Chapter 64 – The White Tiger
About an hour after Kat went upstairs she came back down. She hesitated at the bottom of the stairs to take in the scene.
The Toretto team was all still talking amongst themselves in the corner they started off in. Brian was the only exception to that; he was talking with Connor, Josef and Ivan. They looked to be making plans for the coming operation. There were various groups of Tigers all around the room. It looked like the agent had yet to arrive.
The people in the room finally noticed Kat. The Tigers who didn't know Kat before she moved and the Toretto team did double takes.
Her hair had been died jet black in streaks, like tiger stripes. It contrasted with the natural white blonde pieces just like the stripes on a Siberian tiger. It was being held back off her face by a white and black tiger print bandana and had odd pieces braided all through it. She was dressed from head to toe in skin tight matt black racing leathers with white tiger print inserts at the side seams of the pants and jacket. The jacket had a tiger leaping out from the front and 'The Tigers' written on the back in black letters with white under them, appearing only as white outlines and white outline tiger prints all around the words. She had on knee high boots buckled from ankle to knee, done up over her pants.
Sticking up from the top of her left boot was the handle of a wicked looking knife. Around her waist in two separate holsters on a wide ammo belt were twin Desert Eagle .50 caliber handguns made of nickel plated chrome. The holsters were also strapped around her upper thighs to stop them from moving while she ran and did other things requiring agility. Lower on her thighs she had spare magazines, preloaded and in a special quick loading holsters.
She looked nothing like the Kat many of them knew. It was a striking contrast. She looked tough. She looked like the gangster she had been, not the sweet girl many of them had come to know. She'd been told, when the movie 'Gone in 60 Seconds' came out that they must have copied her to make the character 'Sway' other then Jolie had curves in all the places Kat did not.
Leon was totally floored. He didn't know the girl he saw now. Her green eyes were cold and hard. Her blond hair was half dyed pitch black. She was wearing motorcycle leathers for some reason. That one Leon really couldn't figure. He didn't know what to say to her so he stayed with his team and said nothing. He could feel the shock rolling off Vince and Dom too.
Letty took one look at this new Kat and knew she was now looking at a girl who had to be at least ten times tougher then Letty herself. Not to mention more ruthless then Vince and it wouldn't have taken much to convince Letty the new Kat was as strong as Dom.
Dom himself didn't know what to think and the sentiment was echoed on the face of Brian and Mia. Nyssa started to cry softly again, like she could tell all was not well when she looked at this new Kat.
Connor walked up to Kat.
"No way Kat." It was clear he knew what she was about.
"What are you talking about C?" Kat asked, shortly.
"There's only one reason that you'd get dressed like that and there's no way its happening. No way."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Kat answered and looked away. Connor took her chin between his thumb and first finger and turned her so her eyes met his again.
"Yes you do, and its not gonna happen."
"Yes it is." Kat stamped her foot and turned to walk away into the living room again. Connor let her go. The subject was dropped for the moment.
"Ok people this is how it's gonna happen." Kat started to talk.
"But the undercover agent hasn't even gotten here yet Kat." Brian started.
"Doesn't matter. Don't need him yet anyway. There's lots we can figure out before hand. Like who's doing what and going where with who."
"Ok." Brian conceded.
"First thing's first. Mia, Nyssa, you girls are staying here." Kat left Letty off the list with a look into the other girl's eyes. Kat had seen enough hardness there that she knew Letty'd seen enough of the streets to be included with the rest of the guys on her team.
Mia looked like she was fine with staying behind and Brian, Dom and Vince looked relieved.
"If Vince is going I'm going with him!" Nyssa protested with a look at Vince. Vince went to reply. Kat got the jump on him.
"No way in hell are you coming! You don't have half the street skills you'd need to handle this. You ever shot a gun before?" Kat asked Nyssa with a snarl.
"No." Nyssa admitted. "But I can damn sure learn quick."
"Not quick enough and I got no time to teach you. They'll be lots that'll have to be done around here and you'll be more use to the teams here."
Nyssa didn't look happy with the decision but she did shut her mouth in a mutinous line and let the issue drop.
"Let's get one thing straight right now people. We got no time and no room for people who can't pull that fucken trigger this time. You think you can't handle killing someone, or shooting at them, or you can't handle the danger or stress speak up now and stay the fuck at home. You're gonna have to pull the trigger to make it home alive so make sure you can do it and live with it right now." Kat looked around the room, green eyes flashing. On the inside she was sure she could do it but she wasn't so sure she could live with herself after.
Leon couldn't believe how mean she looked. She was not the innocent girl he'd gotten to know. But he knew that girl had to be in there still, and that said he didn't know how she was so sure she had it in her to kill men herself.
"And let's be clear on another thing. There's every chance not all of us are going to come home at the end of this thing. I'm ready to die to end this, to get them all home safe, and anyone who doesn't feel the same doesn't belong here either. I don't expect everyone standing here now to be standing here when this is all done and the smoke clears. If I'm one of the ones who doesn't make it back then so be it. If anyone else isn't that comfortable with it then now is the time to walk away."
Kat again scanned the room and took in the resigned and ready looks on the faces of all the Tigers. It was just another day in the hood to them, another day on the most notorious gang in L.A. They lived every day expecting some of them not to make it back to the fort. Only difference this time was it was even more personal. Kat looked at team Toretto. They looked slightly less unsure, but no less resigned.
"So, I know Brian can handle a weapon, and I'm sure Vince can too. What about you Dom?"
"I'm sure I'm as good with handguns as you are." Dom tried to stay confident in the face of the attitude of this new Kat.
"Really?" Kat asked and actually laughed. "Let's see it then!"
"You want me to shoot something right now?" Dom asked, in shock.
"No, just wanna see how you handle yourself with a gun." She looked at Dom challengingly. He hesitated to pull his 9mm out of the back of his pants.
Kat grabbed one of her Eagles out of it's holster and spun it on her finger, then grabbed the handle, cocked it, ejected the round into the air, dropped into a crouch and caught it behind her back, then ejected the magazine and inserted a fresh one off her thigh, cocked the newly loaded weapon to seat a round in the chamber. Then spinning on her heel she had the loaded weapon pointed into the startled face of Brian, who'd come up behind her while she was talking.
Display over, Kat holstered her weapon and fixed her spare magazines.
"OK, you win. But I normally hit what I aim at." Dom admitted grudgingly.
"Fine. What about you?" Kat asked, looking at Letty.
"I did time for armed robbery, what do you think?" Letty asked, getting sick of the new Kat's attitude.
"I think I hope you know what you're getting into." Kat said and turned away. "Ok then. Dom, you can take Letty with you as a team. Vince, how many does your car seat?"
"Four." Vince replied.
"Ok, take Miles and Trey with you." Kat finished Vince's team with two Tiger members and Vince nodded.
Kat spared a look for Leon. He was looking a little green and Kat was struck once again by the feeling that Leon had no idea what he was in for and no idea how to handle firearms. She paired everyone else off into teams except for Leon and herself.
"Who'm I going with?" Leon asked Kat, wondering if it was her, since she hadn't put either of them with others.
"I want you to stay here. You have no call being up in this." Kat began. "I get the feeling you haven't done too much stuff like this before and I'd really rather you stayed here with Mia and Nyssa."
Kat was worried about her ability to watch over Leon and take care of everything else she'd be going through. She didn't know why she still cared.
"I can take care of myself and I'm going. I'll be fine."
"Leon, let's be honest here. You don't have it in you to shoot another human being. You just don't and because you don't you don't belong going on this mission with us."
"I'll be fine and I'll do what I have to do. I'm going. Jesse is my brother, remember? Besides, what makes you so sure you have it in you?"
Kat's eyes clouded over and she didn't notice the fact that most eyes in the room were trained on her, waiting for her answer. Dom and Vince and the rest of their team had been asking themselves the same thing. Kat's team knew the answer.
"I've done it before, many times before." Kat answered.
"No way!" Brian broke in.
"Yeah, I have. Surely you've all heard of 'The White Tiger'?" Kat shot off.
"Yeah, but what does 'The White Tiger' have to do with you?" Leon asked. Even he knew who 'The White Tiger' was.
He was the most notorious gangster of all time. He'd killed countless numbers of men who'd gotten in his way or messed with his friends. He was too fast for the cops to catch and too ruthless for 98% of the thugs and gangsters of L.A. to mess with. He sold more drugs single-handedly then the combined total of all the small time dealers in L.A. and did more drugs then he sold.
It was rumored he drove a motorcycle faster then the wind and rode it like it was just an extension of his body. They'd all heard of him, but no one knew what he had to do with Kat.
"Put two and two together for crying out loud!" Kat said, louder then her normal tone. "'The White Tiger' was a member of 'The Tigers'. 'The White Tiger' drove faster and more reckless then anyone else L.A. has seen in a long time. And last but not least 'The White Tiger' fell off the face of the planet about a year ago. 'The White Tiger' is me. I was a Tiger, I'm white. Do I have to spell it out?" Kat sighed as she walked over to a cloth covered item in the corner of the room.
"I said no way Kat!" Connor called. "Its not gonna happen!"
"What isn't gonna happen?" Nyssa asked Kat.
"This." Kat answered and tossed a cover back off a vague shape in the back corner of the room. Under the cover was an Aspirlia RSV 1000 Mille R Nero painted black with platinum silver stripes to match her leathers. It was an Italian sport bike made purely for speed. It was dangerous in the wrong hands. Such as hands that hadn't handled the power in over a year. But the bike was the final proof the team needed to know she really was who she said she was.
"You are not riding that thing. No way." Connor continued to protest. "You haven't ridden it in too long and it's too dangerous. Take your car."
"Yes I am and that's final. The bike is faster, more maneuverable and easier to hide. And I want someone to hide Sean's within one block of where ever we find out they're keeping him. When I get him free he's gonna need his bike to go after Jesse and my mom."
The mouth of every member of the Toretto team dropped open in shock. Before they could go into the issue in any more detail the front door opened and someone walked in. He was dressed just like Kat's brothers, and Kat was struck by his oddly colored and oddly familiar eyes. Kat could only assume he was Brian's agent.
"Who're you?" Kat asked.
"I'm the agent that O'Connor told you about, Bilkens sent me." The man answered. At the sound of his voice Nyssa looked up in shock and then dropped like a stone to the floor in a dead faint.
TBC...
About an hour after Kat went upstairs she came back down. She hesitated at the bottom of the stairs to take in the scene.
The Toretto team was all still talking amongst themselves in the corner they started off in. Brian was the only exception to that; he was talking with Connor, Josef and Ivan. They looked to be making plans for the coming operation. There were various groups of Tigers all around the room. It looked like the agent had yet to arrive.
The people in the room finally noticed Kat. The Tigers who didn't know Kat before she moved and the Toretto team did double takes.
Her hair had been died jet black in streaks, like tiger stripes. It contrasted with the natural white blonde pieces just like the stripes on a Siberian tiger. It was being held back off her face by a white and black tiger print bandana and had odd pieces braided all through it. She was dressed from head to toe in skin tight matt black racing leathers with white tiger print inserts at the side seams of the pants and jacket. The jacket had a tiger leaping out from the front and 'The Tigers' written on the back in black letters with white under them, appearing only as white outlines and white outline tiger prints all around the words. She had on knee high boots buckled from ankle to knee, done up over her pants.
Sticking up from the top of her left boot was the handle of a wicked looking knife. Around her waist in two separate holsters on a wide ammo belt were twin Desert Eagle .50 caliber handguns made of nickel plated chrome. The holsters were also strapped around her upper thighs to stop them from moving while she ran and did other things requiring agility. Lower on her thighs she had spare magazines, preloaded and in a special quick loading holsters.
She looked nothing like the Kat many of them knew. It was a striking contrast. She looked tough. She looked like the gangster she had been, not the sweet girl many of them had come to know. She'd been told, when the movie 'Gone in 60 Seconds' came out that they must have copied her to make the character 'Sway' other then Jolie had curves in all the places Kat did not.
Leon was totally floored. He didn't know the girl he saw now. Her green eyes were cold and hard. Her blond hair was half dyed pitch black. She was wearing motorcycle leathers for some reason. That one Leon really couldn't figure. He didn't know what to say to her so he stayed with his team and said nothing. He could feel the shock rolling off Vince and Dom too.
Letty took one look at this new Kat and knew she was now looking at a girl who had to be at least ten times tougher then Letty herself. Not to mention more ruthless then Vince and it wouldn't have taken much to convince Letty the new Kat was as strong as Dom.
Dom himself didn't know what to think and the sentiment was echoed on the face of Brian and Mia. Nyssa started to cry softly again, like she could tell all was not well when she looked at this new Kat.
Connor walked up to Kat.
"No way Kat." It was clear he knew what she was about.
"What are you talking about C?" Kat asked, shortly.
"There's only one reason that you'd get dressed like that and there's no way its happening. No way."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Kat answered and looked away. Connor took her chin between his thumb and first finger and turned her so her eyes met his again.
"Yes you do, and its not gonna happen."
"Yes it is." Kat stamped her foot and turned to walk away into the living room again. Connor let her go. The subject was dropped for the moment.
"Ok people this is how it's gonna happen." Kat started to talk.
"But the undercover agent hasn't even gotten here yet Kat." Brian started.
"Doesn't matter. Don't need him yet anyway. There's lots we can figure out before hand. Like who's doing what and going where with who."
"Ok." Brian conceded.
"First thing's first. Mia, Nyssa, you girls are staying here." Kat left Letty off the list with a look into the other girl's eyes. Kat had seen enough hardness there that she knew Letty'd seen enough of the streets to be included with the rest of the guys on her team.
Mia looked like she was fine with staying behind and Brian, Dom and Vince looked relieved.
"If Vince is going I'm going with him!" Nyssa protested with a look at Vince. Vince went to reply. Kat got the jump on him.
"No way in hell are you coming! You don't have half the street skills you'd need to handle this. You ever shot a gun before?" Kat asked Nyssa with a snarl.
"No." Nyssa admitted. "But I can damn sure learn quick."
"Not quick enough and I got no time to teach you. They'll be lots that'll have to be done around here and you'll be more use to the teams here."
Nyssa didn't look happy with the decision but she did shut her mouth in a mutinous line and let the issue drop.
"Let's get one thing straight right now people. We got no time and no room for people who can't pull that fucken trigger this time. You think you can't handle killing someone, or shooting at them, or you can't handle the danger or stress speak up now and stay the fuck at home. You're gonna have to pull the trigger to make it home alive so make sure you can do it and live with it right now." Kat looked around the room, green eyes flashing. On the inside she was sure she could do it but she wasn't so sure she could live with herself after.
Leon couldn't believe how mean she looked. She was not the innocent girl he'd gotten to know. But he knew that girl had to be in there still, and that said he didn't know how she was so sure she had it in her to kill men herself.
"And let's be clear on another thing. There's every chance not all of us are going to come home at the end of this thing. I'm ready to die to end this, to get them all home safe, and anyone who doesn't feel the same doesn't belong here either. I don't expect everyone standing here now to be standing here when this is all done and the smoke clears. If I'm one of the ones who doesn't make it back then so be it. If anyone else isn't that comfortable with it then now is the time to walk away."
Kat again scanned the room and took in the resigned and ready looks on the faces of all the Tigers. It was just another day in the hood to them, another day on the most notorious gang in L.A. They lived every day expecting some of them not to make it back to the fort. Only difference this time was it was even more personal. Kat looked at team Toretto. They looked slightly less unsure, but no less resigned.
"So, I know Brian can handle a weapon, and I'm sure Vince can too. What about you Dom?"
"I'm sure I'm as good with handguns as you are." Dom tried to stay confident in the face of the attitude of this new Kat.
"Really?" Kat asked and actually laughed. "Let's see it then!"
"You want me to shoot something right now?" Dom asked, in shock.
"No, just wanna see how you handle yourself with a gun." She looked at Dom challengingly. He hesitated to pull his 9mm out of the back of his pants.
Kat grabbed one of her Eagles out of it's holster and spun it on her finger, then grabbed the handle, cocked it, ejected the round into the air, dropped into a crouch and caught it behind her back, then ejected the magazine and inserted a fresh one off her thigh, cocked the newly loaded weapon to seat a round in the chamber. Then spinning on her heel she had the loaded weapon pointed into the startled face of Brian, who'd come up behind her while she was talking.
Display over, Kat holstered her weapon and fixed her spare magazines.
"OK, you win. But I normally hit what I aim at." Dom admitted grudgingly.
"Fine. What about you?" Kat asked, looking at Letty.
"I did time for armed robbery, what do you think?" Letty asked, getting sick of the new Kat's attitude.
"I think I hope you know what you're getting into." Kat said and turned away. "Ok then. Dom, you can take Letty with you as a team. Vince, how many does your car seat?"
"Four." Vince replied.
"Ok, take Miles and Trey with you." Kat finished Vince's team with two Tiger members and Vince nodded.
Kat spared a look for Leon. He was looking a little green and Kat was struck once again by the feeling that Leon had no idea what he was in for and no idea how to handle firearms. She paired everyone else off into teams except for Leon and herself.
"Who'm I going with?" Leon asked Kat, wondering if it was her, since she hadn't put either of them with others.
"I want you to stay here. You have no call being up in this." Kat began. "I get the feeling you haven't done too much stuff like this before and I'd really rather you stayed here with Mia and Nyssa."
Kat was worried about her ability to watch over Leon and take care of everything else she'd be going through. She didn't know why she still cared.
"I can take care of myself and I'm going. I'll be fine."
"Leon, let's be honest here. You don't have it in you to shoot another human being. You just don't and because you don't you don't belong going on this mission with us."
"I'll be fine and I'll do what I have to do. I'm going. Jesse is my brother, remember? Besides, what makes you so sure you have it in you?"
Kat's eyes clouded over and she didn't notice the fact that most eyes in the room were trained on her, waiting for her answer. Dom and Vince and the rest of their team had been asking themselves the same thing. Kat's team knew the answer.
"I've done it before, many times before." Kat answered.
"No way!" Brian broke in.
"Yeah, I have. Surely you've all heard of 'The White Tiger'?" Kat shot off.
"Yeah, but what does 'The White Tiger' have to do with you?" Leon asked. Even he knew who 'The White Tiger' was.
He was the most notorious gangster of all time. He'd killed countless numbers of men who'd gotten in his way or messed with his friends. He was too fast for the cops to catch and too ruthless for 98% of the thugs and gangsters of L.A. to mess with. He sold more drugs single-handedly then the combined total of all the small time dealers in L.A. and did more drugs then he sold.
It was rumored he drove a motorcycle faster then the wind and rode it like it was just an extension of his body. They'd all heard of him, but no one knew what he had to do with Kat.
"Put two and two together for crying out loud!" Kat said, louder then her normal tone. "'The White Tiger' was a member of 'The Tigers'. 'The White Tiger' drove faster and more reckless then anyone else L.A. has seen in a long time. And last but not least 'The White Tiger' fell off the face of the planet about a year ago. 'The White Tiger' is me. I was a Tiger, I'm white. Do I have to spell it out?" Kat sighed as she walked over to a cloth covered item in the corner of the room.
"I said no way Kat!" Connor called. "Its not gonna happen!"
"What isn't gonna happen?" Nyssa asked Kat.
"This." Kat answered and tossed a cover back off a vague shape in the back corner of the room. Under the cover was an Aspirlia RSV 1000 Mille R Nero painted black with platinum silver stripes to match her leathers. It was an Italian sport bike made purely for speed. It was dangerous in the wrong hands. Such as hands that hadn't handled the power in over a year. But the bike was the final proof the team needed to know she really was who she said she was.
"You are not riding that thing. No way." Connor continued to protest. "You haven't ridden it in too long and it's too dangerous. Take your car."
"Yes I am and that's final. The bike is faster, more maneuverable and easier to hide. And I want someone to hide Sean's within one block of where ever we find out they're keeping him. When I get him free he's gonna need his bike to go after Jesse and my mom."
The mouth of every member of the Toretto team dropped open in shock. Before they could go into the issue in any more detail the front door opened and someone walked in. He was dressed just like Kat's brothers, and Kat was struck by his oddly colored and oddly familiar eyes. Kat could only assume he was Brian's agent.
"Who're you?" Kat asked.
"I'm the agent that O'Connor told you about, Bilkens sent me." The man answered. At the sound of his voice Nyssa looked up in shock and then dropped like a stone to the floor in a dead faint.
TBC...