[The Tempest trilogy: Book 2] After the incident in Ostrava's Neoclash arena, Zoya faces dangerous challenges. Nightingale's uprising threatens to destroy the whole Europe, the racist Yeomen movement steps up their campaing against Castaways and Rya...
"What my political opponents tend to forget is that the Castaways were once people like me, too. They were only so unfortunate they got caught by the Radiance after the Archangel's impact. Maybe, at the first and even second glance, they differ from us, but deep in their hearts, they are the same. They want love, safety, security. Just think about it. If the Archangel landed a little more to the west, we would be the Castaways now and we would have to rely on the other countries to decide about our fate while we would fight for our lives."
- The political speech of Daniel Havel, 125 a.I.
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"Are you ready to see it?" Anton greets me with a toothy grin in his round, tanned face. He is a Castaway mechanic who gave up the Champion career to work in a nice big workshop in Birmingham which specializes in tuning, renovation and customization of all kinds of vehicles.
It's a well-known fact that Anton built his artificial arm he uses to work by himself. It's not designed for combat, but for his job - he has so many various tools crammed inside I can't even name them all properly. Since he no longer has to stay in shape, he has a rather big pot belly and fleshy limbs.
"Of course I am," I return him the smile.
Anton takes me deeper into the workshop; there are several cars and motorbikes parked in garages, There is a huge mess everywhere - oil stains, tins with paint, tools everywhere around me. However, it seems that Anton sees a perfect order in this chaos.
"Okay, here it is." He guides me to something hidden under a smudgy white tarpaulin. "Voilá!" he shouts as he removes the cloth, revealing what's underneath and making me gasp in awe.
About a month ago, some time after Nightingale's failed siege on the Buckingham Palace, I finally bought myself a vehicle. A beautiful, high-performance motorbike from the renowned brand Serendipity, model Themis. The bike was beautiful on its own, but my usually well-hidden sense of vanity made me bring it to Anton and order some slight changes in the bike's design.
And he did a brilliant job.
The bike is Counter-gravity powered, so it doesn't have wheels. The slim, graceful frame hides powerful electric engines additionally powered by decent solar panels placed on several spots on the bike. The frame is toned into black and white to match my former Champion costume.
The front shield is shiny black, with a white motive of an ornament similar to spread wings - the one I used to wear on my chest. Another two pieces of light black metal, right underneath the seat, are decorated by a white hurricane symbol from the back of my costume accompanied by shiny chrome letters spelling THEMIS.
"This is... this is incredible!" I gasp in awe. Needless to say, the whole thing was hella expensive. Almost a hundred thousand royals plus another thousand spent on Anton's tuning. But it's so worth it. I know the thing in front of me is merely a machine, but its beauty and elegance almost give it an impression of a living being.
