The piranhas did indeed fly. But by the time we reached the river, our shield had recharged. We had to inflate our tires fully to cross the river, and then we waited on the opposite bank for Imani and Elle’s APV to ford the river, which it did easily. The thing was meant to be amphibious even without upgrades.

The piranhas were especially strong for a mob that attacked in packs. Each one of the flying fish was level 50. They didn’t explode like the cannibals did against the shield, but instead sort of sizzled and stuck there for a few moments before dropping away dead.

Donut used her Fresh into Salt spell on the river. She’d received the spell from her Champion of Nekhebit title. That pretty much finished off the rest. She still didn’t go up a level.

As for the flying ones, we mostly allowed the truck to kill them for us.

Both Olga and Quemada remained unconscious. Finley kept chewing on his own claw as we bumped through the dark forest.

“This is no good, no good,” he kept muttering to himself. “No good. No good. No pay is worth this. I shouldn’t have used such a strong sedative on Que. She’ll be mad when she wakes up. She’ll be mad I didn’t protect Olga.”

“It’s okay,” Donut said in an attempt to cheer him up. “You’re trying to save your friends, just as much as we are. You’re okay. Maybe this town will have a cleric that will wake up Olga.”

Finally, the pit stop loomed. There was an arch with the words “Pit Stop” over it in flashing neon light that looked ridiculously out of place in the middle of the jungle.

“Finally,” Finley said, letting out a stream of breath.

Entering the Lost City of Upano. Mind the locals.

Safe room rules do not apply during pit stops.

“Huh, interesting,” I said as we passed under the arch. A wide street spread out ahead of us. The houses from our cul-de-sac were here, but they’d been rearranged into a long line. It wasn’t just our teams, but all the other houses from all three heats in a long suburban street. I saw with dismay the hot dog truck was there, poking out the back of a garage. Rapture and Genesis were walking from their garage toward a doorway at the end of the street that led to what looked like a group of falling-down buildings and huts.

Beyond the small city was a strange sight. Where I was expecting more jungle was something completely incongruous with the setting. To the east was what appeared to be a tall group of black tubes. It just went up and up and up, and opposite that was a group of cliffs. Opposite us, I was expecting more jungle, but it appeared like Upano just went on and on and on.

“There,” I said, pointing at a garage door that started opening on its own. There was no number painted on the door, but the whole driveway started blinking. Hedy appeared, standing in the entrance. Just next door, closer to the entrance, another door started to open. This was Elle and Imani’s garage.

A two-hour timer starts the moment you park in your garage.

Note: Garage doors may not be closed during pit stops. Safe room access is unavailable during pit stops.

“If the open garage doors indicate the ones who’ve already arrived, then we’re doing better than I feared,” I said, counting. There were twenty-four houses total, and only eleven of the doors were open, not including the ones for us and Meadow Lark. I started trying to see if I recognized any of the others.

Team Sparkles was in the very first garage, and I saw Osvaldo’s slaughter gnu was also parked. After the Lady Dominators, that meant we were in fourth place, ahead of the bugbears and One Fine Pig, who had yet to arrive.

Two of the homes were boarded up. I assumed that meant teams who’d been lost along the way.

We pulled up, drawing all the way into the garage.

Timer starting. Your vehicle may not leave this garage until the two hours are up.

Hedy walked around the truck as we exited.

“Not too bad,” she said, sounding impressed. “Much better shape than the last time.” She reached over and with a gloved hand picked up a tuft of red hair that had somehow gotten stuck in the front bumper. It dripped with blood and sizzled a little from the acid rain. “Race ain’t over yet, though.”

“The new shield works great,” I said. “But it needs more power to withstand a lot of abuse.” Outside, a double-decker bus rumbled past. A dromedarian camel sat in the top half behind a massive gun battery that looked like an antiair gun.

“No helping that,” Hedy said. “They don’t want your shields too perfect. It’s a game. Don’t you be forgettin’.”

The bus was followed a minute later by Jasha and Radoslav’s van, which had been put through the wringer. It looked as if it had been stepped on by a god. All its windows were smashed out. It still ran on the cushion of air, but it kept scraping against the ground, causing sparks to fly up. They moved into a spot across the street from Imani and Elle.

Donut released Mongo into the room. I’d left Rend in the stables. Mongo rushed in a circle, bouncing around and sniffing and shrieking at everyone. He stopped and sniffed the bumper.

“Be careful,” I called. “There’s acid still on there.”

He growled and took a step back.

I returned my attention to Hedy. “Did I hear that correctly? We can’t close the garage door? I guess we’ll have to use Mongo to protect you.”

“Yep,” Hedy said. “They dropped that one on us right after the race started. It looks like that be the standing rule at pit stops. I ain’t safe like this.”

“Okay,” I said. “And nobody stayed in the garage with you after we left?”

“No,” Hedy said. “Ain’t no door anymore.”

“Jamal does protest” came Jamal’s weak, cracking voice from the ceiling.

We all looked up.

The shark was attached to the very top of the hangar, looking down. He was planted directly above us.

“Hi, Jamal!” Donut said. Mongo looked up and let out a delighted shriek and started waving his wings.

“Yeah, other than him,” Hedy said.

“What are you doing up there?” I called.

“Jamal was testing his legs. Jamal wished to see if he could walk upside down on the ceiling with the new and improved sticky feets Jamal has, and I do apologize, Mr. Carl, but now Jamal has found himself in quite the inverted conundrum.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Jamal is stuck!”

“What? Are your legs broken? How long have you been up there?”

“Jamal has been stuck for quite a bit, I fear. It is with great embarrassment that I admit this.”

“Jamal,” Donut said, “get down this instant! My goodness. Were you up there from before the race started?”

“Oh, yes, Miss Donut. Many hours before the race started. Jamal is feeling woozy.”

Donut grumbled under her breath. “Why didn’t you say anything? What’s wrong with your legs?”

“Nothing is wrong. Jamal is afraid of heights.”

“Afraid of heights?” Donut asked incredulously.

I sighed. “Jamal, I once watched you roll down a hill, flopping directly into a battle filled with giant soldiers in power armor. You have jumped higher than the ceiling dozens of times. You literally used to fly when you were a tattoo for chrissakes.”

“When Jamal jumps, he doesn’t have time to see how high he is because he always falls down again.”

“Okay, Jar Jar, listen,” Donut started to say. “We don’t have time to⁠—”

But Jamal interrupted her, talking fast, his voice taking on a strange, sad tone. “Jamal is happy to have his legs, but he wishes he could just go back to the ocean. We aren’t at war like before, but everything is so much scarier all of a sudden. Miss Hedy says if you die, we die. We won’t even know. Everything will just stop. She says that’s what happened to the gremlin and all the people in the houses of the other races. So Jamal came up here so he could see everything all at once. It’s what Jamal used to do before when he was . . . when he was real. He was so brave, but he was not me. I know that, but I want to be brave. I want to be Jamal, but now I am up here and I can see it all, I am so scared of what I might lose. I’m scared to come down, because if I do, maybe I won’t ever see it again.”

Donut was suddenly floating in the hangar. She used her Hover ability. She floated up to the ceiling.

Donut started whispering quietly to the shark.

I didn’t know what she said to him, but a moment later, he hopped, flipping in midair, and landing deftly on the floor of the garage right next to the truck.

Jamal made a circle and just sort of settled on the floor. Mongo curled up next to him as Donut landed on my shoulder.

“What did you say to him?” I asked.

She didn’t answer right away. She stared at Mongo and Jamal resting there on the floor of the garage for several moments, quietly kneading her paws into my shoulder. I gritted my teeth and tried not to react at her new strength.

“I said that he shouldn’t be scared about that sort of thing. Yes, it could happen at any moment, it’s true, but if we worry about things we can’t control, we start to ruin the things we can control. And that even though he can be annoying, he’s part of the family now and that he shouldn’t be scared to tell us when he’s in trouble. Even if we’re frustrated with him, we’ll help him the best we can because that’s what family does.”

Before I could respond, she raised her voice. “Mongo, mind your mommy and stay here and guard Hedy along with Jamal. Finley, you . . . Finley?”

The back door to the truck opened, and Finley appeared, cradling the toad in his arms. The Grulke was technically conscious, but she gaped off into space, her long tongue lolling and dragging on the floor. He also had Quemada with him, draped over his shoulder. He had a patch of extra-thick scorched leather with a little strap on his jacket that I hadn’t even noticed. It seemed as if it had been made just for the purpose of carrying the fire fairy around while she was knocked out.

“I’m going into town,” Finley said. “I will see if there’s a temple. I am taking Que with me because I don’t want her to wake up and be alone.”

He took a few steps, then paused and looked back at me and Donut. “I heard what you said to the shark. How you feel about him, I feel about these guys. They’re my family. I’ve already lost so much, and I don’t want to lose more, so I am going to help them the best I can. I know I’m supposed to do what you say and I promise to come back, but I want you to know this is my family, and I will do what it takes to protect them.”

Finley walked right out of the open garage door, stepped onto the street, and was promptly mowed down and killed by the speeding APV from team One Fine Pig.

The APV hit the brakes, smearing the bodies of all three across the street, backed up a few feet, then went forward again, smashing them all further into the pavement before disappearing down the street and turning into their garage.

Your mercenary Finley has been killed!

Your mercenary Olga has been killed!

Your mercenary Quemada has been killed!