ALICE Ch 251

Bright lights shine on the simple chair.

“Aston Martin overtakes Mercedes, and FUTA is down to fourth in the Constructors,” Erica Bruhl says soberly. “McLaren and Ferrari underperforming. Valeria Flores is looking very strong. Max will have to stay on his toes while the midfield is down to Aston, Mercedes, and FUTA.”

“Can we talk about what happened during the race?” the producer prompts. The question was inevitable. Nobody cares about the big picture when such splashy things are happening. Erica knew that she would be expected to do a deep dive on this.

Erica shakes her head. “Alice Wilde attempted something quite daring, and in doing so clawed back six points for her team that they had no business receiving. I have complicated feelings about it. This is a dangerous sport. To call something irresponsible seems… not appropriate. But I don’t know what else to say. It’s the best race that I have ever seen, but only because no one died. It scares me because I feel like someone could have.” She shrugs. “Of course, what happened at the end was a little technical. Mio Mido broke ranks and overtook Alice without warning. Alice was **** off the track. She was able to recover, but not without losing significant time and positions. The real problem was the penalties. Because Alice was the ringleader of the misbehavior, she ate all of the penalties. Those, combined with what Mio Mido did, took her out of the points. If we do the maths, this only resulted in a 2-point loss for FUTA. Yes, Alice and Mio would have finished in P7 and P8, but after adjustments for Alice’s penalties, Mio would have won 6 while Alice would have won only 2; her time would have placed her in P9.” Erica waves her hands. “Never mind the audio of Alice Wilde and Mio Mido talking to each other during the race. I’m surprised that Twitter didn’t crash. A new generation of Formula One memes is born. Nihilist Alice Wilde. Anarchist Mio Mido. Have you seen this?” Erica takes out her phone and pulls something up. It’s a photo of Alice Wilde in black and white with a beard photoshopped on it. “Look at the FUTA store. Look at Alice Wilde’s merch. Nothing is in stock. You couldn’t find an Alice Wilde keychain if you wanted one, she is so hot. Valeria Flores is a rising star with unprecedented success, and her hats are in stock. Max Verstappen is on track for another world championship, and his merch is in stock.” Erica sits back with an almost comical look on her face. She places her hand over her breast. “The race is over, but my heart is still going. This sport.” She shakes her head again. “I need a holiday. Oh! And look at this.” She pulls up her stock market app. “Diorgasm. Up nine percent this month!”