Still in shock, the 16-year-old Jockey nods, “I need to get you registered as the replacement horse,” he says, “I’ll be right back,” he then sprints out of the stables.
‘Hope it’s not to late,’ Jeff thinks to himself.
The young jockey sprints towards the office, bursting through the door, “Dennis! What the hell,” a man behind a desk asks.
Dennis skids to a halt in front of the desk, “m-mister Wolf, I… I found a replacement horse,” he pants, “please… put me on the competing list!”
“Where did you get the horse from, and are you experienced with it?”
“A… friend of mine brought him,” Dennis lies, “I was… able to train with the horse a few times. Please, sir!”
Mr. Wolf narrows his eyes, but when he sees the pleading look in the boy’s eyes the man lets out a sigh, “okay, Dennis,” he says, grabbing a pen and a document, “what’s the horse’s name?”
“Zeus,” Dennis says without thinking.
“And the owner’s?”
“Jeff… Jeff Davis!”
Mr. Wolf nods, “you’re competition number is seven,” he says.
Dennis beams, “thanks, sir,” he says.
Mr. Wolf nods, he then gets to his feet and walks to a shelve, grabbing a large thin blanket with the number “7” written on it, “here, now get out!”
Dennis takes the blanket and hurries back to the stables, “Jeff, it worked, I managed to add us to the list, we are number seven,” he says when he arrives at the stall where Jeff is still waiting.
The “horse” smiles, “good, well, what are you waiting for?”
Dennis nods, he opens the door to the stall and Jeff steps out, “by the way, your “horse name” is “Zeus”,” he says, “hope you don’t mind!”
Jeff chuckles “nah,” he says.
Dennis quickly throws the blanket with the number over Jeff’s back, then puts the saddle on, and finally the mouth piece, “let’s win this,” Dennis says, “my name’s Dennis by the way”.
Jeff nods, “it’s a pleasure to meet you, Dennis,” he says.
Dennis leads Jeff out of the stables and gets into the saddle, before heading towards the race track. Once in position, Dennis takes a deep breath, leaning forward he whispers, “don’t let me down… Zeus,” into Jeff’s ear.
“I won’t,” Jeff says.
When the horn, which signals the start of the race, blares and the doors of the start line fly open, Jeff immediately shoots forward, galloping as fast as he can, over taking every horse, and as he passes the finish line he hears, “WINNER NUMBER SEVEN,” blare over the speakers and Dennis whooping on his back.
Jeff chuckles to himself as he slowly slows down into a trot then into a normal walk, letting Dennis guide him to the exit of the track, where they are greeted by a large group of people, congratulating Dennis.
After receiving the trophy, Dennis leads Jeff back to the stables and removes the saddle and race number, he then beams up at the horse, “thanks Jeff… for everything,” he says.
Jeff chuckles, “it was my pleasure,” he says, “and it was real fun, I felt so powerful and fast!”
Dennis grins, “you were great,” he says, “almost as if you have always been a racehorse!”
Jeff chuckles, “it’s not that difficult to be honest,” he says, “I just let my instincts guide me”.
Dennis leads Jeff into the stall and closes the door behind him, “so, this program… what is it able to do?”
“Oh, a lot of things,” Jeff says, “it’s able to alter the reality and even the mind of a target”.
“Eeesh, sounds dangerous,” Dennis says, “I mean… if it were to fall in to the hands of some criminal…”.
Jeff nods, “yeah… that wouldn’t be fun,” he says.
Dennis sits on a bench in front of the stall, grinning at his trophy, “I wish I could repay you somehow,” he says.
Jeff chuckles, “seeing you happy is payment enough,” he says.
Dennis smiles, he then looks over to the pile of Jeff’s clothing, “do… do you mind if I check out the app? I promise not to do anything!”
Jeff thinks for a while, he then nods his head, “why not, I feel I can trust you,” he says.