Chapter Ten
The four other lemons dispersed to the fringes of the now packed room, and Alex pulled in next to Lexie at the ice sculpture. "Those are the heads of the Four Families," he explained. "They're pretty okay most of the time, but be sure not to piss them off."
"Got it," she replied.
"So far as I can tell they seem to like you, though."
"Explains why Victor Hugo kept giving me the Evil Eye."
"He does that to almost everybody."
"So that's supposed to make me feel better?"
"I was hoping."
Lexie sighed. "Can't this day just be over with so I can get out on the track with my dad?"
"Wouldn't you wish, huh?"
"If only we could be so lucky." Lexie managed a smirk and scanned the crowd. Despite the tuners, Finn, Holley, a few lemons, Team McQueen, Francesco, and the sportscars, she didn't recognize anyone in attendance. She glanced at the ceiling and then the two exits she knew of.
"Something wrong?" Alex asked.
"Not sure. All I feel is general mild anxiety, and it's all over the room. I think a lot of the others feel it, too."
"Anxiety's contagious."
"That may be true, but it doesn't explain what's causing the anxiety, which is my chief concern." Alex nodded, scanning the crowd in his own right and then looking up at the ceiling. "Finn, Holley, and that Zundapp probably wouldn't worry about something without good reason." She glanced at Alex. "Why're you looking up there?"
"I've seen this before. It's part of the Gremlin style. They send their agents in beforehand, and their only purpose is to make sure everyone stays in the room while-"
The skylight shattered, and cars began to panic. Lexie spotted Mater escorting cars to the nearest exit, and from above, an aircraft opened fire. The panic intensified.
Lexie scanned the crowd for the heads of the Four Families, finally spotting them in a corner, surrounded by armored lemons and joined by a blue tow truck. "Help Mater," she said. "I'll take care of them." She shot across the room and joined the lemons. "Okay, nearest exit's the back door. Then there's no telling how far you can safely get."
"You're gonna help us?" a black lemon just to the left of Victor Hugo asked.
"No time to argue." A bullet nicked Lexie's side panels. "See?"
"I...I'm not-"
"Shut up," Victor snapped. "We're leaving."
"Wise car," Lexie said. The tow truck hooked Victor's front axle, and the Hugos led the way along the wall, Lexie in the rear. She glanced back at Alex and Mater as they tried to clear the room against the efforts of the sportscars, and then she passed through the back door.
It seemed in that moment that she seemed to go mostly deaf. Her ears buzzed, and she barely heard the sounds of gunshots as she followed the lemons through the streets. The Hugos were leading them to the tarmac of the Tokyo International Airport.
Something pulled at her from above, and before she had a chance to understand the situation enough to resist, she was lifted off her wheels, her roof slamming into a magnet carried by a helicopter. Her vision swam with stars of all sorts of colors, and then she felt herself go limp.
CARS
Alex looked up as a chopper flew overhead; dangling from it was a magnet, and attached to the magnet was Lexie McQueen. He barely registered that at that same moment, the sportscars retreated. He shot out of the door after the helicopter, weaving through traffic for what seemed like an eternity without registering the shocked expressions of nearly every car he passed. He closed in on the chopper, and at the first available opportunity, he launched himself over a cluster of cars and let himself fly.
Finally, he was within the magnet's range, and he felt the side of his front bumper connect and stick.
His breathing was heavy, and his eyes fluttered closed. As he and Lexie drifted over Tokyo, all he could think was that he hadn't driven that fast in his entire life. Now he was dangling above a city he wasn't familiar with, his axles aching, his engine feeling more alive and energetic than ever, and in the same position as the car he was trying to protect: on the way to an unknown fate and at the mercy of their shadowy enemy, Montgomery. And what was worse, both of them were now completely helpless.
For a moment, Alex was tempted to hate himself, but he let out a sigh, fully aware that it wouldn't be worth it. He'd done more than he thought he could, something he considered impossible for a multitude of reasons, and now he was dangling above Tokyo at the side of the girl he...
He cut his thoughts off. This wasn't the time or place to think about anything like that. He had to strategize, especially with the shore growing closer as the seconds ticked by.
Suddenly the chopper banked left. The magnet swung like a pendulum, and for a split second, Alex feared he would fall off and plummet to his death somewhere in the outskirts of Tokyo. The helicopter leveled out, and the magnet came to rest beneath it, Alex and Lexie still firmly attached. Alex exhaled and glanced in his mirrors. Scores of silver and black sportscars were following, as if escorting the chopper across Japan. In the distance, he could see lights, indicating that oblivious workers were preparing the World Grand Prix track for the next day's race.
Alex's eyelids drooped, and the feeling of vitality in his engine had faded. Weariness settled into his frame, and he fell asleep.