I glanced down at the spreadsheet, automatically formatting it so the text was arranged properly.Banana in tailpipe, read the first item, followed by:loosen bolts on steering wheel, slip laxative to team, lock team into room on third floor or higher, dispose of spare tires, replace radiator water with vodka, get team members fighting amongst selves, accuse a team of theft (NB: must plant something on them first), encourage members of rival teams to sleep together in order to foster jealousy and ill feelings, tell press members are felons, write slurs on cars when teams aren’t looking.“This is a hell of a list,” I said slowly. I looked up to see three pairs of eyes on me, speculation in all of them.
“No,” I said quickly.
“No what?” Stephen asked.
“No to whatever it was you were going to say. I don’t want to have any part of this. I don’t hold with cheating of any sort, and no matter what you say, that’s what this is.”
“Oh well,” Sammy said, and held out his hand for the tablet. Reluctantly, I handed it over. “We had to try, you know.”
“I’m going to have to report this,” I said with a nod at the tablet. I don’t know what I expected them to do at that statement, but it certainly wasn’t smile at me.
“You go right ahead and tell Roger about it all,” Stephen said, the others nodding with him.
I rose and was about to leave when something occurred to me. “What’s to stop me from warning the other teams what you have in mind? You just let me see your plans, after all, and if I tell them that you intend on attempting to eliminate their chances at winning, they will simply watch out for you.”
“That’s what makes it all so delicious, don’t you think?” Sanders asked, his eyes holding a look that I remembered well in a bully from my school years. “You’ll all be on guard, but you won’t have an idea when or where or how we’ll strike.”
“Thanks for the help with the spreadsheet,” Sammy added, tapping on the tablet. “It’s much more readable this way. I wonder if we should get a printout?”
I shook my head and left them, going straight to Roger, who was busily talking to two other members of the production company.
“A word in your ear if I might,” I told him, and gave him no option to refuse. Quickly, I explained what had happened with the Essex Esses team. “I don’t like to be the one to tell tales about another team, but the blatant statement of intent to cheat surely excuses it.”
“It would—it would indeed, if that’s what will really happen,” Roger said calmly, giving me a patient smile. “The boys came to me with their idea, naturally, and I couldn’t help but give it the green light. Oh, not any actual sabotages—that would be quite against the rules of the race—but their intent to play the villains before the cameras will be pure gold. Everyone loves to hate the villain of a piece, and here we have three!”
“But their plans,” I protested. “Their list of what they plan on doing—have you seen it?”
“All just part of their personas, I assure you. Why else would they show it to you?” He shook his head. “Think, man—if they truly wished to damage anyone’s chances,they’d hardly tell you, then express no concern when you said you’d tell the rest of the racers.”
“I didn’t say I would tell everyone; I just asked them what was to stop me from doing so.” I had to admit, he had a point. If I was planning some sabotage, the last thing I’d do was tell people about it. “If they weren’t serious about it, why go to all the trouble of creating a spreadsheet?”
Roger shrugged, and pulled out his phone when it burbled. “Padding their parts so they will get more camera time? Which they will, of course, because, as I said, everyone loves to hate the villain. Ah, Barry. Yes, I’m here. Buffalo, actually. First day of shooting was a bit rocky, but overall good...”
He moved away to take his call, leaving me to stand with a vaguely dissatisfied emotion. I glanced around the room and saw Paulie, but her table was full. Disappointed, I lifted my hand in a wave, but she was laughing at something her tablemates—two of the Italians and her teammates—had said.
I felt alone and somewhat peevish, and sat with the Ducal team for dinner. Roger recapped the events of the day for everyone, made a few announcements about what was coming up for the following few days, and talked a bit about the local news stations that would be catching us up. I didn’t pay much attention; I was too busy wondering why Paulie didn’t even look over at me.
Kell stopped by my table as the meal was coming to an end and said acidly, “I hope you will have more team spirit tomorrow and not attempt to make us lose again. I didn’t come all this way just to sit around in a car and see a country full of idiots.”
“That’s rather rough, don’t you think?” I asked calmly, instinctively knowing that the best way to deal with his temper was to keep a firm grip on mine. “I’ve enjoyedthe people I’ve met here thus far, and the scenery will get quite spectacular when we approach mountains, or so my brother told me.”
Kell’s lips were thin when he snapped out, “Shows what you know. Just do your job and don’t get in my way.”
I thought about suggesting to Paulie that we spend the night together, but since she had already left, I figured she had other things to do.
Better things. More interesting things.
“God, I hate it when I get maudlin,” I said aloud on the way back to my room, and shook the glum mood off.
By the next morning, I’d given myself several lectures reminding myself that I had no intention to get involved with anyone and that, although a little mutually satisfying sex wasn’t wrong, it was better if I had no intentions beyond that.
“The race is only for a month,” I told myself when I loaded my things into the car for the early-morning start. “After that, you return home and she goes back to California. There’s no future there.”
“Talking to yourself again, old man?” Rupert asked, taking his place in the backseat of the car.
“Shut it,” I told him amiably, ignoring the glare that Kell gave me as he climbed in behind the steering wheel.
“Right,” Kell said, glancing at his phone before tucking it away inside his motoring jacket. “Let’s try something a little different today. The cameras like action, so we’re going to give them some.”
