Zoe merged onto the Belt Parkway with the rest of traffic and set her cruise control at 65 MPH. Traffic was a little backed up and she didn’t want to risk going faster until it started to flow better. Ten minutes later and she had gotten through the worst of the traffic, so Zoe nervously increased her speed to 100 MPH. She wanted to make the delivery within an hour to get the bonus, but she remembered crashing too. Zoe felt 100 MPH would be a nice compromise of speed vs prudence until she worked up the nerve to go faster.

*

“Mrs. Hawkins, the courier has left the airport,” a Portsmouth tech told her. “The tracking chip in the case is performing perfectly.”

“Thank you. Give her 10 more minutes, then leak her cargo and projected route,” Miranda instructed.

“Yes ma’am,” the tech replied.

“Are you sure this is wise?” Miranda’s chief guard asked. “The couriers won’t like that one of their own was used as a diversion.”

“This Blanco girl is being well paid and will get a bonus if things break her way,” Miranda replied. She wasn’t concerned about the courier in the least little bit.

“That’s a big if, ma’am. Our rivals will be after her and possibly some of the gangs that control the city’s underground,” the guard pointed out.

“If things go poorly for the girl, it’ll be just another crime in a crime plagued city. Besides, the couriers won’t ever know what she is carrying.” Miranda replied dismissively. “The only thing that matters is that we get the prototype heart to Los Angles.”

“As you say ma’am,” the guard said.

*

Zoe was approaching Fort Hamilton when her Angel notified her of someone was attempting to slice her GT4. Zoe tracked the attempt while her Angel thwarted the attempt and counterattacked. The attacker was in a red sportscar sitting at a highway rest stop. Zoe wasn’t sure of the car’s make, nor cared. The car pulled onto the Belt Parkway as she zoomed past the rest stop.

“Two can play that game whoever you are,” Zoe muttered as she started her attempt to slice the car’s system by using Aperture. The car sped up forcing its way to her. A few seconds later and Zoe was in the car’s system. “Gotcha!”

She attacked the car with Flamethrower and then tossed a Glue Trap at it. Both attacks hit. The car’s engine overheated after a few seconds just before the car violently swerved into the guardrail.

“Holy cow!” Zoe screamed as she used her rearview camera to watch what happened. She had no idea that would happen but was happy with the results. She was forced to slow as traffic thickened and slowed to merge onto Interstate 278.

Zoe was just passing John Paul Jones Park a few minutes later when not only was her GT4 hit with another slicing attempt, but she was hit with one as well. Her Archangel proved its worth once again by quickly pinpointing both attacks after Zoe and the angel fended off the assaults. The attacks were coming from matching red Laurent A220 convertibles. Zoe recognized them as being the same car Henri owned, though neither of these were his.

Attackers in both cars continued to try and slice Zoe’s bike and system as the highway changed into a bridge. She sped up and started swerving in and out of traffic trying to lose the attackers. That didn’t work as well as Zoe hoped. One of the A220s kept coming while the other got stuck behind some slower moving vehicles.

A message arrived stating that if Zoe stopped and gave up her package, she would be allowed to go free.

“Yeah, I don’t buy that,” Zoe muttered to herself. A second message arrived as the slicing attempts continued. “I don’t believe you guys are Zhao Technologies agents willing to pay 500 credits for the package either.”

A blaring horn and warning from her Angel forced Zoe to look in front of her. Zoe’s eyes widened in alarm. She turned right and leaned hard into the turn while easing off her throttle and applying the GT4’s rear brake. Zoe turned the front wheel after the bike started to corner and rolled on the throttle until she felt the back tire bite on the pavement. She leaned left to right the bike and hit the throttle just as the GT4 was upright once again. The bike slipped between the stopped delivery truck that had been in front of her and the bridge’s guardrail.

“Holy shit!” Zoe hysterically laughed as the A220 behind her slammed-on brakes.

*

“That girl is either insane, skilled, lucky or all of the above,” Diego Botello stated as he watched the courier nearly crash into a delivery truck before somehow power sliding around it.

“No shit,” Marco Molina, his slicer partner, replied from the passenger seat of their A220. “Camila is not going to be happy we lost her on a bridge.”

“That’s stating the obvious,” Diego replied. “Mrs. De Leon is not going to be happy with you calling her by her first name either.”

“Now, who’s stating the obvious?” Marco asked. The NaTechurgy Industries employees frowned. Marco then grinned. “At least we did better than the other team.”

“I don’t think Mrs. De Leon will be happy with that in our report either,” Diego said.

“What else can we do?” Marco shrugged.

“I really hate this city’s traffic,” Diego complained.

“We’re technically in New Jersey,” Marco said.

“Shut up,” Diego replied. Marco laughed.