**[size=200]A[/size]**h, Belgium, the land of the European Union, and great chocolate. Neither of those things were the reason Strop liked Belgium, but he liked Belgium nonetheless. Maybe because it was less hyped, maybe because it was underappreciated, because of its complexity, its diversity that reminded him of a more erudite version of what Australia might have been if not for a series of administrations fond of xenophobia, economic shortsightedness, sports over education, and the lowest common denominator. He had to remind himself once more that he was now making race cars for a living, and much of his livelihood and that of all of his colleagues depended in no small part on the Australian fondness for all things sport. So maybe he should just stop thinking for a little while and soak in the relative peace.
After winding their way through the maze of the streets lined with classic European architecture strewn liberally with federation windows, Roman columns and sandstone reliefs, they finally arrived at their hotel at around ten in the morning, energy flagging and wanting very much to get out of the car and just get some sleep. This was a messed up sleep schedule well beyond jet lag, it was more like travel fatigue, and surely everybody would be feeling some of it, not least the cars.
Speaking of which, that was a matter that needed attending to first. Hannah groaned as she faced the prospect of hauling the block out and resealing the Peapod’s intercooler hose without the help of Tesla, who had either gone cavorting off on one of her horizontal escapades (not that they were necessarily horizontal but oh god nobody wanted to think of that), or taken one for the team, depending on how they wanted to look at it. She went to look for her alternative, Kai, but Kai had already forseen this and was nowhere to be found. “Fuck it,” she declared to nobody in particular, “I’m going to have breakfast twice today,” and in an instant, the rest of the team had formed around her, agreeing on what a fine idea it was, and since all the signs were in French, Strop should take charge.
Breakfast turned into brunch, which turned into a prolonged stroll around the city. It wasn’t until nearly two o’clock in the afternoon, that they returned to the hotel to plan their next course of action. Just as they arrived, a dark, unmarked Peugeot 408 with tinted windows and a flashing blue light popped on the roof pulled up next to them. With all the flair of a spooked horse, Strop jumped into a defensive stance, only to pull back sheepishly when the door opened and Tesla lurched out.
“Au revoir!” she shouted as the car drove off, and a trio of black paws could be seen waving from the window. Then she turned around and did a double-take as she realised the entire Gryphon Gear crew was staring at her. “Oh, hi guys.”
“Looks like you learnt a new phrase,” Strop smirked.
“That was quick,” Hannah remarked, arms folded, one eyebrow raised.
With a wink, Tesla held a finger to her lips. “I’m not allowed to tell you what happened, secret police business!” Everybody looked vaguely horrified, and Sam looked equal parts relieved and jealous. Tesla, this time sober as she saw everybody’s reactions, spread her arms out. “C’mon guys, where’s the love? I totally cut it short because we have to fix Peapod before the next race, right?”
“Oh Tesla I love you forever,” Hannah blurted out and promptly hugged Tesla, who yipped in surprise, tail furiously wagging about. “I was totally going to have a go at you about being a total slag but I’ve changed my mind.”
“Totally,” Tesla managed as she was crushed in the surprisingly strong embrace of Hannah’s stubby arms. “This girl’s got priorities.”
“Right, let’s get going then,” Hannah steered Tesla down towards the basement car park, before Sam could get any probing questions in edgeways.
As the afternoon wore on, the exhaustion hit hard, and no sooner had Noah reset the Peapod’s ECU back to its original spec, than they all headed up to their rooms. Everything was to make way for a shower and sleep, though since they only budgeted for three suites, a brief argument broke out over who got to shower first. Several rounds of scissors-paper-rock later, and Strop, Hannah and Noah got first dibs, while Sam went off to raid the bar fridge to add a couple of zeros to the room service bill. Kai, too, seemed to go missing, and after poking her head in each of the rooms, she found him sitting on the outside balcony, huffing on a cigarette.
“’ey, Kai, mind if I join you?” Kai looked up in surprise, but nodded, and they sat there in silence, wisps of smoke floating out over the city street a couple of storeys below.
“Don’t mind me saying, but you’ve been hitting the fags pretty hard lately,” Tesla suddenly said.
“Mmmh?” Kai blinked, before removing the cigarette from his mouth. “I have?”
“Yep.” Tesla sat forward, matching Kai’s slouched posture. “Stressed much?”
Kai sighed, smoke pouring from his mouth. “Eh. Yeah, I guess.” He stubbed the cigarette out on the stone bench, and dumped it in the ashtray. “Everything’s just a bit…” He trailed off.
“Missing your girlfriend?” Kai winced momentarily, but then relaxed a bit, nodding. “Yeah. Nah. Well yeah, but I’m just tired.” He smiled wanly and opened his mouth wide in a yawn, but Tesla was clearly not convinced.
“…Are you crying?”
Kai threw his hands up in irritation. “Why does everybody keep asking me that!?”
Tesla smirked. “We have this game going, see, it’s called Who Can Catch Kai Crying. The winner gets free beer, but Noah refuses to play, says he reckons you’re dead inside. Me, I think it’s because he can’t handle his drink.”
Kai scowled, muttering, “Well, I guess that’s better than Strop asking me if I was jerking off.”
This elicited a chuckle from Tesla, and she draped a conciliatory arm around Kai’s shoulders. “You know, as much of a ditz as he can be sometimes, maybe he’s got a point. You’ve been way too tense this trip. Hell, you’ve been way too tense ever since I met you.”
“Tense? Me?” Kai looked at his fingers, covered in bandaids first from his attempts to do maintenance work on Mephisto with his bare hands, then exacerbated by a week of constantly picking at the cuts, and of course that scrape on his face too.
“Well, I guess… ow! Hey! Getoffa me!”
Kai squirmed as Tesla grabbed his shoulders, kneading them with her paws. “Seriously look at this! You’re wound up tighter than a rattlesnake on a stick!” Discovering his ticklish spots, Tesla dove in with her fingers, and Kai writhed around until Tesla got sick of it and wrapped him in a headlock, which quickly degenerated into a lot of head ruffles and laughter. “There you go! Who’s a good boy! Who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy!”
[size=85]Awesome pictures by Cen.[/size]
“Tesla! Stop it!” Kai gasped between laughter. “That’s just weird, coming from you!”
“Eh, sorry,” Tesla eased up, releasing Kai, whose hair was slightly the worse for wear. “Old habits. But really, what’s eating ya?”
Kai screwed up his face, gears grinding in his head. “Yeah okay. I miss Bianca. It’s all messed up. I thought, well, since she went back to England earlier this year, I haven’t seen her much, and it would be nice to see her again, but now that’s all done, it’s just, even worse than before.” He sighed again. “And I don’t think anybody understands.”
“Ah.” Tesla nodded in recognition. “I can see why you think that.”
“You can?” Kai blinked in surprise again, “But you… seem so…”
“Well excuse you!” Tesla exclaimed in mock indignation. “Just because I have my lifestyle choices doesn’t mean I don’t miss people. We all got family, all over the world, too. And sometimes life and the decisions we make just takes us away from them. That’s never easy.” Tesla nodded to herself.
“But why does it have to feel like this?” Kai stared at his open palms. “It sucks. And Hannah’s got her own family, and Strop doesn’t really seem to care, and Sam, well…”
“Ah, youth.” Tesla mirthfully looked at Kai, before resuming a more serious demeanour. “Kidding. It’s harder when everybody’s in a different place to you. Hannah’s much further along the path, but there were a few years where Boden was overseas. Strop, too. He doesn’t see his girlfriend much, and I think he gets it more than he seems to but he just… doesn’t like to butt in. And Sam, well, I don’t think he’s really found himself, either that, or that’s just him and he’ll never get it.”
“Heh, Sam,” Kai echoed, before shuddering.
“But you know what, that’s the beauty of it. We’re all family, but we’re all different. Because we’re different, even. You know, I do the things I did because I was different from my family, because I wanted to make my own decisions and not simply for the sake of what my pa wanted for me. But now, that I’m here, I only realise just how much I miss them sometimes. Now, though, this has become my family too, because we’re all working together.”
“Yeah,” Kai nodded to himself, then stronger. “Yeah, I get that.”
“So, well obviously I can’t help you with missing your girlfriend and all that,” Tesla poked Kai in the shoulder, “But you’ll feel better if you foster the bonds you have here and now, yeah?”
“Thanks Tesla. I didn’t realise you knew all this stuff, you always seemed to be either drunk or baked.”
“No shit,” Tesla winked. “Some of my greatest insights come when I’m off my tits.” She rose to her feet and made for the doorway back to the hotel suite. “I’m gonna take that shower, after all, I was in such a hurry I didn’t even take one this morning.”
Kai wrinkled his nose. “Way too much info, Tesla.” Then her tail disappeared through the doorway and he was left alone, suddenly reminded once more of his mother just nine hundred kilometres away and a world apart.
“Your boss is going to be furious with your diet.” Sam looked up from his box of chocolate, while Kai sat down next to him. “I don’t think that will be a problem.” He shoved a piece of chocolate into his mouth, muffling his words. “I don’t have a seat for the next season.”
“I’m sorry…”
“It’s alright. I think I got replaced by our rookie. She’s almost as fast around a track as I am, but she is far better at listening to the boss.” Sam shrugged, his gaze growing distant and thoughtful for a moment. Then his face lit up in a smile. “It’s probably good too! There’s so much I haven’t tried or seen yet! It’s just a new adventure waiting for me!” He laughed, that bubbling, contagious laughter of pure optimism, and Kai couldn’t help smiling as well. No matter what, this was why he looked up to Sam. “It’s gonna be great!” Sam finished with a satisfied sigh, and a glance at Kai, before he seemed to remember the fight and ill will, and his face slipped into an annoyed pout when he turned his attention back to the box.
“Hey, Sam…” Kai took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about those things I said. I shouldn’t have. I was just…” He sighed. “I’m sorry.”
Sam had looked up from the box again, his expression saying very little of his thoughts for once. Then he nodded. “I’m sorry too. You clearly love that girl and…” He paused for a moment with a frown. “She seems pretty cool. Besides trying to kick me, but-”
“You deserved that.” Kai added helpfully.
“Yeah.” Sam nodded again, slowly, before lighting up in a wicked grin again. “And I’m so sorry I didn’t hit Mephisto!”
Kai elbowed him, a grin added to his own features as well. “That’s why I’m not apologising for punching you!”
“You should be! You started a fight!”
“I just hit you, you were the one deciding to make it a fight!” Sam gasped dramatically (and put the box aside) before pouncing Kai and putting him in a headlock, all to the sound of Kai cracking up. “You gave me a shiner! Ruining my chances with the ladies, how dare you laugh!” Sam exclaimed, almost breaking into laughter himself. Kai paused his laugh just long enough for him to send Sam a grin. “I don’t think your chances can get worse.”
“Whyyoulittle-” In one smooth motion, he picked up a hotel pillow and slugged Kai with it. Kai responded in kind, and over the next fifteen minutes, there was nothing more than the flinging of pillows, insults and laughter.
It was close to ten in the evening when Strop’s eyes cracked open. At first, in the pitch darkness, he fumbled around disorientated, before he finally remembered where he was, what time it was, and what he was doing.
A rumble and the sensation of a yawning pit in his belly informed him as to the reason he had woken. But the hotel restaurant would be shut, so maybe he should look for some snacks elsewhere. He looked over at the other bed in the room, not even remembering who was sleeping in it, but it was empty. Maybe his roommate was in the same predicament. Another ten hours, and they would start their scheduled session at Spa Francorchamps, meaning probably six hours before they had to head off. Halfway to exiting the room already, he started having second thoughts, should he go back to sleep, or start getting ready? Then again, sleep sounded good, so he stretched out again, and prepared to tuck back in for a few more hours.
He did not expect the “clunk” of his hooves striking something metallic, and the feel of something hard, heavy and cold under him. Surely that wasn’t there when he went to bed? And how come everything felt so… greasy? Confused, he got back out of bed and switched on the light, and his blood ran cold.
Sitting under the covers, amidst streaks of engine oil, was a bent, twisted plate heap of metal, charred and twisted almost beyond recognition. A manifold header. And, clearly inscribed on the side of the header, was the word: HASIRA.
Strop’s screams woke up the entire hotel floor. A few seconds later, the Gryphon Gear crew had scrambled into the room in various states of night dress, wondering what the hell was going on.
“Strop, what the hell is going on?” Noah demanded, hastily shrugged on dressing gown not quite hiding his floral print satin boxers.
Strop had temporarily lost his powers of speech, so he merely pointed a trembling finger to the turbo manifold.
“Is that what I think it is?” Hannah groggily asked, then straightened up rapidly as she realised, “Oh shit, it is.”
“We’re moving. Now,” was the first thing Strop said the moment his speech returned to him. “Call everybody, we’re moving the schedule ahead to ASAP.”
“You sure that’s going to help?” Hannah asked, “Or would it be better to skip ahead?”
“The league is sacrosanct,” Strop declared. “The race must be run at all costs.”
“Right,” Hannah marched off, and everybody scrambled to get their bags packed. Strop was on his phone, dialling the direct line to Jack Cossack. “Jack! You awake? You better be, because things are definitely going to heat up!”
So the race at Spa was scheduled for 8am, but looks like we’re going to move it forward a bit! Buckle up people, and keep your eyes peeled. Who knows what will happen, and when.
at any rate welcome back! We missed you.
