The Radical (Unity Vol.1) (21 page)

‘
No explanation needed, really. That is cheap for passengers like us. I just wanted to ask you one thing, though… you and your husband, how did you meet?’

Ashoka
’s look said it all but to confirm my suspicions she said, ‘Eve.’

The pieces of the puzzle wer
e still falling into place but I didn’t have time to arrange them all yet. Ashoka took back her xGen and waited for the transaction to fully clear, before motioning for us to get ready.

We put what few belongings we had in our bags and slung them over our
shoulders. Ryken and I could barely look at one another; we could be each other’s undoing.

‘I’ll take you down to the delivery point and you can make your escape from there.’ Locking the door behind her, she looked at each of us with resolve, and asserted, ‘Once you get out of here, don’t stop until you’re on that jet.’

Ryken

The lift doors opened and we entered the tunnel we had been in the day before. This time, however, Ashoka took us further under ground and when we heard vehicles whooshing across the roads above, I knew we were heading toward the main building of the hotel. After making a few more turns and taking a flight of stairs upwards, we were in a small warehouse of sorts, housing foodstuffs, linen, uniforms and all manner of housekeeping equipment. Ashoka led us unnoticed through a throng of busy workers rushing about and we arrived at a semicircular loading bay, where a couple of large vans were parked up.

The bike was there too, sat in all its glory between two delivery trucks. It was a Hellion Inferno, possibly the fastest, most dangerous domestic bike in the world, running on super-electricity and petrol, with a recorded top speed of 300mph, 12,000cc and an infamous booster button. The bodywork was black with purple flames running along the main cavity. The
tires looked brand new and ready to burn. The carburetor was the size of an elephant’s trunk and the triple exhaust glistened against the lights overhead. I could hardly contain my joy, mouthing, ‘
Fuck me
’.

I
had always wanted to ride one but had never had the money or the time to. Then I suddenly realized,
I’m going to have to do this, aren’t I?

Seraph, my god, she looked beautiful
.
Shit
. I was already desperately in love with her. I didn’t want to fuck everything up but I felt we were heading that way. There was something I had been hiding she wouldn’t like.

The adrena
lin began pumping and I knew I would be reliant on it. I tried to place myself in a robotic mode of thinking, of simply acting and reacting.
This can be done
,
we can outrun anyone or anything on this
.

I
grabbed a jacket from the bike and threw it on, along with gloves and helmet. I took the machine off the stand and felt the weight of it. It was a beast. I got on and started the engine, revving it several times to get the essentials warmed up. I acquainted myself with the controls and heard it growl and purr at my touch. I had to be dreaming, it was the craziest possible scenario my mind could fathom.

Feeling ready, I
gestured for Seraph to get on too. I watched her hug and kiss Ashoka and was struck by her hidden affectionate side. Seraph tucked her wild mane underneath her jacket, zipped up, gloves on, helmet on, and positioned herself behind me on the bike. She looked nervous but I shouted back, ‘Piece of cake.’

I
showed her where to put her feet and gestured to the hand holds at the back so she could sit up straight without having to lean on me and hold my body. She motioned she was ready too and I revved the engine in readiness, testing the sensitivity of the clutch under foot. I knew this was a machine built for purpose and would be a breeze to ride. It was what we might cross that wouldn’t be.

Ashoka
waved as she began raising the warehouse doors and I sped the bike up towards the exit. As soon as I was able to, I took us out of there, delighting in the power I felt under my command as we got away.

Seconds later, I flicked my visor down with a smart swipe once we
were out of the loading bay and down a very narrow, empty street that led out on to a main road – a one-way carriageway.

We
stopped at a junction up ahead and I kept my eyes flickering from mirror to mirror while we waited for the traffic pods to change. I saw Seraph’s eyes in the reflection, behind her own visor, and thought I saw a terrible fear I wouldn’t be able to smooth out until we were home and dry.

I willed the pods
to change and peered around to catch sight of any possible followers. As I turned my body slightly to check my blind spot, I caught sight of some passengers in the vehicle that had just pulled up next to us. Obviously, the very same thing that had that fear burning out of Seraph’s eyes. There were two of them, each dressed in full bulletproof clothing, each holding guns. They were looking right at me.

Bollocks
.
Time to see what this monster can do
.

I quickly checked the road ahead and
saw the pods were still blinking red, but decided to hit the acceleration. Seraph hadn’t expected us to shoot off and knocked against the backrest with a blow, before slamming her chest right up against my back as I released the gas and changed gears rapidly. She threw her arms around me for stability and we shot off even faster down a dual carriageway. I weaved in and out of vehicles, braking hard, accelerating harder, hitting the clutch over and over as I madly tried to steer the bike – and us – away from danger.

I saw
the white hydro-car chasing us with a siren screeching on the roof. Seraph and I had both seen the people inside – their blank faces – and knew instantly what they were. It perturbed me, let alone her. She grabbed hold of me tighter and I almost felt her silent plea, ‘
just get us to that plane
.
I don’t care how
.’

We jumped several red lights
and caused two vehicles to collide when they both swerved to avoid our bike. Ever still, I twisted the acceleration to its full capacity, finding and expanding the engine’s limits, pulling the handle as fast and as brutally as possible. I drove the engine to the maximum of what it could withstand between gears, but still couldn’t get to a stretch of road where we could really see what the machine could do.

The sign for
Thames Airport Ring Road
was beautiful. I breathed a small sigh of relief. We weren’t too far away. However, there wasn’t just one car following, there were then three or four, including two official police cars. There was traffic up ahead, blocking our way to the ring road.

I
could see only one solution. I rammed the pavement, sending the bike into shock, and shot off past a gang of youths loitering on the curb. They didn’t even have time to get a look at the object that had just whizzed by them.

I
pressed the horn, alerting others to move out of the way. I constantly had to brake, accelerate, brake, and accelerate, and there was smoke from the tires billowing out from underneath us. Looking behind again, both Seraph and I saw that the emissaries’ cars were trapped behind the traffic and had no way of getting through. She squeezed my waist and smiled at me through the visor.

Coming
to the end of the pavement, we reached the junction for the ring road and zoomed off, neglecting to check for oncoming traffic as we headed east. We left the swollen, graffiti-ridden neighborhoods behind, knowing we had to simply keep going.

I
sped up a suspended ramp towards the motorway, revving the engine repeatedly to ensure it was warmed enough for what I was about to do next. I saw the 10-lane motorway was heaving but that wouldn’t matter to us on our chosen vehicle.

We
swerved in between cars that were queuing to join the jam-packed highway, weaving our way in and out. I headed to the hard shoulder and checked the path up ahead. It was clear. I did something I had always wanted to. I hit the booster button and we screamed off, as the bike immediately changed up to eighth gear. Within seconds, we were traveling at 180mph.

I didn’t take it to the maximum because I was mindful of still needing
to be able to brake within a good distance just in case an obstruction presented itself. Seraph held on to me with such force I knew she was terrified. I wanted to hold her so tight after this was all over.

Wi
thin minutes, we pulled off the motorway and took a single-carriageway bypass to the airport. It was empty, presumably because the Sky Jets had only just started flying again. We sped along at a steady 70mph down the road; I felt sure we had lost our tails. Just when I had dared to entertain that thought, a light drone-helicopter came flying overhead. Menacingly, it hovered right above, the door of a gun-mount sliding open on the craft to aim directly at us.

I
would definitely need to open up the bike to its fullest. I shouted back at Seraph, ‘Hold on!’

She gripped my body
and I was thankful she was with me, even if she was crushing my lungs. I hit the button again and accelerated, accelerated, accelerated, until we hit 272mph.

Seraph s
hielded her body behind mine as I endured most of the G-force. Stupidly, we weren’t wearing full leathers, but it hadn’t seemed that important earlier, we’d had more pressing things to worry about.

My strength was tested as I
tried to hold the bike as steady as possible with the pair of us on it together. It took every muscle in my body to maintain control. Thankfully, the drone-helicopter struggled to match our velocity.

Soon, I
saw the airport in the distance. It spurred me on to keep going. Seconds away from our destination, I slowed the bike down, and it seemed to whirr unhappily at being forced to decelerate from its maximum speed.

As we
approached the barriers of a checkpoint, I shifted my weight back dramatically. Seraph clung on as I applied a blast of acceleration and flicked up the front wheel to send us crashing through. A guard stood at his post hardly had time to react to us screeching by.

I headed for the hangar,
third one along on the south side. The place was eerily deserted. We came to a halt outside a small jet, which was already fired up and ready to go. The stairs up to it beckoned.

Pulling to a stop,
Seraph leapt off the bike and I parked up quickly. I dumped my helmet on the seat, as did Seraph, and just as I was about to make off to the jet, I turned back to kiss the motorcycle on its front.

We
jumped the few steps as quickly as possible and a flight attendant shouted over the engines, ‘Ryken and Seraph, I presume?’

We
nodded and got on, helping to pull the aircraft door shut. The cabin assistant, a man of about 20, shouted messages of confirmatio
n
in the direction of the cockpit.

The plane star
ted moving while I wrapped my arms around my woman and caught my breath, she also holding me tight. Taking our leather jackets and gloves off, we looked out of the cabin windows to see where the drone-helicopter was. We couldn’t see it but could certainly hear it, even over the jet engines. It must have been right above us, we realized.

The young attendant ordered us
to sit down and strap in and the plane made a turn towards the runway. It all seemed too easy for a moment and my instincts told me it was all wrong. The pilot took the aircraft to the top of the airstrip, ready to jet off, but then a drone-helicopter landed in our way.

Cars skidded to a halt and stood in our way too. M
enacing figures piled out, all holding Harbinger-standard bazookas in their hands. Dozens of police vans with sirens blaring all sped up toward us and I felt sure we were facing total defeat.

Outside, however, the shadows seemed confused all of a sudden, looking around wildl
y, trying to determine where our craft had gone, as if it had disappeared. Some knelt while others rubbed at their eyes. It seemed to them that we had vanished into thin air.

Inside the craft,
Seraph and I were unsure what was going on, but we were happy to see the plane slowly and quietly navigate its way around the helicopter, squeezing past it, so that we were pointed down the runway again. We heard the engines roar, louder and louder, until the pilot released the brakes and the craft sped off down the runway. Seconds later, we soared up into the sky, higher and higher.

Sat back with our
eyes closed, relieved to finally be getting back to New York, we breathed deeply, trying to calm ourselves down. The seatbelt lights went off and the flight attendant got up to fetch us a glass of water each. He offered them, and they were taken gladly.

He spoke in a brilliantly eloquent British accent, ‘We should be safe now. Safe all the way to
New York.’

When the aircraft s
eemed to level off, the door of the cockpit started to unlock, and the pilot stepped out. I saw her first, and then Seraph, who blinked several times to see whether her eyes were deceiving her. We knew her instantly from her website pictures. It was Mara Dulwich.