Speed

<snip>
Jay eased off the throttle and came to a halt looking back over his shoulder.
“See.” He said to Cass “What was so hard about that?”
</snip>
She shifted in her seat and twisted to meet his gaze, her eyes alive with excitement "Wow"
Jay grinned "You liked that?"
"That was amazing!" drawing her legs up, Cass deftly swung back around to face him "That was..." she petered out and gestured helplessly "I mean, I've seen you at work before, but... You know"
"Thanks" Jay was quite enjoying the spectacle of seeing her at a loss for words for a change, but decided not to milk it "That was pretty good shooting too - You did good" straightening, he juiced the power; the bike sliding into motion with a low, scything hum as he guided it around back towards the trees in a long, lazy arc "We did good"
Cass couldn't help but smile "Why thank you Mr. Chrysler - That's high praise indeed" the pleasure was clearly discernible in her voice.
Leaning over to one side, she clipped the plasma rifle back into its housing by her feet and settled back in her seat. The air breezing past was pleasantly cooling and made for a welcome break from the increasingly sticky heat and humidity.
"Sorry about earlier" she said after a moment
Raising his eyebrows, Jay glanced back at her as they whispered back beneath the shade of the trees "About what?" he asked
"About that grav-bike" Cass wrinkled her nose "Not being able to ride it - I told you I couldn't drive or fly anything"
"And there was me just thinking you were being modest"
Cass laughed at this "I was telling the truth, damn it! - I couldn't afford driving lessons when I was younger; and when I could, I was living in Tokyo where you've got to be an idiot to drive, so I never learned"
"You should have said"
"Well, I tried" Cass shrugged "but I thought: 'How hard can it be?'"
"It takes years to be this awesome"
That earned him a poke in the ribs "You'll have to teach me how, so there won't be an issue next time, will there?"
"Yeah, sure" Jay smiled to himself as he guided the bike through between the trees. Knowing Cass, she'd probably make a terrible student, but it might be worth a try "These are real nice bikes" he went on "It’d be great if we could take a couple of them back with us"
“Yeah? Are they fast?”
"Sure. Wanna see?" Jay didn’t bother waiting for an answer and instead just hammered the power.
The bike sprang into motion like a stung animal, eliciting a surprised yelp from Cass, who instinctively threw her arms forward, around Jay’s waist and hung on for dear life as trees began streaking past on either side.
Banking hard, Jay manoeuvred left and then right to scythe the bike in and out between the trees, all the while, steadily increasing the power. Without any enemy combatants to worry about, this time he was able to devote all his attention towards to riding as fast and hard as his considerable skill would allow, and after only a few minutes had far exceeded the speed of the previous chase.
For her part, Cass could scarcely believe how fast they were going. Jay's ability to negotiate the tangled vines and branches of the jungle, seemed almost preternatural and she clung tightly onto him, at once both terrified and yet strangely giddy with excitement.
With the jungle seeming to thin out up ahead, Jay gunned the thrusters hard and within moments, they had shot from beneath the trees and out into brilliant sunlight; the bike streaking across a wide and sluggishly moving river that wound its way, lazily through the rainforest. Breaking hard (which pressed Cass even closer up against him), Jay slewed the bike around and then ramped the power up to maximum, the thrusters building to a shrieking roar and rocketing them down the river.
With a good clear run, the bike accelerated at a ridiculous rate, its airframe shifting and flexing around Jay and Cass, reconfiguring for increased speed as shields flickered to life around its riders, protecting them from the worst of the violently buffeting winds.
Clearing the river delta a few short minutes later, the bike shot out across the sea; the air turbulence from the thrusters, churning great plumes of coruscating water up into the air behind the bike which lingered for a few vivid rainbow seconds before crashing back down, leaving only hazy remnants to lazily dissipate after the bike had flashed past.
They broke the sound barrier within the first couple of kilometres, Jay only finally easing back on the power a few moments later to carve the bike around in a wide arc to begin the return journey.
All things considered he was extremely impressed with the bike; although its sophistication probably spoke volumes about the advanced level of technology they could expect from the organisation holding Plisken, which left him feeling no little disquiet at the prospect of their next engagement. He also felt a little guilty for having near terrified Cass to death - Even after he had idled the power back down to more pedestrian levels, she still maintained her terrified grip around him from behind.
"You okay?" he asked eventually, twisting to look back at the top of her head nestled up near his shoulder
"Shit" she started and hurriedly released him to retreat to the back of the pillion seat "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry"
"Don't be" Jay shook his head "I should have asked first before going that fast. Sorry"
"Oh. No, no..." she seemed flustered "Are we nearly back?
"We won't be long..."

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