Lethal Velocity by Lincoln Child

Author:Lincoln Child
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2002-12-24T05:00:00+00:00

AS THE AFTERNOON lengthened, and the unrelieved blue hanging over the Nevada desert began to pale with the promise of approaching evening, the estimated crowd of 66,000 strolling the boulevards of Utopia reached what Park psychologists termed the “mature” stage. The initial peak of excitement had crested. The pace slowed slightly as parents—feet a little sore and limbs a little weary—sought temporary refuge in restaurants, live performances, or shows like The Enchanted Prince, where they could relax in comfortable seats. A small percentage of visitors, unwilling to face the parking lot delays at closing, made an early start for the Nexus and the monorail, where they found a few more outgoing trains than usual. The vast majority, however, stayed on, preferring to return yet again to a beloved ride, or perhaps tour a World not yet visited, marking time until 8:30. That was when Utopia’s biggest spectacle began: four simultaneous indoor fireworks displays, computer-synchronized and launched from spots within each of the Worlds, bursting with awe-inspiring brilliance beneath the dark canopy of the dome. This was followed by an even more massive outdoor display, rising high above the dome: a farewell gift to the guests as they left the Park and pointed their cars toward Vegas or Reno.

One place where the midafternoon slump was not apparent was in the queues outside Utopia’s roller coasters and free-falls. At mainline attractions like the Linear Induction–powered Event Horizon and Dragonspire, thick crowds continued to mill, and the atmosphere of excitement and apprehensive glee was as heavily charged as ever.

This was especially true at the entrance to Boardwalk’s most notorious ride, the Scream Machine. The Machine, as it was universally known, was a re-creation of the kind of roller coaster made famous on Coney Island in the 1920s. It looked like the consummate midway relic: a vast, sprawling forest of spars and timbers, carefully distressed by the Park’s illusion engineers to a dangerously weathered appearance. Just the sight of its near-vertical drops and cruel corkscrew twists convinced many would-be riders to seek tamer diversions.

The Machine, like all roller coasters, was more about psychology than engineering. It was actually a tubular steel ride, cleverly disguised to look like a traditional wooden coaster. The metal construction allowed for sharper banks, tighter loops, and more “air time”—moments of negative gravity when riders were actually lifted out of their seats. The complex timbered shell, on the other hand, enhanced the “picket fence” effect of a wooden coaster: spars and beams, rushing past only a few feet from riders, made the fifty-mile-per-hour speed seem several times greater, thus generating the “lethal velocity” experience all true thrill-seekers craved. And the ride’s designers intentionally heightened the sense of menace by placing some very un-Utopia warnings about the dangerous effects of high-G turns at its entrance, installing a full-time nurse at the unloading ramp. Small wonder that “I Survived the Machine” T-shirts, available only in Boardwalk, were one of the Park’s hottest-selling concession items.

Eric Nightingale had mandated that the Scream Machine boast the tallest first drop—290 feet—of any coaster west of the Mississippi.

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