At the site of the crash.
Brian had waited a whole five minutes after the Lan Evo's and the Tacoma were completely out of sight and ear. He drove his silver and blue Skyline right up to the wreckage of the El Camino and the the corpse of the driver. Out of habit, he searched the surrounding area while still in the cover of his car, a task that took nearly two minutes. He left the engine running when he stepped out and he carried a loaded Glock 17 pistol at the ready.
Better safe than sorry. If he learned anything from his stint with the FBI, it was that that saying had more truth in it than most people would assume.
He walked cautiously towards the victim who was lying still on the ground, leaving no doubt that he was as dead as a doornail, as the old saying goes. The cause was obvious. Brian could see that the almost whole clip of the ammo was emptied into the guy's torso turning it into hamburger meat. Vital organs dead and rotting.
Brian then moved up to the man's face. It was covered with sweat and dirt but was still otherwise identifiable. Brian took out his cellphone, accessed it's internal media gallery, and pulled up a candid photo of a man's face. Brian looked back and forth between the photo and the man's face. Aside from the haircut (the dead guy had short hair while the guy in the image had a mullet) it was a match.
This was the guy he had been tailing for a while now. "Dammit," he mumbled into the empty air.
When Brian had gotten word that Sinclair was after someone in the tournament, it didn't take him all that long to find out who had been hired to make a hit. After that, it was a fairly easy task to track down this hitman and follow him. All those years on the force and in the bureau counted for something.
Unfortunately, someone had beaten him to it. Someone who already knew that a hit was gonna take place and were already on the move just when Brian himself found out exactly who were the targets for the hit and why.
By interesting coincidence, at the time he was headed for the dead man's location, it was just in time to see him get chased into the desert. So Brian ended up chasing the people chasing his mark.
It was easy enough to tail them, even easier when they were out in the desert since with all the excitement going on, there was no way for them to spot him nearly a mile behind. The former FBI agent was easily able to sneak towards the other side of the hills to the west, park the Skyline where nobody could see it, and take his position on the crest where see everything that was going one while have very little chance of being spotted.
After satisfied that he has confirmed the identity of the man, Brian moved to the wrecked El Camino and began rummaging through what's left of it. He had noticed that the guys who took out his mark came only to eliminate the guy and maybe retrieve what he though was some kind of mobile device. They didn't bother searching the truck itself, maybe because got what they wanted or they just weren't professionally inclined to do so. Brian, of course, knew better than to leave a few stones unturned.
Instead of checking the obvious hiding places first, he checked the not so obvious: under the seat cushions, behind the backrests, in the wheel wells, inside the lining of the roof...nothing. Then he moved to the obvious hiding place, namely the glove-box. That's where he found a little black book of phone numbers. He sighed exasperatingly. The glove-box? Really? Don't people watch James Bond anymore?
He pocketed the book to inspect for later then headed back to his car.
"Manny and the guys aren't gonna like this," he said to himself. "Time to move to plan B, I guess."
As he turned back towards the direction of the main road he made a mental note: Come up with a plan B.
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Later that day.
It was now a few hours after breakfast, just that time of day when you start looking forward to lunch. Back at the overlook over the lake, Virgil and Alex once again were meeting. At first Alex thought this was about his team's not so stellar performance during Stage 2 but now Alex got a lot more than he wished for.
"Here, check this out," was the first thing Virgil told him as he got out of the S15 while handing a PDA.
Alex took the PDA and started browsing the files inside. The most prominent files were pictures. Not just any pictures either. The PDA was full of pictures of his team. Alex's eyes went wide with shock.
They were clearly taken without consent. All the pictures were taken without any of them knowing. There were pictures like him and Suki walking down the pool of the hotel. Pictures of Rome having a drink on balcony of their suite. Pictures of Jimmy, Tej and the girls as they were tinkering with the cars on the empty lot they were using as a make-shift garage. And, on an interesting note, a few pictures of Kate as she was starting to make out with her mechanic, Mei.
No real surprises for Alex on those last set of images but can you blame him for staring too long?
"You know what these are, don't you?" asked Virgil.
Alex turned serious. "Yeah. Someone's been scouting us out."
"Sinclair is starting to get a drift of what we're up to. Like I warned you about, he's already playing dirty outside the tracks. The man we got this from was a reputable hitman who used to work for the mob."
"What did you do to him?"
Virgil gave Alex a steely smirk. "The same kind of chance he would've given to you."
Alex pretended he wasn't made uncomfortable by that. "Did you find any other guys after us?"
"None so far. But if there is, it won't be for a while that they'll come after you. Sinclair is a smart man. He only hired one anonymous hitman for the time being to avoid too much attention."
"I suppose so. So now what?"
"Virgil, reached into his pocket again and this time produced a small wad of cash. "Your share of the betting pool once again. The odds were pretty high against you this time so we made quite the profit."
He handed it over to Alex who showed only a slight hesitation in taking it.
"For now," continued Virgil. "I suggest you switch hotels for now. The one your in is probably being monitored and if they hire someone else that's probably where they'll check first."
"You don't have any other information on who really put the hit on my crew?"
"It ought to be obvious, my friend. But no we don't. All we have is that PDA right there."
"You could've left that hitman alive and interrogated him a bit more you know?"
"He probably wouldn't have know more than your location. Also, it would just like Sinclair to hire him via proxy so he wouldn't have known anything that we could trace to Sinclair directly. Interrogating him would've been a waste of time."
"Still, you didn't have to kill him."
Virgil said nothing for a moment and simply stared at Alex as if he said something weird. Alex didn't waiver from the look Virgil gave him. He waited and stood his ground as if to indicate that he also stood by he last statement. Virgil slowly strolled towards Alex with a look of naivety in his eye. He was less than a foot away from Alex when he leaned in and said to Alex's ear ion a hush tone.
"That's the kind of thinking that got you Old Joe killed you know?" said Virgil with the faintest hint of maliciousness.
Alex would be lying if he said he wasn't shaken by it but managed to keep his composure. He wasn't gonna let Virgil get the best of him now.
"That kind of thinking was what got him respect. "
"What good is respect once you're dead?"
"Not one person had a bad to say about him when we buried him. He died a proud man with his principles intact."
Virgil was laughing but was trying to hold himself back so as to not sound too rude. It wasn't working. Alex had to physically restrain his fist from flying straight into the bastard's jaw. Virgil got a hold of himself enough to continued the conversation.
"Your talents as a racer have gotten you far in this world, my friend," said Virgil, now starting to sound a little preachy. "But eventually you will have to learn that in this cut-throat world, talent is not enough. You're gonna have to be smarter than that. There will come a time when you have to screw somebody over in order to get what you need. You have to have more guts, my friend. You have to be more like..like...
"You?"
A short silence, followed by some soft snickering from Virgil.
"You'd best spend your time preparing for the next stage of the tournament. The competition is only going to get tougher. Oh, and you can keep that PDA. Show it to your friends and maybe try getting their opinion on what should be done."
With that, Virgil gave Alex a friendly pat on the shoulder and walked towards his BMW.
"What exactly do you plan to do after this tournament is over?" asked Alex.
Without looking back, Virgil stopped for a moment and answered. "What I do best, my friend. Take advantage of a good opportunity."
Virgil continued on to his car, got in, started it up and drove away. Alex stood there and waited until Virgil was out of his sight and his car was out of earshot. The second that was, Alex muttered a string of curses that would make a sailor cringe. He was making it clear that Virgil irritated him to no end. Too bad he couldn't do anything about it in the meantime. With luck, he'll get his opportunity soon enough.
But he had more immediate concerns. He looked down on the PDA again. For all the asshole that he was, Virgil had a point. His crew was in danger now and he needed to act accordingly. Switching hotels would be a good idea. Heck, maybe they should just avoid hotels altogether. But where will they stay. After going this far, they couldn't simply back out of the plan. What else can he do? No. Not just him, Alex decided. What else can they do?
He'll have to take it up with the team. He can't make this decision alone for all of them. They were a team, and if his own life has taught him anything, a team is one's family. Besides, he had a feeling this wasn't their first waltz. God knows it wasn't his. He browsed through the images stored in the PDA again, just to remind himself what was at stake.
And for a moment he forgot it while looking through the last set of images...those with Kate and Mei.
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Some time later.
Alex had arrived at a remote parking lot where he told the rest of the team to gather. A spot he and Kate knew about and often used as a meeting spot when they were in Vegas. Kate lead the rest of the group there and by the time Alex arrived the roster of drivers, cars, mechanics, and team manager was complete. The lot they met at was behind an old truck stop at the edge of the city, abandoned and left to rot. They were inside one of the large garages designed to service big rigs but was now simply an impromptu warehouse for discarded tools and equipment.
Alex wasted no time in explaining the situation to them all and everyone was in serious mode. The full weight of the situation came down on them and some looked understandably nervous, like Jimmy and the team's mechanics. Suki, Kate, Rome, and Tej showed a concern but kept their cool. Like Alex thought, they had danced this dance before. He then proceeded to show them the PDA given to him by Virgil.
"Weird, how come there aren't any pictures of me?" asked Kate.
Alex tried to look innocent. "Who knows?"
"And how come there's a recent email sent to your address, Alex?"
"Uh...To backup the data, of course. Hehe."
Kate raised an inquisitive eyebrow but didn't probe much into it. Instead, she turned to the rest of the group. "So...what do we do now?"
There was a palpable silence in the air for a good short while. Everyone wanted to say something but nobody could say a word either. The situation had changed dramatically now. Lives were now on the line. Their lives. And these weren't push-overs. These guys were professional organized criminals.
Oh, sure it might be a little hypocritical but while no-one from the crew is a saint. They weren't killers, blackmailers, extortionists, basically they were not the mob. They were just guys looking for a thrill that happened to be less than legal. Still, that meant they couldn't go to the police. That was a the problem with living as an outlaw: you're outside the law.
The conflict in Alex's mind churning his head like a blender. The original reason he agreed to this was that it was the best opportunity to get some revenge on the man that screwed them over and caused him to lose his home and what little semblance of a family he had known. Kate, he knew, felt similar. This whole trip was for them but now the priorities were in question. he had a new family now. One he built in Miami and managed to somehow drag along in this vendetta of his. It was supposed to be fun, but now the figurative fecal matter was hitting the fan.
Could he risk his friends for his own personal quest?
No. Of course not. They had agreed to come to Vegas for a competition, not to risk their lives. For Alex the only option to him was all too obvious.
"The game has changed too much," said Alex, breaking the silence and catching everyone's attention. "I say we bail."
He analyzed the reactions of everyone in the room. He wasn't surprised that just about everybody in the room had that "hell no" look in their eyes. Tej, Suki, and Kate were the only one who remained calm though. They knew Alex best and quickly got why he wanted this. Alex continued.
"I know that didn't sound like the most heroic and honorable thing to do, but I have my reasons for picking this option. From the start this was really my personal vendetta."
"Mine as well," added Kate. "You guys weren't part of this originally."
"Exactly. It was too much to ask of you to stick with me this long already. I can't allow you guys to risk your lives for something like a personal beef of mine."
"Whoa! hold-up now!" interrupted Rome. "You think we can just pack-up like that? Let's say we go back to Florida, I got the feelin' this Virgil cat ain't just gonna let that go. He's gonna come after us, you know that?"
"We do know that," said Kate. "And we've planned for that as well. We have evidence of his past dealings. Hard evidence that can put him behind bars for a long time. We've been saving that up just for something like this. We know how dangerous Virgil can be, dude."
"Sounds iffy. What makes you think it'll work?"
Alex and Kate were silent long enough for the rest of the group to take that as a figurative "we-don't-know" which didn't do much to boost morale. Tej could sort of figure out why those two would be unsure. His first impression of Virgil was that he was a man that was on top of things. A little blackmail scheme like this might not work for a man who knew how to use his resources. And Tej suspected this man had a lot of resources.
"I'm not feelin' that plan, brah," said Tej. "We gotta come up with something better than that."
"But what?" asked Jimmy. "What can we do? Do we, like, just stay the course and hopefully win the tournament and hopefully get Virgil's blessing after that and be on our merry way."
"Somehow I don't think that dude is gonna let things end that way," said Rome. "The way I see him, he's not gonna quit on us until he squeezes everything he can get out of us. If we're gonna bail on this, and I also think we should, we need a guaranteed plan he's gonna go down hard."
Alex let out an exasperated sigh of defeat. "Yeah, you're right. Virgil used to be more honorable than this. Now he's turning into just another street thug."
"Guess times are just tough on him," added Kate.
"And a desperate man will do desperate things. Which is why I'd rather not risk you guys anymore than I have. We bail back to Miami and I'll come up with something to take care of Virgil. That's the best plan right now."
"What about Virgil?" pressed Rome.
"He won't be your concern anymore."
"Wait. So you're just gonna go after him alone? Are you crazy, man? You guys could get killed, you know?"
"Yes, Rome, we know!" interjected Kate. "Our point is we're trying to keep you guys safe. You don't know Virgil like we do. Sure you were right when you said you thought of him as the kind of dude who won't just let stuff go but you have no idea, man. We can't afford you guys taking on that much heat.
"But we wanna help you guys. We can't just leave you like that."
Alex was actually getting frustrated now. "We'll think of something, don't worry. You guys don't have to be in the line of fire anymo-"
*Slap*
Suki, who had been quiet throughout the discussion so far, somehow saw fit to walk up to Alex and promptly slap him across the cheek. The impact rattled his jaw a bit and would probably leave a red mark for a while but it was nothing too damaging. Clearly, Suki just wanted him to switch though trains for a second. He turned towards the girl he was dating and saw a look of anger and frustration he never saw before. Around them, the rest of the gang looked quite shocked.
"Will you cut the macho crap," said Suki. "You know I hate that. Where do you get off in telling us to bail out on you so you can deal with this on your own? You too Kate! What part of 'we're a team' did you guys not understand?"
Another palpable silence where no one said a word. Alex was left gawking at Suki who kept that angry look.
"Listen," started Suki. "We we're a team before this whole thing started. And we sill stay a team after this is over with. You think giving out some bullshit reason like it's a personal thing will be enough to justify you two going off on your own? Geez! Grow-up! As if any of us is gonna let that happen. You need our help and you're gonna get whether you two like it or not. Clear?"
Silence again. Now Suki was annoyed.
She walked right up to Alex. She was so close her breast pressed against his chest. She grabbed his shoulder with one hand and pulled him down so that their noses were almost touching. It was one of those rare moments where Alex was actually afraid for his life.
"Clear?" Suki asked again, this time slurring the word.
"...Crystal," replied Alex, somewhat timidly.
Suki turned her glare towards Kate who then felt like her soul was being stabbed. Suki asked. "Kate?"
Kate didn't even hesitate. "Yes! Clear! Very clear!"
Alex couldn't help but smirk ever so slightly as he looked At Suki's angry face. He had almost forgotten what attracted to her.
Suki turned away in a pout. "Geez, what's with you two sometimes. Is it a Vegas thing? Sheesh!"
Somehow, Suki's little display cleared a big chunk of the tension in the air. Gradually the rest of the team started smirking in amusement knowing that a potential crisis was just averted. Alex caught Rome looking more entertained than the others. Rome made a gesture with his hand as if flailing a whip and mouthed the appropriate sound effect. Alex mouthed a phrase that most people might take offend to, which Rome just took in humor.
"Still," started Kate. "Even if we stay together in this...I don't think we really have the resources we need right now to put Virgil in his place."
"Which was what we've been trying to tell you," said Tej.
"So what do we do then? We're gonna need more than we have now to make this work. Where will we get the help?"
From out of nowhere: "Maybe we can help with that."
The whole group turned in the direction of the new voice. At the corner of the garage entrance was Brian O'Conner and the rest of Project 75 right behind him. The looks of the Wyldcardz varied from curious to completely surprised. Brian's teammates had dubious looks of their own, making little effort to hide the doubt they had in this plan of his.
Brian took it all in stride. At least he finally came up with a Plan B
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Author's note: I hope you guys aren't thinking this story is dead. No it's not. I know just where I'm going with this and do plan to keep going until I finish everything. Excuse the pace of my updating though. I got a small promotion at work so I had to dedicate some time to training with the rest of my batch. Anyway, pls R&R in the meantime. Thanks again to all you guys for checking this story out.