Desert Disaster (4 page)

Next to Jimmy, Missy was already putting Monster into gear, setting off after Chip and Sammy without even looking inside her envelope.

“I don’t like to waste time hanging about,” she yelled over to him. “I’ll do my thinking on the go!”

Next to each answer there was a numbers. A light bulb went off in Jimmy’s head and he dashed back to his seat to get the papyrus map they had been given.

“The answers have map co-ordinates next to them,” he said.

“So as long as we get both the right answers, we get the right co-ordinates, and we can find our way to the overnight rest stop?” asked Cabbie.

“Yep,” said Jimmy. “Now, where have I heard the answer to this one?”

His thoughts wandered back to the classroom on the Leadpipe airship. He remembered Sir Rupert telling them all that the largest desert in the world was...

“Got it!” he said aloud. “It’s Antarctica.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely! Sir Rupert was giving us the answers in that lesson all along.” Jimmy traced his finger next to the answer and saw the number fifteen. He noted down the first co-ordinate.

Just then, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was Horace, sitting ten metres away on the bonnet of Zoom. He was staring at his piece of papyrus, but he didn’t look like his normal, smooth self. He had taken off his helmet and his hair was sticking up in different directions like a radio mast. He was red in the face, but Jimmy didn’t think it was all down to the desert heat. Jimmy saw the familiar frown that he recognized from sharing a class with Horace for years. He was trying to work out the clues, and if Jimmy remembered correctly, Horace had been using his mouth much more than his ears in the classroom. Now he puzzled over the questions, grimacing like a gorilla with toothache.

“OK, hit me with the next one!” said Cabbie.

The paper was slippery in Jimmy’s sweaty hands now, and he could feel a trickle of perspiration running down his back from the uncomfortable heat. But he forced himself to turn his attention back to the paper and concentrate on the second question:

How much rainfall, on average, do deserts get each year?

Is it less than:

a) 25 centimetres

b) 250 centimetres

c) 2,500 centimetres

“Oooh, I’d say a?” guessed Cabbie. “No, b. Although, c could be right...”

Jimmy racked his brain for the answer. He remembered Sir Rupert talking about deserts. He’d said that deserts could contain ice and snow as well as sand, because a desert meant that there was very little water, not that it was hot.
And hadn’t Sir Rupert said something about rain...?

“Got it! It’s less than twenty-five centimetres!” he said as the memory became clear in his head. “Definitely! Thank you, Sir Rupert!”

He quickly checked the co-ordinates matched to the answers he’d chosen and used them to take a reading on the map. Then he ran back around to Cabbie’s driver’s seat. He was about to pull the door shut when he heard the roar of an engine and Zoom surged forwards, skidding right in front of Cabbie. Jimmy’s path was blocked.

Horace leaped out and grabbed Cabbie’s door, keeping it open. “Not so fast, Jimmy!” said Horace.

Jimmy couldn’t tell at first what was wrong. Something was different. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. “Horace, are you
smiling
?” he said at last.

And he was. Horace was smiling from ear to ear, but not in his usual ‘I’m better than you’ way. This was more like an ‘I want to be your friend’ smile, and Jimmy didn’t like it one bit.

“Hmm? Oh, don’t be silly, Jimmy, old mate!” he said. “Hey, remember back in Smedingham how you used to let me look at your homework answers?”

“No,” said Jimmy, trying to close the door. “I remember you stealing my school bag, ripping my homework out of the exercise book and handing it in as your own.”

“All right, all right!” said Horace, the creepy smile dropping from his face. “I tried being nice. Now give me the co-ordinates!”

Jimmy laughed. He was almost glad to see Horace acting grumpy again – “friendly” hadn’t suited him.

“Come on, Roberts!” Horace exploded. “I’ll give you something. How about a turbo air-blaster? It’s great for blowing sand out of your way. We could take it off Zoom now and strap it on Cabbie!”

“You’ll do no such thing!” said Cabbie.

“All right – what about my robotic repair kit? It sits inside the bonnet, and then fixes a puncture in less than a second when you get one! If you’d had it in the last race you might not have come last.”

“I might not have come last if you hadn’t nearly caused an avalanche!” Jimmy said angrily.

“And we’re using caterpillar tracks today, if you hadn’t noticed!” snapped Cabbie.

“You haven’t got anything that I want.” Jimmy added. “Cabbie’s perfect just how he is.”

Horace scowled. “What? This piece of junk?”

“Charming!” said Cabbie.

“Horace, I’d rather have Grandpa’s gadgets than your NASA stuff any day. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got a race to run!”

Jimmy slammed the door shut and Horace looked madder than ever. In frustration he picked up a fistful of sand and flung it at Cabbie. Zoom revved menacingly.

“Fine!” Horace shouted. “Then I’ll just
follow
you to the next checkpoint!”

Jimmy revved the engine. “Not if I can help it.” He reversed quickly back, then shot past Zoom as fast as he could.

In his rear-view mirror he saw Horace scramble into Zoom and whizz after them. Jimmy had planned on that, and he quickly swerved behind a sand dune.

“Why are we stopping?” asked Cabbie.

Zoom went past them at speed, cruising along the sand towards the horizon.

“Because,” said Jimmy, smiling, “the overnight stop is
that
way.” He pointed behind him. Zoom and Horace were going at top speed in the wrong direction!

* * *

The race was easy going for a while. It was mid-afternoon now and the sun was finally becoming less fierce. Jimmy was enjoying the drive – he didn’t have to worry about Horace, and the terrain had flattened out so that he could almost drive at full speed.

“Robots in sight, Jimmy!” announced Cabbie. Jimmy leaned forward in his seat and could just make out the shimmering shapes of the other racers in the distance.

“It’s about time we caught them up,” said Jimmy.

Slowly but surely they drew level with them. Jimmy noticed that the desert was changing as he moved across it – the dunes here were even steeper than before, making them too treacherous to climb. This meant that all the robots were avoiding the sandy slopes, and were forced into the deep valleys between peaks. Jimmy and Cabbie closed right up behind the leaders, bobbing and weaving as the path between the dunes became narrower.

“Careful!” said Cabbie. “There won’t be enough room for all of us!”

“Stop worrying!” said Jimmy. “We need to get ahead!”

“You always say that it’s a
marathon
, not a
sprint
!” warned Cabbie. “We’ve got a way to go until the stop point. Take your time.”

But Jimmy increased his speed instead and nudged his way between Dug and Maximus. Suddenly they were driving all in a line!

“This doesn’t feel very safe,” said Cabbie, as the two huge robots towered either side of them.

“It’s fine, Cabbie,” said Jimmy. “Stop being such a scaredy-bot.”

“Have you forgotten the pile-up in the Arctic?” Cabbie worried.

“I know, I know, but we can’t afford to come last again,” Jimmy said. “We need to take a few chances. And it’s not like Horace and Zoom are here to cause problems this time.”

Missy gunned her engines and stretched away, sprinting forward to take the lead by a small distance. “See you at the rest stop, boys!” she gloated over the Cabcom.

A split-second later there was a sickening grinding noise. Jimmy whipped his head round to see what it was, and found the source immediately.

Maximus was going haywire! Something was definitely wrong with the hoverbot as it weaved from side to side across the sand, and Jimmy could see Sammy struggling with the controls. Then there was a thud as Maximus spun into Dug’s path and Cabbie, hitting both the other racers hard.

Cabbie was sent careering up the treacherous bank of the dune!

“Watch out!” Cabbie yelled, and then everything turned upside down as he flipped over. Blood rushed to Jimmy’s head and he could hear Cabbie yelling.

“Brace yourself!” Cabbie shouted.

Then everything turned black.

Jimmy was confused. Was he unconscious? Had he been knocked out by the collision?

Then a light appeared in front of him. He had heard about this on the TV. He would wake any moment in a hospital surrounded by doctors and nurses. He’d get better, but he’d lose the championship.

Then through his confusion he heard ... a beep. And the familiar sound of Cabbie’s circuits rebooting filled his ears. What was going on?

“Cabbie?” he said.

“Super custard fish finger escapades,” Cabbie’s voice came out of the darkness.

“What?” Jimmy said woozily.

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

“Eh?”

“
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer dooooo...
” Cabbie sang.

Jimmy was worried. “Cabbie! Are you all right?”

There were a few beeps, some more lights lit up on the dashboard and Cabbie was suddenly back to normal.

“Phew, sorry about that! I must’ve gone offline for a second. Just running through a few setup protocols! Are you OK?”

“I think so,” said Jimmy. “Why is it so dark?”

“Oh, that’s our air bubble,” replied Cabbie.

“Our what?” Jimmy asked.

“Our air bubble. It’s like an air bag but it wraps itself around my bodywork rather than inflating inside the car. Hold on a second, I’ll deflate it.”

There was a beep and a hiss, and several jets of air blew into the driver’s seat from outside. Slowly, light came back inside the cab and Jimmy could see what had happened. They had been cocooned inside a giant rubber balloon!

“Pete and your grandpa fitted it before Pete left for Texas. Didn’t they mention it?” said Cabbie.

Jimmy stared at the hissing rubber material outside.

“So when it looks like we’re going to crash—”

“Woomph!” said Cabbie proudly. “Wilf calls it the bounce-buster!”

Jimmy could see the desert around him now. They had rolled to a stop about 20 metres away from Dug and Maximus.

“Give me a damage report, Cabbie,” Jimmy said as the last of the air bubble disappeared back under the robot’s chassis.

“Calculating...” said the robot with a beep and a buzz. “No damage whatsoever.”

Jimmy was amazed. They had been bashed by a hovercraft, flung up the side of a sand dune and sent flying through the air – all without a scratch. He opened the door and hopped out, removing his helmet.

“I’d better see how Sammy and Chip are.” He flicked on the Cabcom. “Hey, guys, are you OK?”

“I’m fine, Jimmy,” Chip replied, his face appearing on the screen. “Dug here took a tumble and ended up on his side, but I was able to put him right again using the robotic arm.”

“How about you, Sammy?” Jimmy asked.

“The screen in Cabbie’s cockpit split into two so that Jimmy could see both of the other racers. “Yes, I am fine. Sorry about my mistake – this sand is proving tricky, no.”

“You can say that again, pal,” Chip replied.

“I said,
this sand is proving—
” Sammy began.

Jimmy laughed. “No, Sammy, it’s just a turn of phrase. Chip heard you first time.”

“Oh,” Sammy muttered. “I will never understand the English language.”

“All right, let’s get this show back on the road, y’all,” Chip said. “This race ain’t gonna win itself and I’ve got me a trophy to claim. Catch me if you can!”

With a roar of their engines, the three racers shot off once again. Following the co-ordinates that he had worked out, Jimmy didn’t find it too hard to locate the checkpoint.

As they crested a rise, the three of them gasped at the sight before them. They could see a town – the first sign of civilization they had seen since the airship had landed in the desert. It was another ten minutes of hard driving down to the town and there were just seconds between the three of them as they crossed the line.

Jimmy skidded to a stop and breathed a sigh of relief that they had made it in one piece. Then he got out of Cabbie’s cockpit and took off his hot, sweaty helmet. Next to him, Chip and Sammy were doing the same.

“What took you so long?” said Missy, who was standing by Monster with a cold drink.

“Don’t ask!” said the three boys together.

The overnight stop was in an abandoned old village perched on the edge of a great desert plain. It would have seemed like a spooky ghost town if it hadn’t been for the amazing job the race officials had done of turning it into a luxury retreat for the racers. They had cordoned off an area for each pit crew next to the deserted buildings. On the other side of the village were a collection of huge North African Bedouin tents. Each team had their own tent, but inside it was more like a palace, with richly woven rugs, fluffy cushions and brightly-coloured bunks.

“Wow!” said Sammy, standing next to Jimmy. “This is a bit different to our overnight stay in the jungle. Remember that?”

Jimmy nodded. They had been stranded in the jungle with just a sleeping bag each, a pack of marshmallows to eat, a tarpaulin stretched over their heads and a robot who was scared of snakes. It had been fun.

At that moment Joshua Johnson appeared from one of the tents.

“Excellent race, everyone! I trust you are all OK after your little bumps and tumbles?” he said, full of energy. The four racers nodded. “Great! We’ve noted down the times you came in, and that’s the order you’ll leave in the morning. I suggest you get some food, fuel and plenty of sleep. Big day tomorrow!”

Jimmy slowly shuffled through the sand to where Grandpa was dusting down Cabbie. Grandpa broke off his work to give Jimmy a crushing bear hug.

“I missed you, lad!” he said. “I was so worried! I’ve been watching on the TV in the airship. Are you all right?”

“Can’t ... breathe!” Jimmy gasped out.

“Hmm? Oh!” Grandpa released him from the tight hug.

“Thanks so much for installing that air bubble, Grandpa – it really saved us,” said Jimmy.

“Don’t thank me, thank Pete Webber! He had wanted to use that little gadget for years, but Crusher is just too big to have an all-over air bubble. He was happy to be able to use it on Cabbie!” Grandpa laughed, patting the robot on the bumper. “Quick thinking, Cabbie.”

“It was nothing really,” said Cabbie coolly. “Well, not for a perfect specimen of artificial intelligence like myself.”

Grandpa wasn’t allowed to make any tweaks to Cabbie during the overnight stop, so he busied himself by giving the robot a good wash while Jimmy sat down and tucked into a huge plate of food from the food tent. The robot was in good condition, and his caterpillar tracks had been working well.

As Jimmy rested, he could hear Missy in the compound next to them. She was in high spirits from her first-place finish. She was also giving her robot a clean, chatting jokily with Monster as she fussed around her happily.

“I dunno, Monster, what are we going to do with you? First place is all right, but when I say speed up, I want
real
speed!”

“Give over!” said the giant robot. “Call that driving? I’ve seen better reactions on a bullfrog.”

“Oi! You’re not too big to be melted down, ya know! I could turn ya into tin cans! I’d probably make more money from ya!”

Jimmy grinned at their good-natured banter. Chip was on the other side of him, his race team fussing over a tiny scratch on Dug’s side while Chip discussed tactics with his dad.

“Good race today, son, but we need to keep an eye on that Australian girl. She’s looking to take the title from us,” said Mr Travers.

Chip shrugged. “She’s a good racer, Pa. I’ll see if I can distract her with a vegemite sandwich.”

Sammy was having a similar conversation with his father, Omar Bahur.

“To be a winner, Samir, you must think like a winner!”

“Father, I have a better idea.” Sammy replied. “To be a winner, I must
eat
like a winner. I’m starving!”

Just then Princess Kako entered the town on Lightning. She looked like she’d had a tough time in the desert, and when she got off her robot, Missy and Jimmy came over to help her.

“Can I get you anything?” asked Missy.

“Two more wheels,” said Kako, exhausted. “I’m thinking of turning Lightning into a jeep. It’s the only way I’ll do better tomorrow!”

Over twenty minutes after the princess, Jimmy heard the noise of another engine approaching as Horace pulled into the town.

“What time do you call this? You might as well have not taken part!” said Mr Pelly as Zoom’s door opened and an angry-looking Horace stamped out, mumbling crossly about getting lost.

Father and son continued to bicker as they made their way towards the food tent. Jimmy couldn’t hear what they were saying and was about to go off to his own tent when he saw something strange. Horace and Mr Pelly paused in the middle of their argument and shook hands. It was an odd gesture, Jimmy thought. As their hands parted, he saw something – a tiny glint of metal between their fingers.

Probably nothing
, he thought. A ring, perhaps, reflecting in the sunlight? It could be perfectly innocent.
But I know Horace
, Jimmy thought.
And I bet he’s up to something!