“Slow down.”

Anzende had used his patrol car to help Finsly and Allie take Rai to the hospital. Dene had been disappointed, as she’d hoped to use it for their mission, but Siertes was not- she was openly pleased that the semi-robotic, very complicated vehicle wasn’t coming along, for it had shot at her, and she no longer trusted it no matter who was operating it.

“Seriously, slow down.”

Hallem had approved of her suspicion, but not because of a mistrust for computerized armed autonomous vehicle technology- in his case, it was simply that it was a cop car, and his hostility to cop things was still passionate. It was a moot point, as he wasn’t coming along- he and his sister Aine were accompanying Faisand shopping, which was her idea- they had nothing to their names, she had a new retired life to prepare for, and she vowed teasingly that she would buy a new purse and give Hallem her second best one. Aine had looked imploring and winsome, and Faisand had taken one look at her and told her to be direct and quit trying to manipulate an old whore…

“Wolfess, honey, I know it’s a little hard to hear- but I said, slow down!”

As interesting as it was to watch Faisand handling the Runge children, it hadn’t solved the problem of a vehicle for the mission. Dene didn’t have one and had arrived in Verss on foot with Rai. Siertes claimed to have an aircar- so named because it was small, and powered by a ducted fan jet engine- but the problem there was obvious. It had been left at the former Ungovernment site while Siertes investigated, and it had been left behind when they fled in the squad car with Hallem and Aine. There was little chance it remained there now.

“Wolfess? Darling? Dene! Come on!”

The problem had been solved by Voustrets. His car would be made available, and it filled everyone’s needs admirably. It had enough seats for the three on the mission, provided Boodins curled up in the back… it was not a police car and didn’t have autonomous weaponry or indeed any computerization at all, satisfying Siertes…

“I wonder if I can bite her really gently without killing us all?”

And it was an Estrai sports car costing probably three times as much as the cop car including that car’s extras, and went easily half again as fast with no artifical guidance or stability.

Dene was in a state of ecstacy, flooring the thing down the high-speed conduit and wrestling back its tendency to get squirrelly when hit by crosswinds and slight road irregularities. She wasn’t blinking, her nipples were standing out stiffly beneath her shirt, and Boodins was fascinatedly making his olfactory acquaintance of wolf lubrication, and indeed orgasm, without the slightest sexual activity to excuse it.

Only he would be able to detect this, however, for any gasps or cries Dene might have made at that peak were buried by the howl of the Estrai sportscar as it flung itself down the road.

As Siertes helplessly thought of new remarks that might get through to the speed-crazed wolfess, it became unnecessary- they’d been stopping from time to time so Boodins could sniff at roadside facilities in case Elistary had stopped there, and another one was approaching. The car settled down as its speed lowered, and both passengers and driver relaxed.

“Sorry.” said Dene, a little breathlessly. “It takes all my concentration.”

“Oh yeah,” said Siertes. “What a hardship, huh?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You came that time, crazy wolfess.” Siertes sounded displeased.

“What? What gave you that idea?”

“You tried to hide it, but I watched your body quiver. Mind saving that for me, not wasting it on the seat cushion?”

“I did not!” lied Dene. “You didn’t see any such thing, did you, Boodins?”

“I never smelled a lady wolf come in front of me before!” remarked Boodins brightly.

Dene banged the steering wheel. “Fucking super-sensory passengers…”

“Maybe I can help you with that next time? Daucery thinks I’m really good!”

“No.” snapped Siertes. Boodins gulped, for she was suddenly staring right at him, the huge reptilian eyes unfriendly.

A furry finger snuck under Siertes’ chin, and the Tompar said, “…well?”

“I’m sorry.” said Dene. “Don’t be mean to Boodins. I promise I’ll slow down… and I need to use a bathroom.”

Siertes leaned over. “…I’d lick you clean,” she whispered, “but you’re not done driving yet. Stop pleasuring yourself with it, this is business.”

The travel plaza was huge, brightly lit and jammed with vehicles- the size of the high-speed conduit sometimes made traffic seem very sparse, but here the truth was obvious- Verss ran on a torrent of vehicles that never stopped or thinned, and this place fed both vehicles and drivers.

Dene was wide-eyed, looking at racks of software releases. “I want half of these games! This stuff is fresh- I can’t believe they have some of these. I can’t get them at home. That one’s an import from Estandu!”

Siertes was scanning the crowd, automatically. “There’s a lot of demand for it. This place never stops, and a lot of these people have nothing to do other than drive and watch videos or play games in the cab on rest stops. Notice all the audio books?”

“Maybe later…” said Dene. “I gotta freshen up.” And with that, she scooted off to the restroom, walking gingerly, a passing Resten trucker turning his head with interest at the faint whiff of wolf and then wandering off, unimpressed.

Boodins returned from his own pitstop quickly, and asked Siertes, “Aren’t you going to go?”

“Don’t drink much.”

“So, you don’t have to pee much either? Do you have to use like special bathrooms or something?” said Boodins. “Not that I know what they would, um, be like or…”

“Shut up.”

Boodins’ ears drooped. “Sorry!”

“No, it’s not that, I think I see… oh, shit.”

With that, Siertes was striding back out of the service plaza, Boodins tagging along behind in time to see what had her attention. The car was still outside, but it too had attracted attention. No less than five scruffy Runge were circling it, studying the scarlet contours of the Estrai supercar with great interest.

“Like that?” said Siertes.

One of the Runge spoke up. “Yeah. Might even keep it.”

Another argued, “Are you kidding? Sell it. We could get three killer bikes for that.”

“It’s not yours.” said Siertes.

“Not yet.” grinned the first Runge.

“I think,” said Siertes, “you need to step aside.”

This amused the first Runge greatly. He gestured, and his confederates drew near, and he gave a little bow. “Yeah, sure. Certainly. What were we thinking? We’re just admiring your beautiful car, okay?”

“That’s nice.” said Siertes.

“See you on the outside.” said the Runge- and the gang departed, in an orderly way.

Boodins and Siertes watched them go, Siertes with slitted eyes and Boodins with great confusion and disbelief. Finally, he whispered, “What the heck just happened?”

“Trouble.”

“Well, I can tell that, I’m not totally dumb, but why did they just leave? They didn’t act super threatening, but your smell is different…”

“How’s that?” said Siertes, distractedly.

“You usually smell a bit like venom but now it’s like that vistalrechar stuff that they had in Dinsam.”

“It is. They had my adrenaline up. Stupid, it’ll give me a headache and I couldn’t do anything here.”

“Why not?” asked Boodins. “What’s stopping you?”

“Can’t attack them here. This place is… look around, will you?”

Boodins did so. “Trucks?”

“Cameras, puppy. Look on all those light poles. This place is rigged for surveillance like you wouldn’t believe. There’s a reason those guys didn’t so much as touch the car. They can’t be held responsible for anything if all they did was look. I didn’t bite any of them, so I can’t be held responsible either.”

“If everybody’s being all responsible, why are you still nervous?”

“How do you know that?” snapped Siertes.

Boodins tapped his muzzle. “The adrenaline smell? Still happening. Can I do anything to help? We’re in this together.”

Siertes thought, frowning. “You know what? Yes. Act natural and let’s get crazy wolfess on the road before speaking of this. She’ll be good with the plan, why freak her out before we need to reveal it?”

“You lost me. What plan?”

“Sorry.” said Siertes. “Here’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to get outside the surveillance zone, and we’re already outside the city’s legal boundaries. They’ll jump us, try to kill us and take the car. There’s a few tactics they could try, not that many as they don’t want the car damaged. Just us.”

Boodins’ ears were back. “I don’t like that plan, and Dene isn’t going to like it either. She’s not going to be good with it. At all.”

“No, that’s their plan. Want to hear ours?”

“Yes, I really do!”

“Drive really, really fucking fast.”

At this point, they saw Dene Tieschtet coming out of the service plaza, looking alarmed. She spotted them, and cried, “I couldn’t find you anywhere!”

“Not a word.” said Siertes very quietly, and then raised her voice. “Are you all done?”

Dene hurried over. “Sure!” She’d been brushing out her fur, because the restroom clearly offered some grooming facilities, and she looked ravishing. Siertes winced, whether from a pang of beauty or of guilt, and ordered brusquely, “Into the car. Let’s go.”

Dene complied, and when everyone was settled, she quirked an ear at Siertes. “What’s on your mind? Something’s bothering you.”

“Let’s get on the road first.”

“What’s with Boodins?” said Dene. The young Resten was just about trembling with excitement, his ears madly perked up.

“Let’s get on the road first. Gun it, my love.”

Dene narrowed her eyes in an annoyed glance at Siertes, and the tires screeched as she threw the car into reverse, and screeched again as she headed for the conduit feeder road out of the plaza.

“What the fuck!?” she yelped, and honked the horn as a Runge turbine bike cut her off, but a swerve put her past it, and she gunned the car towards the wide, laneless ultrahighway.

“More.” said Siertes. “More!”

“I thought I’d drive nice for a change.” complained Dene. “What is your problem?”

“Look behind us.”

The gang of bikers had been in position, watching both exits. They weren’t messing around- they were cranking on all the throttle they had, with the ones covering the far exit doing their best to catch up.

Dene gulped, sudden fear in her eyes.

“Good news and bad news, love.” said Siertes.

“They’re bad news.” said Dene. “Right? They’re attacking us?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.”

“What’s this good news?” said Dene, a bit hysterically.

“It’s you, my love- and this car. Think you can outrun them?”

Dene glanced at Siertes, panicky. Then she glanced back at the bikers, and Siertes could see her thinking- and the hint of a smirk stole across her wolfish muzzle.

Her paw crushed the accelerator to the floor, and the tires shrieked and the car bucked- even though it had been cruising at a high speed already, Dene left two strips of burned rubber for second after second until, slowly and reluctantly, the tires hooked up again, this time spinning at impossible speed.

She glanced behind. The gang were dropping steadily back, without varying their course in the slightest. Then, she saw them shift and jockey for position, forming into a single file line. “Er…”

“What is it?”

“Do you see that?”

“They made a line.” said Siertes. “We can’t shoot at them, so I don’t see the point.”

“You don’t race. I do. Well… virtually. You know what they’re doing? Drafting.”

“What’s drafting?” said Boodins.

“Less air resistance. They’re trying to go faster. They’re going to keep following us?”

“Yeah.” said Siertes. “This car’s a prize, I know that. Are you still pulling away from them?”

“Very much so.” said Dene. “How far ahead should I get?” She spoke distractedly, as the car was beginning to writhe and shake in the air currents again, flirting with instability at the high speed.

“Go for it, give us as much of a lead as you can.” said Siertes grimly. “When we find Elistary… we’ll just have to settle things before they catch up.”

“You can’t be serious. We don’t even know what we have to do!” said Dene. “We’re chasing her and a lot of barrels filled with poison venom, or whatever Dinsam did with it, and now we have to deal with that before a biker gang catches and kills us?”

“Could be worse.” said Siertes.

“I beg your pardon?”

“We could need to turn around and go back.” said Siertes.

Dene glanced behind the car. The line of bikes was farther away, but unwavering in their pursuit.

The shriek of the car’s engine, already fierce, took on just a tiny extra overtone as Dene’s foot crushed harder against the pedal.