Chapter 6

It had been two days since the crash and the mysterious phone call, and they had heard nothing, neither had they been able to learn much. Their had been a number of kids in Juvi for car crimes with Lexx, too many in fact, and non seemed to fit the bill. Each time the phone rang, one of them would pounce on it, but were always disappointed and each time a tuned engine came up the street either at the house, or the garage, they would stop and stair intently out of the windows. Then that evening the phone rang, just as dinner was being served. Dom picked it up. Brian picked up a phone in the other room.

"I said I'd ring again Dominic and I never lie. Am a catching you at a bad moment?"

"No."

"But I see you do." Dom's almost ran to the window, trying not to strangle Mia with the cable. He peered up and down the road, but could see nothing. A short laugh cam from the phone. "Don't bother just yet. I need to know you trust me before I show my face. I can't afford a mistake or it'll cost me my life."

"Listen, we know what you drive, and we know who you ride with. Your one of Lexx's crew. We also know you tried to warn Elise that night. Now you said you had some info for us. Tell us, and if it checks out, then we can begin to trust you, but you ain't too good at this cloak and dagger stuff kid, so watch you ass, or someone's gonna get you, whether it's us or your friends, we don't care. So you wanna talk?" The phone was silent for a minute.

"There's a little seafood place on the coast road, practically on the beach. I believe you know it. Six pm tomorrow and we'll talk." The phone went dead and Dom placed the phone on the receiver. Brian entered the room from the kitchen, he looked hard at Dom.

"You think we can trust him?"

"Maybe. Jessie, you and Brian are coming with me tomorrow to see this guy. Vince, you stay here with Letty and the kid. If anything happens, you know what to do. Leon, I want you and Mia to keep an eye on the garage, the shop can stay closed tomorrow." Brian looked nervously at Mia, but she nodded calmly at him. "We're gonna take all three cars tomorrow, I want to maximise our escape routes." The others nodded, and then sat down to a slightly cold dinner, with only the minimal of conversation.

.

At five fifty, and the RX7, the Supra and the Jetta turned into the car park of the quite little seafood diner, and parked on three sides, of a green BMW, boxing it in against the back wall of the car park. Brian whistled as he looked it over. Dom raised his eyebrows at Jessie as he scanned the visible sections of the car, licking his lips in anticipation of a view under the bonnet.

"Nineteens, under custom arches, totally smoothed and reshaped bodywork, bumpers and skirts are unique, and by the looks, cost a few thousand themselves. Intakes and Powerflow system tail pipe. NOS wet injection system, and from the gauge, enough standard turbo to wipe the Jetta. Dom, this thing I'll run nines without breaking sweat. I'd need to see under the bonnet, but I'd say she'll do eight, maybe seven in perfect weather."

"Six and a half. You wanna look under the bonnet Jessie, otherwise your probably going to drewl all over the paint, and I don't really want that." If Doms eyebrows were raised before, now they were almost climbing off the top of his head. He stared at the youth, no older than nineteen, in baggy jeans and a white T. A thick silver chain hung about his neck, and a diamond ear stud glinted orange from the setting sun. His hair black and straight down the side of his face, just below his shoulders. His features were angular but handsome, and he was well built. Not as strong as Dom, but could have take Vince down fairly easily. His eyes were hidden behind expensive looking wrap arounds, but his grin showed confidence. Brian was thrown off by this and began too look around expecting six armed guys to jump them any second. Jessie was trying to wipe the saliva from his mouth with one hand while he fingered the bonnet catch open with the other. Dom frowned.

"You're the guy who called us?"

"Yeah. As I said I need your help."

"What with?"

"Let's eat first, I ordered shrimp I moment ago, I hope that's ok." He turned back for the restaurant.

"You seem to know us very well." Dom said as he caught up with the boy. Brian followed them cautiously, as did Jessie after a moments pause, to decide between the car or some free food. He caught up to Brian, desperate to tell him every detail of the cars engine he'd seen.

"We've been watching you for ages. Lexx figured it was you doing the trucks, and wanted to know your whole routine. He figured, we could pull a similar job, and you'd take the fall. Then Brian showed up. We thought it was over at that point, then he let you go free, and shortly after, we find Trans taken the fall for the crimes. So Lexx decides to wait a few months, till you'd settled back, and the case'd been forgotten, and then we'd strike a bunch of trucks and get out, letting you, the original suspects to take the credit for it." By this time they reached a table in one corner, and sat down. A woman was coming towards them bearing several baskets of shrimp.

"So why d'you decide to turn sides?"

"The first truck we did. Up in north Cali. Everything went fine at first. Lexx got aboard the truck and knocks the guy out like we'd planned. Then he threw the guy out the truck, he fell under the wheels. We'd never agreed to that. No one was supposed to get hurt." Dom watched as the guys fingers clenched into fists so tight, he thought he'd draw blood. "The second time, I was the one who actually took the truck, so I just knocked him out, and we left him at a truck stop. Then that stupid bitch Elise tells Lexx, she knows he's doing the trucks, and unless he gets out of town, she's gonna nark him out. He got real pissed at this and had Jay Z, one of the other guys, fix up a little C4 device for her axel. So next race, he'd blow it and send her into a wall. Course he didn't count on you lot showing up that night. It's fucked his plans up. I warned Elise, cos like I said, I don't want anyone hurt, so I'm warning you to. He's planning on getting rid of you. He's gonna do one more truck, and then make it look like you had an accident while getting away. I decided I want out so here's the deal. I help you catch em, and clear your names, and in return, you let me ride with you guys."

"What? What the hell do you mean?" Dom looked angry.

"Look, I go through with this, nark em out, I ain't gonna last long. But if I got a crew, or Team as you prefer, to ride with, I'm gonna be safe. Plus, think of what I could bring to you. One of the fastest cars on the West coast, my knowledge, and my money. Back in Brittan, I bought some shares in some low IT company cos some guy I knew said it was a good idea. The damn things skyrocketed, and a I sold out before the crash. I've got four and a half million sitting in accounts just earning interest. How do you think I got my car. You're saying, I wouldn't be useful to ya. Think about it. You guys are like a family. Something I never had. Not even with Lexx and his bunch of idiots. I want something like that. Fuck money and all that, I love one thing, going fast. My life is shit every moment, except those behind the wheel of that." He indicated his car out the window. "When I'm driving, I'm free."

Dom looked at the kid, his head cocked to one side. All he could see was a reflection of himself, staring back just as hard. Their eyes locked for a second, and Dom saw only truth. He smiled.

"Ok kid, you help us, then your one of us. But you know we don't race anymore. We're only back to clear our names."

"Can you really stop now you've tasted the fume filled air again." Both he and Dom laughed at this. Brian, looked slightly uneasy, but he too longed to hit the streets again, and secretly hoped for another day to prove himself on the tarmac.

"You got a real name. We can't keep calling you Nitrus Burn."

"Yeah, it's Zander. Zander Burnly." Jessie looked up from his shrimp.

"I think I preferred Nitrus." Zander laughed.

"Thanks." Brian sat forward in his chair.

"So when's the next hijacking planned for?"

"Tomorrow. There's a shipment of these brand new Sony mini computers. Worth about fifteen grand a piece, eight to ten on the private market. Plus a bunch of new chips, built for government use. Smart missiles or something. They got sent this way, cos they thought it'd be safer. There's nine chips, each worth four and a half mil on the markets. You do the maths, but that's a lot of cash." Jessie whistled as he worked it out.

"Over forty million. Plus the puters, that's gotta be forty two million at the least."

"So what time's it being hit?"

"At four twenty pm, the truck hits the desert road. We're gonna be parked up off road at mile marker 3. When it passes us, we go for it. I'm drivin the tail vehicle on the scanners tomorrow, so when we go, I'll let you know. You hang back until we go, then all you have to do is catch up to us. At that point, I join you, and we force em off the road. Then you officer O Conner, make the arrests. There's no point telling the police, cos they'll just disappear. They've got it all rigged. You wanna watch it though, cos if they run, our other cars are gonna be parked up at mile marker 18, ready for the switch. If they get to their cars, it's going to be really difficult to catch em."

"Ok, we got the plan. Just make sure you're ready your end. I don't want any screw ups, or anything that's going to land us in trouble. See you tomorrow Zander." Dominic stood as did the youth. They shook hands, and Dom made his way back to his car, followed by Brian and Jessie, who now felt very bloated, having eaten most of the shrimp.

On the way back Brian heard Doms voice on his portable radio, he picked it up.

"Yeah. What is it."

"I was thinking, it could still be a trap. I mean, Zander said, he was going to make it look like an accident with the jacking, and we're going to be right there."

"I was thinking that too, but the kids right. If we just called in the cops now, Lexx and his friends'd just disappear, and you'd probably get done for the trucks already done, and I and Tanner, are going to get done for corruption. If it is a trap, it's also going to be our best chance to clear your names."

"Mm. I guess we'd better let Vince and Leon know. Letty'll want in too, Mia can watch Jason for her."

"Maybe, but remember, she's only been out a few days, and the baby needs it's mother most at this age."

"Yeah." Dom sighed. "Ok I'll talk to her."

"Good luck." Both men laughed. The rest of the journey was silent, as all three contemplated on what was to come. As they pulled into the house, they all knew tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.