Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (ereader that reads to you .TXT) 📕

“So, he’s worried about Annika?”

“He should be.  He’s been stewing all morning.  I‘m worriedhe’s high.  I don’t like the dude, but I wouldn’t want him to get hurt.”

“High?”

“He had a bad crash last year.  Had to take some seriousdrugs for the pain.  I’ve heard that he still takes them.”

“Why would he, surely he’s not still in pain?”

“He got hooked.  He needs to get off them before they screwup his career.  I think he tried a few months ago.  He was out of sight forabout six weeks.”

“But you think he’s back on them?”

“Yeah.  That mean temper is something that showed up with thedrugs.  He used to be a pretty cool guy.”

“Where are his mechanics?” Matthew asked as he watched Travispacing around his pit area.

“I haven’t seen them; I think he’s waiting for them to showup.”

“Shouldn’t they be there going over his bike?” Matthew asked.

“One would think so.  His manager is pacing around like amother hen.  I heard him asking where they were, and Travis told him to mindhis own business.”

“That’s weird.”

“Seems like it.  Hey, I’ll see you around.  The first guysshould be moving up to the start.”

Matthew wandered around checking in on a few of the teams,getting some quotes about how they felt about their chances.  While he wasdoing that, he kept an eye out on Travis’s pit, trying to see when hismechanics would show up again.

He watched as the first ten competitors did their run.  Noneof them scored high enough to make it into the top five that would get a thirdrun.  He saw Emily talking with Annika; it seemed like they’d become bestfriends the way they were chatting.  Annika looked pretty calm, a bit amped up,but that was to be expected.

There was a break before the final ten competitors wouldstart their runs.  During the break, there was a small fire in one of thepits.  Everyone ran over to watch and see if they could help.  The fire was outalmost as soon as it started; each pit had a fire extinguisher so the mechanictook care of the problem right away.  Everyone was trying to figure out how thefire had started, but there didn’t seem to be any clues.  Since nobody was hurtand there wasn’t really any damage, they just shined it on and went back to getready for the next competitor’s run.

“Did you take care of it?” Travis asked his mechanics when theygot back to his pit.  Matthew saw them heading that way and was using hisportal to listen in.

“Yeah, just like you told us to.”

“You didn’t screw it up, did you?”

“No, we slid it into her front tire just like you taught us. As soon as she lands that backflip, that tire’s going to pop.  Then we’ll seehow she likes it.”

“Good.”

“You know there’s no way we’ll be able to fix her again,” thesecond mechanic said.

“Don’t care.  After a crash, her nerves will be shot, so evenif she makes it through to the final round, I won’t have to worry about her.”

Matthew walked over to Annika’s pit.  He stopped outside itand leaned against the wall so he could examine her bike using his portal.  “Whatcould they have done to her front tire?” he wondered.

He examined the tire and couldn’t see any issue.  He pulledout a pocket flashlight so he could examine it closer.  “Still nothing.”

He pressed on the tire to check the pressure, but thatcouldn’t be it.  Annika or her mechanic would notice a problem like that.  Hewas still trying to figure out what they could have done when the announcercalled out that the last five contestants were up.  Nobody had managed to breakthrough into the top five, so they were going to be watching a preview of thefinals since no matter what happened, the next five would all get a third run.

Frustrated, Matthew was about to give up.  He watched as themechanic in the pit next to him changed the tire on their bike.  It was aweird-looking tire, instead of an inner tube inside a rubber shell, it was likea rubber ring that was inflated.  Every part of it was thick.  It took aspecial tool to mount the tire onto the rim before inflating it.

“The rim?” Matthew wondered.  He used the flashlight and hisportal to examine the space between the rim and the tire.  Working his wayaround slowly he finally came across a stone of some kind caught between therim and the tire.  He examined it closely, it looked like a faceted piece ofquartz, and the facets looked sharp.

Annika was getting ready to move to the starting area.

“Emily, stall her,” Matthew used his portal to hiss intoEmily’s ear.

“Annika, how are your nerves now?” Emily asked.

Matthew used his portal’s zero friction feature so he couldrotate the tire so the quartz was on the bottom.  Then he put his portal on topof the quartz and with the other end under his foot he put all of his weight onit.  “Nothing.”

He looked around for something heavier to push with.  One ofthe mechanics was a big guy, easily 300 pounds.  Matthew slid the end of hisportal where the guy would step on it.  “Hey, do you know who’s up next?”Matthew yelled.

The guy turned around and stepped on the portal. “Jefferson’s next!” the guy yelled.

“Thanks,” Matthew yelled as he turned back to Annika’s bike. The tire was losing air.  When Annika gave it a bounce, it was obvious to herthat something was wrong.

“Shit!  Where’s my mechanic?”

“What’s wrong?” Emily asked.

“Something’s wrong with the tire,” Annika said as she movedover to the toolbox.  It was padlocked.  “What?!  It’s supposed to be acombination lock.  I don’t have a key!”

“Carlos, Annika needs a mechanic,” Matthew hollered, usinghis portal to make sure that Carlos could hear.

“What’s the problem?” Carlos called out as he ran to Annika’spit.

“Bad tire, and my toolbox is locked.”

“No problem, I’ve got all the tools we need right here.” Carlos pulled a wrench out of one of the pockets in his cargo shorts.  He straddledthe tire and had it off in twenty seconds.

“Annika Sorenson, on deck!”

“Damn, Damn!” Annika said.

“Don’t worry, give me your spare,” Carlos said as he pulledanother