And then Trouveau tried to do to Jason what he had done to Riviera - at the New Ponte dei Scalzi, he cut right, raising a curtain of spraying water across the Argonaut's path.

But Jason's reactions were up to the challenge - he stayed right, and rather than slowing, he gunned his thrusters, rushing perilously close to the Dead Zone protecting the New Ponte dei Scalzi - and pressed between Trouveau's Renault and the bridge's swooping arch, he banked up on his side, going a full 90 degrees, and with barely an inch on either side ...

...he rocketed out from under the bridge and shot past Trouveau's Renault - now in 5th place!

Trouveau swore. But not before Kamiko Ideki tried to seize the opportunity and swoop past him as well. But Trouveau wasn't going to allow that and he banged against the side of the Kamikaze's Yamaha, fighting him to the finish.

As for Jason, the black V-shaped tailfin of Xavier Xonora's 4th-placed Lockheed-Martin now loomed before him, banking right, taking the sweeping right-hander that led under the Rialto Bridge.

Jason did the math quickly: with only two turns to go, there just wasn't enough racetrack left to catch Xavier before the Finish Line.

Which meant, if he kept his head, he could finish 5th in his first Grand Slam race - not a bad effort at all. Just finishing was an achievement, but 5th was simply awesome. And beating that creep Trouveau would be even more satisfying...

Under the Rialto. The crowds roaring. Venice II rushing by him on either side.

Then banking left. The crowds going nuts. Shooting under the Accademia Bridge, after which Jason straightened and suddenly, gloriously...

...the end of the Grand Ca.n.a.l came into view, the point where it opened out into a wide harbour-like bay, flanked by the red-brick Bell Tower of St Mark's Square on the left and the giant dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute on the right. Only today, beyond the two colossal structures stood a ma.s.sive alloy arch, hovering above the water of the bay, covered in chequered flags and a huge digital leaderboard...

The Finish Line.

Jason's eyes lit up.

The end was in sight. They'd done it.

It would be the last time he'd smile in a very long time. For it was at that precise moment that a small explosive device attached to the tailfin of the Argonaut II went off.

It was about the size of a pinhead, hardly even noticeable to the naked eye.

An ultra-concentrated military explosive made of SDXIII epoxy. It was used by commando teams to blow open doors. One gram was enough to destroy the average reinforced door - more than enough to completely destroy the lightweight polycarbonate tailfin of a hover car.

It had been surrept.i.tiously placed on the tail of the Argonaut II by a light-fingered hand in the last few moments before the Italian Run had begun.

The tailfin of the Argonaut II blasted outwards in a shower of tiny pieces.

Jason immediately lost all control - at 740 km/h - his Ferrari lurching downwards with shocking suddenness. He grappled with the steering wheel, but it did absolutely nothing in response.

He looked up and saw the Finish Line approaching and for a brief instant, thought they might make it over the line - but then the whole horizon rolled dramatically and abruptly they were travelling on their side, almost upside down - which meant ejecting was not possible - so that now all Jason saw was the surface of the Grand Ca.n.a.l rushing up toward his eyes.

'Bug! Hold on! This is going to be really bad!'

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

It was bad.

The Argonaut II slammed into the surface of the Grand Ca.n.a.l with a terrible splash. It hit the water nose-first, then tumbled three times, sending debris shooting out in every direction, before - whack! - it smacked down on the surface of the Ca.n.a.l and lurched to a halt, floating upside-down: its underside pointing skyward, its c.o.c.kpit underwater. Every single person in Italy, whether they were at the track or watching at home, stood up and gasped.

The silent underwater world.

Holding his breath, Jason quickly unclasped his seatbelt. He spun, suspended in the water, and saw the Bug grappling with his own seatbelt.

Jason saw that the Bug needed help, but before he could help him, Jason needed more air himself. He swam four feet upward and broke the surface - to see the high buildings of Venice II flanking the Ca.n.a.l all around him; to hear the crowd cheer briefly, glad to see him alive. He made to take a deep breath when he saw them.

Saw Etienne Trouveau and Kamiko Ideki round the final turn together, emerging from under the Accademia Bridge, banging into each other, fighting to the end.

And in that instant, it happened.

Trouveau got ahead of Ideki and performed his signature move - he cut across Ideki's nosewing and sheared it off with own his bladed nosewing.

The j.a.panese racer's nosewing fell clear off, splashing down into the Ca.n.a.l, and Ideki - poorly, in a panic, desperate to finish the race - tried to avoid the safe landing that the nearest Dead Zone alongside the Grand Ca.n.a.l would have provided him.

Instead, he grappled with his steering wheel and straightened his Yamaha up - but he hadn't counted on how quickly he would lose alt.i.tude.

And he realised the truth of his situation too late.

His Yamaha was going to smash directly into the Argonaut II, helpless on the surface of the Grand Ca.n.a.l.

Ideki may have realised it too late, but Jason, still treading water, saw exactly what was going to happen.

The Kamikaze's Yamaha was going to slam into the Argonaut II...and the Bug was still trapped in it under the surface!

Jason gauged the distance and the Kamikaze's screaming speed: impact would come in about five seconds.

And so, with the out-of-control Yamaha zooming like a guided missile toward his upside-down hover car, Jason took a deep breath and went under to try and free the Bug in time.

Underwater again.

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 crashing 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.