Chapter Twenty
The new day dawned in San Francisco. The day of the Naval Royale finals
Michael sipped at his coffee as he ran through the final diagnostics for the Seawolf Hunter on his laptop. Everything seemed to be in order. He chuckled. Jake and the techs from Dradle Industries had pulled off a minor miracle in getting the vessel ready in time. He took another sip, then reached for his backpack. As he pulled it over, the disc that Jake had found clattered to the floor. Michael picked it up, frowned. Then, curious, he opened his laptops' DVD drive and put in the disc. The laptop whirred as the disc spun up. Then, the screen went to black as the DVD player started up. Michael got up to get more coffee. Suddenly, he turned as a familiar voice emerged from the speakers.
"Heya champ."
The image of a man was in the centre of the screen. To his shock, Michael recognised the man. Out of the LCD screen, and over fifteen years of time, Charles Merckenson looked out at him.
"It's been a long time, I know, but I'm here to pass on a few things."
Michael sat down in front of the laptop and gazed at the screen. His father looked exactly as he has on the day that Michael had last seen him. There were even a few scratches on his faces from the Seawolf Hunter crash. "Now, if you're watching this, then I am unfortunately no longer with you. And for that, I'm sorry. But I know that there will have been people who will have taken care of you and your mother, and I know that you will have grown into the person I always knew that you could be."
Behind Michael, the door opened and Jake walked through with a file. "I've got the track layout," he said cheerfully."
"Quiet damnit!" Jake looked up from the file and saw his friend watching the screen. Pulling up a chair, he watched too as Charles went on.
"Now, if the Seawolf Hunter is back in action, then it can only mean that you're up against the Company. These guys are bad news champ, and you're going to have to be on your toes to beat them." The image smiled. "So it just so happens that there's a little something in the Seawolf Hunter that will give you an edge."
"In the secondary programming of the Booster software, there is a file titled 'c014/9'. When the time is right, open this file. The programme will do the rest." On the screen, Charles smiled. "Just be patient with it."
Michael instantly windowed the DVD player and brought up the programme. "There it is." On the screen, a ZIP file entitled 'c014/9' was located in the secondary programming.
"Now, Michael," Charles continued, "I know that you can defeat these guys. I have faith in you, and I'll be watching from wherever I am. Good luck, and send my love to your mother." He smiled again. "Goodbye son." With that, the DVD stopped. As Michael ejected the disc, the DVD disintegrated as soon as the sunlight hit it. Michael and Jake looked at each other. "So that was your dad," Jake said.
"Yup." Michael glanced back at the computer and the highlighted file. "That was him."
Jake nodded. "Nice guy."
Michael nodded back and smiled. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, he is."
Two hours later, the stands at strategic positions around San Francisco Bay were full to capacity as the crowd waited in anticipation of the final battle. The entire bay buzzed with excitement as the tension began to build. At the warehouses, the crews of the few remaining vessels engaged in their final checks. Michael ran another diagnostic on the Seawolf Hunter's main gun. The status came up green, as it had the other four times. Michael grimaced, and ran a diagnostic on the forward machine guns. As he did so, he heard a chuckle. "Final nerves, eh?" He turned to see Kurt Rickardson behind him. Michael smiled. "Yeah. I just can't believe that I'm actually here, at the finals."
"Fair enough." Kurt looked over Michael's shoulder. "So you managed to get her in the water. Good one."
"Yeah." Michael grinned. "Thanks for all the parts. We couldn't have done anything without them."
"No need to thank me." Kurt turned to go. "I mean, as a very wise man once said, the one who never races, never wins." With that, Kurt walked off down the waterfront. Michael pondered the words of his father, then returned to the diagnostics, smiling.
At midday, the warning klaxons on every stand around the harbour blared. The assembled crowds cheered as the image of Mr Stophanes appeared on the screens. "Ladies and gentlemen," his voice blared from every speaker, "welcome to the Naval Royale 2010 finals!" The crowd roared as Stophanes smiled for the cameras. "Now, for those who haven't attended this event before here's how it works…"
In the Seawolf Hunter control booth, Michael took a final look around on his cameras. Beside him, Jake turned up the radio that had been tuned in to the radio commentary of the event. As the two ran through their final checks, they listened as Stophanes explained the situation. "Each competitor begins at a randomly selected point somewhere in the bay. They then need to make their way to seven checkpoints in any order, engaging each other along the way. Once they've reached the seven points, the finish line is revealed. However, once the finish line is crossed, then the first two boats to make it will engage in a one-on-one duel to determine the winner!"
Jake groaned. "More welding? Argh."
Michael laughed. "Hey, you're assuming that we're going to need it."
"We always end up need it," came the muffled reply as Jake buried his face in his hands.
The crowds cheering built to a fever-pitch as the one minute countdown began. As the crowd grew louder, Melanie sat down in the press box with her bodyguard. "Alright," she said to herself, "this is it. Good luck Michael."
As the clock counted down the final ten seconds, the crowd counted down with it. All around San Francisco Bay, thousands of voices chanted down. "THREE…TWO…ONE…GO!" As they reached 'Go' the klaxons blared again, and the fight was on.