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‘You mean this footage?’ He digs in his shirt pocket, pulling out a memory stick marked with the number thirteen. He seems to offer it to me, but then snatches it away when I reach out. ‘The races?’
‘I have to think about it.’
The memory stick goes straight back into his pocket. ‘Then this stays with me for now.’ He slumps forward in his chair, as if all the energy has leeched out of him. I stare at Emilio in alarm.
‘We need to get him back to Ouarzazate.’ Emilio grips the handles of the wheelchair, spinning it round. ‘Can we go, Boones? Do you agree?’
‘I had to see the end of my race. I had to see what she was capable of.’ Then Boones looks up at Emilio and nods.
‘I’ll see you in Ouarzazate, Dad. You’re not going anywhere yet. Maybe there’s still time for you to have another race.’
‘Stranger things have happened, my dear. Thank you for being here. It means more to me than I can say.’
His words of affirmation make me feel uncomfortable, and thankfully Emilio wheels him away. Emotion swells up within me like a tide. I feel on the edge of breaking down, of dropping to my knees and collapsing into a flood of tears. But somehow I remain upright.
‘Jesus. This is going to make one hell of a podcast,’ says Mac.
Then a commotion comes our way, catching our attention. The crowd divides, revealing a single figure. I frown. It’s Adri, staggering towards us.
Towards me.
I jut my chin out. I want to hide, but she doesn’t need to know that. Her eyes are fixed on mine, boring into me. I blink, and in that moment it’s like I see Yasmin walking towards me instead, though they couldn’t be more different in height or build or colouring.
‘Atalanta,’ I whisper. My hand reaches for my lens.
But she reaches me first.
‘Boones promised me answers if I finished.’
‘He’s going to the hospital,’ I say. ‘You can convince him later.’
‘I know,’ she replies. ‘But I think you have them.’
56
Adrienne
It’s the only thing my mind can think of. I’ve done it – through delirium and pain, through literal hell and back, I’ve made it. I’ve crossed his finishing line. I deserve those answers and I want them now.
Stella shakes her head.
She’s really going to deny me now? She’s saying something, but I’m not taking it in. Someone grabs me by the arm – it’s Henry. He keeps pushing me towards cameras, towards people who want to clap me on the back, congratulate me, find out what I’ve been through. A medic is on my other side, wanting to take me for a check. I know I need one. Badly. The bandage round my arm is cemented to my skin with blood, my joints are swollen and painful, my lips are tight and my mouth bone dry from dehydration. But I wave them off. I have one target. My vision is fully tunnelled. I know what I want. And I’m not stopping until I get it.
‘Well?’ I ask Stella again.
She won’t give me a straight answer. ‘Adri, I don’t know what he promised you …’
‘The footage. I want to know who was driving the car that almost killed my son.LK1XXFG.’
Stella’s eyes widen. She knows.
Those podcast guys – Mac and Jason – are behind her.Jason is looking worse for wear, but he’s alive. I reach out a hand to steady myself. My stomach lurches and I feel like I’m going to be sick. I take a deep breath. ‘So?’ I ask.
‘You didn’t finish,’ says Stella, at least wincing when she says it. She knows how unfair it is.
‘I turned on my beacon to save Hiroko. I think I did enough to earn my answers.’
Her silence is deafening.