Desert Disaster (3 page)

The noise reached a crescendo as the lights turned green and the robots around Jimmy lurched forward onto the sand. Some made it further than others. Monster’s massive tyres made it easy going for her and Missy as they sped off across the sand. Jimmy felt a blast of air nearby as Maximus’s air cushions inflated and the hovercraft slid forward.

Jimmy put his foot down on the accelerator. Sand sprayed out behind them, but Cabbie wasn’t moving!

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Princess Kako was also having a disastrous start. After travelling about ten metres, Lightning hit a bump in the sand and Kako was thrown clean off her robot. She landed with a thud on the ground, but quickly shook herself off and climbed back onto Lightning, shouting angrily in Japanese. She hit a button on the bike and a small robotic arm extended from the bodywork. It reached over the front wheel and whizzed over the tyre faster than the eye could follow. It was spraying a thick coating of rubber onto the tyres, converting it from a thin racing tyre to a fat off-road one. It finished the front and moved onto the back, and Lightning soon had two chunky pieces of rubber underneath him. Kako was soon driving clumsily across the dunes.

“This is awful!” Jimmy exclaimed. “Cabbie, our normal tyres are useless, we’re going to have to break out the caterpillar tracks early.”

“Don’t worry, Jimmy! I’ll take care of it!” said Cabbie. There were two loud noises from underneath the robot –
CLUNK! CLUNK!
– followed by a
clackety-clack
,
clackety-clack
sound as the tracks appeared over the wheels and began to grip the soft sand.

The crowd
oooh
ed and
aaah
ed in appreciation.

“That’s better!” said Cabbie, sounding a little smug. “Now let’s move it!”

Jimmy felt better as they started to whip across the sand in pursuit of Missy and Sammy. They passed Horace and Zoom, who had sped off in a shower of sand, but now looked like they were struggling. As Jimmy passed them, Horace was yelling and banging the steering wheel, and Zoom’s engine was making a horrible grinding noise.

The one person who didn’t seem to be worrying about the terrain at all was Chip. His huge digger, Dug, had been built with this sort of surface in mind, and once he’d got moving he was soon eating up the ground on the leaders. The yellow giant overtook Sammy, and Jimmy did the same just moments later when Sammy and his hoverbot chose a longer route round one of the mountainous dunes.

Five minutes into the race and the race order had settled down.

“How are we doing?” asked Cabbie.

“OK, I think,” said Jimmy with a shrug. “We’re not first, but we’re not last either. Sammy, Horace and Kako seem to be behind us.”

“That leaves Missy with Monster and Chip with Dug in front of us. We’ll soon catch them up,” said Cabbie positively.

“I’m glad Grandpa fitted those caterpillar tracks, otherwise we’d still be stuck on the start line,” said Jimmy. “Now
that
would be embarrassing.”

As they travelled forward, the first checkpoint came into view, a large pole with the spinning ‘L’ of the Leadpipe Industries logo. Jimmy could already see two robot racers – Dug and Monster – pulled up beside it. From the checkpoint hung six compasses and six maps made of delicate papyrus.

As he approached, Jimmy saw Dug’s robotic arm reach out and gently pluck a map and compass off the pole. Dug dropped them into the cab, where Chip quickly studied them. Jimmy watched as Chip looked over the map, played with the compass for a second, and then sped off to the east.

Missy, meanwhile, had to jump down from her driver’s seat and collect the items herself. By the time Missy had made it back up to her driver’s seat in the tall monster truck, Jimmy was nearly alongside. Missy must have been worried about slipping into third place because she set off in hot pursuit of Chip without even glancing at the map.

Jimmy slid to a halt and pulled down the window. He grabbed a map and compass and stared at them for a few seconds. He had learned to read maps with Grandpa on one of their camping holidays and, although it had been a long time since he’d tried it, he soon noticed something.

At the top of the map were some co-ordinates, marked
Checkpoint 2
. Jimmy looked at them once more and turned the compass round in his hand.

“Come on, Jimmy!” said Cabbie. “Let’s get a move on! Monster and Dug will be miles ahead of us at this rate!”

But Jimmy stayed silent. There was definitely something wrong. He double-checked the co-ordinates. Then he triple-checked them, just to be sure.

“Chip made a mistake,” he said.

“Pardon?” Cabbie replied.

“I’m sure of it. He must have been in such a hurry to stay in first place that he got the bearings wrong on the compass,” said Jimmy, checking the map for a fourth time. “He went
east
, but the co-ordinates point to the
west
.”

“What about Missy?” said Cabbie.

“She just followed Chip,” said Jimmy.

“Then what are we waiting for?” said Cabbie with glee in his electronic voice. “Let’s burn rubber!”

Jimmy put the map down and pulled the steering wheel round to the west, and Cabbie’s tyres spat sand into the air as he sped off in the right direction.

“Woo-hoo!” cried Cabbie. “That means we’re in first place already! Not bad going, Jimmy, not bad at all.”

“Thank Grandpa! He taught me to use a map years ago,” Jimmy said, thinking back to the holidays he had spent trekking across the countryside in an anorak and walking boots. They had gone on long walks, using the sun and the stars to navigate their way through bogs and muddy fields, before falling down exhausted in their holey little tent. Grandpa had taught Jimmy the importance of double-checking his map references and it had certainly paid off. He reached for the Cabcom to tell Grandpa about it, but as he tapped the screen he saw only fuzzy static and remembered that he wasn’t allowed to speak to him.

“We’ll thank him tonight, when we get to the overnight stop in first place!” said Cabbie. “He’ll be watching us on TV anyway, and he’ll know you took the right direction.”

Jimmy knew he was right. He focused on the sand in front of him. “Come on, Cabbie, we’ve got a race to win. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can see Grandpa.” He put his foot down on the accelerator, and launched them up a dune. They reached the top and sailed into the air, Cabbie’s wheels leaving the ground altogether.

“Yee-ha!” yelled Cabbie. “Winners’ podium, here we come!”

Sand battered the windscreen and Cabbie’s wipers were almost no use at all. But in his rear-view mirror Jimmy could now see two huge vehicles behind him.
Missy and Chip must have realized their mistake and turned round
, he thought.

Behind them, Jimmy could make out more specks on the horizon. He used the rear-view zoom function to magnify the image, so that he could make out Princess Kako and Horace. Horace had the map spread out across Zoom’s windscreen, and a confused expression on his face.

“Ha!” laughed Jimmy. “No wonder Horace is puzzled. He’s got the map upside down!”

He reached out to the Cabcom and tapped the screen. Just because he couldn’t contact Grandpa didn’t mean he couldn’t talk to the other racers. The screen fizzed and crackled, and soon Horace’s smarmy face was staring back at him.

“Hi, Horace! Not so easy without NASA, is it?” he said. “Need any help?”

Horace didn’t seem glad to see him. “Bog off, Roberts!” he shouted. “I’m surprised you made it this far. Cabbie’s bonnet is so full of rusty holes that the sand must be passing through him like a sieve.”

Horace’s hand reached out and jabbed the screen hard, cutting off the connection between them.

“Someone’s a bad loser!” sang Cabbie. Jimmy turned his attention back to the way ahead. They were right on target to find the next checkpoint, but Jimmy could see an obstacle ahead. A big one.

“Uh-oh,” he said. Rising up above him was the biggest sand dune he had seen yet. As they hit the bottom of it, they slowed to a crawl. Cabbie’s engine made a small screeching noise and Jimmy pressed a button to shift him into a lower gear. They began to climb the side of the dune, and the sand slipped from under them. “Come on Cabbie!” Jimmy muttered as they crept up the terrifyingly steep dune. If they stopped for a second they’d slip all the way down to the bottom! In his rear-view mirror he saw Dug and Monster closing the gap between them, followed by Lightning.

“Slow and steady, Jimmy!” said Cabbie. “Dunes like this can be dangerous. My sensors are telling me we don’t have much grip. The sand keeps moving under the tyres...”

Jimmy nodded, but his attention was caught by Monster, who was charging up the slope. In a spray of fine sand she and Missy swished past Cabbie and regained the lead.

All of a sudden, the sand slipped underneath Monster and Jimmy saw a great section of sand fall and tumble down the slope towards him. It was like a giant yellow landslide carrying the monster truck with it. Jimmy saw a wave of sand come towards him in slow motion. He gasped in horror.

“Look out!” yelled Cabbie.

Jimmy jerked the steering wheel to the left to stop himself from being crushed as Monster fell with the sand. But Cabbie wasn’t in the clear yet. The blanket of sand swept over them, covering the bonnet and windscreen, pushing Cabbie back down the hill. The roar was deafening and the vibrations made Cabbie shudder.

Finally they slumped to a stop and the sand settled.

Jimmy checked himself over. He flexed his fingers and wiggled his toes and shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears.

“Cabbie? Are you OK?”

“I’m fine. But that was some trip!”

Jimmy couldn’t see out of his windscreen to tell if they were upside down, facing front or back.

After a moment he faintly heard Missy shouting above him on the slope, “Monster! Hurry up and get us out of this mess!” A second later there was a deep roaring noise as Monster’s huge engine burst back to life.

Jimmy had his own robot to worry about. He shifted into reverse and tried to move, but Cabbie was well and truly stuck.

“The sand on the bonnet is too heavy!” said Cabbie.

Jimmy couldn’t even climb out to dig them clear with his hands. If a safetybot arrived now, he would be rescued – which meant he and Cabbie would be out of the race. Jimmy took a deep breath. He needed to stay calm. Grandpa always said that no one ever got themselves out of a mess by losing their heads. And then suddenly a thought hit him.

“Cabbie, open up the bonnet, and give it some welly!”

“Okey-dokey, Jimmy!”

Cabbie released the latch keeping the bonnet down, and the whole front section sprang up, sending a spray of sand everywhere. It did the trick, shoving off most of the sand on the front half of the car. He tried to reverse again, and it was easier this time. Finally Cabbie wiggled free from the sand and Jimmy looked around him.

Monster was heading back down the slope to help Kako, who’d also been caught in the landslide – Lightning was now buried deep in the sand, just one rear wheel exposed.

The princess sat up and removed her helmet. A pile of sand fell out. She shook her head rapidly to get the bits out of her sleek black hair.

“Crikey! You OK, Kako?” shouted Missy. “Here, we’ll have you out of this in a jiffy.”

Jimmy looked around the hot, bleak desert as Cabbie slammed his bonnet shut again. “Oh no, the others are getting away,” he said. Down below, Chip, Horace and Sammy had veered left to go round the dune altogether. “I guess they saw what happened and thought they’d try a safer route,” he added.

Jimmy turned back to see Missy do the right thing and hook a winch round Lightning’s exposed wheel. She whistled to Monster, who slowly pulled the superbike from the desert.

“Sorry about that!” said Missy. “I guess Monster doesn’t know her own weight!”

Missy and Jimmy stayed with Kako until she was safely back on Lightning. But once she had started her robobike up again, they all threw their racers into gear.

“You gonna be all right going up the dune?” asked Missy out of the high window of her monster truck.

“No, I think I will go around the hill this time. I will be faster on the flat ground,” said Kako.

“Fair enough.” Missy replied. “Happy travelling!”

“What do you think, Jimmy?” asked Cabbie. “Stay on the flat, or give the dune another go?”

Jimmy weighed up his options, staring up at the dune. “Let’s go for it again. It should still be quicker this way.”

Cabbie and Jimmy climbed carefully up the dune. Halfway up he glanced over to see Monster trundling alongside, so he hit the Cabcom.

“G’day, Jimmy! Glad to see you’re taking the riskier route,” said Missy, once the screen had cleared.

“I’m just keen to get ahead,” replied Jimmy.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep my distance this time.” Missy grinned. “I’ll try not to drag you down with me if Monster here causes another sandslide!”

They concentrated on speeding up the slope, but kept the com link open. Jimmy liked Missy, and she was always cheery and easy to talk to.

They reached the top of the dune, and Jimmy saw how high he was. He could see the desert spreading out below him, with Dug, Maximus and Zoom making their way toward the next checkpoint. If Jimmy squinted, he could just make out the revolving ‘L’ of the Leadpipe Industries logo, gleaming in the sunshine.

Monster appeared on the top of the dune, and Missy peered into the Cabcom’s tiny camera. “What are ya waiting for, Jimmy? Last one to the bottom is a soppy koala!” She whooped with joy as she pushed Monster over the edge and began to streak down the dune.

Jimmy laughed. “You’re on!” he shouted. “Hold onto your bonnet, Cabbie!”

“Okay-dokay!” said the robot. Jimmy edged them over the top of the dune and felt his stomach lurch as they skidded down the sand. “Geronimo!”

Jimmy turned out to be the soppy koala. As soon as they hit the bottom Missy fired her engine and they swept away in a cloud of sand. Jimmy sped along after her, trying to avoid the dust cloud she was leaving in her wake. He kept his foot hard to the floor as they both skidded up to the checkpoint.

Missy ground to a stop just centimetres from the checkpoint marker, her tyres sending a puff of sand high into the air. Jimmy hopped out to see what clues Lord Leadpipe had set for them. He removed his helmet just in time to see Sammy and Chip jogging back to their robots.

“See you at the overnight stop!” shouted Sammy.

Jimmy found four envelopes attached to the pole, each one with the name of a racer on it. He snatched up the one with
jimmy
written on it and headed back towards Cabbie. As he climbed into the cockpit he ran a finger under the seal of the envelope and tore it open, eager to take a look inside. He pulled out another piece of ancient-looking papyrus. It was from Lord Leadpipe!

Dear Racers,

Congratulations on making it to the second checkpoint. You have done well to make it this far, but the hardest part still lies ahead. So here’s a thought to help you on your way:

Chinese prophecy says that humans have been given two ears and one mouth for a very important reason, so that one can listen twice as much as one speaks. If you have been listening carefully to those wiser than you, perhaps you’ll find these questions a doddle.

Yours,

Ludwick

Under the message were two multiple choice questions.

The largest desert on earth is...

a) the Sahara

b) the Kalahari

c) Antarctica

But as Jimmy glanced at this first question, his mind went completely blank...