The icy wind whipped over his face, slicing his cheeks with the efficiency of a thousand miniature knives, but he felt nothing.

"Turn left at Clancy Street 0.7 miles." The automated voice droned in his ear as a holographic map flicked to life on the visor of his helmet just large enough to fit over his left eye.

"Close," he instructed firmly and the image disappeared as quickly as it had opened.

His leather covered knuckles gripped the accelerator of the 600lb beast he was astride. He rode the machine as deftly as if it were an extension of his own body. He called her Lulu. She was a hybrid of the finest vehicular engineering and computer technology that had ever been created, and she was the closest thing to a team that Alec Hardison had left.