ALICE Ch 376

The Suzuka Circuit has been described in many colorful ways. Nobody likes driving it, but it does offer countless overtaking opportunities, which makes for good viewing. Personally, Alice would rather drive Suzuka than Monaco; she finds the agonizing tightness of that circuit far more stressful than this, which is merely technically demanding.

Her back hurts all the time, but it hurts more when she moves or tenses, so the pain is ongoing. Oddly, rather than distracting her, it helps her focus.

Suzuka makes smart drivers cautious, but Alice wouldn’t know about that. Catching up to Val takes six laps.

“I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Glynda is saying. “Patty’s holding Valeria back. They may be quarreling. There may be a fight. I want you to be patient.”

“How far behind am I?”

“Almost two seconds.”

“Then I don’t need to be patient yet. How’s Faye?”

“Don’t worry about Faye.”

“It’d be easier to just tell me.”

“Drive the car, Alice.”

FF1

Max made a rare error, and Sainz leads the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Woodcock sisters will not be placing in the points; recent changes to their car have been disastrous, and they’re steadily losing pace.

Tanaka fends off Patty Dunham without difficulty. The commentators don’t dwell on it because there’s plenty of other excitement, but something’s definitely going on with Freedom, and it has Erica’s full attention.

Freedom cannot possibly be favoring Patty in this situation. Patty’s recent resurgence is nothing compared to what Val can do. Erica shakes her head in disbelief. It’s not unheard of for F1 teams to make baffling tactical decisions, but this is beyond the pale. What could convince them to do something like this?

FF1

“Pace is good,” says the voice in Val’s ear.

It’s a blatant lie. She feels like she’s waiting at a stoplight. This is worse than being in a crowded gym for a school assembly, a press tour, a room full of strangers—at least in those situations, she can find ways to distract herself. Patty spends too much time chasing women and not enough time preparing for races. Success in Suzuka takes exactly the kind of preparation that Patty will only do if someone forces her to, and nobody has been forcing her lately for some reason. Val is annoyed.

“Val? Val!”

Val tunes that out and pushes the inside without DRS. Patty feints swinging in, but Val doesn’t blink. They’re wheel-to-wheel for only half a second before Patty yields.

“For god’s sake, are you insane?” her handler is demanding. Val checks her readouts, mentally steeling herself for the next series of turns. Patty isn’t going to take this lying down. “You were told not to fight her!”

Val smiles, feeling like she’s behind the wheel of a go-kart again. “You call that a fight?” she asks.