Chapter 2- A detective by day…. A racer by night
Fairhaven City Police Department, 22th Precinct. 12:30 a.m.
After the frustrated high speed chase in downtown Fairhaven City, Ivan and Demitri were escorted by the police into the booking area. There they saw their getaway driver.
"I told you not to hire this woman for the job" Demitri snarled.
"Shut up!" Ivan said in Romanian.
Officer Lauren Garza removed the handcuffs from Izumi's wrists and handed her a cup of coffee. Izumi rub her hand on her left wrist before she took the cup of coffee from her friend.
"Since when they serve coffee to people they catch?" Ivan asked.
"Good job Detective De Souza" a tall man wearing a black business suit with a shaved head in his early forties said as he handed Izumi her badge and gun.
"Thank you Captain" Izumi replied
"That bitch is an undercover cop?!" Demitri yelled in Romanian as he witnessed that he and his partner were fooled by who they thought was a getaway driver.
"Now we're screwed" Ivan replied.
"Don't worry. We have enough evidence to arrest your boss for smuggling conflict diamonds and for fraud by staging the robbery at the art gallery" Izumi replied with a sweet smile on her face.
"You're dead bitch! You'll pay for crossing us!" Ivan yelled as he was being taken to the holding area. Izumi only dismissed the threat as she redirected her attention to Captain Douglas Mancini.
"Are we arresting their boss tomorrow morning?" Izumi asked
"We'll make the arrest, we've got more than enough to secure a conviction but there's something we need to talk in my office, we can't talk about it here" Captain Mancini replied.
"Another case?" Izumi asked.
"Yeah but it's a high profile case"
Izumi didn't like the sound of that. She didn't like the idea of working undercover after all she had gone under as a car thieve, money launderer, and even as a drug user. She preferred running investigations and solving cases. Izumi only shook her head in frustration and took a sip from her coffee.
Then Izumi made her way from the booking area into the offices. As in most police precincts there were endless rows of desks terribly organized with stacks of papers and of course cops walking all over the place. There was a stairway to the upper floors. The vice unit office was on the fourth floor, Izumi opened the glass door and walked to her desk which was located on the other end of the office. The vice unit office was more organized than the homicide or narcotic units on the bottom floors but of all the vice unit officers' desks, Izumi's was the most organized. Maybe because she hardly spent time at headquarters. There Izumi sat down and stared at her computer in frustration, filling paperwork was always the boring part after a bust. Izumi then looked at her e-mail notification. She looked and saw it was from a website that kept track of all street racing results.
"Hmm… what's this? New sprint record on Bayview's Beacon Hill… someone beat my record" Izumi started to think back on her days as street racer and as a university student. She was one of the best racers in the city. She was acquainted with Lance Zane, the street racer famous for conquering Olympic City and after wrecking his Nissan Skyline GT-R, moved to Bayview and conquered it and became a living legend. She met him shortly after she moved back from Tokyo where she was living with her family. At the time Izumi was very rebellious and in the streets of Tokyo is where she honed her racing skills and even owned a GT-R of her own back then. Once in Bayview she was very over confident but eventually became more humble after losing to Lance. For Izumi, cars were more like a getaway from her problems even now as a cop she takes pleasure on driving and racing every now and then.
Suddenly Izumi saw Captain Mancini walking towards his office, she got up from her seat and followed him.
"What is this case you wanted to talk to me about Captain?" Izumi asked.
"First let me say you were very reckless on that high pursuit downtown to say the least" Captain Mancini said with a stern tone in his voice.
"Captain I had to make it real or I would've blown my cover" Izumi replied.
"You were instructed to wait for back up to show up! Not to engage them into a street race, we're also trying to stop illegal street racing. Not encouraging it!" Mancini pressed his index fingers on his temples trying to reduce his stress.
"Stopping street racing is traffic enforcement's problem, ours is organized crime" Izumi talked back to her superior in her usual rebellious tone "and honestly we did our job and we'll pick up their boss in the morning"
"Our worry isn't not only catching assholes like them but to also maintain the public trust... remember that detective De Souza"
Izumi took a deep breathe, as much as she hated lectures she knew Mancini was right. It wasn't the first time she was accused of being reckless while being on the job. One time when she was a patrol officer, Izumi sent a guy to the ICU for domestic violence. Situations like that made her unpopular with other cops. She trained different martial arts styles from her mother. Izumi appreciated the effectiveness of it but not so much in the tradition. She had a reputation of going against protocol but she solved cases that most "by the book" detectives couldn't. But still, many saw her as a loose cannon.
"To tell you the truth nobody likes us anymore and we keep seeing more cops either in prison or out of the job while crooks win civil lawsuits" Mancini got up from his seat and looked at the window "But I can't blame you for the most part, been under is very much like acting. That's the reason I wanted to talk to you"
"About acting?" Izumi asked
"The next case. This is a very special case and requires someone with your sets of skills behind the wheel. I'm not gonna lie to you, these people are very dangerous and they won't hesitate to kill an undercover officer if his cover is blown. The case is very delicate to say the least" Captain Mancini kept looking at the window. He knew the risk of this particular case.
"New case? But captain I told you after this case I was transferring to the anti-auto theft unit" Izumi protested.
"What if I tell you you'll be doing a lot more racing on this case than solving car theft cases" Mancini knew that Izumi deeply enjoyed cases involving fast cars
"It's not about how fun this case might be captain….. The truth is that I'm considering quitting the force and move back to Bayview" Izumi was having doubts about herself.
"It's ok to feel doubts about police work. As your boss I'm telling you are very impulsive and you don't think about what may happen to you but as a fellow cop I'm telling you are a one of the best I've worked with" Mancini went from angry boss to understanding mentor.
Izumi just looked up at the ceiling and started to think all she left behind to become a cop. Even her family turned their backs on her after she left Tokyo and moved back to Bayview to avoid an arranged marriage. It was difficult when she had to live on her savings and then street race to pay tuition and her rent.
Captain Mancini turned around and faced Izumi "You are one of the best candidate for this case. It's a very difficult one and all I can tell you is that you'll be dealing with a very dangerous criminal organization and you'll be undercover in Tri City Bay. I can't give you the details right now but take the day off tomorrow. Relax and think about it. Because of the nature of the mission it's up to you if you want to take it"
Izumi got up from her seat "what about tonight's bust, aren't we busting their boss?"
"Don't worry about him. We'll take care of that. You relax and think about what we talked" the police captain reassured.
Izumi nodded and walked out of the office and headed to her cubicle. There Izumi looked at her computer and thought to herself "What do I really want? I really want to make a difference but sometimes I feel I'm doing this for the thrill. Can't really have an answer for all this" then she opened a drawer and there was a picture of her and a red Nissan Silvia S15 with an RB26 engine she owned back in Bayview. "Life was easy back then" Back in those days Izumi was a college student and she made ends meet as a street racer. In Bayview if a street racer had skills and a good rep, there wasn't the need for a day job. When Izumi graduated with honors after studying criminal justice she was scouted by many law enforcement agencies not only because of her degree but because of her skills as a street racer.
"I'd better go home" Izumi thought to herself as she put her hoodie on and grabbed her car keys.
From a distance Captain Douglass Mancini watched Izumi walking towards the elevator.
"I know you'll take this mission kid, and you won't let us down. Maybe one day you'll take my place"
Inside the elevator Izumi leaned against the wall and thought about this new case the captain mentioned. Someone with her set of skills? Usually she's briefed on the case, however. There was a vibe of secrecy about this one like if she was going to spy on a foreign country or assassinate a dictator. The elevator finally made its final stop at the parking lot basement.
The doors of the elevator closed as Izumi made her way to the underground parking lot, there were countless squad cars. Marked and unmarked as well as a bunch of civilian cars. Izumi kept walking to her car parked next to a silver Ford Crown Vic. Her car was a highly modified red 4 door Subaru Impreza STI, even if she was a cop she still had love for modified cars. She opened the trunk and put a duffle bag inside. She got in the car and turn the key in the ignition. A loud purr emitted from the exhaust, Izumi then shifted to reverse and backed up.
"It's late but too early to go home…. I need to clear my head" Izumi drove towards the exit ramp and turned left into the street. After 20 minutes on the freeway she arrived to Fairhaven city's industrial area. A common spot for racers to gather and show off their cars. From a distance Izumi saw two cars approaching fast from the opposite lane, as they were getting closer she noticed it was a street race between a Porsche Boxter and a Dodge Challenger R/T.
Izumi suddenly stopped and made a U turn then stepped on the accelerator and shifted to second gear. She wanted to get closer but not to do her job as a cop since she's not a patrol officer. She wanted to do the one thing she truly loves… racing. After a quarter mile she caught up at a stop light. The drivers of both cars noticed the red STI. The Porsche was the first one to rev its engine unleashing the sound of its German boxer engine… after all Ferdinand Porsche designed the boxer engine first, then VW used it on the old Bug. After WWII Porsche was up for business and used the boxer engine for racing applications now Subaru perfected it and uses it on all its cars to date. The Challenger gunned its engine releasing the monstrous sound of the infamous V8 Hemi engine. Last but not least the Subaru unleashed its raging roar from the STI engine followed by the hissing coming from the blow off valve. It was late… about one in the morning so the industrial area was deserted. The light turned green and the three cars burned rubber for a brief moment and took off.
The Challenger took lead with its monstrous acceleration but the STI was almost even with it. The Porsche stayed a car length behind but it was closing in. Izumi shifted to 2nd gear and stayed neck to neck with the Challenger.
"Oh no you don't!" the driver inside the Challenger shifted to third. He wasn't going down without a fight. He step on it unleashing the infernal roar of the Hemi engine.
"You two can't compete with those ghetto-looking cars" the Porsche driver who appeared to be in his teens said with bitterness in his voice. Spoiled brat was finding out that money can't make up for skills.
In less than 100 ft there was an intersection with a two semi trucks crossing over. The Challenger went straight through between the semi trucks
Izumi saw her rival's calculated move but it was too late to follow suit. Still there was a trick under her sleeve. Izumi go close to the two semi trucks and drifted to her right missing the semi by inches.
The Porsche driver saw the move by the STI and followed suit but his inexperience made him scrape his driver side and breaking his window. "Damn my dad is gonna kill me for sure!" the brat slapped the steering wheel as he tried to regain speed.
"Can't see me!" The man behind driving the Challenger was sure of his winning until he saw on his left rearview mirror the red Subaru.
"humph" Izumi smiled as she shifted to 6th gear and pressed on the NOS button.
"Hell nah!" The Challenger was now behind the STI and couldn't do nothing to catch up.
The Challenger then started to reduce speed and the STI did too.
Half a city block there was a gas station where both cars parked.
The driver of the Dodge Challenger got out of the car. A Jamaican man in his mid-twenties wearing a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with a Rastafari beanie emerged from the muscle car "That was some skills mon! Nobody hasn't beaten me in a sprint like this"
Izumi opened the door of her Subaru STI and stepped out "Not bad for a domestic"
"Damn gurl! I didn't know I was racing a female!"
Izumi couldn't help but to smile, it wasn't the first time someone underestimated her skills because of her gender.
"You should join my crew girl…. We makes a lot of money!" the Jamaican man said as he extended his hand "The name is Jamal"
She shook Jamal's hand "Izumi"
"Izumi… nice name, you Japanese?" Jamal asked
"Half Portuguese, half Japanese….. and I take it you're from..?"
"Born and raised in Jamaica mon! From Kingston" Jamal responded
Despite her cold, quiet and unattached attitude as a cop, Izumi's personality changed when she raced. She was quite friendly towards other racers.
"Well Jamal you should switch to imports now that you saw my STI pass that boat you've got for a car" Izumi said with a friendly but teasing sound on her voice.
"We should do it again" Jamal replied.
Suddenly the loud exhaust from the Porsche could be heard as it entered the gas station's parking lot. Izumi and Jamal saw the nasty dent on the driver's side.
The driver emerged from the Porsche "What a hell man! You two drive like maniacs!" The cucausian teenage driver who looked no older than 17 years old complained.
"Dem rich boys can't drive for shit, money can't buy you skills mon" Jamal taunted"
"Yeah with dirty back alley tricks like that but maybe next time with a Bugatti Beyron you two won't be lucky" the kid barked.
"You couldn't clear the semi truck because your car has too much power to handle a drift, that's why you couldn't clear the move in the first place. You're lucky you didn't wiped out " Izumi explained as she looked at the Porsche. "Just by looking at your car I know you tried to copy me, I bet your daddy doesn't take the time to change the car's configuration"
"Money buys everything….."
"Pointless to argue the skunt, this is the third time I race him" Jamal dismissed the teenage racer-wannabe
"At his age I was tuning my own car" Izumi started to walk towards her car.
"Yo! How about we have our rematch girl sometime?" Jamal handed Izumi a piece of paper with his phone number.
"Yeah… I'll give you a call" Izumi responded with a smile as she got back in her car. "Take care Jamal"
"You too girl" Jamal closed Izumi's car door.
Across the street there was a black Ford Explorer with tainted windows, its driver was taking pictures. "Hmm… she can drive" the driver smiled as he kept taking pictures.
After the race and the encounter with her new Jamaican friend, Izumi knew it was too much excitement for one night…. The bust, the possibility of going undercover yet again and the race. It was time to call it a night.
The Junkie's side notes: Originally I thought of making the Police Precinct scene and the Izumi vs Jamal race into two separate chapters but I thought it could be tied into just one. Now why I decided to have a female lead on the story? Reason is my favorite Need for Speed game happens to be the original Most Wanted from 2005 and I thought that while people get to be the nameless driver, it was Mia Townsend who had a lot going on as an undercover cop that was off camera. At one point I thought of making a fan fic based on her but decided on coming up with my own lead character which turned out to be Izumi De Souza and I also thought of breaking the ethnic barriers by making her mixed, hence being half Japanese and Portuguese.