Half an hour?

By now, the fire was raging hotter than ever, and from under the hood came a second muffled explosion.

I knew perfectly well this car wouldn’t last ten more minutes.

Inside the smoke-filled car, I heard my own hoarse voice saying, “Thomas… you really want me dead?”

A light, mocking laugh came through the comms.

“One life to secure Mandy’s future. Doesn’t sound like a bad trade, does it?

“Come on, pretty racer, the cameras are all on you.”

Mandy’s voice followed, tinged with excitement. “Thomas! The sponsor just gave the green light!

“They said if Jane can drive blind for one minute, I can go straight into the team’s starting lineup!”

Thomas immediately turned to me, his voice bubbling with excitement he couldn’t hide.

“Did you hear that?

“Go on! Give Mandy one last hand!”

My heart sank completely.

So that was it. From the start, I had been nothing but a stepping stone for them.

The smoke burned relentlessly in my lungs as I forced the car around with all my strength.

Instantly catching the sound of my labored breathing, Thomas’ voice dripped with scorn and amusement.

“What’s the matter? Trying to scare me with the same ‘we die together’ act?

“Jane, you’re all talk about morals and virtue, but deep down, you care more for your life than anyone.

“If you really had the guts, you’d have crashed already.”

Hearing those few words, it was as if all my strength had been drained.

His understanding of me had, in that moment, become my death sentence.

“The car’s been off-track for so long. Don’t you fear the organizers will trace this?!”

I coughed up blood, each word squeezed from between my teeth.

The response was his careless laughter.

“Trace it? I’ve already reported everything.

“You’re the one who went rogue, trying to push past the limit into an undeveloped segment!

“Right now, all the cameras are just capturing your showboating.

“By the time they realize something’s wrong, you’ll be nothing but ash.”

My vision blurred in the smoke.

The last bit of my survival instinct forced out one final plea.

“Thomas, didn’t you say our daughter is waiting for me to come back?

“If she can’t see me…”

Mandy cut me off, triumphant. “Jane, your daughter was killed the moment she was born. Thanks for raising my daughter all these years.

“But my baby won’t be needing you anymore.”

My mind went blank. All I could hear was Mandy’s voice, filled with cruel satisfaction.

“Don’t worry. Once you’re gone, your sickly old mom will follow you soon enough.

“As for us, we’ll make sure to enjoy that insurance money of yours properly.”

Darkness surged like a tidal wave. At the edge of being swallowed, Thomas’s voice came again, and this time, he didn’t even bother hiding his contempt.

“Jane, at a time like this, shouldn’t you be thanking me? After all, when you’re reduced to ashes, you’ll have to beg me to graciously collect what’s left of you.”

My fingers slipped off the blistering steering wheel.

Just as my consciousness was about to cut out, a frantic male voice pierced through the comms.

“Thomas! Why hasn’t Jane’s signal come back yet?!”

It was the team manager!

Drawing strength from somewhere I didn’t know I had, I clutched the comms tightly and screamed with the last of my energy.

“Second stage, undeveloped sector! The car is on fire, about to explode!

“Requesting immediate emergency rescue!”

Time stretched endlessly in the silence.

No matter how I screamed, all I heard on the other end of the comms was the team manager, Ben Sutton’s repeated questions.

It was then that I realized Thomas had cut off my audio feed long ago.

Thomas’s feigned worried voice rose over everything.

“Oh, Ben, don’t worry. You know how stubborn Jane is. She says she won’t make contact unless she breaks the record, insisting on creating a miracle all by herself.”

I frantically adjusted the signal transmitter, my throat raw as I spoke out.

“Ben! The brakes and doors have been tampered with! Send someone now!”

However, all that reached me was the static hiss of electricity.

From the other side came the faint scrape of a chair and the tap of keys.

Then Mandy’s anxious voice cut in.

“Sigh, I really don’t know how far Jane wants to take this car. The fire is already huge, and she still won’t slow down or stop.

“Are those empty honors really more important than her life?”

Silence swallowed the comms again.

Then came Ben’s disappointed sigh.

“Jane is too impatient and shortsighted to handle great responsibility. This time, she must be dealt with seriously.”

“Click.” The sharp sound of a closing door echoed.

My last hope had been utterly crushed.

…

Just as my consciousness teetered on the edge of darkness, Thomas’s mocking voice returned.

“Did you hear that, Jane? In everyone’s eyes, you’re just a fool seeking your own death.

“Be good and stay on the road. I’m in a good mood. I might even burn a little paper for you, so you won’t have to beg below.”

Each word landed like a hammer blow against my chest.

Before I could recover, Mandy’s impatient voice cut in. “Jane, do us a favor and hand over your bank password before you go, will you?

“You’ll be dead anyway. No use wasting it.”

That money was a life-saving fund I had left for my mother’s treatment.

Dizzy and near death, darkness crept into the edges of my vision.

However, the thought that they would never spare my frail mother once I was gone ignited a surge of desperate, furious strength through my body.

‘Mandy, you and Thomas thought you could use my life to secure your promotion?

‘Then I’ll send you straight to hell to earn it!’

“Boom!”

I slammed the scorching gas pedal to the floor with every ounce of strength I had.

The burning car shot forward under the cameras, dragging a trail of fire across the feed.

“Jane! Are you insane?!”

As the commentator for this event, Thomas was the first to notice my move.

This time, though, I ignored him.

Through the haze of my vision, their commentator booth grew rapidly closer, enlarging on the screen.

Finally, someone noticed the suicidal trajectory and shouted in alarm, “No! She’s coming right at us! Run!”

Thomas’s voice could no longer carry any composure. Only the sound of collapse and desperate shouting remained.

“Stop! Jane! Stop right now!”

I gripped the steering wheel with all my strength.

The burning front of the car scraped hard against the safety barrier, sending a shower of sparks into the air.

Amid the crashing sounds, I clearly heard the two of them screaming as they dialed for help.

“Someone, hurry! Jane’s gone mad!”

“She’s trying to kill us! She’s going to crash into us!”

As the structure beneath the commentator booth began to sway dangerously, I twisted the wheel sharply.

The car brushed perilously close to a concrete pillar, leaving a shocking scratch in its wake.

Crash straight into them? That would have been too easy.

What I wanted was for them to be tormented slowly, trapped in long, drawn-out despair.

As expected, seeing my assault briefly ease, the two figures on the commentary platform scrambled out, tumbling over each other.

They fled toward the empty backfield, thinking they had seized a chance at survival.

That was when I accelerated again, the burning front of the car closing in instantly.

Frozen in fear, they almost collapsed to the ground in relief, ready to embrace each other, only to be terrified into pale, rigid statues by the sudden roar of my approach.

“She’s catching up! Run!

“The car’s about to explode! She won’t hold much longer!

“Get back into the commentator booth! We’ll wait her out!”

Wait her out?

I sneered.

Whether buried under collapsed rubble or trapped with me for the car’s inevitable explosion, their fate was the same: a dead end.

Watching them scurry back to the booth like frightened rats, I readjusted my direction and slammed the car toward the wall where they hid.

“Boom!”

The violent jolt blacked out my vision for a moment, my organs feeling as if they’d shifted inside me.

Yet through the dust, a surge of grim satisfaction coursed through me when I saw their terrified faces.

Just as I steadied the car and prepared for the next strike, a deafening roar filled the air.

The massive sound of a helicopter drew near, and through the loudspeakers above came the team manager’s voice.

“Found them! Fire brigade! Put out the fire!”

No sooner had he spoken than a bucket of dry powder poured from above, hitting the exact spot where the car was ablaze.

The rescue team had arrived, and the engine fire was gradually extinguished.

Soon, rescuers broke the window and dragged me out of the car.

Fresh air flooded my lungs. Coughing violently, I felt a faint but undeniable sense of being alive.

As I was lifted onto the ambulance, I saw Thomas and Mandy. Their clothes disheveled, their expressions of post-trauma relief twisted into anger the instant they laid eyes on me.

They rushed straight toward me.

At that moment, a hand shot out, blocking them. It was the team manager, Ben Sutton.

I turned my head through the pain, trying to say something.

The next second, my collar was seized with brutal force.

Ben’s bloodshot eyes were inches from mine.

“Jane! Who gave you the courage to drive into a non-race zone? Do you even know what you’ve destroyed?!

“The Endurance King was the future of the entire team!”

I was burned in multiple places, barely snatched back from the edge of an explosion. Still, all he cared about was that pile of scorched metal.

Watching Ben’s twisted face, I pried his fingers off mine one by one. “Your ‘future of the team’ almost turned me to ash.”

His expression froze, then he yanked his hand free with a sharp jerk.

“You’d better pray that car can still be repaired.”

Ben spat the words through clenched teeth and staggered toward the wreckage.

Cool saline flowed into my veins.

I stared at the swaying IV line, my gaze growing icily cold.

Thomas and Mandy, our accounts will be slowly settled.