5th: Jason.

And suddenly Jason was again in last place - only now his situation was especially dire: Barnaby was way out in front and the racer directly in front of him was Xavier, the best racer in the School and Barnaby's team-mate.

Thus they began Lap 43 and, with a gulp, Jason saw what he had to do: he had exactly three laps to get past the best racer at Race School - perhaps the best racer to have ever come to Race School - or else he'd be eliminated.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

RACE 50.

LAP: 43 OF 51.

RACERS LEFT ON TRACK: 5.

The Speed Razor and the Argonaut.

Going at it hammer and tong.

Jason threw everything he had at the Black Prince, but try as he might, he just couldn't get past the Speed Razor. Xavier was simply too good.

He just wouldn't let Jason by.

On Lap 43, Jason even tried another daring dash through the first pair of Clashing Bergs - just as he had done with Wong - but to his total horror, Xavier outran him by going around on the standard route!

That's impossible! Jason thought. If he can outrun me going around the Clashing Bergs, there's no way I can take him...

For the rest of that lap, Xavier held him off easily, antic.i.p.ating every one of Jason's overtaking manoeuvres through the tight land-bound section of the course.

Lap 44: still no luck. Xavier seemed to be enjoying this, blocking Jason, ruining his chances of beating Barnaby.

And then they hit Lap 45.

Jason's last chance.

The Speed Razor and the Argonaut shot down the Southern Ocean Straight, zig-zagged through the Chicane - and suddenly the Bug made a suggestion.

'You've got to be kidding...' Sally said over the radio.

The Bug said he wasn't kidding.

'That's totally crazy, Bug! Even by your standards!' Sally said. 'You'll be killed for sure!'

But Jason liked the plan. 'Nice thinking, Bug. You always were a daredevil at heart. Hang on to your hat, little brother, because this is gonna get hairy...'

They came to the iceberg section -

And true to form, Xavier kept to the standard track - While Jason took the Clashing Bergs track - And, as before, Xavier beat them to the other side, even though he'd stayed on the regulation track. But Jason had gained a whole car-length on him.

Then they came to the second fork in the track - leading to the second set of Clashing Bergs - and again Xavier took the safe option, but not Jason.

To everyone's surprise, including Xavier's, he took the Clashing Bergs track again - And this time, he came out the other end alongside Xavier - They hit the third and last fork together...and again Jason took the Clashing Bergs option!

Xavier went the long way - Jason shot through a quickly-narrowing chasm of two gargantuan icebergs - and blasted out the other end just as they clashed, only this time when he emerged, he came out exactly one car-length ahead of Xavier!

It had taken not one, not two, but three short cuts to do the impossible: they had overtaken Xavier!

Xavier charged, threw all he had at Jason, trying to retake him. But now that he was in front, Jason wasn't going to let go of his lead.

He and Xavier fought all the way around the track, but when they hit the Start-Finish Line seven minutes later, it was Jason in the lead.

The 16th and last elimination of the race would be Xavier Xonora.

Now there were only four racers left, and with six laps to go, they alone would fight it out to the finish.

But not before one last pit stop at the end of Lap 48.

Jason knew this pit stop would be his last chance to catch up to Barnaby - who by this time was now almost 40 seconds ahead of him.

'Sally!' he called over the radio. 'This is your moment!'

'I'll be waiting,' came the reply.

Jason wound through the land-bound section of the course, until finally he beheld Hobart.

He swept into the city and dived into the pits - - saw the usual buzz of activity, Mech Chiefs running every which way, pit machines rising and falling, electric lights everywhere blazing.

He saw the other three racers still in their pit bays, their Mech Chiefs working away already, halfway through their stops: Barnaby.

Krishna.

Ariel.

And then, just as Jason swung the Argonaut into its pit bay, there came a loud dying whine from somewhere above him and all of a sudden...

...every single electric light in Pit Lane went out!

Pit machines froze in mid-air.

Computer monitors crashed to black.

Everyone looked about themselves in confusion.

Sally, now standing beside the Argonaut, swapped a look with Jason.

They didn't even need to say it out loud.

Power failure.

Manual pit stop.

Jason and the Bug were out of their seats in seconds, and by hand they attached six fresh magneto drives to the Argonaut while Sally added coolant and compressed-air cylinders, also by hand.

The other teams obviously hadn't practised manual stops much - if at all - and they just stood in their pit bays, confused.

Barnaby yelled at his Mech Chief, swearing, pointing, telling him to hurry up.

Krishna deduced that he had to help his Mech Chief, and so he leapt out of his car.

Ariel did the same - and while she may not have practised manual stops as well as Jason's team, of the other three racers, she did the best at it.

As he screwed on his mag drives with a cordless drill, Jason heard Ariel's Mech Chief yell to Ariel: ' - can't explain it! A virus just hit us like a G.o.dd.a.m.n anvil! Ripped down our firewall! But it was so powerful, it spread into the wider system and brought down the entire Pit Lane power grid!'

In the end, the big winners from the unexpected power shutdown were Ariel and Jason.

Having entered the pits in 3rd place, Ariel shot back out onto the track in 1st place!

Krishna shot out next, in 2nd.

Barnaby was the biggest loser - perhaps because he hadn't got out of his car for the whole of the manual stop, choosing instead to simply abuse his Mech Chief. As such, he came out of the pits in 3rd place...

...a single car-length ahead of Jason Chaser.

Game on.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

RACE 50.

LAP: 50 OF 51.

RACERS LEFT ON TRACK: 4.

With two laps to go, Jason hammered on the heels of Barnaby Becker.

In a funny way, Jason felt confident now.

Xavier was out of the race, as were those racers like Cortez and Wong who had tried to take him out. And now he had Barnaby in his sights.

And he knew Barnaby's weakness - right-hand hairpins - and there were plenty of those coming up. Through the Chicane...into the icebergs.

Jason lined up Barnaby.

Got himself into position behind him.

The best option was at the very end of the iceberg section, at a hairpin turn inside a tunnel carved into the last iceberg.

They weaved through the icebergs, Jason coming closer and closer to Barnaby - looming ominously. Then they hit the last iceberg, and Jason made his move, ducked inside Barnaby, expecting him to take it wide, as usual... ...only Barnaby didn't do that at all.

Instead, he took the hairpin perfectly, and cut Jason off...

...and held his position!

Jason was shocked.

That wasn't supposed to happen! his mind screamed. Barnaby never took hairpins like that - not even in the

most recent race, Race 49.

He must've got lucky, Jason thought, and he prepared to take Barnaby at a right-hand hairpin up in the land-bound