“The city is a powder keg.” Tommy poked at the tengu’s conscience. “One little thing, and it’s going to blow to pieces. If it does, I’m afraid a lot of our people will be hurt.”
“Most of our people don’t go into the city,” Kenji said.
“The race tomorrow is sure to pull some of them,” Tommy said.
Again, another guilty look.
“I heard what you’ve done, and I don’t like it,” Tommy said.
“Does your uncle know?”
“Not yet.”
“It’s only the one time. The only ones hurt by the phones going down were the oni brats. It was the only way to sucker them into a big payoff. They wouldn’t have taken a big bet at the long odds, and with each small bet, they would have adjusted the odds down.”
Damn right he would have. Unlike the people making the bets, Tommy didn’t gamble. Only outright fraud like the tengu could have forced him into losing money. He controlled the urge to rip Kenji’s throat out. He still had to find out how they planned to win the race.
The waitress came to collect Kenji’s bill.
“Let’s talk about this where we will not be overheard.” Tommy let Kenji lead him out the door, concentrating on keeping his appearance through the crowds. Once outside, he caught hold of Kenji’s arm and urged him toward where Bingo was hidden. His cousin gave a wolfish grin but stood silent as Tommy kept him invisible from the tengu. Once they were past him, Bingo quietly followed.
“You’re putting our people’s safety on the line to cheat on a race?” Tommy talked to distract Kenji as he led the tengu even farther from the bar, where cries of pain wouldn’t be heard.
“We checked carefully. The rules allow you to switch out bikes up to the last minute.”
They’d found a loophole. Tinker had invented the hoverbikes and up till now was the only one that understood the blend of magic and technology enough to improve on the basic design. It was such common knowledge when Tinker sold one of her custom Deltas, Tommy could easily adjust the odds.
“I don’t see how you’re going to get your hoverbike past the oni brats.” Tommy hated using the words to describe himself. He spat them out in anger.
Kenji mistook his tone. “The dogs won’t be able to do anything. It took careful manipulations, but the Wyverns will be there — seeing what the newly found baby sekasha does in his spare time. We’re going to show up just before the first race, wipe everyone off the track with our bike, collect our winnings and leave.”
With the Wyverns unintentionally protecting them every step of the way. If Tommy didn’t get to the bike before they got to the track, there would be no stopping them without getting the elves involved.
Kenji finally noticed that they’d walked for several blocks into a warehouse district. He laughed nervously. “Are we walking back to the Nest?”
“Here’s far enough.” Tommy pinned the tengu to the wall. “Where’s the bike?”
Kenji looked at the hand pinning him, seemingly still unaware he was in danger. “I don’t know where they moved it to.”
Was he telling the truth? “Who would know where it is?”
“Look, you shouldn’t even get involved in all this. It could get messy. We didn’t want to get you or Jin pulled in.”
Behind Tommy, he heard Bingo shift with a scrape of boot on pavement. Kenji glanced toward the noise and went stiff with alarm.
“It’s an oni brat!” Kenji cried and tried to push Tommy aside.
“Yes.” Tommy lifted his head and dropped his illusion. “It is. Now, tell me, where’s the bike, or this will get messy.”
Unfortunately, they had to get very messy, but without learning anything useful. If Kenji knew where the bike was stored, he took the information to his death. After what they’d done to him, however, Tommy doubted that the tengu had ever known. At first light, they dumped his body into the river.
Tommy knew that his father would have raided the tengu village, taken hostages, and executed them for the surrender of the bike. He couldn’t. Even if he could bear to be that much like his father, the elves were watching him too closely. He’d be putting every half-oni in Pittsburgh at risk.
He didn’t know what to do. The race would start in a few hours, and he didn’t know where the bike was being stored. The tengu had outwitted him so far at every step, so staking everything on a chance to intercept it and destroy it would be stupid. He needed to act, not react. He had no proof that the tengu had defrauded him, while, for all he knew, this was a clever trap, forcing him to betray himself by cheating.
No, he needed a plan, one that the elves couldn’t object to. Kenji had admitted that the tengu’s bike could outstrip the Delta in speed. Speed wasn’t everything.
Tommy’s luck was good for once. John and Blue Sky were at the Team Big Sky’s pit at the racetrack, keeping to their habit of showing up early. The only sign of change was a basket of food from the enclave instead of their normal brunch of hot dogs and sauerkraut from the concession stands. John eyed him with faint suspicion as Tommy crossed the racetrack.
“I need help,” Tommy said.
“You?” John said.
“Yes. I put up all the money to rebuild my family’s restaurant to back my bets.” Tommy went on to explain how Team Providence had disrupted the phones in order to defraud him. “They have a new bike. It’s faster than yours. They plan on blowing you out of the water and bankrupting me.”
“It’s not my problem,” John said.
“They’ll take everything I own, including this racetrack. These bigoted frauds will be running the races, screwing people over whenever they feel like it. You think you don’t trust me — but if you really didn’t, you wouldn’t be letting your little brother race here. I run a clean track. For the last five years, I’ve kept this kind of bullshit out. You might be scared to let me anywhere near Blue Sky, but you’ve always felt this place was safe for him.”
John studied him, the line of his jaw tight.
Blue came to lean against his brother. “There’s nothing wrong with Tommy. He’s just trying to protect his family.”
“He does it by hurting people,” John said.
Blue shrugged. “He likes to fight. And so do I. John, what’s the point of me racing today if I’m not trying to win?”
John looked down at his little brother and then sighed. “Give me a minute to think.” He paced the pit for a minute. “Most of the racing bikes are stripped down so that they’re lighter. The Delta has a beefed up power plant, and Blue is one of the lightest riders, so we’ve never stripped down the Delta.”
“We should tell Oilcan about this,” Blue Sky said.
“What?” Tommy was surprised that Blue would be willing to share an advantage.
“It is only fair,” Blue said. “Oilcan could have stripped down his Delta to get an edge on me, but he’s been keeping the playing field even.”
Ah, yes, the honorable thing. “We need to keep it quiet, or the tengu will strip their model, too.”
“Oilcan can be trusted,” Blue said.
It went against Tommy’s grain to trust anyone. Part of him, though, envied Blue’s easy faith in someone. Having another team on a more equal footing, though, would be to Tommy’s advantage.
“Fine, tell Oilcan,” Tommy said. “Let him know that we have to keep it secret.”
Blue nodded and dashed off.
John took out his drill and started to dismantle his Delta.
Blue Sky came back a few minutes later with a spell stencil. “Oilcan gave this to me. Tinker designed it. It goes on the handle bar. It gives a bike a more aero-dy-namic profile. . whatever that means. He was going to use it this race to try and gain speed on me, since I’m lighter than him.”