Title: Welcome to Miami
Chapter: 11
Rating: T
Summary: AU - Near Future - Something was going on in Miami Beach, something big, Captain Takashi Shirogane was certain of it. It involved the worst organized crime syndicate he'd ever dealt with in his career, the Galra. His adopted brother, Keith was the lead detective on the case, he might be young, but he was good. So how do Shiro's ex, the lawyer Adam West, and some illegal immigrant kid from Cuba fit into this mess?
Special Request Story for Shiranai Atsune
Lance was almost expecting it. He was three blocks away from the apartment when the cab pulled over.
"Hey, this isn't my stop." He yelled from the back seat.
"Is today, kid, sorry." The guy did kind of look sorry as he closed the barrier between them and the door to the back of the cab opened up. Two guys reached in a dragged Lance out.
"Oh hey there, pretty boy, Sendak really wants to have a chat with you." One laughed.
"Yeah, he wants to have a little chat, with your face." The second chimed in with another chuckle.
Lance sighed, clearly he was dealing with geniuses. "Hey no worries guys, I'll come quiet."
"Aw man, that's no fun." The first one punched him in the gut anyway.
"Yeah, we'll say you at least put up a little struggle." The second followed with a kidney punch while he was bent over. They drug him between them into an alley and loaded him into the back seat of a black car. He wasn't really sure where they went as he was too focused on breathing at the time, but when the car stopped they pulled him out again and took him into a dark warehouse.
"I see you found our little friend." A deep voice growled from the darkness - Sendak. "If only you'd agreed to a little fun none of this would have happened." Sendak spoke almost wistfully as he walked into the circle of light. There was a single light on and a table below it.
"Didn't seem like fun was going to be had by all." Lance spoke cautiously.
"Perhaps not for you. Do you know why you are here?" Sendak asked.
"Cause Thug 1 and Thug 2 brought me." Lance answered. Sendak backhanded him.
"You have a big mouth. Too bad I don't have time to put it to better use." Sendak whispered the last words into his ear and Lance hated the chills it sent down his spine.
"Too bad, yeah." Lance tried to pull away and Sendak just laughed.
"You made a mistake, Lance." Sendak continued.
"Look, I didn't tell the police anything. I will take the rap on the assault charge. I know the rules." Lance spoke quickly. His lip was bleeding from the earlier backhand.
"You will. Yes, but you are helping Iverson. Do you think the Galra want immigration reform to interfere with our business?" Sendak asked.
"No. Look they just pulled me out of a cell and said they'd help me stay, all I had to do was smile for the cameras." Lance stuck with the story he had rehearsed. Sendak punched him in the gut.
"Right, smile for the camera and in doing so you gave my boss a disappointing day. Do you know what happens when the boss is disappointed?" Sendak asked getting into Lance's face again.
"No." Lance practically whispered still trying to catch his breath.
"Then other people are disappointed. You, for instance, are going to be disappointed when your Senator doesn't live to present his bill. So it will be off to Cuba for you." Sendak smacked his face hard, leaving his ears ringing.
"Then there is the police detective with the hair. You know the one that picked you up. He's not going to live to see tonight either. I can see the confusion in your face. You're wondering why you should care about the cop." Sendak punched him in the stomach again.
"I care. I'm a caring person." Lance offered coughing. Sendak laughed again.
"Well, this is where your punishment comes in. You see the cop has to be done. It's business, but I want you to remember what happens when you make a mistake. I want you to remember that your actions have consequences." Sendak nodded to Thug 1, who wrapped an arm around Lance, under his right arm and around his throat and pushed his face down into the table. Sendak grabbed his right arm and pulled it across the table stretching it out. "Just for you. Just because of what you did, smiling for the camera, I am going to blow up an entire busload of people to get one pesky detective. One busload dead, because of your smile, and so you don't forget…" Thug 2 wrapped his hand around Lance's mouth tightly and Lance could feel a blade against the skin on the back of his arm between his wrist and elbow. "I'm going to give you a reminder."
Lance screamed into the hand covering his mouth as the blade dug into his skin. Over and over until they finally let him go and he sunk to his knees. He stared at this arm, the number "113" was carved into his skin, blood was running down his arm.
"If you tell anyone about this, I'll probably blow up another bus for fun, maybe that one will have someone you really care about on it?" Sendak and the thugs left him kneeling on the floor his head reeling with the information he had received.
After a few moments of silence he picked himself up and made his way toward the door. His back and stomach were throbbing from the punches and he was ignoring the blood running down his arm. If he didn't look at it, then it couldn't hurt he reasoned.
He made it about two blocks when he was pulled into an alley as he walked by. The White Lion stood in front of him.
"Dammit kid, why didn't you hit the button. I told you…" he started, voice filled with concern that was obvious even with the distortion from the mask.
"I got this." Lance coughed and wrapped his good arm around his middle. "I can take this." His breathing was uneven and clearly pained.
"Is that a fucking number?" The Lion gently reached out and lifted up his arm.
"Listen to me! I said I'm okay, we have bigger problems." Lance pulled his arm back, hissing a little as it pulled on the cuts.
"Bigger than having a number carved in your arm and telling me its "okay"!"
"Yeah, like all the people that are going to die tonight!" Lance snapped back. "We need to talk, somewhere safe."
The White Lion wrapped an arm around him and he carried him as he scrambled up the side of a building with a grappling line. He took them through a door in the roof top and into an attic area of the building.
"Okay, we are good there. This building is empty." Adam slid his mask back.
"How can you know?" Lance asked. He was not risking his family unless he was sure there was no one to hear them.
"Scan. No life signs but us." He showed Lance the 3D projection of the building as a holograph from his right arm. There were two dots in the place
"Okay, Sendak said he is going to take out Iverson."
Adam frowned and fired off quickly, "When? How?"
"He said he wouldn't live to present the bill, so I'm guessing soon?" Lance answered.
"Okay, I'll have to warn him and get there. Can you get back to the castle? I'll give you cash." Adam handed Lance some money.
"Wait that isn't all." Lance blushed he knew it wasn't really his fault but he was ashamed of the next part. "He's going to blow up a bus, this bus." Lance held out his arm. "He said it was my punishment for smiling for the camera. He said he just needed to take out a detective, but he was going to kill everyone on the bus for me." Lance's voice hitched, but he managed not to actually cry.
Adam stared at the bloody number and a feeling of dread began to build in his gut, "What detective?" The number was too familiar.
"He said the one that arrested me. Kogane, I think?" Lance returned, curious to the change in Adam's demeanor.
"Keith." Adam whispered.
"You know him." Lance stated, it wasn't a question. It was obvious.
"I do." Adam frowned. "You get back to the castle. I'll call Keith and warn him, he can handle the bus and I'll go watch Iverson." Adam slipped the mask back on and started to leave.
"Wait! I can help, please, these people are in danger because of me." Lance offered.
"No, I am not putting you in further danger, besides that you are in no shape to do anything. Get back to the castle, now." The White Lion charged out of the room and Lance was left alone in the abandoned building.
"Sure, I'll just wander out of this vacant building. I'm sure I'll get a cab in this neighborhood. The only thing I've got going for me is they will probably already think I've been mugged and won't bother to try to rob me." Lance muttered to himself as he made his way through the building and down to the street.
Keith and Griffin had finished four of the six interviews. They had started with Shay. When they entered, her brother stood, practically radiating anger, until he found that they were the ones that had saved her, then he was all hugs. Keith sidestepped him and let Griffin take the hugs. Griffin didn't look too thrilled about it either. The brother waited outside while they talked with Shay.
She was a sweet, timid girl, and told them she had been eating lunch behind the garage she worked in when the suspects had walked up and told her they were having car trouble. She had followed them hoping to help, but when they got to the car they jumped her and drug her into the car. She said they only told her to be quiet or stop crying, but would not answer her questions about what they wanted. She did not know them and had not seen them before. She did not have any enemies that she knew. They thanked her for her time and gave her their card in case she thought of anything else. She was to be released today.
Keith and Griffin split for the next interviews. The two Keith talked to, were pretty fuzzy on the details. They didn't exactly admit to it, but implied heavily that they had been pretty high on something when they'd been picked up off the street. They were both homeless, but from different neighborhoods. They didn't frequent the same shelters, or soup kitchens, and they didn't seem to have anyone in common. Both of them were feeling the effects of withdrawal. They said that the guys that took them would shoot them up with something and then send them into some kind of fight cage. There were cameras all around it. Sometimes they would be cuffed together, sometimes there were weapons, but they were always supposed to fight until someone was down. Keith coaxed, but neither admitted to killing an opponent. The look in their eyes made Keith wonder though. It wouldn't be their fault, but it was even more telling about the kind of people that had held them. One had been there for six weeks and the other for three. They said some of the guys had been there for over a year.
Keith promised to get back to talk with each of them. They would be staying until their bodies had time to recover. Beside the withdrawal, they each had several healing injuries including broken ribs and bruised kidneys for one guy and a cracked shoulder blade for the other. Keith made a note to look up recovery houses that might take these guys in when they left so he could provide them with options.
Griffin was telling him that his guy was a factory worker. He had been picked up walking back to his apartment. He lived alone and didn't have any family in the area. He said the guys that took him drove a black van, something older, maybe a Dodge. He had told Griffin that sometimes people died in the arena. He said he hadn't killed anyone, but he'd seen it happen. He described the same cage set up, same cameras. Someone was watching these fights, but they weren't putting their faces out there. He said the people that moved them around from the warehouse to the fight always wore silver masks over the bottom half of their faces, so he didn't think he would be able to identify them, plus the drugs had made it hard for him to think. He said they were transported in a box truck, plain white, no markings and he hadn't seen a plate. They were getting ready to move to the last two interviews when Keith's phone rang.
"Hello?" Keith answered. It had a number not available message on it, but he answered it any way. Sometimes he just got a gut feeling about things.
"You are in danger. They plan to bomb your bus, 113, tonight." A gravelly voice spoke into the phone.
"What?! Who is this?" Keith yelled into the phone, catching the attention of the people standing around him at the hospital.
"You have to stop the bombing. Be safe Detective." And then a click and nothing.
"What the fuck?" Keith just stood staring at the phone for a minute.
"Keith?" Griffin was looking concerned and actually used his first name. He must look really freaked out. He noticed a lot of other people were staring as well.
"Sorry, sorry." He gave the crowd a strained smiled and Griffin dragged him around the corner into a quieter hall.
"What was that about?" Griffin hissed.
"Someone just called in a bomb threat on the bus I ride home sometimes." Keith whispered. "I have to call it in and see what I can do. Call Rizavi and Leifsdottir, let them know. This is too close to our bust yesterday to be a coincidence. Keep your eyes open. You could all be in danger."
"Unlike you, who actually got the death threat?" Griffin frowned.
"What? Well, yeah, I'm fine. Go ahead with the interviews and I'll be with you when I'm done making calls." Keith waved him off, but Griffin didn't leave. "Why are you still here?"
"Watching your back." Griffin leaned against the wall. "I'm your shadow until you get a protection detail or something. I know the Captain won't just let this go and so do you."
Keith sighed he hadn't even thought that far ahead. Of course, Shiro was going to completely freak out. "Fine." Keith started making calls. He needed to set this up right. He wanted to be sure the passengers would be safe, but he also didn't want to give away that they knew. This was their best chance to catch the suspect since they knew what was planned.