Page 3 of Retrograde

‘Mars!’ Lucie jumped into Marco’s arms the second he walked into the garage.

‘Hey, Lucie!’ He spun her round, his small frame not much bigger than hers but certainly a lot sturdier. ‘I’m sorry I never made it to Julien’s. When my flight got diverted via Switzerland, I figured I may as well go and visit my brother and nieces. It’s been a while since I saw them.’

‘Oh, that’s fine. It’s good to see you.’

‘You, too. How’s my favourite fake Italian doing?’

‘I am not a fake! Both of my parents are Italian born and bred. It is not my fault I was raised in Hell on Earth.’ She scowled.

‘LA is nice! It has… beaches, uh, Hollywood?’ He ran a hand through his curls, trying to find the words. Marco hated pretty much anywhere outside of Europe. He said he thought Hawaii was okay, but who could ever hate a paradise like that?

‘It’s no Italy though, right?’

‘Exactly. Have you seen Brett, yet?’

They were down at the track while the team set up, being nosy and overseeing the inner workings. Lucie and Faith had got some content for socials already and held meetings with the social media personnel who were here early for other teams.

They were able to take more of a back seat this season because there were only one or two new staff, and everyone else was well-versed on how the IEC, and Lucie and Faith, wanted things done and what their team principals liked and didn’t like.

The only things they were stricter on were longer videos as they would lose engagement rate, and short-form video trends which had sexual undertones.

The fans may love those, but the sponsors not so much.

‘There she is!’ an Australian accent boomed, answering Marco’s question.

‘Found him.’

Lucie turned but before she could take a step towards him, Brett was sweeping her up into his arms. ‘Hey, my sunshine girl.’ He placed one hand on the back of her head and inhaled in an exaggerated manner. ‘Mm, your hair smells like coconuts.’

‘Hello to you too, Anderson.’ Marco threw his arms up in exasperation and Brett instantly dropped Lucie, repeating the bear hug with his teammate. ‘Jesus, okay,’ he choked out as he was squeezed tightly. ‘Let me go, man.’

‘What a day for it, eh?’ Brett looked out at the pit lane, where the sun was shining down on them.

Spa was known for complex weather conditions which flip-flopped between snow, sun and rain with little warning or sense, but somehow, year after year, the IEC were graced with the big yellow thing in the sky.

Brett always told Lucie it was her that brought the sunshine, in both a metaphorical sense and a literal one. She liked to think it was all him.

‘It’s due to rain for an hour or two tomorrow.’ Lucie bit her lip.

‘Why are you still stood here, then?’ Brett stared at her blankly.

‘What?’ She hated when she couldn’t sense sarcasm. Being friends with this idiot for ten years should have strengthened her sarcasm radar, but she was still a bit hopeless unless said sarcasm was leaving her own mouth.

‘Get your little self out there and do a sun dance.’

‘I don’t think that’s a thing, sweetheart. You’re getting mixed up with a rain dance.’

‘Oh.’ He looked genuinely confused. ‘Definitely don’t do that. Mind you, we all know Moretz would put in a hell of a lap in the wet. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing.’

‘Did I hear my name?’ Julien rounded the corner in his race suit.

‘Moretz, buddy. How are the wife and kid?’ He slapped him on the back.

Faith chose that moment to appear with Ford on a lead. It was an odd sight to behold, a husky in the Revolution Racing garage, on a workday, surrounded by all the people. But he looked happy as a clam despite the noises of the pit lane being too much sometimes even for the human ear.

‘How the hell did you get him past security?’ Lucie gestured at the husky, whose tongue was now lolling out the side of his mouth.

‘Lucie, my furry friend and I are the power couple of the grid.’ Julien said it with such a straight face that she wished she had caught it on camera for the sake of the fans, who were almost as invested in Julien’s love story with his dog as they were in the one with Faith.

Marco held his hand out for the lead. ‘Can I take him for a walk?’

‘Not too far.’ Faith handed it to him and immediately took her phone out of her pocket to snap a shot, showing Lucie her lightning-fast editing work before posting it online.

‘Morning, kids.’ Jasper Kotosovski, the principal for Revolution, appeared behind them, coffee in hand. He had about a gazillion cups a day to fuel him through the stress of managing the team, but he enjoyed his racing family.

‘You’re only just old enough to be my dad, Jasper. I’m no kid.’

‘Moretz, you brought your dog to work. You’re a big kid at heart, admit it.’

Julien scowled, shoving his hands in his pockets. ‘He’s my baby. I’d like to point out I do bring my human baby, too. You know, the teenager I raised.’

Faith tucked herself into his side and smiled up at him. ‘You can still be a big kid, babe. I think it’s a good thing.’

‘Right, enough of the lovey-dovey shit. It’s too early in the day.’ Brett rolled his eyes.

‘It’s two o’clock in the afternoon, Anderson,’ Julien defended.

‘Exactly.’

‘You guys all set for quali tomorrow? Heads in the game?’ Jasper asked the group. ‘Got to keep Kahan Racing off our tail. Their rookie driver is really something else.’

‘He’s got nothing on us. One drop of rain and that team falls to pieces. They don’t have our secret weapon.’ Brett nodded in Julien’s direction, hyping up his teammate’s impeccable driving skills in the awful weather.

It didn’t matter if rain was pelting his helmet and blurring his vision through the visor, Julien Moretz wasn’t going to let up for anything or anyone.

Cars would spin left, right and centre and he would just keep driving like there was nobody else on the track.

Unless the safety car came out and the race was yellow flagged, of course.

Each of them brought something different to the team, which made them almost unstoppable.

Marco was an expert at keeping the pace steady in longer stints and Brett at fighting their rivals off at high speeds.

‘We’ll have another strategy meeting at four. Until then, get comfortable with her.’ He gestured at the car, sitting proudly before them in all her ruby-red glory.

‘I meant to say earlier, Jasper, the new livery looks so good! Imagine how much it’s going to stand out on the feed! Plus, it’ll be super easy to spot on the TV footage amongst the more minimalist liveries,’ Faith commented.

Revolution Racing had been known for their subtlety in the design of their car.

They had always opted for red and kept the zebra stripe pattern strictly for the drivers’ race suits, but this season they had gone all out.

The stripes were on the car. It looked bold, and it stood out on the track amongst more than sixty other cars from thirty-plus teams.

Most teams stuck to one or two colours, with the occasional one opting for an artistic design if they had a collaboration in the works.

But none looked as impressive as the work of art that Revolution had presented this season.

They would change it for Le Mans, of course, they always did.

Teams typically came up with a one-off livery for that particular race due to its grandeur.

But for the rest of the season, this was what they were working with.

‘We’re the best of the best, Lucie. Got to have a design to match,’ Jasper grinned.

This was the worst part; waiting around for the race to start.

Autograph sessions were done, fans had all had a nose at the car and the garage and tracked the drivers down in the paddock, and now Brett stood silently watching them in the grandstands from his spot in the garage.

They were cheering as IEC staff used T-shirt cannons to launch merchandise in the air for them to catch from their seats.

‘Nervous?’ Lucie sidled up to Brett, who was in full racing gear. They’d spent the last couple of days holed up at the track, barely spending any time at the hotel in favour of working until the sun went down and returning before it rose.

‘Nah, you know me. Cool as a cucumber, Sunny.’

‘You know you don’t have to play that game with me,’ Lucie murmured so the mechanics and engineers wouldn’t hear.

Brett turned to look down at her, his gaze burning into hers. ‘I know. But I’m feeling particularly confident today. Don’t know why. Must be because my lucky charm is here.’

‘You know I’m always by your side at a race, nothing different there.’

‘Yep, which is why I don’t get nervous.’ He tapped her nose fondly, but she knew he was lying.

She’d seen the panic attacks and the fear in the past, particularly in his early days in the championship when he’d had less confidence, experience and a smaller fan base, but she’d let it slide.

If he needed to convince himself there was nothing wrong then that was fine.

‘Did you have a good few days in Brussels?’

‘Mm,’ he mumbled absentmindedly, a sure-fire sign his nerves were getting the better of him. ‘Exactly what I needed. Managed to blow off some steam, have some drinks with the lads. Feeling refreshed.’

‘Drinking before a race?’ She eyed him, hoping he couldn’t see the judgement written across her face.

The drivers rarely drank in the lead-up to a race, they needed to be at peak fitness before they got in the car.

They were all about health and nutrition and Jasper wouldn’t be impressed if he knew one of his drivers wasn’t taking good care of himself.