Nikki, the Racer, had the hang of it. Almost. The road zigzagged up the mountain, but her suicidal driving had closed the gap between them and the intruders, their dust hadn’t yet settled on the track ahead. Fedor, legs cramping, scoured the area for signs of the other bike.

The higher they climbed, the cooler the air became and it was not long before they rode into the cloud level. The track crested a rise and flattened out. Not thirty metres in the distance, they saw the other Hoverbike fleeing down a grassy bank.

‘Hang on.’ Veronique leant forward, cranking the accelerator and grinning as the track entered the tree line and wound between and around the gnarled trunks.

The trees eventually thinned out and the terrain turned from ragged tufts to shale. The sun dipped behind the mountains and a thick fog began to roll in. They had lost sight of their quarry, but tracked them on the bike’s panel.