Jasper reached Starchatter in five minutes, an accomplishment that took a lot of painful drops, driving up the sides of buildings, and screaming at people on skywalks to get out of the way. Thankfully, she'd already written the article she'd wanted published, so hopping onto the site and posting it was easy to do while driving.
When she arrived, she didn't bother dismounting. She fired at the glass doors with a blaster she'd nabbed off a stray Blade and drove through the shards of glass raining down.
"Do we have a visual on the Blades?" Jasper asked as she navigated the office halls.
"They're leaving the west cubicles and headed for the lobby," Holly said. "I'm on my way. I left Thea and the others in a security office."
"No, stay with them!"
"Even you can't fight twenty Blades alone."
"I have a motorcycle!" Jasper exclaimed. "I can run them over!"
"Not if they shoot you first!" Holly shot back.
"Fine." Jasper slowed down. "Where are you?"
"The Blades are coming down the central corridor. I'm right behind them."
"Great. I'm coming from the other side. We'll trap them." Jasper stopped in Starchatter's lobby, slid off the motorcycle, and raised her blaster. Her other hand pulled off her helmet and tossed it aside.
"Sethany Galax! Or should I say Van Terra?"
Jasper whirled around as Attom entered the lobby. He was accompanied by ten people dressed in matching white leather.
"Attom? What are you doing back here?" Jasper kept the blaster pointed down the corridor and reached for a dagger with her free hand.
"The real question is why you're here," Attom replied. "Why are you trying to destroy my career?"
Jasper lifted an eyebrow. "You saw that already?"
"Of course. My sphere's been buzzing nonstop with notifications."
"Is that Attom?" Thea asked. "What's he talking about?"
"Oh, I just dropped an article trashing the beloved Sarena Trench. Under Attom's name." Jasper surveyed the people surrounding him. "Who are your friends?"
Attom gestured to with both arms. "I couldn't let Blades march into my building like they own the place. So, I brought some of my other employees."
"Ah," Jasper said. "You're involved with gangs, too. Now I feel even better about making you look like an idiot."
"What, you ruined my career to make the city a better place?"
Jasper rolled her eyes. "No, I don't like competition. Plus, I did all that work for you and didn't even get paid! You took my ideas for your own gain!"
"You think you outsmarted me, but you won't be laughing when the Slicers claim victory over Van Terra." Attom sighed. "It's a shame. Your vlog that got the Blades' Mota Mart operation shut down was very beneficial to me. If we worked together—"
Jasper laughed. Hard. "Me? Work with you? I'm Van Terra, idiot." She fired the blaster, and the first Blade to come around the corner collapsed to the ground. "I don't work nine to five jobs for mediocre villains."
Confusion flickered across Attom's gaze. It was quickly replaced with annoyance. "Fine. Slicers, take care of the Blades and Van Terra."
More Blades entered the lobby, drawing blasters. One at the back of the group soared over the rest and crashed into the floor in front of Jasper, thrown by the newest arrival.
"Nice one, Holly!" Jasper fired again and moved toward the Blades. The Slicers behind her had blasters, too, but before anyone else could shoot, the lights flickered overhead and the weapons died.
Thea came around the corner behind Holly. "Shame no one brought guns," she said, waving a hand. "Blasters are so easy to disable."
Jasper tensed. "You're supposed to be with—"
"They can handle themselves."
"We don't need blasters," a Blade shouted. She lifted her fists. "Take care of Red Holly and Jolt, then go find Alvarez."
"Don't let the Blades go any farther!" Attom ordered.
"Oh good. An old-fashioned three-way fight." Jasper tossed her blaster aside and grinned. "Let's do this."
The lobby descended into chaos. Jasper tossed Blades and Slicers alike aside as she fought her way to Holly and Thea. They moved back-to-back, exchanging blows with everyone around them.
"I'm at nine," Jasper announced when she reached them.
Holly rolled her eyes. "Now is not the time to brag about how many people you've taken down."
"Yeah, we can't all be cyborgs," Thea added.
"Technically, we could." Jasper swung her left leg to knock a Blade off his feet. "I'm going to take care of Attom."
"Do we really need to worry about him?" Holly asked.
Jasper ignored her and escaped the fray. She sprinted toward Attom as he neared the exit. "Not so fast!"
Attom turned around. "What, you're not done with me?"
"You've got money and connections. You might lose your job here to satisfy the public, but they'll forget about this in a few days, and you'll keep on keeping on behind the scenes somewhere else."
"Smart," Attom said. "But you don't have time to deal with me right now." His gaze moved to the fight behind Jasper, and he raised his voice. "Alvarez is in the security office, down the hall to the right!"
Jasper's eyes widened. "How did you—?"
"I'm paying closer attention than you think." Attom tapped the watch on his wrist. A screen popped up to display several camera feeds. "And I've got some tech experts of my own. Now, you should get going. Three Blades just slipped past your friends." He smiled. "But I'm sure this won't be the last you see of me."
Jasper rolled her eyes and turned around. "Whatever."
"You should be more careful," Attom called as she stormed away. "Your recklessness is going to be your downfall some day!"
"I'm going to expose your affiliations with the Slicers!" Jasper yelled back. It was at the bottom of a very long to-do list, but it was there. "Which is a stupid name, by the way!"
"Whatever you say!"
Jasper jumped and used the walls to propel herself over the fighters still standing. On the other side, she flew around the corner in time to see one of three Blades kicking down the door to the security room. She grabbed a painting off the wall and sent it spinning through the air. It hit the first Blade and knocked him out cold.
The other two darted into the room.
Jasper ran in behind them, assessing the room in a heartbeat: Jax stood in front of Grace, one arm out in front of her. Grace had backed into the desk behind her. Her hands were wrapped so tightly around the edge that her knuckles had gone white. The Blades stalked toward her, daggers in hand.
Jasper lunged for the one on the right. He turned and slashed at her. The blade left a shallow cut across her chest. Her right hand snatched his wrist. The man grimaced as her grip tightened. He released the weapon and it clattered to the ground. Jasper tossed him into the nearby wall.
Grace cried out. Jax had been thrown to the floor. He was getting back up, but he wasn't moving fast enough.
Jasper lunged at the last Blade.
She was too slow. Before she could get her hands on him, a monitor smacked into the side of his face so hard the screen shattered. He staggered a few steps before dropping.
The monitor slipped from Grace's shaking hands.
Jasper relaxed, releasing a small sigh of relief. "Nice one, Angel. Let's go."
The three left the security room and found Holly and Thea waiting in the lobby, surrounded by unconscious gang members.
"So, no one saw the Apprentice?" Jasper asked.
Holly's eyes narrowed. "We were a bit busy with the three-way fight."
Jasper crossed the lobby to where her motorcycle waited. "Send me the message logs," she told Thea as she picked it up off the floor.
"There's a lot," Thea warned.
"That's fine." Jasper muted her comm before sliding on her helmet. "Congrats, Holly. You get to drive the car home."
As she sped off, Mia's sphere lit up in the motorcycle dock. "Incoming signal detected."
"Send the data overlay to my screen," Jasper commanded.
The signal was from Ringmaster. He'd sent out the rankings from the race, along with the next location. Jasper skimmed the list. Eight-seven had successfully finished the race. Red Boss wasn't among them, thankfully.
Jasper had placed twenty-first.
She was halfway through an empty alley when blinding gold light came out of nowhere and surrounded her. The motorcycle screeched to a halt. Jasper tried to see with her other vision settings, but the light was overwhelming all her senses.
"Van Terra," a familiar voice said. The light faded, and the orb emitting it dissipated.
Jasper looked back. Ringmaster walked toward her.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Jasper asked. She was grateful her helmet hid her face, because it was a challenge to keep her expression calm.
"I had a question for you." Ringmaster paused at her side. He was close enough for her to see the golden rings around his brown eyes, and the lines on his face that put him in his mid-to-late forties. "About your involvement with Alvarez. I'm purely curious."
No, you're working with Starr. But Ringmaster wasn't going to tell her that, and she couldn't let him know she knew. "Alvarez?"
"Grace Alvarez."
"Oh, the girl I broke out of jail." Jasper stretched her arms. "Yeah, I helped her and then she ran off to play superhero. Some thank you."
"So, you aren't helping her?" Ringmaster asked. "Because the Red Blades seem to think otherwise."
"They're following out-of-date orders. Alvarez pops up in the same places I do, so I can't blame them for thinking we're together." Jasper shrugged. "But really, I've barely even thought about her. I'm busy with other things. Mainly preparing for the race."
"Really?" Ringmaster asked. "Well, maybe you should put a little more time into preparing for the next one."
There was another flash of light. When it faded, he was gone.
"Rude," Jasper muttered. She took a moment to regain her composure. It was concerning how easy it had been for Ringmaster to catch her off guard. "Mia, bring up the logs Thea sent over."
On the drive back to the apartment, Jasper found two interesting pieces of text. The first was from Ringmaster to the Apprentice, informing him that at the next location, his job would be to locate a target in addition to setting up the course.
The second was a single line: I asked for the records from Sky Labs, but Starr said they didn't have any data that would be useful to us. I'm looking for another way to access them.
Ringmaster had an interest in Sky Labs. Enough so to go behind Starr's back for information.
Why?
Jasper reached the apartment before the others and waited for them in the kitchen. "I've got the next race time and location," she told them as they entered.
"Where are we going?" Thea asked.
"Sagev."