Another day, another beautiful and sunny afternoon in the state of San Andreas. The desert may be a craphole but the coastlines of Los Santos and Blaine County made SA a virtual paradise. Waves perfect for surfing. Alcoholic drinks never far away. The sun reflecting off the shimmering azure water. And typically lots of beautiful people hitting the sand in their bathing suits for more eye candy. Paleto Bay State Beach didn't have the crowds like Vaspucci Beach or Chumash but it was perfect for Evelyn Collins, who owned a home in the small town. In fact, the only thing she did more than fly planes was swim.
Like any other normal day in her off hours she spent it killing time under the ocean in her favorite aqua colored bikini. She emerged from the water clearing the remaining water away from her eyes and then put her sunglasses on. The excess water was shaken out of her long, fire-red mane of hair as she headed up away from the shoreline. Finally, she popped open a can of Sprunk soda and laid back in her lounge chair, ready for some sunbathing. Water continued to drip down her body and legs but the beaming sun would take care of that before long. The only thing missing was the radio next to her playing her favorite station to make it the perfect day.
Before she could turn on the radio her phone started ringing its usual faux-hip hop ringtone. The number wasn't one she recognized and the area code wasn't even local. Her initial thought was to ignore it and continue her sunbathing but strange numbers she didn't recognize was how she managed to find work when she came to Los Santos six months ago. Against better judgment she threw in her earpiece and hit ACCEPT. "Speak." she nearly barked out.
"Evelyn Collins?" A woman's voice asked on the other end. "This is Agent Daniels. Karen Daniels? I'm not sure if you remember me from that job you did for us two months ago."
"I remember you. From the Lab Raid. You put me and my crew through a lot of work and then paid us pennies for our troubles. To what do I owe the displeasure of speaking with you again?" Evelyn growled out while lying back in her chair.
Even with the obvious ferocity being thrown at her Agent Daniels kept the same professional tone she was trained to use. "I could explain the details of your payment from last time but I'll cut to the chase. The answer to your question is money, Ms. Collins. You want it and I have work that will reward you substantially with it IF you can pull it off."
"How much we talkin' here? Another paltry $500,000?" Asked Evelyn in a rather sarcastic manner.
"How does $2,000,000 to each of you sound?"
The redhead nearly spit out her soda at hearing the dollar amount. Was this for real? She knew it was some kind of government contract but it almost seemed too good to be true. Unfortunately she couldn't let such a grand payday pass her by. Now more calm she responded. "I'm listening."
"I thought that would grab your attention. Let's meet in person. I'll give you the details then."
"Alright. I'll bite. Where do you want to meet?"
"Your apartment on Alta Street. Bring two people you can trust. See you in an hour." Before Evelyn could say anything the call ended abruptly.
Part of her told her that she should have said no. The Humane Labs Raid was supposed to be a big job and they got screwed over. Small amount of cash and she didn't even get to keep the Valkyrie helicopter. But this was $2,000,000! She'd be out of her mind to not check it out at least.
No time was wasted in Evelyn gathering her things and hopping in her matte black Dukes. A massive cloud of smoke and black tracks were left in the wake behind the big car as it screamed off down the street, her phone already dialing up one of her partners-in-crime. "Jackie? It's Evelyn. Call Chad and tell him to be my place on Alta in the next hour. It's time to get back to get the crew back together."
Forty-five minutes later Evelyn was sitting on the couch in her Alta Street apartment now wearing what seemed to be her default outfit consisting of a light blue croptop-style tank, white hot pants and blue knee-high boots. By then the other two members of her crew had shown up.
The first, Chad, was a tall, tan man with black hair styled into a faux mohawk. As long as Evelyn had known him he could always be seen in a large black overcoat and black cargo pants with military boots. It made her wonder if he showered and slept in it, too. The two of them had first started working together on a job for a methed-up lunatic named Trevor Philips not long after she moved to LS and each considered the other to be something equivalent to friends in this fucked up city.
The other was a short Asian woman who went by the name Jackie. The way she always elected to take the least amount of money from their scores, coupled with how she looked to still be in her late teens, left Evelyn with the impression that she was some spoiled rich kid from Vinewood Hills who was only there to get off on the thrill of it all. What's more, despite her young age, she always dressed in designer clothes and was able to contribute a lot of the cash needed for job setups. A dangerous addiction but Evelyn felt she was in no position to judge. In her eyes the girl still held a higher chance of living longer than if she did drugs or drank heavily. The most notable feature about her aside from the flashy clothes was definitely her dark purple hair which she kept up in pigtails adding to her youthful appearance.
Evelyn's phone buzzed for what had to be the hundredth time in fifteen minutes alerting her to a status update on LifeInvader. "I know you like to be entertained, Jackie, but I told you it would be one hour. You don't have to update your LifeInvader status every two minutes with 'I'm bored."
Jackie was sitting at the kitchen's bar playing on her phone while Chad was doing upkeep on a pistol at the dining table. The radio in the living area was tuned in to West Coast Classics filling the room with Eazy-E's No More ?'s.
"Well I am. We haven't done anything in a month now. I can't help but feel the suspense when you don't give us any details on this job aside from 'It's big." Jackie said, finally sticking her phone in her pocket to Evelyn's relief.
Chad felt the need to chime in with his two cents. "She makes a good point, Evie. We waited a month for that mess with Merryweather and the FIB to die down before pulling another big job. Can't blame her for being a little excited." He said in his deep voice as he kept working on his gun.
"Hey, I'd give details if I had any. All I got was a phone call with an offer and instructions to wait one hour for this meet-up. I'm ready to get back to work just as much as you are but we have to be professionals, J." Evelyn explained. The group chat was suddenly interrupted by a loud knock on the door. Jackie's head instantly shot up at attention. "See? That's the client now." Evelyn made her way to the door and opened it for their guests.
Agent Daniels hurried through the door followed by what Evelyn assumed was a fellow agent. The only look she got at the two was brief as the pair breezed past her and headed for the Heist Planning Room, Daniels carrying a briefcase. "Heist Room. Now." She ordered. The trio of thieves followed them and each took a seat.
"Hello, everyone. Good to see you all again. No doubt you share the same sentiment to me." Karen smirked as she looked the crew over one-by-one as she stood in front of them all, her associate standing just to the side of her. "Jackie. Chad. Evelyn. How ya doing?"
Chad piped in first. "Clearly better than the feds since we haven't had to go through a shitstorm against the FIB for a little bit of money."
Karen sighed and threw her arms up a bit. "You've got me there. It is true that we've hit a rough patch with our funding. I won't ask how you know about that but it is one of the reasons why I'm here."
"Yes, we really feel for you poor souls, Agent Daniels. Knowing that you might have to face budget cuts and lose the ability to oppress the innocent." Said Jackie getting the woman's name off the ID badge hanging from her neck.
"First off, you all can just call me Karen. We're all basically friends now after helping each other out." Karen smiled more at them. Evelyn found it slightly creepy that she was being so friendly with them all of a sudden, unsure if it was genuine or a front to keep them off-guard. "Secondly, this concerns all of us. Agent Donovan, if you would be so kind as to show them what we're dealing with?"
The other agent took the briefcase from Karen and proceeded to unload its contents on the table. From what Evelyn could see there was a laptop, a tablet, and a notebook. Then he took to work marking things on the map that hung on the planning board writing things down on the dry erase board as he went.
"Besides," She continued as her co-worker was still going, "hasn't your friend here told you what's at stake for all of you?" When she finished everyone minus Donovan leered at her in a somewhat half-excited, half-curious way.
"$2 Million." She whispered under breath before raising her voice excidetly. "TWO-FUCKIN'-MILLION DOLLARS!"
"Are you for real?!" Jackie asked. Her face contorted strangely as she wasn't sure if she was to be happy or not. "Seriously?" She asked turning to Karen. Chad took in the information but waited for more before speaking up.
"You think I would lead you around like that? Of course I'm serious. Remember, we at the IAA take care of our own. Not like those FIB pricks who live in yesterday and make public safety a dick measuring contest. However, we have something we'd like you to help us with first." Karen was about to turn things over to the board when Chad angrily cut her off.
"And there it is! The catch. There's always something when it comes to you government spooks. What do we have to do? Kidnap some VIP? Invade a third-world country? Steal a nuke?" He started to list off very sarcastically. "Oh! I know! Prevent World War III by assassinating a despot who happens to be the leader of a group of Russian ultranationalists!" The last one caused Evelyn to giggle and snort a little.
The IAA agent wasn't above smirking herself and, surprisingly, looked as though she might let loose a laugh. But of course she kept it in and composed herself to continue. "Oh, I assure you it's nothing so serious. Not yet anyway. Take a look at the board and you'll see what needs to be done." Two places were circled on the map: Sandy Shores Airfield and Paleto Bay State Beach. "What we have planned for you is a little exchange of goods. They have weapons that they're trying to sell to some unsavory figures in South America that we will requisition from them and sell to some of our friends in the Caribbean. The requisition part will simply involve you three taking out whoever they've hired, presumably dirty cops on their payroll, stealing their aircraft once it's loaded with product, and then flying it to Paleto Bay where we will have a pilot ready to take over for you and fly it on to our eager customers. It couldn't be simpler."
"And this 'requisition' is worth Two-Mill?" Jackie asked.
"That, my friends, is where this comes in." Karen grabbed the tablet that was laying on the table. Her fingers glided across the touchscreen as they went to work. "There. We. Go! I think you will find that decent." The three of them were about to look at each other and her in confusion when their phones started going off at the same time. All three had the same alert saying that a deposit had been made in their bank account. $500,000 to be precise.
"What's this?" Asked Evelyn, staring at the screen and then back at Karen.
"This is an advance payment for the requisition job. That should get you set up with whatever you need and you just might have a little spending money left over." Karen now started pacing the floor eying the trio's faces as she went. Evelyn started wondering if she was trying to profile them at the same time as giving her description of the job but stayed silent. "You pull this off and it shows how capable you are to my bosses. They see this done and you get the go ahead for what comes after and then, the rest of the money."
"How capable?" Chad shot up out of his chair. It looked as if he might try tackling the agent to the ground but he stopped directly in her face. "What the fuck?! So I guess we didn't prove ourselves when we were going against Merryweather to steal some helicopter or sneaking aboard an aircraft carrier to steal a jet just so you could get some goddamn computer files?! This is bullshit, man!"
Slowly Karen started to laugh and looked around at the group. Chad, however, was not amused. "The hell is so funny all of a sudden?"
"Just that you think you have a choice in the matter." She continued laughing softly and smiling at them.
"What do you mean?" Asked Evelyn worriedly.
"I was told to make you cooperate no matter what. You know, the money was my idea to show you that we're friends in the hopes that you would sign on willingly. But apparently it has come to Plan B." Karen tapped a few more times on the tablet. On the laptop CCTV footage popped up of them doing The Merryweather Heist's sub-jobs from the aircraft carrier to taking on the Lab itself. "We have enough to put each of you away for life which, given the conditions of Bollingbroke, apparently isn't very long."
Evelyn and Jackie pulled Chad back away from Karen. He was still fuming. Mostly because he didn't trust this woman as far as he could throw her but didn't have any choice but to do the Agency's dirty work. He took to kicking a chair across the room instead of planting his foot in her ass like he wanted. "Fine." He growled out as he backed off across the room.
"We'll do it." Evelyn added. "When do we start?"
"Tomorrow night around 10:00 PM." Karen said walking in front of Evelyn. She got a good view of Karen's facial features. For a hardnosed government stooly she wasn't bad looking. "I'm glad you see things my way. This is why I like you, Evelyn. Unlike some people you can listen to reason." She flashed a smile at the redhead before her partner moved to the door having collected their things. "Well I guess that'll do it." Her head turned to Donovan. "Got everything?"
Donovan gave Karen a big doofy grin as he held up the briefcace. "All ready to go, Karen."
The smile instantly disappeared from the senior agent's face. "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware we were on a first name basis."
And now Donovan's smile disappeared and was replaced by an expression of confusion and fear. "B-but I thought you said we're all friends."
"No. I said that we, meaning they and I," Karen pointed at the three thieves and herself, "are friends. You and I are co-workers. You're a newbie on probation and I'm the poor sap who has to be your SO. You show me some respect and only refer to me as Agent Daniels or so help me God, I will bust your ass back to being a metermaid in Liberty City. Got it?" Donovan looked ready to crap his pants but he managed to nod his head. "Good. Now get in the fucking car." He complied and left the room immediately. The senior agent returned her attention to the other three. "Alright. Glad to see everyone's on the same page. I'll leave you to get ready and see you tomorrow night." With that she left as well with the thieves going back to the living area.
Once Karen was in the elevator and it was moving down all three of them planted their butts in the sofa and chairs around the coffee table. Chad was still furious on the inside about being roped into helping the Feds while Evelyn wasn't sure if everything would go as smooth as Karen explained. Finally after a few minutes Jackie broke the silence that had befallen the room. "Well I say we get some rest to do this thing. No point in us turning down easy money."
"I don't like the blackmail angle but we might as well. It's certainly not as bad as the alternative." Evelyn added. She and Jackie gave a smile and a nod to each other and then they turned to Chad who had finished putting his gun back together.
After another brief moment of silence where he looked back and forth at his two comrades he sighed. "Okay, okay. We'll do it."
Jackie threw her arms into the air. "Yes! We're back, bitches!"
Evelyn quickly interjected. "I hate to rain on your parade, J, but let's just see how tomorrow goes. If something happens that we don't like, we initiate a backup plan. Agreed?" The other two nodded. "Alright. Now let's get some sleep."
Jackie elected to crash on Evelyn's sofa while Chad went home to his own place. She spent a few minutes lying on her bed staring out the large windows. She couldn't stop thinking about Karen and how uneasy she felt around her. From being nice one second to terrifying the next. The woman was almost impossible to read. She probably owed quite a bit to her government training for that coupled with natural charisma. Evelyn knew she'd have to even the odds somehow to remotely stand a chance of coming out ahead of the IAA and she knew just the person to see about it.