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“I think somebody stole it in the arena,” I told him.
“The short gentleman who ran into you so roughly?” Sofia asked me.
I nodded. “Yeah. He’s the only one who had time to do it.”
Ben pursed his lips as he scanned the crowds. “I wonder. . .”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “You wonder what?”
“If perhaps Dr. Myer didn’t take advantage of the crowds to snatch the badge from you,” he mused as he folded his arms over his chest. “He may have recognized Bashful in the lineup and assumed you were part of the company.”
“And stole my company badge,” I finished for him as it felt like someone squeezed my heart. “Which means he could be on the tract.”
“Unfortunately, yes, but he still has to hide his use of the elements talisman,” Ben reminded me.
An unnatural hush fell over the crowd and I turned around to see that the emperor had risen. The sun hung high above us in the middle of the sky, and the emperor raised his arm over his head. The thunder engines revved and every driver had their eyes fixed on the emperor.
Callidus dropped his arm and the thunders shot forward. Bashful was one of the ones in the lead, but he vied for position with a red vehicle. Both drivers wore helmets so I couldn’t see their faces as they flew past.
“Which one is Dinari?” I asked the thunder enthusiast.
Ben pursed his lips as he watched the machines pass around the far corner. “The red thunder.”
At that moment Chase and Grant joined us. They both sported empty hands and worried faces.
“Is that idiot trying to maybe himself a target?” Grant snapped.
“Well, we did throw him out there to be one,” Chase countered.
“No sign of the doctor?” Ben wondered.
Grant shook his head. “Not a thing.”
The thunders roared past again and we all turned to face the course. I clasped my hands together as Mouse vied for the front with Dinari, but while they duked it out several other thunders came up on their rears. They formed a group that passed the lead between themselves.
The laps were swallowed up one by one until I counted only ten left. I was a nervous wreck as that lead group swept past our position, each seemingly fresh off the starting line.
That is, until smoke began to flow out from under one of the hoods.
Gasps arose from the crowd as flames jumped out of the engine compartments. The drivers veered off the course and onto the grass and sand patches near the fence line. Officials hurried over, and I noticed Peter among the group. They scooped the drivers out of their seats while men with buckets of water doused the engines.
“What the heck is going on?” Grant wondered.
Ben’s eyebrows crashed down. “We’ll find out.” He darted forward and the rest of us followed him over to the injured vehicles.
Rask was among those who oversaw the drivers and their thunders. He turned to us at our arrival and revealed his tense expression. His keen eyes studied our faces for just a moment before he spoke. “You know anything about this?”
Ben nodded. “We suspect Dr. Nicholas Myer is attempting to sway the result of the race.”
“Sir!” The shout came from one of the officials who leaned into one of the extinguished engines. He held out his hand and revealed a pile of sand. “It’s all over the engine, sir!”
“That’s impossible!” the driver insisted as he stabbed a finger at his vehicle. “Nothing like that can get under the hood!”
“Sir!” another official shouted as he pointed at the race course.
Another thunder driver had been forced to steer off the tract with his engine aflame. His vehicle stopped only twenty yards shy of the emperor’s location, and more than one lord leapt to their feet to race away.
For the emperor’s part, he merely caught the eye of his guards and pointed at the vehicle. “Assist that man!”
