The Driver

The Driver stared up at the glittering sky as his hands were in his jacket pockets. The cool air, the distant din of the city. He shut his eyes, taking a deep breath. As the temptation to go for a night-time cruise started to ignite in him like a fire, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket before it started to ring. His hand was fluid and practised as he pulled the phone out, pressed the green button, and brought it to his ear.
“You’re needed. Single customer. Wants the ‘Special’.”
“Destination?”
“The Chateau.”
“Pickup?”
“it’ll be sent as a text message. That is, if you accept.”
“I can’t say no.” The Driver stated.
“Good boy. She’ll be expecting that missile of yours.”
	The Driver put his phone in his pocket as he grabbed his keys out, and glanced over to his two cars.
‘94 JZX90 Mark II, the ‘Standard’. 1JZ-GTE engine, 4 doors. Old and generic, just the way some customers want it. Doesn’t mean it can’t move, but it definitely looks like it came from the 90’s. He walked past it, letting two fingers trail across the trunk, feeling the smoothness of the recently-done pearl white paint. Always needed a new paintjob. He let a crack of a smile appear as he rounded past it and beheld the gunmetal grey car beyond.
‘00 S15 Silvia. Fastest car in the city. Guess I will get a drive in you tonight, but it’s too bad it’s for business.

	He moved towards the car, feeling his heart quicken ever so slightly as he felt the car unlock, beckoning him inside. However, he couldn’t shake the feeling this will be different than normal. As the small niggling worry started to creep into his mind, the engine came to life, the low rumble making those fears dissolve into the back of his mind.

	The drive to the pickup destination was simple, and relatively low profile. He saw the lights go past as he intermittently gazed down at the instrument cluster, checking if his heat was optimal. That little red needle climbed above the ‘C’ ever so slowly, but that was alright. He wouldn’t have to duck out just yet, and by the time he got there, he’d be right to go. He felt his pulse rise as he approached the destination, knowing whoever ordered the ‘special’ would likely have a lot of heat on them. So whoever ‘she’ was, she must have someone who likely wants her dead. He looked down at his stereo. His finger hesitated on the button. Instead he placed it on the gearstick, effortlessly shifting it into sixth. It never was good to waste petrol.

	Even on the highway, the lights more lazily trailed by, the streets desolate at this time of night. Occasionally the odd car would drive past, most of them just warranting a glance to see if it wasn’t a cop or some other interesting car. His attention waned off as he continued towards his objective, until a pair of headlights appeared behind him, instantly piquing his attention. He rarely was overly-fast to a pickup, but enough to leave regular traffic behind. The lights grew, go to the lane on his right, and seemingly speed up. When he was close enough to start to guess the outline of the car, the subtle rumble of it’s engine grew to a deep, deafening roar as it blasted past him, the single pipe exhaust letting out a small explosion as it blasted past. As it passed by, he saw the side and rear, and there wasn’t a doubt in the world; it was a Toyota Supra. The Driver then indicated left, getting off the highway as the Supra blazed down the highway at overly illegal speeds.


	The return to the smaller buildings off the highway gave way to smaller, quieter streets as he made his final approach to the pickup. After a few more turns, he was at the agreed meet point; a dark and lonely street. A single street light in front of him illuminated a bus stop, casting stark shadows on the ground. To his left there was a dark alleyway, and he caught a glimpse of a black car go past it as he looked around and started to brake to a halt. The engine stopped it’s rumble when the car halted, turning into a regular but lumpy sound as it idled, as he glanced to the right. Nothing. No-one. Maybe it was a prank, but The Driver knew there was no way anyone would prank The Boss. Not unless they had a deathwish. The Driver’s thoughts were cut off by a tapping on the window. Looking back to his left, he saw a slight figure materialised on the passenger side. She appeared normal by all means, but as he unlocked the door, she got in and he instantly saw the glowing cyan rings in her eyes.

To The Driver, life just got complicated.

	The Driver pressed the control and the window rolled down a fraction.
“Are you the saviour in the moonlight?” She asked, her voice giving off a slightly modulated, but undeniably feminine sound.
“I am the saviour, the deliverer, the ferryman.” The Driver gave his rehearsed reply, and hit the unlock button to let his customer inside.
“I would suggest you take caution, Saviour. There are people out to return me to my, to my...” She trailed off, looking at The Driver again with those glowing eyes. “Please do not let me get captured.”
“That’s my job.” he replied. The car took off slowly, until he saw a black SUV come around the corner, massive floodlight at the ready. It seemed to come to a halt as the blinding beam penetrated the front window and illuminated both The Driver and the passenger.

	The Driver wasted no time at all, giving the handbrake a pull as he whipped the car around, disengaging it in time to unleash the full power of his engine. The SUV started to turn and come towards him, but it was already losing ground compared to the Driver’s far lighter Silvia. The blow-off valve fluttered as the gear changed into second, and the car truly picked up speed, diving into the right turn to get away from the pickup street and the SUV. The Driver hit the ‘play’ button like lightning, switching to third gear almost as soon as he’d hit the play button.
“please hang up and try again- GIVE ME YOUR SEXY BODY”
The vocals gave way to high-temp electronic music as the engine revved up, joined by the whine of the turbocharger as he saw a second black SUV behind him, which seemed to shrink in the dark light, but it stopped shrinking and started getting larger. Looks like they’re not standard, then.

	The SUV was joined by his compatriot as the gentle left curve came up, and The Driver wasted no time in trying to lose his pursuers. Flooring it harder, he heard his tyres complain ever so slightly, but not losing traction on the road. The heavier SUV’s lost ground, even as the curve straightened out. He glanced up at the rear-vision mirror again, seeing those lights become more intense as they started to practically ride on him. He looked back at the road, looking for an option, when he saw the light cast from another pair of headlights on his right.



	Giving the car the last little bit of accelerator, he saw the next intercepting SUV screech to a halt on his right. he reflexively put his foot on the clutch and gave the handbrake a minor tug, whipping the rear of his car around to avoid the almost-stationary third black SUV trying to block his path. Without even stopping, he pushed the handbrake down, taking his foot off the clutch, shifting to second gear and accelerating to correct his car going sideways. The quick motion paid off, resulting in the lead chasing SUV to T-bone the attempted blocker.

	Glancing back at his mirror, he saw the tailing SUV swerve the massive crash, as The Driver saw someone pop out of the side window, brandishing a pistol. As he brought it to bear, the Driver began to swerve, trying to also not lose ground on the SUV and failing. A couple of shots rang out in the night as the passenger unsuccessfully tried to shoot from such an unstable platform, before he seemingly slid back in. Having made it far enough down the road, he saw his best shot at escape, a 90 degree hairpin turn.

	Shifting back down from fourth, to third and finally into second, tapping the throttle both times he shifted, swinging the car to the right on the tight corner, gunning the engine as smoke kicked from his tyres. As the car straightened out, he shifted back up and left the corner in the dust, hearing the bang sound of his exhaust backfiring, he saw the SUV try and keep up, only to over-correct and slam into a barrier. The Driver let a small smile make it’s way to his face as he sped away. It wouldn’t be too long until someone else came to intercept him.

	The Driver kept his eyes peeled for any more cars intercepting him, when a voice picked up from the passenger seat.
“I must apologize, Saviour. I did not wish to endanger you.” She said, that voice still sounding synthetic.
“It’s part of the job.” The Driver replied, looking out to the right as another intersection came up.
“But you are in danger for trying to transport me away from my creators.” She argued, and The Driver couldn’t help but quickly glance her way.
“Creators?” The Driver’s curiosity was piqued, returning his eyes to the road hesitantly.
“Yes. I am an artificial being.” She answered.
“Explains the eyes and voice.” The Driver commented.
“The name that was given to me is Dawn.” She said, nodding her head.
“Nice name.” The Driver said, still focusing on the road.
“Am I distracting you, Saviour?” She asked, concerned.
“I’m looking out for other people trying to intercept us.”
	Dawn seemed to remain silent, as The Driver started to head towards the highway ramp. Keeping a low profile again, he stopped at the turn lights. The regular clicking sound of the indicator was barely heard above the music, as The Driver tapped his finger to the beat. His eyes were looking either for traffic going past, or directly behind him. He felt his own heartrate go down, as Dawn looked all around inside the car.
“What is that?” She asked, pointing at the gauge hanging off the front pillar of the car.
“Boost gauge. Tells me what PSI my turbocharger is compressing at.”
“Wondrous. And that?”
“Thacometer, tells me how many RPM my engine is running at.” The Driver replied, as he saw another black SUV headed towards him.

	Wasting no time, he gunned the engine, the entire car springing into life as his pursuer rounded the corner after him. In next to no time they were on the highway, and The Driver looked at his speedometer to see how fast he was going. He let another small smile creep onto his lips as he got to 160 km/h without a sweat. As soon as he merged, the traffic behind him seemed to spring three more black SUV’s, no doubt also in hot pursuit. Time to break my record… The Silvia wasted no time or effort getting to over 180, and yet the car seemed to not show any signs of slowing, hitting 200, and as he stole a quick glance of the rear vision mirror, the SUV’s couldn’t keep up, preferring to stay at roughly 180 km/h.

	The Driver ducked between the slower highway cars, their tail lights a blur of red as he blazed past them. The SUV’s tried to maintain pursuit, but as he glanced at them again when given a moment of not having to duck between cars, something felt off; The SUV’s were maintaining a line formation. And it wasn’t his imagination, even the one off the highway ramp joined the formation despite being late. A shiver shot up his spine as he couldn’t help but feel the worst was going to happen.

	As soon as the blob of commuter traffic cleared away, he wasted no time going full speed. But as he glanced at the SUV’s again, the middle two seemed to part ever so slightly, and return back to their formation. They let someone in… His suspicion was confirmed as a jet-black missile was seen dating between the cars, and he could hear the note of a second, far louder engine approaching. Something very powerful, and approaching very fast. And then he saw it.

	Sounding like an engine of Hell, a sound like a gunshot rang out as a jet-black Supra came gunning for the smaller Silvia. It had no problem catching up to them, and even blasted past The Driver, a massive flame shooting out the tailpipe as it effortlessly overtook him. It pulled out dead ahead, before it’s four tail lights lit up in front of them and smoke poured out of the tyres as it braked and grew alarmingly close. The Driver swerved, as Dawn let out a sound of panic, the tail swinging wide as he counter-steered. He corrected it, but lost precious distance as the line of SUV’s blew past the blob of traffic and reformed their line.

	The Driver felt the pressure as he got back up to speed, hitting 220 km/h as the Supra sluggishly caught up, but as soon as he heard that whine it easily closed the gap again. This time it tried for a side press, attempting to use it’s superior weight in a full-on slam. The Driver hesitated for a split second, before switching back to fifth and gunning the engine again. Avoiding the side-press, he saw his RPM climb to well over 9,000, far past the normal redline.
I hate to push you now, Silvia. But I have to.
The headlights cast a harsh strip of light on The Driver’s eyes as he shifted up again, hoping to pull every little piece of power he could from his car. The Supra responded in kind, pulling up on the Silvia’s right to look at the Driver in the eyes.

	Looking over, the Supra’s driver was almost his age, if not a little younger. He looked almost impersonally at The Driver as if one would look at their job. The Driver immediately looked back at the highway, keeping close attention to the Supra. He was in a tough place; the SUV’s behind him were too close for comfort, the Supra could side-press him into the concrete barrier on their left, and the main method of escape of the off-ramps was blocked at the moment. And to make matters worse, the Supra was slowly closing in on his right.


	He felt a slight impact as the Supra ever so gently nudged him, and simply didn’t stop as the barrier started to close with the Silvia. Time was running out, and quickly. And the next off ramp was in a couple miles. No time to think. The Driver reacted on instinct, keeping his foot full throttle,  but applying his left foot to the brakes. He scraped past the Supra, watching as it swerved in front of him and tried to correct. The Driver then darted to the right, making a beeline for the off-ramp as the Supra followed close behind, with the SUV’s tailing behind the duo.

	The Driver slammed on the brakes, feeling the ABS stop him from locking up as he shifted down gears like a madman, the 180 degree curve of the concrete barriers approached the car in a blinding flash. The Driver twisted the steering to the right at the last split second, hearing the sound of his rear bumper scrape on the barrier as the Supra tried to follow suit, scraping harder. The SUV’s slowed down losing the pair of cars as they didn’t dare risk such a high speed maneuver. The Driver looked over his shoulder as the jet-black missile behind him shed enough rubber to make a massive cloud compared to his own Silvia. He also noted the long scrape marks, no doubt his car was also scarred by the same event. As the road straightened out, the Driver gunned it and immediately swerved left as the Supra tried ramming him from behind. Wasting no time, he took the wide turn to the left, his tail kicking out again as the Supra jammed the brakes on in an attempt to follow him.

	Now on a road headed towards the hills, he knew he could out-maneuver the larger and far more powerful Supra. The problem was merely getting there, as he’d have a small menagerie of black cars on his tail, which is something The Boss would really rather not deal with. Seeing the Supra shoot past him again, the tail-lights flared to life again as he attempted another brake attack. The more agile Silvia at a lower speed nimbly dodged, as the Supra spun it’s tyres to catch up. Then it hit The Driver.

His tyres were well on the way out, given the power he was putting down.

	The Driver fully intended to exploit this as the ground started to incline upwards, the Supra hanging behind him now, followed by the rapidly approaching SUV’s. The buildings became a blur and eventually gave way to metal guardrails, blending to a grey blur as the first corner approached. Taking the corner full-speed, The Driver saw the Supra round the corner, the tail kicking out as it sounded nowhere near as demonic as it did before. Then, the Driver pulled a left turn into a side road, drifting that too. The Supra attempted to follow, but the sound of it’s engine rapidly picking up and the sound of tyres screeching into the night, followed by a glance out the mirror of the Supra being sideways in the entrance of the street, the front of the car torn off by hitting a barricade. The SUV’s slowed to a halt as The Driver blazed into the night, the last thing any of his pursuers hearing is a distant bang of a backfire.

	They were clear for now, but not out of the metaphorical woods, as the trees of the forest became a brown and green blur. The Driver didn’t let up, the tight road demanding his every attention as he made his way to the Chateau. After five more minutes of driving, he slowed to a cruise speed, still above the legal speed limit. He let out a breath, relaxing a bit as he still kept his head on a swivel.
“Who was that?” Dawn asked, when she saw that The Driver had relaxed enough.
“Another Driver. I’m not the only one around.”
“And yet he tried to stop you?”
“People will do a lot for money”
“It appears so. Saviour, do you do it for money?”
“I’m not a saviour.”
“Yet if it were not for you, I’d be trapped with no freedom.”
“You are right, but any other Driver could have done it too.”
“Granted, but you’re not any of those.”
Cameron couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.
“Granted indeed, Dawn.”

	They sat in silence once more, until the Chateau came into view. An impressive mansion, it had it’s own massive wall, the gate they were approaching curiously had more security than normal. Indicating right, he turned in, and was stopped by one of four guards; One standing in his way, one on his left, and two on either side with rifles by their sides. The Driver rolled down his window, as the guard walked around to the right hand side of the car.
“Your name?”
“Express Love. As requested.”
The guard looked up and down the car, noting the impressive scratches
“Seems like you faced a few dogs, Postman.”
“Few Bulldogs and a Greyhound”
“I take it you showed yourself the superior?”
“I am here. Why the guards?”
“It’s a function on right now. Boss is expecting you though.”
“Thanks, See you on the way out.”
“You too.”

	The drive up the single street was uneventful, save for all the fancy cars and limousines parked near the Chateau. As they parked right on front of the steps, The Driver turned the engine off, got out, and walked to the passenger side, opening the door to let Dawn out. As The Driver closed the door, they looked up and saw middle-aged figure in a navy blue suit, flanked on one side by another sharply dressed man around the Driver’s age.
“I knew you wouldn’t let me down, Cameron.” The Boss said, a big smile on his face.
“All in a night’s work.” The Driver replied.
“This took far more than a night, my dear Driver.”
“But did this event not transpire within a night?” Dawn asked, looking up at the Boss.
“It culminated from years of Cameron here honing his craft. As other people slept, he was on the roads. Practicing, learning. Until this very night.” The Boss saw the Silvia’s rear bumper, and walked down towards it. Touching the scuffed and scratched paint, he looked over at Cameron.
“It seems you ran into trouble. Anything you’d care to mention?”
“Driver in a black Supra tried intercepting me, assisting the regular cars trying to stop me.” Cameron explained as he walked over to the right hand side.
“This looks serious. Can’t do to have the ‘Special’ looking like this. I’ll have her repainted, free of charge.”
“Generous of you, Boss.”
“It’s Erik now, Cameron. We’re in person, ease up a little.”
“You’re holding a party here too and I look like a homeless person.” Cameron dryly noted.
“Indeed you do, boy racer.” The aide replied sharply.
“And yet he’s far more useful than you. In any case, remain here with Dawn while Daniel and I go attend to some things.” Erik said, turning around. Cameron saw the redness appear on Daniel’s face.

With that, Erik walked up the stairs once more, entering back into the massive double-doors he came from. Cameron leaned on his car, pulling out a small lollipop, sticking it in his mouth as he stuck his hands in his pockets. Dawn walked towards him, also leaning on the car in an imitation of Cameron’s posture. Cameron looked, but decided against it as he offered her a second lollipop. The synthetic human took it, holding it up to her face as if analyzing it.
“Your name is Cameron?” She asked, still intently staring at the lollipop.
“My friends call me Cam.” He replied, looking at her slightly strangely.
“May I be your friend so I can call you Cam?” She asked, finally placing the lollipop in her mouth.
“Well, if you ask me like that, how can I say no?” Cameron scoffed.
“By saying no.” Dawn answered flatly.
“It’s a saying. I’m saying you’re convincing if you ask me like that.”
“Why not say yes? It is more efficient.”
At this point, Cameron realised he probably wasn’t that qualified to talk to artificial intelligence.
“Humans aren’t the most efficient. How’s the lollipop.”
“It tastes… Quite nice. Sweet?”
“Yeah, sweet.” Cameron’s mind was spinning with the fact he was not only talking to an artificial being, she seemed to be able to taste lollipops.
“Cam… Will I ever see you again?” She asked, staring right at Cameron.
“Well, either we will or we won’t. I hope we will, if only to have such a unique experience.”
“There aren’t many like me?”
“Until tonight I didn’t know there were any of you.”
“I hope we meet again as well, Cam.”
And with that, the Boss came back down the steps, seeing the pair leaning against the Silvia. He walked down, and looked at Dawn first.
“Your room is ready, and I suggest you get plenty of rest. As for you...” Erik trailed off, looking at Cameron.
“Transfer is complete, and I’ll have the crew around to ensure your car looks factory-fresh tomorrow. Take the next few days off, but if I need you in a hurry, standard rules apply.”
“Sure thing.” Cameron stood up, as Dawn started to head for the mansion. When she was out of earshot, Erik turned to Cameron.
“Standard rules. No telling everyone you saw an AI.”
“It’s not like anyone would believe me.”
“You did good. I didn’t expect you to make it back so… Intact.”
“Loving the confidence in my skills.” Cameron said, looking up at Erik.
“Look. Take some rest. Chances are you’ll be dodging more Drivers next time you’re running someone.”
“Alright. Guess I’ll see you when I see you.” Cameron said, making his way to the driver’s seat.
“Remember kid, it’s the dawn of a new age, starting tonight. And you played a pivotal role in that.”

Cameron entered the car, then the realization and scoffed, before starting it up once again.
“Poetic name, Dawn.” He commented to himself, looking at the now empty passenger seat.
Hope I see her again. Something tells me I will.
Cameron gently put his foot on the accelerator, and started to head back out into the night.