Part 28 (2/2)

Frantically swimming in his flightsuit, Jason came to the Bug, and saw that his brother's seatbelt buckle had jammed. It wasn't coming free.

The Bug was in a fearful panic - tearing at his buckle, screaming underwater, yelling bubbles.

And in that instant, Jason saw the future.

This would take more than five seconds.

Kamiko Ideki's Yamaha shot through the air like a bullet. A moment before it hit the Argonaut II, two blurring

objects could be seen rocketing up into the sky above it - the ejection seats of Ideki and his navigator.

Then without slowing or stopping or even veering to the side, the Yamaha slammed into the stationary Argonaut at a shocking 700 km/h.

The impact of hover car on hover car shook the world. And the ensuing flaming explosion filled the Grand Ca.n.a.l, expanding across its breadth in a billowing orange cloud.

Pieces of the Argonaut II rained down on the Ca.n.a.l for a full minute, creating a thousand tiny splashes.

A deathly hush descended upon the crowds gathered in the grandstands around the Finish Line. Sitting in his own

VIP box, Umberto Lombardi could only stare at the horrific scene in disbelief.

The Argonaut was gone - blasted to nothing.

And with it: Jason Chaser and the Bug.

'Oh...my...Lord...' Lombardi breathed.

PART VI: THE DEATH OF JASON CHASER.

CHAPTER ONE.

THE FINAL STAGES OF THE ITALIAN RUN VENICE II, ITALY.

The explosion of Kamiko Ideki's Yamaha cras.h.i.+ng at 700 km/h into Jason Chaser's stricken Argonaut II echoed across Italy - in every grandstand, in every home, on every television, on every digital radio.

For a full twenty seconds, not a single person in all of Italy spoke.

They just stared at the ghastly scene in horror.

Where once there had been two racing cars, now there was just a rising cloud of black smoke.

No-one could believe it.

Jason Chaser and his little brother, the Bug - the two young boys from the International Race School who had won the hearts of race fans with their determined never-say-die att.i.tude; the kids who had turned the tables on Fabian during that wonderful exhibition race - were dead.

Killed in a spectacular blazing inferno.

Watching from a hover stand overlooking the Finish Line, Henry and Martha Chaser were in total shock.

They couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't drag their eyes away from the tall wispy smoke-cloud on the water's surface - the smoke cloud that had once been their sons.

'Oh, no...' Martha gasped. 'Dear G.o.d, no!'

Henry just whispered: 'Come on, Jason, tell me you got out of there...Please tell me you got out of there...'

But nothing happened. Rescue vehicles took off from the sh.o.r.e, their siren-lights blazing.

They arrived at the smoke-cloud just as, without warning, two tiny figures burst up from beneath the surface of the harbour twenty metres away from the big black cloud.

Jason and the Bug!

Henry and Martha leapt to their feet.

The crowd - formerly silenced - now positively roared with delight.

The rescue vehicles cut a bee-line for the two boys, now bobbing on the surface. Every TV camera in the area zoomed in on them - but on this closer view, the scene took on a disturbing angle.

The Bug was waving frantically, but Jason wasn't moving at all.

Thirty seconds earlier: The Argonaut II lies on the surface of the wide body of water at the end of the Grand Ca.n.a.l, a hundred metres short of the Finish Line. It lies upside-down. Jason surfaces, sees Kamiko Ideki's Yamaha heading straight for him. He holds his breath, goes under to save the Bug. Four seconds later, Ideki's Yamaha slams into the Argonaut II. Boom.

Seen from under the surface of the water, it is a different scene altogether.

Things are happening.

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