Chapter 11: Racing Italian
The trio of racers went to the roof of the garage. They could tell from the distance of the sirens when they stopped that they weren't after them, but rather making a bust only a couple doors down. They had a clear view of where whatever it was that was happening, was happening. "Anybody you know Vic?" Richard asked.
"Nope, the closest person I know is about two miles in the opposite direction" Victor said.
Rachael noticed something strange, there were a total of seven cruisers there, but the police who occupied them weren't exactly in combat-ready positions. In fact, only a few (three) of them had gotten out of their cars and were at the moment casually walking up to the front door of what looked like a warehouse. They knocked and a few seconds later a young man answered, it took a full thirty seconds for the three racers to realize who it was – Roy Harper. "What… The… Fuck…?" Richard asked nobody in disbelief. It took him a moment to gather himself together. "Victor, did you know Roy had a safehouse here?"
"No, I thought his only place was on the northwest corner of town."
"What is going on?" Rachael asked nobody. This was very unexpected, all three had thought they knew Roy, but Rachael, Rachael had been one of the closest to him before the night she was driven out of town. He had been like a brother to her until that night and now he resented her. Though she really couldn't blame him too much since in the months she was gone she hadn't tried to get in contact with him. But this… Had he been working as a double agent before that night? Was she the reason he did it? Was he even a double agent? There were too many questions and Rachael wasn't one to jump to conclusions.
Richard looked like he wanted to kill somebody. "Holy hell when I get my hands on that-" Rachael cut him off.
"Rich, we don't know what's going on; we should at least let Roy try to explain himself first!"
"She's got a point man, I say we get all our allies together and figure out what's going on before we decide what we're gonna do" Victor agreed.
Reluctantly, Richard calmed down and the three continued to watch, Victor got an idea and after saying he'd be right back, retreated into his garage, returning a ninety seconds later with a top-of-the-line digital camera. He zoomed in on Roy and the cops, taking pictures as the conversation went on. Five minutes passed before the cops and Roy finished speaking and with a handshake, which Victor got on film, parted ways. The police spoke for a few seconds then returned to their cars, lit up the night with their lights and sirens then drove off in the direction they came from. "What the hell?" Victor queried.
"Does Roy know about this garage Vic?" Rachael asked.
"Not to my knowledge, I've tried to keep this one as secret as I could, just in case of a rat you know?"
Rachael knew and so did Richard, and even they hadn't known about this garage before tonight, but since Roy seemed to be taking up residence only a few doors down, it was possible that he knew about it and Victor wasn't aware that his "secret" safehouse wasn't so secret. "Doesn't look like they're coming after us" Rachael said. With that, the three returned inside.
"What the hell was that?!" Richard exclaimed in anger. "I swear if Roy is playing both sides I'll put a bullet in his head myself!"
"Damn clam down Rich, we'll find out what's going on, there might be more to this than we're seeing right now" Rachael begged.
Richard punched the wall, putting a hole in it while Rachael sat down. She leaned back on the comfortable sofa and yawned, stretching her arms into the air, then laid down, pulling one of the pillows under her head. "Alright boys, I've had enough for one night, I'm going to get some sleep" she said.
Victor said, "Yeah good idea, see you guys in the afternoon."
Richard didn't say anything but made his way to the bar, fetched a glass, a bottle of ginger ale and a bottle of whiskey, mixed the two liquids together, stirred, and took one long gulp, downing it faster than it took him to make it. Rachael saw that and shook her head before settling in, falling asleep shortly afterward.
Toni's race was about to begin, it was a straight-forward circuit race consisting of the standard three laps. The track was out in the desert, so the police crawling all over the city looking for Richard and Rachael weren't going to be a problem. She pulled into position next to a 1999 Mitsubishi 3000GT, it was Ferrari red with a flashy body kit and hood scoop with ten-thousand dollar rims, despite the semi-cheap nature of the car, whoever owned it had money, and Toni was sure that whatever the female driver had under the hood was going to prove a problem. The two other cars in the race seemed to pose a similar threat, one was a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, a dark green with similar workings as the 3000GT and the final car, the one furthest away from Toni on the lineup, a 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo, standard Lambo yellow with a yellow window tint, no other visual modifications were apparent which meant the owner, a man in his late twenties, had probably dumped most of his money into the engine. Toni's Ferrari sported seven-hundred thirty-eight horsepower, paired up with the lightweight frame and aerodynamic styling that the Ferrari had, and she was packing a bit extra across the playing field.
The girl stepped between the two tuners and signaled the race's beginning. Toni burnt out her tires on the start, moving a good seventy feet or so before they caught traction and rewarding her with an early lead with the Gallardo second and the 3000GT third. she shifted into second and floored it, shifting into third just under four seconds later.
At the top of third gear, Toni and the other racers hit the first turn, a sharp left turn, the italian hit her emergency brake and spun her tires out, drifting around the corner perfectly. The Gallardo and 3000GT were able to do the same, but the driver of the Lancer fluked and spun out, the car faced the wrong way but the driver started up again and shot in the correct direction to try and catch the leaders.
The 3000GT made a move to try and pass the Lambo, managing to get neck to neck on the exotic's right, until the driver (of the Mitsubishi) had to abort the move for a set of S-turns coming up. An S-turn was basically a quick right immediately followed by a quick left, or a quick left followed by a quick right, usually, if you could line yourself up right you could get through them without having to jerk the wheel around.
And that was the case with this S-turn, Toni once again hit her E-brake, drifting the rear end of her car to the left to point the car right, she recovered from the drift in perfect timing to go straight through the S-turn. The Gallardo followed but the 3000GT was going too fast and slid too far left to make a straight line. This is where the Lancer made up some lost seconds; he passed the other Mitsubishi and took third place. It was a high-speed strait-away that followed the S-turn and Toni was already in fifth gear at one-hundred fifty miles an hour with the Gallardo breathing down her tailpipes. She shifted into sixth and floored it, the Italian engine roaring as it went. The next turn was a one-hundred twenty degree left, but it was a long, hairpin turn, Toni was forced to slow to about one-hundred MPH to make the curve and the Gallardo did the same, the turn was made well and Toni punched it upon exiting. There was another strait-away; this one with a ravine on either side and on top of that it was a narrow, two-lane road. Toni stayed to the right so as to stay with the direction of traffic, about a quarter mile down the road her speedometer hit one-forty and the Lambo was making a move to pass, the driver got to Toni's left and slowly was passing by her, they were about neck to neck when a large semi truck was seen barreling down the road right at the Lambo, instead of aborting the pass and getting back into the right lane, the driver of the Lambo hit his nitrous oxide and shot forward of Toni, cutting in front of her just in time to dodge the speeding eighteen wheeler.
The Gallardo entered the final turn (a left) and crossed the start/finish line with Toni about half a second behind him, the Lancer was about a full second behind her and the 3000GT was right up the Lancer's ass. Toni downshifted into second and drifted left, staying as close to the Lambo as she could, she wanted to make a move but knew it wasn't the right time, instead she held her position, knowing that the opportune moment would come.
The 3000GT used its nitrous to pass the Lancer just before the S-turn, which she (the 3000GT driver) was able to enter much better this time, on the first strait-away Toni was able to keep up with the Gallardo and the two exotics increased the distance between them and the tuners, pulling almost three full seconds ahead. They entered the hairpin, Toni still didn't feel conditions were right to pass and so she kept back, despite her urge to get in front of the other Italian car. The second strait-away came along and the exotics put even more distance between them and the Mitsubishis. They passed the final turn of the lap and entered the first of the last, nothing changed that entire distance.
The S-turn came up, the Gallardo slipping too far and Toni taking the opportunity she had been waiting so patiently for, she hit her nitrous and passed him, exiting the S-turn in first place. The strait shot made for an easy hold of first as the Gallardo had fallen behind nearly the distance to the Japanese cars, a full seven seconds behind by this time. Toni came into the hairpin, staying close to the inside and keeping her speed around one-hundred MPH, flooring it into the second strait-away. She looked in her rear-view mirror and was surprised to find the Gallardo had already caught up and was getting ready to pass, she wasn't going to allow that, she shifted into sixth and hit her nitrous for the second time this race, sling-shooting her forward to almost one-eighty.
The final turn came up and Toni entered it well, the Lambo right behind. She floored it, shifted into fifth and hit the nitrous once again; giving her the small amount of distance she needed to secure a first place finish. She turned her car around and returned to the start/finish line to collect her winnings, she made the appropriate arrangements with her banker for the money and stuck around for more of the celebration, twenty minutes later, she was on her way home with a smile on her face, she had just entered level two.
