Catalyst
fiction by michael werneburg
A loud bang came over the NCV, and rattled around in my head. My bike wobbled under me, and I shook off the deafening sound. That was the problem with cybernetic sound systems. Anything went wrong, and you were in trouble.
"Charlene, are you there?" asked the anchor, his voice sounding as if he'd stepped back from the microphone. "Larisa Kuan has just passed through the first marker, and has in fact destroyed the marker. Repeat, Larisa Kuan has destroyed the marker!"
"What do you think happened, Charlene?"
"It seems that this fierce competitor used a small explosive device to destroy the marker. The actual plasti-ceramic disc has been obliterated. There is nothing there but a smoking scar on the pavement." Charlene sounded pretty shaken. I knew I was. Head still ringing, I approached the crowded intersection ahead of me.
Trusting to the crowd to part, I reached up for my camera, and plowed on. People dove to either side as I shot into the intersection. These people were all staring wildly, and some of them seemed like they'd been running themselves. As I spotted the second marker, it dawned on me that they'd been pouring into this intersection from the surrounding parts of the abandoned racecourse. Someone threw a plastic water bottle at me, but missed by a wide margin. I was just glad they weren't shooting!
As I glided over to the second marker, I repeated my trick of squeezing off countless shots. No way I was going to be disqualified. I sailed through the intersection, and out the far side. Some security forces were present, and they'd cleared the way for me. It seemed that everybody knew what I intended next.
All the same, the commentators had forgotten me.
"Charlene, was anyone hurt in the blast?"
"It looks like a number of people are down, though the marker was in the middle of a large intersection. Perhaps they were security personnel, it's difficult to tell. However, there are at least three riders down. One of them is badly wounded, that is obvious from here. I'd say he—or she—was right on the marker when it went up. We'll have to go to footage to be sure."
"Now we have a lot of riders turning up, looking for the marker. Some are dismounting, and approaching the fallen riders. Security and medical staff is descending on the site. I'm not sure what's happening with the riders. The bulk of the field is only now approaching the first marker in this incredible race. It looks like they're mostly dismounting, and milling around. One or two of them are pressing on, even without a photo of the first marker!"
"Thanks, Charlene. Sounds like Kuan was planning to wipe out most of the field by eliminating that first marker."
"That's right, Jim. I suppose the charge must have been dead weight to Kuan once Tilescu mooted her strategy, so he used it anyway."
"Simply amazing. Quite a day for novel approaches to the cycle race. Thanks, Charlene!"
"Thanks, Jim!"
"That was Charlene Tomayatsu at the first marker. Now we're taking you to the action at the lead! What you're looking at is a small pack that's formed about three kilometers behind the leader, Cyrus Tilescu. They're some two kilometers ahead of the now devastated first marker. In the last few minutes, two riders have dropped out of the race, quite literally. Have we got footage, Dan?"