Canyon Chaos (6 page)

“This is it,” said Cabbie, giving himself a pep talk. “The big one. Time to make it count. When it really matters. Everything to play for...”

Jimmy chewed on his fingernails as he looked through Cabbie’s windscreen down the start line.

“Cabbie looks like he’s been in a fight with a garbage truck,” he heard Horace shouting to Chip.

“It’s a race, not a beauty contest,” Chip yelled back.

In the blue sky above them Leadpipe’s airship hovered. As they watched, Lord Leadpipe’s jolly face appeared on an giant screen on its side, peering down at the contestants through his monocle.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, his big red face beaming and his voice ringing around the Canyon, “it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the first-ever Robot Races for under-sixteens. Today’s race will see our drivers taking on the challenges of the incredible Grand Canyon and battling for the lead in the Robot Races Championship.”

“Look at them all,” said Jimmy sadly as Lord Leadpipe continued to warm up the crowd. “Dug and Monster and Lightning
...
they all look so
...
good.”

“Yeah. Let’s just give up and go home,” said Cabbie.

“What?” Jimmy spluttered. “But
...
it’s the Robot Races! We can’t quit now! I’ve wanted to do this my whole life...” He trailed off as he realized what Cabbie was trying to do.

“Exactly. Now, come on, Jimmy!” Cabbie yelled. “We’re in this race, and we’ll show those fancy, shiny robots how it’s done.”

“You’re right.” Jimmy gripped the steering wheel. “Let’s show them what we can do.”

Jimmy jumped as Grandpa’s voice crackled out of a little radio on Cabbie’s dashboard.

“Everything OK, Jimmy?”

“Everything’s fine, Grandpa,” Jimmy said nervously.

“Everything’s just peachy, Wilf,” said Cabbie. “A-OK. Ticketyboo. Hunky dory. Couldn’t be better. So let’s get this show on the road.”

“ON YOUR MARKS...!” yelled Lord Leadpipe suddenly.

Jimmy looked for the ignition button. Then looked again. A cold shudder ran through him and he desperately started searching the panel in front of him.

“It’s gone!” he cried.

“What’s gone?” said Grandpa and Cabbie together.

“The big red ignition button. The thing that makes us go! Where is it?” Jimmy said, starting to sweat.

“GET SET!” Lord Leadpipe’s voice echoed around the racetrack. The other racers’ engines filled the air with a rumbling roar.

“Oh,” said Grandpa, as though he had just remembered something. “Sorry, lad, I meant to tell you. I did move some of the gadgets around. One or two last-minute, ahem” – he coughed – “adjustments.”

“I’ve got it!” shrieked Jimmy, pressing a red button on Cabbie’s ceiling.

“
GO!
” Leadpipe bellowed.

With a click and a rush of air, a hatch in Cabbie’s roof flew open and an enormous magnet on a length of chain shot up to the sky. It came clattering down about thirty metres from the car, narrowly missing an elderly spectator and his dog.

Zoom, Dug, Monster, Lightning and Maximus all roared into the distance, covering Cabbie’s windscreen with a cloud of dust.

“I think that’s the wrong button,” Grandpa said helpfully.

“What do I do? What do I do?” said Jimmy.

“Don’t panic!” Cabbie said. “I’m making the ignition button flash.”

Jimmy stared around frantically, and finally found the big red button at the side of the steering wheel.

“OK,” he said firmly. He pressed the flashing red button and Cabbie’s engine roared into life.

“A little revving for show,” said Cabbie, gunning his engine, then reeling in the magnet as fast as he could, “and here we go! We’re off...!”

Jimmy jammed his foot down on the accelerator and they burst out onto the winding track on a ridge high inside the Grand Canyon.

“Don’t look down, Jimmy,” Cabbie warned.

“Why not?” answered Jimmy, looking down – and immediately regretting it. He saw a sheer drop to the thin silver line of the river about a mile below.

His heart climbed into his throat and he gripped the steering wheel like he was hanging on for his life. Then he focused on the road ahead, steering steadily between the cliff face to their left and the drop to their right, aiming for the dust cloud thrown up by the racers ahead.

“We’ve got to catch them up,” he said through gritted teeth. “But I can’t even see them.”

“I can help with that,” Cabbie said. “Push the windscreen zoom.” A little purple button popped up on the windscreen and started to flash. Jimmy pressed it, and a corner of the windscreen magnified the glass so it felt like Jimmy was peering through a pair of binoculars.

In the distance, Horace and Zoom were trying to edge past Monster’s huge wheels, but the road wasn’t wide enough for them both. As Jimmy watched, Zoom did a daring overtake on the winding lane and edged past Missy and Monster. Jimmy had to admit that Horace and Zoom made a pretty good team.

“Come on, Cabbie, we mustn’t lose them!” he said determinedly.

“We’re gaining on them,” Cabbie replied as they shot past a blur of cliff face and sand. “If we can keep this speed up, we’ll catch them in...” He paused for less than a second to calculate. “...just under three minutes and seven seconds.”

“Let’s go, then!” cried Jimmy. He was still sweating and his heart was beating a million times a second, but that feeling of excitement and concentration was taking over the nerves. He had a job to do, and that was to get Cabbie to the finish line as fast as possible.

“Bend in the road ahead,” warned Cabbie.

Jimmy remembered a similar winding cliff-top track in one of the races he’d watched last year. Big Al and Crusher had taken it too fast and crashed. He eased off the pedal slightly and took the corner smoothly, before hitting the accelerator once again.

“Nice driving,” said Cabbie. They rounded the bend and Cabbie speeded up as they hit a straight section of track. They could see the other racers ahead in a distant cloud of dust. Jimmy scanned the buttons in front of him for something that could help.

“Hit the rocket-boosters, Jimmy!” cried Cabbie.

“Maybe we should save them,” Jimmy replied. “We might need a boost later on.” Then he noticed something on the zoom screen. Far ahead, the other racers were being called into a pit stop by their teams.

Chip and Dug got there first, skidding towards the waiting mechanics, who leaped on the racer and went to work. Kako and Lightning were right behind them. Maximus and Zoom bashed into each other, sparks flying, as they crashed into their spaces. In front of Cabbie, Missy and Monster were slowing down for a stop too.

In the last space there was a little figure with wild white hair waving. It was Grandpa.

“First pit stop coming up,” crackled Grandpa’s voice over the intercom. “Get ready to pull in, Jimmy.”

“This is our chance!” Jimmy gasped. “Cabbie, do we really need to stop?”

“Well...” said Cabbie, doing a quick check of his functions. “Front offside tyre is a little worn, engine might need a little tune-up, spot of oil
...
and I need water. And fuel.”

“Grandpa?” said Jimmy into the intercom. “Can Cabbie divert water from his water cannon and take fuel from the rocket-boosters?”

“Erm, I don’t know, Jimmy. I’ve never tried it,” Grandpa’s voice crackled over the intercom.

“Already done it,” said Cabbie.

“Brilliant!” cried Jimmy. “We’re going on!”

Grandpa stood open-mouthed as they sailed past him, past all the other racers, and went into the lead. In his mirror, Jimmy could see the small white-haired figure, bouncing up and down and punching the air.

Over the intercom came Grandpa’s voice. “Go, Jimmy, go!”

Jimmy cheered – and then panicked. He’d never seen a robot racer miss a pit stop before. What if it was the wrong thing to do?

“How far is it to the next pit stop?” he asked anxiously.

“Forty-two kilometres,” said Cabbie.

“Will we make it all right?”

“Make it?” cried Cabbie. “Of course we’ll make it! There are bits of me that spent twenty years on the taxi circuit! Those other racers might need their fancy paintwork touched up and their wheels massaged, but with enough water and fuel
we
can keep going for ever!”

Jimmy grinned as Cabbie switched on the zoom screen to show the view behind them. He was sure the other racers would catch up soon, but for the moment, they were actually winning!

The road started to climb and Cabbie accelerated. They snaked left, then right, then left again, Jimmy growing in confidence all the time. The road began to narrow until the ledge they were driving on was only slightly wider than Cabbie’s bonnet. Jimmy glanced over at the sheer drop on their right and his stomach did a couple of nervous somersaults.

“No one can overtake us here!” shouted Cabbie, just as the other robot racers appeared in their mirrors. They were gaining fast.

“Whoa!” yelled Jimmy as they rounded a bend and Cabbie’s back end swung out over the edge of the cliff. “Let’s keep all four wheels on the road, Cabbie.”

As the taxi found its grip again, Jimmy heard a faint cheer from the crowd watching from the canyon’s edge. Jimmy surged forwards before guiding Cabbie into another right-hand corner.

“Look out!” cried Jimmy, slamming on the brakes as he saw that the road ahead was completely blocked by a huge rockslide. But the racer was still skidding towards the mountain of rocks and boulders
...
Jimmy stiffened, bracing himself for the impact.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this all under control,” said Cabbie calmly, hitting the retro-rockets, which fired instantly, bringing them to a stop just in front of the rockslide. As Jimmy peered through the windscreen he could see Cabbie’s front tyres smoking, and a cloud of dust had flown up all around them.

Next to them the cliff dropped down to the river below, a tumbling slope of red rocks and dust.

“I didn’t see this from the airship,” Jimmy complained.

“It wasn’t there before,” Cabbie confirmed. “I think this is the first challenge of the race. You know there are always obstacles on each track.”

Jimmy glanced nervously at the vertical rock face on his left, at the sheer drop down into the canyon on his right, and at the rock pile ahead. “Can we get over it?” Jimmy thought out loud. “Or through it? Or under it?”

“The others are gaining on us,” said Cabbie. “Whatever we do, we need to do it fast!”

“OK,” said Jimmy. “How do we get over it?”

“We...” Cabbie paused and thought, his computer whirring. “We fire the pogo-thruster. The button’s flashing blue now.”

“The pogo-thruster?” repeated Jimmy nervously. “What does it do?”

“Rockets us into the sky,” said Cabbie. “We’ll land on the other side of the landslide and we’ll be away.”

“But it’s a windy day. What if we don’t land on the other side?” asked Jimmy. “What if it rockets us into the sky and we’re blown down into the Canyon?”

“Good point,” said Cabbie.

“So can we get round it?” asked Jimmy.

“There’s a ledge about thirty centimetres wide at the edge of the landslide,” said Cabbie. “We reverse, get up to 150 k.p.h., go up on two wheels and—”

“And crash over the edge,” finished Jimmy. “Or crash into the landslide. Have you got any suggestions that don’t involve us crashing?”

Cabbie thought for a moment. “No,” he said.

“Let’s back up and get a proper look at it,” said Jimmy.

Cabbie quickly reversed. But as he did so, Lightning appeared from nowhere and zipped round him, heading straight for the landslide. At the last moment, steel ropes and grappling hooks flew from Lightning’s front shield, grabbed hold of the rock face and pulled Princess Kako and her robobike up and over the mound of fallen rocks like a giant spider.

“We need to do something. Here comes Monster!” said Jimmy, looking in the rear-view display screen. But it was too late. Missy and her enormous monster-truck racer swerved round them. The truck’s front grille dropped down and out came a vast drill bit the size of a robo-rocket, spinning into a blur. Dust and rocks and splinters flew up as the drill burrowed into the ground and Monster disappeared down the tunnel she had dug beneath the landslide.

“Now’s our chance,” cried Jimmy, stamping on the accelerator. “Let’s follow them!”

Cabbie’s engine roared, and they flew backwards.

“Oops,” said Cabbie. “Still in reverse!”

Jimmy flicked the gear paddle into first gear, but before he could power forwards, Sammy and his hoverbot Maximus had barged in front of them and skimmed into the darkness of the tunnel.

“Come on!” cried Jimmy as Zoom, then Dug, hurtled past and headed for the opening.

“Fire the jet-thrusters and let’s get going!” yelled Cabbie.

Jimmy was reaching for the flashing green button when they heard a screech of tyres at the entrance to the tunnel.

Zoom had stopped and Jimmy could see Horace pressing all sorts of buttons on the roof of the sports car.

“What’s he doing?” Jimmy cried. “He’s blocking the way!”

“Even Horace Pelly can’t be that stupid,” said Cabbie. “He won’t win sitting there!”

“And neither will we,” groaned Jimmy.

But a nasty grin had spread across Horace’s face. “Dig your way out of this one, Chippy,” he yelled over the roar of his engine.

Two pipes shot out from beneath Zoom’s bumper. One sprayed water all over the racetrack. The other sent clouds of white smoke billowing across it. When it cleared, the water had frozen and turned the track into a dangerous ice rink!

Dug was racing towards the tunnel at top speed and when he hit the ice, he had no hope of controlling the racer. The caterpillar tracks tried desperately to grip the path, but they just spun and spun. Dug’s pincer arm flailed and grabbed at the ice, helplessly trying to steady himself as he skidded towards the cliff edge.

Jimmy watched Chip’s mouth open in a silent, terrified scream as he plunged backwards and disappeared over the side of the cliff...

Jimmy sat frozen for a moment – long enough to see Horace and Zoom shooting off through the tunnel.Then he jumped out of Cabbie and ran to the cliff edge, inching forward slowly to peer over the edge.

All Jimmy could think about was what he would see when he looked over the edge: the twisted and gashed metal of the broken robot, and Chip...?

Hardly daring to open his eyes, he looked out over the cliff edge. The floor of the Canyon was about a kilometre below them. Jimmy screwed up his eyes in the blazing heat of the sun, but all he could see was dust and sand and rocks. There was no sign at all of Dug or Chip at the bottom of the canyon.

“
Help!
” cried a voice. It sounded American
...
like Chip.

“
Help! Help! Help!
” replied the echoes, rebounding from the towering Canyon walls.

“Did you hear that?” asked Cabbie.

“I heard it!” said Jimmy. “Chip,” he shouted down. “It’s Jimmy. Are you all right? Where are you?”

“Down here!” said the American voice.

Jimmy moved along the cliff face, trying to edge closer to where the sound was coming from. When he found the spot he stretched a little further out over the Canyon. Fighting the dizzying view beneath him, he looked straight down – squinting against the glare of the sun as it bounced off the shiny surface of ... Dug!

Jimmy cheered. There, resting about 20 metres directly below them, was the huge yellow racer. Dug appeared to be hanging in mid-air and Chip’s head was poking out of the window, looking up at Jimmy and waving.

“Hold on!” Jimmy yelled down. The echo of his voice sent a few small stones from the rockslide showering over the cliff face. They plummeted down, down, down and then bounced!

“It’s an invisible force field,” said Cabbie to Jimmy. “Dug’s scanners are showing a high-voltage plasma net down there.”

“Lord Leadpipe must have had them installed for the race because he expected at least one of us to end up being knocked over the edge,” Jimmy guessed.

He racked his brains for a way to help them up. None of the safetybots were hovering overhead. There was no sign of anyone at all who could help rescue Dug and Chip. It was up to Jimmy. He ran over to Cabbie and got in.

“What are we doing?” said Cabbie. “Let’s fire up the engines and catch those other losers!”

“We’re not going anywhere,” said Jimmy.

“What?” said Cabbie.

“We’ve got to help Chip and Dug,” said Jimmy. “We’re their only hope!” He scanned the rows of buttons on his control panel, looking for something he could use to help Chip – retro-rockets, jet-thrusters, rocket-boosters, Magnetic SuperPull...

“Yes!” cried Jimmy excitedly, remembering the huge magnet flying out of Cabbie’s roof at the start of the race. “Cabbie, I’m firing the Magnetic SuperPull over the cliff edge. OK?”

“I can do better than that,” replied Cabbie. “Press the green button. It’s flashing now.”

“What is it?” asked Jimmy, punching the button.

“The Magnetic Superpull Crane-o-matic,” replied Cabbie proudly. And before Jimmy could say ask any more questions, he felt four heavy thuds as stabilizing legs extended from Cabbie’s undercarriage.

Jimmy opened his window and stuck his head out to get a better view. A hatch opened on Cabbie’s roof and an enormous crane arm rose high into the air, stretching out like a tape measure over the cliff edge. Then he heard a familiar click and a rush of air as the Magnetic SuperPull fired out of the roof and flew down into the Canyon.

“Just like going fishing,” Cabbie said, a smug edge to his voice. “Not that I’ve ever been fishing before.”

Jimmy got out of Cabbie and hurried back to the cliff edge. The huge magnet swung on its chain from the crane arm, about two metres short of Chip and his massive racer.

“It’s not long enough!” called Chip.

Oh, no
, thought Jimmy.
There’s no way of getting closer to them.

Then suddenly he had an idea.

“Chip, you’re going to have to reach up as far as you can. If you can get Dug’s lifting arm close enough, the magnet will do the rest.”

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. For a split-second it looked as if they were still too far away. The magnet swayed from side to side as Dug’s long arm stretched to breaking point to reach it.

Come on, come on
, Jimmy thought.

Then suddenly there was a loud
thunk!
that echoed around the Canyon.

“Yes! Reel them in, Cabbie!” called Jimmy.

Cabbie braced himself on his four stabilizing legs, tightened the chain and began to heave.

Slowly Cabbie pulled Dug up. The digger swayed to and fro in the wind as it was hauled up. Clouds of black smoke poured from Cabbie’s exhaust as he strained against Dug’s enormous bulk, his engines firing on full throttle to generate enough power for the super-electromagnet.

“Yee-haa!” yelled Chip, punching the air in celebration as they gradually emerged from the Canyon. Still creaking and groaning, Dug rose level with the racetrack, and Cabbie swung the Crane-o-matic’s huge arm around and gently lowered Dug to the ground.

“That’s some gadget!” called Chip, jumping down from his cab. “Thanks, guys. I thought we was a goner when we went flyin’ over the edge.” His face suddenly darkened. “I can’t wait to get Dug’s claws on that Horace fella and his robot.”

“No problem,” said Cabbie. “Now, does anyone think we should get going?”

“The race!” cried Jimmy and Chip together.

Chip jumped into Dug, and Jimmy jumped into Cabbie and, side by side, they fired up their engines.

“After you!” called Chip. “It’s the least I can do!”

Jimmy nodded his thanks, and Cabbie shot through the gap in the landslide with Dug following close behind. They flew out the other side of the tunnel to the deafening roar of hundreds of fans cheering, the noise spurring the two racers on to even greater speeds.

“Hello? Hello?” crackled a familiar voice on Cabbie’s intercom.

“Grandpa!” said Jimmy.

“Where are you?” said Grandpa. He sounded worried. “Four of the other competitors have made their second pit stop already.”

“We had a bit of a problem,” said Jimmy. “All sorted now.”

“I don’t know what you’ve been doing to him,” said Grandpa, “but it looks like Cabbie’s blown seven or eight fuses and your rocket fuel’s nearly on zero. That wipes out the rocket-boosters and you’re going to need them. Pit stop in two kilometres. You’d better pull in this time.”

“Another hold-up?” grumbled Cabbie. “Rock falls, rescue missions, pit stops
...
why don’t we stop for a cup of tea and a slice of cake as well?”

“Come on, Cabbie,” said Jimmy. “Grandpa needs to check you over. We’ll never win if you’re not in peak condition. There it is!”

Cabbie slowed and pulled into position at the pit stop, just seconds ahead of Chip and Dug.

Grandpa stuck his head in the window, filling the cab with his huge white hair. “You’re doing brilliantly, my boy.” He grinned. “I’ll get under the bonnet and have a quick tune-up and you can get on your way.”

Jimmy sat patiently while Grandpa ran a computer check on Cabbie’s functions and made some small adjustments. Grandpa danced around the taxi like a man half his age, inserting a new microchip here and replacing a blown fuse there.

After just a few moments he shouted, “All clear! Off you go, my boy. Sock it to ’em.”

“Right,” said Jimmy as Cabbie fired up his engines. “Time for some speed, Cabbie. I’m putting my foot down.”

“About time!” exclaimed Cabbie, his tyres squealing. “Full speed ahead!”