Chapter 1 (excerpted)
Leroy Makelray of KABD news felt his body instinctively flinch in fear as 300,000 motorcycles rumbled toward him. He stood on an overpass to do the network feed while the cameras would tape the pack passing below them like an endless, roaring snake.
Traffic on the Golden State freeway sped on mindless. Sometimes being in the news business gave a real insight into the supidity of man. Leroy wasn't sure that he liked that. He could remember when he thought man was an intelligent animal, endowed as no other with free choice. But that was long ago. He'd lost a little of the pride he used to have in his species. Homo sapiens. Wiseman. now he realized how futile it really was to try and fight the real power: Money.
Like the stupid-ass bikers that would soon pass below. They had worked for almost a year solid trying to get the helemt law repealed nationwide. Leroy knew that they were right, that law was about as unconstitutional as slavery, but there was more money on the side of the helmet manufacturers and the federal government than on the sides of the bikers. So their cause was lost from the start.
The mandatory helmet law for motorcyclists was a brainstorm of the safety establishment in the federal government. On the surface the reasoning was simple: Bikers are too dumb to know what is good for them, therefore the police must force them to wear hard hats whether they like it or not. In truth, the safety bureau didn't give a damn about the bikers' heads. They were going to ban motorcycles anyway. What they needed was a legal precedent to force mandatory self-protection on car drivers and passengers. That's where the big money was. Nobody would pay much attention to a biker's rights and the motorcyclists themselves were too dumb and disorganized to do anything about it.
What worried him was what might happen when the bikers learned how futile their right was. This was the first time that bikers had ever joined together for a political cause and it scared him a little. These people are not your normal citizens. They are just apt to get really mad, and if they do there was no telling what might happen.
Earlier he had asked what they would do if they lost the helmet law battle. Their leader was a large and scary individual by the name of Treb Lincoln. Lincoln stepped off his bike, towering above the newsman and camera, looked hard at Leroy and shrugged.
"Hell man, I'm just a dumb biker. If they don't drop the lid law Idon't guess I can control my brothers here. They're likely to get a mean attitude."
Chapter 2 (excerpted)
I glanced up from my speedometer and saw the broadcaster eyeballing down on me. Hell, I hope the pack is centered. I would hate to go to all this horsecrap and lose out on any of the exposure.
My Fatbob Harley was running as good as it had ever run and the feel of the vibrating power came right through the handlebars. All I could think about was the snake behind me. I looked into my rearview mirror and once again my heart beat a little harder. Jesus H. Christ, there is no better feeling in the world than leading 30,000 bikes down the road. Unless it might be leading 40,000 bikes down the road.
Just before we passed under the bridge I looked back up at the broadcaster...
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