the steering wheel of his heavily-modified Nissan Skyline GT-R, Tristan Starr glanced one more time at the smartphone hooked up to the central console. A map of Jade City was displayed on the screen, with the circuit they would be driving laid out upon it in a thick white line. Tristan's green eyes scoured the route, committing as much of it to memory as possible. Once the race began, he would be driving at such high speeds that taking his eyes off the road to check where we was going, even for a second, could spell disaster. He wasn't going to get caught out by such a rookie mistake.

This route map had been created using an app that was ostensibly for mapping out jogging routines, but had been co-opted by the city's sizeable street-racing scene as a means of sharing routes between drivers. The Jade City Police Department were trying to pressure the app stores into pulling the app, but of course they couldn't stop people who already had the apps from using it, and whenever it was removed, two identical ones popped up. The police were fighting a battle against the racers that they seemingly could not win.

Tonight there was yet another street race on. It was a four-lap race, around a short three-kilometre track in the centre of the city. The four contestants were already lined up on the road, with a crowd of several dozen gathered on the sidewalk to watch the action. The roads around were mostly deserted; the city's residents had learned to anticipate when the street races would be taking place, and to stay away from the roads as much as possible during those times. Of course, this would also alert the police, so the group would have to complete the race and disperse as quickly as possible. While they were all gathered together like this, they were much easier to catch than when they were spread all over the city.

 Tristan was the third car along on the starting grid, with two competitors to his left and one to his right.  On his far-left was the modified black-and-yellow Hyundai Genesis Coupe of his friend Alyssa Dalton, one of the first racers he had befriended upon his arrival to Jade City. She'll be the biggest challenge. Between Tristan and Alyssa was a sky-blue-and-black Chevrolet Corvette, driven by a man calling himself T-Bone whom Tristan had heard of but had never driven against before. His car looks faster than it is. Finally, on Tristan's right was a jet-black Ford Focus ST driven by a man named Michael, who appeared to be a newcomer. Not a chance.

The sound of the revving engines and the smell of petrol and tyre smoke filled the air, mixed in with the taste of the cigarette that smouldered gently between Tristan's lips. He knew it was a lethal habit, not to mention an expensive one, and that if he ever achieved his goal of funding a professional racing career, he would have to give it up. He would probably have to give up smoking as well. But he was addicted to them both; the nicotine rush of the cigarettes, and the adrenaline rush of street racing. The drugs coursed through his body, energizing him. They made him feel alive.

Out of the corner of his eye, Tristan could see a girl in a leather jacket and skirt stepping out into the road. He didn't know her name, but she was the lover of one of the various other street racers who had shown up to watch the race. Tonight, she would be acting as the race starter. Tristan kept half an eye on her progress, but his gaze remained mainly focused on the road in front of him. It wasn’t too far to the first corner, and whoever came out of that corner in first place would have the firm advantage. The start was absolutely crucial.

The girl stopped in the exact centre of the road, between Tristan and T-Bone's cars, and the revving of the engines reached a deafening crescendo as the competitors prepared to race. Tristan's eyes flicked downwards for a split second to check that he was revving at the optimal range, for the best possible start off the line. At the side of the track, another girl stood with a digital stopwatch, ready to measure the drivers' times, while Lien Wei, a female friend of Tristan's, was stationed at a tripod video camera that was aligned precisely with the finish line. There had been enough disputes over photo finishes in the past that such a precaution was now seen as a necessity.

The girl raised her hands high in the air, scanning the start/finish line to make sure that all the competitors were ready. A moment later, her arms sliced downwards through the air, and the four cars screamed into life in an explosion of torque and tyre smoke as the race began. The cars accelerated straight past her and roared off towards the first corner, leaving nothing in their wake except a faint haze of smoke and a set of jet-black tyre marks on the worn asphalt.