Chapter 4

An Asian girl with two spray cans sprinted across the road, marking the start line, a moment later three sets of wheels skidded to a halt between the freshly painted markings. Dominic Toretto turned to look at the cars stopped either side of his re- tuned RX7. Both their drivers looked relaxed, but he knew they were as tense as a violin E string.

Edwin stood to one side of the road, and look down at the two rows of shinny rice rockets, hot hatches and probably, almost every other tuned car in the state parked down the quarter mile straight. Dom saw him raise his hands, and his foot jammed down on the accelerator and break simultaneously, the engine revving far beyond the red line, letting a jet of flame escape the exhaust, he could hear the other drivers do the same, he could hear the crowd cheering and he could hear the Nos gauge rise to full. In the corner of his eye he saw Elise blow him a kiss. Edwin's arms dropped.

The Evo jumped of the starting line as if the power grid for the entire west coast had just been shoved up its ass, the RX7 and Integra were just behind it, and Doms world slowed in an adrenalin fuelled mind warp.

1 second: 29mph, the Evo was a car length ahead of the RX7, the Integra a further length back.

2 seconds: 58mph, the RX7 has gained half a length on the RX7, the Integra is still two lengths back.

3 seconds: 80mph, the RX7 draws equal to the Evo, the Integra gains a length on both.

4 seconds: 111 mph, the Integra hits the Nos, and pulls half a length ahead of the Evo and RX7 still side by side.

5 seconds: 140 mph, both Dom and Elise hit their Nos, and pass the Integra, leaving half a length behind again.

6 seconds: 180mph, in his right wing mirror, Dom sees a flash from the rear arch of the Evo, Elise feels the back end start to slip, and the Integra drops another half length.

7 seconds: 192mph, the rear left alloy of the Evo tears away from the axel, up through the cars body work, sending it into a wild anticlockwise spin towards the pavement, and the Integra hits the Nos again.

8 seconds: 210mph, the Evo strikes a parked green Supra head on and flips up and over, smashing through a glass fronted store, people begin to run either towards the wreckage or duck behind their cars.

9 seconds: 216mph, the RX7 crosses the line, the Integra an inch behind, and Dom slams the breaks on. The Integra keeps going.

10 seconds: 131mph, the RX7 continues skidding, as the Integra disappears up the main street. Inside the decimated store, Brian and Vince drag the body of Elise from the upturned car as flames begin to creep up from the engine.

11 seconds: 87mph, the RX7s skid turns sideways and Dom can see the upturned rear of the Evo high in the air. Brian screams at people to get clear as he and Vince pull Elise to safety.

12 seconds: 21mph, the Evos Nos canisters erupt. A ball of flame blast the remaining shop window and supports outwards, debris and heat ripping apart the cars parked in front like they were paper.

13 seconds: 0mph, Dom jumps form the car and watches as Brian attempts to resuscitate Elise. A second Nos canister in a Civic erupts throwing the cars either side onto their roves.

14 seconds: Dom and Brian stand over Elise as her eyes open, her body is badly injured, blood courses from a gash on her forehead. Vince and the rest of the team break for their cars as sirens blare in the distance. Brian nods at Dom

15 seconds: Dom runs back to the RX7, turning back to see Brian helping Elise into his Supra.

16 seconds: The RX7 and Supra take off down a side street nose to tail, Brian braking right, Dom left at the far end, the two cars disappearing in opposite directions.

17 seconds: Six police cars skid to a halt in front of the mini holocaust of concrete, steel and fibre glass.

Doms RX7 pulled up outside the house behind Leons Skyline. The thub of tuned German muscle behind him, indicated Jessie's arrival a moment later. He let out a sigh of relief to see the boy. He'd almost lost him once, and he didn't want that pain again.

"You ok? Nothing broken?" Jessie half smiled.

"Yeah, the Jetta is gonna need some work. I've got a piece of half price lawn decking thrust through the trunk."

"We can sort that later. We've got bigger problems at them moment." The two entered the house, and found Vince and Leon crowded round a hunk of metal on the table. Letty appeared at the top of the stairs, and raced down them to check Dom over.

"You ok? Vince said their was a big crash or something." Dom spotted Mia over Lettys shoulder, her face a mixture of worry for Brian, and anger at Dom for not having Brian with him.

"Yeah, I'll explain later. You remember Elise, she's turned up tonight, she and some other guy seem to be fighting over who gets to be the quarter mile king round here. She wiped out at 200 mph. Brian took her over to the hospital, but she didn't look good."

"Dom, you'd better see this." Dom looked to see Leon standing by the hunk of metal on the table. He realised what it was, a wheel, the Evos wheel. Vince had disappeared, but walked in again a moment later, a magnifying lens in one hand. Dom walk over and ran his had over the severed stump of the axel.

"What the fuck. The axel sheared. I figured the bolts had snapped but." Leon drew in a breath.

"It wasn't an accident dawg. This has been rigged, the metals melted. Only precision explosives could have caused this."

"The guy in the Integra." Vince nodded.

"That's what we figured. He's the only one with a reason, that we know of anyway."

They were interrupted at that moment as the door opened and Brian walked in. His shirt stained red in several places. Mia instantly pounced on him, he gave a stupid grin at Jessie, who'd just emerged from the kitchen and who's route the couple now blocked. He caught sight of the wheel on the table. Dom spoke.

"How's Elise?"

"She's in ER, I had to get out of their before they started asking questions, but I tipped Tanner. He and another guy are going to keep an eye on her. What's with the wheel."

"It's off the Evo, it's what caused the crash, and it wasn't an accident."

Brian gave it a quick once over, and ran his finger over the singed axel stump. He sniffed a black residue.

"C4. Shit. You think it's got something to do with the truck hijackings."

"Dom looked between Brian and Vince, who's face was screwed up like a paper ball." Vince finally asked the question that was threatening to drive him to madness.

"Why would it have anything to do with the that."

"If someone knows the cops are getting involved, they might be covering their tracks, or, maybe someone else is afraid she might be a threat to them." Dom thought back to the end of the race, and nodded at Brian.

"The guy in the Integra, Lexx I think. He didn't even stop at the end. I saw his face in the rear-view, his face didn't even flinch when the car span. We already agreed he had a reason. If she's jacking the trucks, he's afraid the cops are gonna come down on something he's doing. Or maybe it is him, and she knew about it."

"Too many possibilities. I'm going to talk to Tanner. I've got to speak with Elise if she comes round. She's got to be the key, either way." Brian headed for the door.

"Careful Brian, if these guys know the cops are on their asses,"

"Yeah, you too Dom. You've got a kid too look after now." Brian left, and seconds later they heard his Honda runabout leave the driveway and head down the street. At that moment the phone rang, Letty picked it up, and handed it to Dom. A voice spoke.

"Dominic Toretto. You don't know me, but I need your help. I know who as responsible for the crash."

"Who is this?"

"My name is. Nitrus Burn. I'll phone again." The line went dead.