Chapter 5: Get in. Get Out.
Crockett swiftly jerked around to see two men aiming at him with a gun with the smashed door down behind them. "GET DOWN!" he yelled as he grabbed Caroline and rolled over the counter. He pulled his Deagle out and opened fire on them, killing the first man. The second man took cover behind a couch near the TV, who was frantically reloading. Crockett told Caroline to stay down and ran for cover near a chair across the couch. The man popped out from the cover and released 4 shots in the air, narrowly missing the chair Crockett was behind. Crockett fired back, missing three of his shots and nailing him on the fourth one.
Crockett slowly popped out from his cover with eyes wide. He aimed his gun around and surveyed the area. It seemed clear now. He grabbed Caroline and ushered her out of the house. Rico had turned around after receiving calls of a civilian shooting from the neighborhood he had just left. "Rico! Rico….open the door and get her to the OCB now!" Rico nodded and swiftly opened the door and got her in, driving off. Crockett made a break for his Ferrari, but noticed something on the floor near one of the dead men. A recorder!
He grabbed it on his way out and hopped in. He noticed the SUV parked across the other side starting its engine. "Not today pal…not today…" He gunned the Daytona and sped off down the street, with the SUV giving chase. He swerved in and out of Miami traffic. The fact that it had become late at night only served to make it harder. The SUV jerked a swift curve around the end of the street, just in time to see Crockett getting away. He looked in his rear view mirror and saw there were now 2 SUVs headed for him behind.
He stepped on the gas and gritted his teeth. Suddenly gunfire was heard behind him, coming from the SUVs. He jerked in and out of traffic in hopes to throw the SUVs off the road. It didn't work. They now split into two lanes and were coming up fast behind him. He noticed a small intersection just ahead of the streetlights on the road and decided to pull a move. He jerked swiftly around right in the middle of the junction and started driving down the way he came from. This caught one of the SUVs by surprise and smashed into the nearest Pizzeria, ruffling traffic away in its path. The other SUV was still after him. He drove down towards his boat towards the pier.
The SUV started gaining on him fast in the heat of the night, dodging unruly traffic in and out. Crockett had a way of getting in and out of traffic more easily than a heavy SUV. He saw the pier in sight and realized this was his only chance to throw the gang behind him. This was a risk he knew had to take. And he did. He put on full speed down the asphalt, hair blowing in the hot wind of the night and the constant traffic honking all around him. Up ahead was a boat just making its way towards shore that had just left. He looked behind him and grinned. A small ramp lay ahead on the dock and he stepped on the gas as hard as he could, shifting into 5th gear.
And that was it. He drove right off the ramp into the cold sea air. The Daytona soared gracefully in the night, with its wheels spinning and glimmering beautifully all around. Everything felt so slow motion right then and there. The Daytona seemed to be stuck in midair almost, as it fell right onto the back of the docking boat in time. Crockett simply sat there for a split second, not knowing what had just happened. Neither did the SUV behind him, because it mindlessly had followed him right into the ocean.
Its heavy weight and body didn't allow it to soar gracefully like the nimble Daytona. Instead, it just fell. Right into the cold, hard waters of the night. Crockett looked up. There were a few faces looking back at him in awkward shock. He looked back, then tried to shrug it off. "Well guys. Nice boat you have here. Spacious. Very spacious." Didn't seemed to be working all that well, but it was the least he could do, no?
Late at night, Castillo sat at his desk, flipping through case files. He ran through several of the ones connected to Auric Waters and Santano Cruz. Oddly enough, an unlisted detail wrote that Waters had served in the CIA years after Vietnam. Why wasn't it listed in the official terms of clearance on the paper then? It was 'unranked' but should still have been there. Not that it mattered now anyway, but still. Crockett walked in, looking tired and dazed.
"Lieutenant…I have the tape. Here." He looked up from his chair and walked over. "Where did you get it?" Crockett looked up from his chair. "A few uninvited guests brought it along for me." Castillo took the tape and looked at it. Then he went over and filed it in as evidence. "Waters and his men must be onto this now." Crockett sighed. "Yeah. I know. Where's Caroline?" Castillo looked at him. "We're keeping her at a government safe house right now." Crockett looked up at him in bewilderment. "At a safe house? Lieutenant, you know what went down just a few hours ago and now you're keeping her at a safe house?"
Castillo had a deep look in his face. "We can't keep her here. It's a risk we can't take right now. Sorry." Crockett started seeing red and grabbed his coat and stormed out. He couldn't believe this. One moment she almost died and the next she's thrown back into the same possibility again. He opened the door to his car and got in. He was about to start the engine when suddenly his phone rang.
"You got 12 hours Crockett. 12. Hand over the tapes…and your damsel in distress goes free." His eyes widened. "Where is she? WHERE IS SHE?" The voice on the other end was all too familiar. It was Auric Waters. "You meet me here at this bar with the tapes, and I'll take you to the safehouse that we chose for her. Sound good?"
It didn't sound good at all.