7.
Z
"We got it! We got it!" Mia yelled triumphantly. The group that had been previously standing around doing nothing all hurried to the computer screen.
"We're looking at four cameras." Brian told us before most of us got there.
"God, that is some high end shit. Fiber optics. Hundred and eighty degree field of view. Ten second oscillation." Han listed. I could only partially see around Tej, but I saw a lot of cop cars going by.
"That is a narrow window, man." Brian said.
"Can't we just tap in and replace the feed?" Gisele asked.
"Nah, it's hooked into a digital sync. They'd know we were in the system. Best we can do is peek." Tej replied.
A short silence descended over us. I couldn't think of anything else to do. I had never been in a situation where cameras had been an issue before. I had to deal with speed cameras, sure, but those were easy to dodge. I wasn't even sure this was possible.
"We gonna need some real fast cars to get through this shit." Rome deadpanned.
"Not just fast. You got a hard right and a hair pin; you need something agile." Han answered.
"You guys mark up a track. O'Connor, let's go get some cars." Dom commanded with authority.
"Alright." Brian replied with a smile. He gave Mia a peck on the lips and followed Dom to the Charger.
"Maybe we should start over there," I pointed to one side of the platform." and curve the course over here." I moved my finger around to the other side. "Put that column where the hairpin is?" I suggested quietly.
"Yeah. There'd be a camera back against that wall, one close in to the platform, another on the wall over there, and the last just in the middle." Tej calculated.
"Do we have cameras, or do we need to get them?" I asked Tej.
"I got them." Mia interjected. "Right here." She pulled a duffel bag out "Knew we were going to need these."
"Alright, so we should start here." Han walked to stand to a spot out on the factory floor. "and wind the track-"
Z
"How was that one?" Brian got out of the horribly colored baby blue Porsche 911 GT3 after yet another trip around the factory. I was having flashbacks of Sean driving around the docks at the Tokyo waterfront watching him.
"Camera caught you." Han told him. He pulled another pork rind out of the bag in his hand and popped it in his mouth."
"What?" Brian yelled incredulously.
"Yeah well, the camera still caught you." Han deadpanned.
"I was milking the hell out of that thing, too." Brian said frustratedly as he stomped up the stairs past where I was leaning on the concrete platform.
"We're going to need a faster car." Dom said from behind me.
"There isn't another race for days. Plus, it's broad daylight." Brian yelled in frustration from the platform.
I turned around to see Dom smirking at me. I felt my lips pull up at the edges.
"Who's driving me?" I asked.
Z
The crowds swirled around me like a tide. I felt like I did back in Tokyo, except it was daylight, and hot outside, and these people were speaking Portuguese. Other than that, it was the same current running through town as people rushed past each other to get where they were going. I didn't realize I missed it until now.
"This garage?" I pointed out a building down the street to Leo who was lagging behind me at a slow walk. Just like he had been for the long, long walk out of the favela. I really wish we had driven.
"Yeah. From what we have heard, he doesn't get along with the guy they won the GT3 from. So if he's mad at us, we don't care." He told me.
"Perfect." I answered perkily. I was in an insufferable good mood. I never understood why I liked stealing cars so much, but I did.
The garage reminded me of ours back in Colombia. The garage door in the front was pulled down, even in the heat of the day, and the door beside it was shut. I moved down an alley to the building's side and pulled myself up by the window ledge to look into one of the dirty windows. There weren't any people, but it held a wide variety of cars.
"See anything?" Leo asked as he walked up to join me. He could see in the window flat footed. "Looks like it's lunch break."
"Yeah. Were we counting on that, or were ya'll going to make me steal that right under their noses?" I asked jokingly as I scanned the cars. I quickly ruled out American muscle, which wouldn't have enough agility, and started focusing on the imports. A Subaru Impreza WRX stuck out to me.
"Surely you could have handled either." Leo teased.
"Yep. Let's get the Impreza." I said enthusiastically as I dropped off my toes onto the bottom of my feet.
"Now how we gonna do this?" Leo asked. I basically ignored him as I moved to the much less crowded street to the back of the building.
The garage door was rolled down, and the door beside it was locked with a padlock. The garage door was the type that was raised by chains from the inside. I tried to get my fingers under it, but that failed miserably. I pulled a lock pick out of my back pocket and started working on the padlock. I pulled it off without a problem.
"Okay, I want the Impressa, unless you see something different." I told Leo.
"You're the drifter." He replied amiably. His head was swiveling around the cars parked against the walls in the small space. I zeroed in on the silver Impreza. I popped the black hood and to get a good look at the engine.
"Oh, this is it." I told him as I took in the engine. I glanced in the window to see the keys dangling from the ignition.
"That's a nice Supra, too." He pointed to a black Toyota Supra I didn't see. I quickly crossed the garage and started looking it over. It also had a great engine, and could handle the turns. The keys were nowhere in sight, so I slipped into the driver's seat, pulled my lock pick back out, and shoved it into the ignition. When I had it where I wanted it, I turned it over like a key. The engine roared to life.
"Damn, girl. Wasn't expecting that." He said as he looked over my shoulder. I laughed.
"Okay, keys are in that one, so we are good to go. You want to get the-?" I pointed at the chain to roll up the garage door. There was no way in hell I could reach it without jumping.
Leo reached for the chain with a laugh. I pulled it through the gap under the door so he didn't have to raise it all the way, and waited while he pulled the Impreza out and let the door back down. I got out and relocked the padlock behind us. The second we were both back in our cars I hit the accelerator and made a tight turn back onto the street. I watched Leo pull out way behind me in my rearview.
Well, at least he drives faster than he walks.
Z
"Handles great, but I still don't know if we're going to make that ten second window." I said as I stepped out of the Supra.
"Damn, the girl's fast. I couldn't catch her on the way back." Leo declared loudly. He had pulled up almost a minute after me.
"There are very few people you can catch." Santos yelled from the platform. That started them off in Spanish again.
"Why'd you pick the Supra? Thought you'd go straight for American muscle." Rome asked me randomly.
"Oh, it's Leo's Supra. I picked the Impreza. Mostly because muscle cars don't really have the agility of a Japanese import. These two were the most powerful looking imports." I paused. "What makes you think I'd go for a muscle car?" He was right; that was usually my first choice, but Japanese cars had grown on me.
"I don't know. You're just always working on that Maverick. Is it yours or Han's?" He replied.
"It's mine." Han said. "Did you have the keys to these?" Han asked as he looked through the window.
"We did to that one." I pointed to the Impreza. I saw a smirk forming on Han's lips.
"Not bad." Brian said as he came with Mia to inspect the engines. With a grin, Dom walked up and ran his hand over the fender of the Impreza.
"Who's first?"
Z
"Any better?" I asked Gisele as I flopped on the couch beside her.
"Yes. You missed camera three, but you had to sacrifice camera four. You're probably a little too aggressive on the turns. Still, a lot better than Santos's last round." She answered quietly. I smirked when Santos turned around and glared. He had been catching a lot of heat after he hit the column.
Gisele and I had reached an kind of agreement. We didn't see eye to eye on most things, but the difference of opinion wasn't the end of the world. Managing to get along wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be.
"We're going to need a faster car." I said as I watched Han run through the course and still get caught. If he couldn't get it, there wasn't much hope for the rest of us. I saw her turn to look at me from the corner of my eye.
"Where did you find the other two?"
Z
The organs in my stomach felt like they were getting rearranged in my stomach as Gisele accelerated down the narrow street. I was actually surprised at the amount of driving skill Gisele possessed. I knew she could ride a bike, but not that she could drive like this.
She swung around the curve to the factory without slowing and hurtled through the entrance. She calmly took the first drift by downshifting instead of hand braking, which is harder to do, and accelerated quickly into the second. She pulled through the hairpin smoothly and then finished the last curve with the same smooth, speed before stopping.
"Might have had that." I commented. We both got out.
"Camera three still caught you." Han called out from the platform.
"I'll try again." Gisele slid back into the car while I made my way back to my spot on the couch.
I heard someone make a joke about the girls being the only ones capable of pulling this off, but it didn't really sink in. I was too distracted by the way Han was looking at Gisele.