Son of Tesla

SON OF TESLA: Chapter 24

PETAR'S HANDS WERE SLIPPERY with sweat, making the hard rubber steering wheel that much harder to control. Wind whipped into his face through the shattered windshield. He'd barreled down the highway after Jem without slowing for over an hour, and by now he'd formulated a golden rule for handling the truck's gearbox: It was all easier the faster you went.

So Petar went faster.

Now, instead of slowing down as Petar had hoped, Jem was still trying to get away from him. More than once he'd felt a sinking jolt in his stomach as one of the truck's wheels threatened to leave the pavement, but it hadn't happened yet. Petar knew it was only a matter of time.

Up in the tall cab, Petar couldn't see Jem, so he had no way of communicating with him. He could only keep up and hope Jem eventually got tired of their little game. But how long could Petar go on like this? He looked up. Damn. Not long, apparently.

Ahead, the tight road opened up over a gorge, the same one they'd passed on the way up the mountain, and Petar's truck was rumbling along the outer edge. He silently cursed whoever had designed this highway. Ever since he'd been nine years old, Petar had had a paralyzing fear of heights. You kind of got that after coming through a wormhole and finding that it had just spit you out a thousand feet up in the sky.

As far as Petar could tell, the gorge was about a mile ahead. That meant he had less than a minute to make his move. From here to there, the road was a straight shot down. That would help.

He took a deep breath, then opened the door of the cab. It swung about a foot and then sharply rapped the speeding SUV. It would have to do. Giving the gas pedal a quick pump to compensate for the next few seconds, Petar stood on the bench seat and poked his head out the top of the door. His arms came out next and, using the door frame as leverage, he swung himself up on top of the cab. The wind was merciless, threatening to yank Petar right off his feet. He crouched and gripped the vertical exhaust pipe beside him.

Driverless, the semi began to veer slightly off course, pulling away from Jem's Escape.

No time to think. Do it now. Petar looked, wished he hadn't. The roof of the SUV looked twenty feet below him, even though he knew it was only about six at the most. That was his intellectual reasoning, and it flew away faster than the wind whipping through his hair, leaving him in the grip of pure emotional thought. And right now, that emotion was terror.

The semi slipped farther to the right. Now the gap between vehicles was at least two feet. Not that that mattered; what mattered was that, on the other side, the truck's tires were quickly running out of pavement. And the gorge was now less than a quarter of a mile away.

Petar switched hands on the exhaust pipe, leaving his right hand free. He flexed his wrist, twisted it. Purple beams shot out under his skin, and a black syrup oozed from the tips of all five fingers.

Now or never.

Petar lept.

He hadn't accounted for the wind. With his feet planted on the truck, Petar had all the truck's velocity, if not its momentum. The second he left its comforting forward surge, he lost his grounding in that force. His body swept through the air, propelled forward, still traveling seventy miles an hour sideways through thin air.

Unfortunately, the air wasn't as thin as it looked. Its resistance was a tangible drag on Petar's outstretched body. It was like being pulled under by a breaking wave. He had no control. He'd more or less aimed for the front of the SUV's roof, but by the time he dropped the six feet to the roof's level, he'd been dragged all the way to its back.

Arm stretched to breaking point, Petar slapped down on the Escape. His midriff hit the very edge, knocking the wind out of him. His right palm hit flat metal. His legs hit nothing. The adhesive properties of the black van der Waals fluid smeared over Petar's fingers sucked onto the metal roof, gripping it down to its molecules. Despite the sheer forces trying to fling Petar off the roof, the fluid held.