The Twelve Stones (39 page)

The Hypertruck’s tires squealed as
they
braked and weaved at the last minute, avoiding a minivan which had appeared out of nowhere. Scott’s face lost some color as he realized they had come within inches of a collision.

“
OK,” Scott said slowly, “I think there might be something wrong with the autopilot.”

Alex snorted loudly, “Really
,
dude? You think?”

Scott punched a few buttons on the control panel in front of him
,
attempting to take back control of the vehicle. The console buzzed several times as Scott’s eyes darted towards Alex.

“
Just one seeecccooond.” Scott drew out the last word, exhaling in a frustrated breath. Alex shook his head. It was a bad sign that things weren’t working so well on Scott’s latest invention.

“
Siobhan,” Alex called to the rear, “
y
ou
OK back there?”

Siobhan’s face was white
,
her mouth screwed shut in fear. She clutched the handhold next to her tightly as she nodded quickly.

Satisfied, Alex turned back to Scott
,
who was quickly typing on the touch screen in front of him. Various electronic displays began flying up on the screen as the worried look his face began to betray his nervousness.

“
Anything?” Alex asked
as they whipped past another large semi trailer. The margin of error was getting smaller; they just barely avoided hitting the rear of the truck. The news got worse as they approached the Bay
;
the traffic was getting heavier
,
and the truck’s computer systems were definitely going too slow to compensate.

“
Scott!” Alex yelled as they nearly avoided hitting a smaller vehicle. “Now would be a good time to get control of this thing.”

Scott
’s only answer was the
sweat
pour
ing
down his brow. “Umm, two things seem to have gone wrong here. One, the sensors aren’t responding as well as they should be
;
I think the road muck out there must have collected on the sensors last night.”

“
Oh
,
good,” Alex said sarcastically, “you figured that out. I thought we were just playing bumper cars.”

“
You know, I work quicker without the sarcasm
,
”
Scott shot back, his fingers flying over the keypad.

“
But then I wouldn’t get to tell you what a moron you are!” Alex screamed as the truck jostled about
,
narrowly dodging several more passenger cars. Scott sighed in frustration and slammed his fists down on the screen
,
causing it to go black.

“
Everything OK?” Alex asked in a low mocking tone. “I don’t think a multi-million dollar navigation system
actually responds to the Fonz!
What was the second thing?”

“
We
,
uhh, got a problem with the on-board computer.”

“
Really?”

“
Yeah, ahh, apparently, the on-board computer has frozen and needs to be restarted.”

“
You mean the on-board computer you showed me earlier tonight?”

“
Yeah,” Scott said sadly, already dreading the next question.

“
You mean the on-board computer located UNDERNEATH this rig?”

Scott coughed, “Well, the main computer is actually stored underneath the car on top of the undercarriage.”

“
And there’s no sorta reset button inside the cab
,
I suppose?” Alex put his face in his palms.

“
This was a prototype! It wasn't meant for road trips!”

“
Whos
e
idea…
Y
ou
know what?” Alex stopped himself
;
now was not the time. “It doesn’t matter. Where is the reset button on this model?”

“
The only way to reset is to cut the power to the main computer.” Scott said. “We have to get underneath the Hypertruck and sever the power cable directly.”

“
Of course.” Alex said sadly. He turned back to Siobhan, who was still clutching the handholds on her seat in terror.

“
Can you shapeshift into something small enough so you can get back and underneath the truck to reset the computer?”

She swallowed. “I can try.”

Alex smiled, “Don’t worry, I’ll be right here in case anything goes wrong.” Unlocking the door, he opened the window. “Big enough?”

“
Plenty of room, thank you.” She nodded and closed her eyes.
As she concentrated
, the purple stone hanging from her ear flashed,
a
nd
her body began to shrink.

Incredibly, the beautiful blonde woman that had been sitting in front of Scott and Alex had turned herself into a gecko lizard, her purple stone hanging comically from the side of its head. Quickly scrambling up and over the passenger seat, Siobhan scampered up and out the window, down towards the rear of the truck.

“
I like her
,
” Scott said absently.

Siobhan moved along the slippery surface of the Hypertruck. Her new feet and hands were designed for clutching onto surfaces, but the carbon nanofiber shell was machined incredibly well and it made for a slick surface.

Moving carefully across the car, she nearly lost her footing when the giant car beneath her swerved into the next lane, narrowly avoiding a small passenger truck.

“
Underneath the bumper!” Alex shouted towards the lizard on the car roof. The lizard looked back towards Alex, and he could’ve sworn she winked at him.

Moving up towards the top of the car, Siobhan realized too late the body she had chosen for this stunt outside was too way too light, the car was moving too fast, and her hands were quickly losing her grip.

The Hypertruck raced up the northbound Five Interstate, passing a large semi quickly on its left side. The wind whipped up as they passed too close, and it was too much for the tiny gecko, as Siobhan flew off the side of the Hypertruck.

Alex’s face fell
.
H
e looked back into the truck at Scott.

“
She fell off. The lizard body was too light for all that wind.”

Scott looked panicked. “Now what?”

Alex sighed, unlocked the door and opened it, letting the rushing wind into the Cab. Scott caught his arm
,
stopping Alex just before he leaped out.

“
What the hell are you doing?”

“
Fixing your computer. I’m like an extreme Geek Squad.” Alex yelled back to his friend over the wind. “Don’t worry about me
.
I’ve done this before.”

The door closed as Alex climbed out onto the roof of the truck. Scott just shook his head in wonder.

“Done this before?” Scott muttered to himself. “I have got to get some questions answered.”

The Hypertruck flew down the highway, the wind making it extremely difficult for Alex to hang on. His muscles tensed and strained as
he
kept his body profile as low as possible. The amount of exertion needed to keep
him from flying off the roof was taxing his muscles to
their
ultimate limits. Alex set his jaw in determination and slowly began to progress his way forward down the sloping windshield.

Fighting inch by inch down the sloping hood, Alex reached forward and grabbed the grill of the truck, holding on tightly for what he was about to do. Unfortunately, he ran out of time
,
as the Hypertruck rushed up behind another commuter in front of him.

The tires protested their treatment as the truck activated the braking system
,
slowing quickly to avoid colliding with the car that just appeared on the computer’s sensors.

The momentum of the truck’s high
-
speed maneuver tossed Alex’s body onto the highway, his ankle cracking solidly onto the pavement, breaking it quickly and throwing his shoe off in the process. Tears filled his vision as his knuckles
,
his only anchor to the truck’s grill
, turned white.
H
e cried out in pain. Using the momentum of the truck and the friction of the pavement, he moved his feet to skip his body back up onto the hood. The stone glowed bright blue in his pocket as the energy raced towards his ankle and feet, the bones cracking as they knit back together.

Alex felt his ankle stop throbbing.
He
glanced up at the road ahead of him and saw
that
there wasn’t enough time to get comfortable. A slow
-
moving garbage truck had appeared
ahead
. There was no way the Hypertruck could stop in time.

Thinking quickly, Alex slid down the hood and threw the bulk of his body onto the right side of the truck
,
in front of where Scott had shown him the narrow band of sensors that calculated the distance between objects.

Holding tightly onto the grill
,
and with incredible effort, he lowered the bulk of his frame down
,
locking his feet onto the right side of the bumper next to the right headlamp. His body
,
covering the sensors, fooled the Hypertruck into evading what it thought was a new obstacle. The brakes squealed as smoke poured from the front tires. The Hypertruck immediately veered to the left,
throwing
Alex’s body down and onto the highway.

The metal tore into Alex’s hands as he strained to stay attached to his friend’s futuristic vehicle. The good news was that the Hypertruck had avoided the truck and its foul
-
smelling load at the last second.
But t
hey couldn’t continue like this. With each new obstacle, it took longer and longer for the Hypertruck’s computer to process the instructions necessary
,
and the margin of error got lower and lower. If Alex didn’t reset the mainframe quickly, it was likely they would end up
a wreck
on the side of the road, or worse, killing some innocent commuter whose only crime was getting an early start on the day.

Out of time, Alex
pe
e
ked
underneath the truck’s low profile. There was barely enough room for his body. And
,
sadly, he knew exactly what he had to do.

Rotating his body on the hood, he looked at his friend’s frightened face and waved as he eased his body underneath the truck, hanging on for dear life.

His hand slipped, and his body hit the pavement hard. He bounced down underneath the truck
.
A
t the last second
,
his hand caught the truck’s wheel joint. The pavement tore through the new clothing that Scott had given him. The pain was
mercifully
slight, the stone glowing as it healed his road rash quickly. Regaining his composure and holding tightly to whatever handholds he could find, Alex worked his way underneath the Hypertruck undercarriage, looking for the computer’s main processing center.

Scott watched in horror as his friend disappear
ed
below the truck. He glanced up at the highway in front of him. For now, the traffic had broken up somewhat
;
there were few commuters on the road at this time of the morning
.
I
n
the distance
,
however, a construction crew had begun to set out orange traffic cones, marking the highway as it went from two lanes to one
,
creating a slight bottleneck of cars and trucks, all of which had slowed out of respect for the highway maintenance crew.

Even if the sensors and computer were working at one hundred percent, no vehicle was designed to go from over
100
miles an hour to five in less than four seconds. If they were to avoid the highway
’s
death and destruction, Alex was going have to work quickly.

Alex was trying his best. The exertion of holding onto the undercarriage inches above the highway was taking its toll. Sweat poured down his brow
,
making it difficult for to see. He looked about wildly for anything resembling the computer Scott had showed him.

His feet dropped from their holding place, cracking the bone once again and tearing up his body on the speeding pavement below. Losing his right handhold, he clung with his left
,
desperately reaching into the undercarriage. Feeling around, he grasped onto the main computer and stabbed wildly with his fingers. In his haste to get out of the Truck, he neglected to ask Scott which cable was the power one.