Chapter 10: Problems
Victor's safehouse was pretty cozy. It was a garage building, but it was very out of the way, you had to drive down a short alley to get to it. It had only two car bays but that was enough, the interior was actually big enough to fit five or six cars, although Victor only used that space for three. His Aston Martin was there obviously, he also had a classic Ferrari 512 Tessarossa in red parked there along with a newer, silver Jaguar XJ220. Richard didn't have trouble finding space for his car. "So what the hell happened you guys?" Vic asked walking over to a corner that was turned into a small living area. There was a large refrigerator behind a bar complete with stools to sit on along with a sectional leather sofa shaped like a "U" with a coffee table in the middle. Aside from that there was a very large flat-screen TV set opposite the sofa.
Rachael removed her shoes and then her jacket, hanging it on a coat rack and her shoes under it, she had been wearing a plain black halter top under the jacket, she then took a seat on the sofa. "Problems arose, ensued… Were overcome" she replied.
Richard had a seat at one of the bar stools. "You remember my empty nitrous tank?" Victor nodded. "Well, we decided to do some snooping and got in a bit over our heads."
"Yeah, we weren't expecting to have a shootout with the feds" Rachael said.
"Feds?" Victor queried.
Richard sighed then said; "Slade was having a meeting with a pair of federal agents and a local detective, we eavesdropped on it and it turns out Slade has been buying off the law."
Victor turned to Rachael, who made eye contact with him and nodded, he then turned back to Richard. "So what do we do about it?"
There was a pause, then Richard spoke up. "I don't know if there's anything we can do… Slade is politically connected, he has more soldiers in his back pocket than the army and enough money to make all of us disappear."
There was a long pause as the topic seemed to die out, at least for the moment, and then Rachael spoke up. "Rich, I gotta get back; I have a race tomorrow night."
"I don't think you wanna go anywhere tonight, no doubt the cops are gonna be out there looking for you" Victor said. "Ya'll can crash here tonight."
"Thanks but no, I need new tires and I also need to fill my nitrous tank" Rachael complained.
"You can either try and go back to the airport and get caught by the cops and spend the rest of your life in federal prison or you can stay here for a day or so and keep your freedom" Richard said coldly.
Rachael glared at him, but he didn't turn to look at her. She sighed and silently admitted defeat. "I do hope you have a shower?" She asked of Victor.
"Right down that hall behind the office" Victor said, pointing in the direction of the hall.
She walked down the hall, it opened into a small office, a desk and file cabinet sat in the corner with a few chairs against the walls. There was a doorway without a door behind the desk, Rachael went through it and found what looked to be like some kind of break room, a table and a few chairs sat in the middle of the room and a small TV sat on one end of a counter while a microwave and mini refrigerator sat on the other end. That's when she found the bathroom, not much to speak of, a toilet, a sink and mirror and bathtub summed it all up. It was at this point that she recalled that she didn't have any additional clothes. "Well… Guess I'll have to wash what I've got" she mused. She filled the sink with water and removed her clothes. She located a bar of soap and a small bottle of shampoo and got into the shower.
Garfield parked his Barracuda on the tarmac at Clancy Municipal Airfield next to Richard's hanger-slash-garage then entered. "Yo Rich!" He yelled. He got no response so he went deeper into the building, the card room and such, finding no trace of anybody. He walked into the card room and took a seat, he had come to pay Richard for his Chevelle but since nobody was there, he had nothing else to do. That's when he got an idea, he got up and walked to the room Rachael was living in, he knew she wasn't there so he just walked in. He rifled through her clothes and belongings, eventually finding what he was looking for – her car keys. He took them, walked into Richard's hanger where he kept all his cars and then to Rachael's Charger. He couldn't take it anywhere because of the camera's watching the tarmac but inside this hanger there was nothing watching him so he opened the hood. When he got a good look at the engine he had to stop himself from drooling, about the only thing stock on the engine were the bolts keeping it in place, chrome wiring and tubes adorned the engine, he examined it with his eyes until he located what he was looking for – the windshield washer fluid tube. He went into Richard's toolbox and got a pump and gas can He returned to the Charger, drained the washer fluid and then filled the tank with gasoline, then returned the two items to where they belonged. "Heh… Should be an interesting surprise for you bitch…" Garfield chuckled manically. He closed the hood, returned the keys to where he found them and left the airport.
Back at Victor's safehouse, Rachael had finished her shower. She had no bathrobe nor a fresh set of clothes so she scratched her original idea and put her clothes that she had back on.
Upon returning to the garage, Rachael found Victor and Richard in a game of poker, and she wanted in. "No chips eh?" She queried, sitting down opposite Richard.
"Nah, but we don't really need them, regular money works fine" Victor said, finishing the hand as the looser. We're gonna play with antis instead of blinds, too few people, five bucks to see your cards."
"Sounds good" Rachael said, pulling out her wallet and fishing through it.
Victor dealt out. "So Slade was behind what happened to your nitrous tank?"
"Yep, and what's worse is the feds know about my airport, I'm gonna have to move my operations elsewhere" Richard said, looking at his ace and three of spades and betting ten.
"Which mean's I'm going to have to move too" Rachael said, peeking at her cards then calling.
"Get to be friends with one of the hotel owners, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to hook you up" Victor suggested, calling the ten.
"Eh I don't need rich friends, I have plenty of money" Rachael said.
The flop was the two of diamonds, the two of clubs and the jack of diamonds. "Speaking of, I should probably check my other cars once I get back" Richard said, checking.
Rachael raised ten. "I guess I should check mine too."
Victor called the ten, not adding to the conversation.
Richard called. "Good idea."
The turn card was the five of diamonds, Richard checked.
"Raise ten" Rachael announced. "So are we just going to sit back and let Slade sell us out or are we going to do something about it?"
Victor folded his three of clubs and six of hearts. "I say we get our little circle of allies together and discuss it."
"Good idea, I'll give them all a call tomorrow" Richard said, calling.
The fifth card was the four of spades, Richard now had a strait. "Raise fifteen" he said.
Rachael called, "What's your high card?" She asked.
Richard looked at her funny, he paused for a moment then said "I have a strait to the five if that's what you mean."
"Oh, well then it sucks to be you, I have a queen high flush" Rachael said, showing her queen and nine of diamonds.
Victor shuffled the cards and dealt them out again, it was now Rachael's turn to bet. "Ten."
"Call that" Victor said, it was then that the three of them heard sirens in the distance.
Richard called the ten. "Hey Vic is it normal to hear sirens around here, I mean it's a pretty low populated area this being the industrial district."
"I hear them from time to time, I don't worry about it though" Victor said, revealing the first three cards, the ace of hearts, the nine of diamonds and the seven of hearts.
"Another ten" Rachael said.
"Call that" Victor said.
Richard also called, hearing the sirens getting closer. "How close do they get?"
The ace of clubs was the fourth card. "Sometimes right down the alley" he answered.
The last card was the four of spades. "Check" Rachael said.
"We'll go ten" Victor announced, throwing ten into the pot.
"I'll call you" Richard said.
"I won't" Rachael said, tossing her four and five of hearts.
"What've you got Rich?"
"Trip aces, king high" He said, showing his ace of spades and king of hearts.
"It's yours" Victor said, he had only a two pair of aces over nines. It was right then that the sirens stopped, getting everybody's attention. "Only one reason for that."
"Yup, something's going down" Rachael said.