ALICE Ch 341

“Lights out in Monza!” David Croft shouts. “Max is away with no difficulty. Sainz, slow off the line! Can Woodcock try something? No! No nerve! And Tanaka nearly pushes Norris off! Things looking tight in the first turn! No! There it is! That’ll be a yellow flag, I’ll wager.”

FF1

Glynda looks over at Lora in alarm, then checks her screens. Pattinson touched Hamilton, and while the debris was small, it sounds as though everyone’s gotten a piece of it.

“No positions have changed, Alice,” Glynda informs her.

“Feels all right. Poor Val. She was all set to go crazy.”

Glynda has never met a driver as chatty as Alice during a race. Glynda used to drive herself; she can’t imagine behaving this way and still keeping a car on the track at Formula One speeds. She wishes that Alice would shut up and concentrate.

FF1

Faye smiles patiently. “No.”

“That one?” Apple Darcy points hopefully at the screen in the TV room.

“No. That’s Charles LeClerc. That’s a Ferrari. Our cars are pink and blue.”

“That one?”

“That’s Mio. We don’t like Mio.”

“Oh.” Apple adopts a thoughtful expression. “That one? That’s your girlfriend?”

“Yes,” Faye replies.

Apple is the cousin that Faye is perhaps least close to, or most distant from. Apple’s always been the strange, solitary one. These days, assorted family members have been taking turns coming round to help Faye during her recovery. It’s Apple’s turn, and she’s come all the way from America.

“Why are they all following that slow car?” Apple asks.

“So they can get the bits of car off the track.”

“Your girlfriend is at the back.”

Faye grimaces. “Yes.”

“I thought Auntie Glynda said she was supposed to be good. Chat GPT said that she was.”

Faye takes a deep breath for patience.

FF1

Val knows exactly what to look for. She has trouble with reading people in most situations. Social reciprocity is not her strong suit, but another driver? She can read Alice like a book.

Alice is driving carefully. Responsibly. Patiently. And in the great scheme of her place in Formula One as it exists at this moment, that is very correct of her, secure in the knowledge that she is not driving the fastest car.

But it’s the wrong approach to take with Val right behind her.

Val hurtles through turn 6 without reservation, unlike Alice, who had to mind Mio Mido in front of her. Val activates DRS and takes Alice on the outside as though she’s sitting still.