Summary: Geoff breaks some stuff and Michael talks a lot about crime, secret contacts, and getting got.
Chapter 12
Geoff slammed out of Matt's office, his face white with rage and his fingers itching for his gun. He slammed down the hallway, past Barbara and Gus's office, past the bungalow, and back into the Achievement Hunter Office. The Crew was in there filming in GTA, but immediately stopped and turned as Geoff kicked the door in and surveyed them all, pissed to the highest possible level.
"Heist room. Now!"
With that the Fake AH Crew followed their infuriated leader into the nearby conference room, Gavin closing the door behind everyone and Ryan pulling the curtains. Everyone stared as Geoff mashed a button on the phone in the middle of the table. "Kara, can you tell Kerry to get the fuck into the conference room!" he barked, not waiting for the flustered Kara to reply before disconnecting. Everyone looked at each other, clearly unnerved but it was Gavin who finally had the courage to ask.
"Geoff what is it, what happened?"
"What happened?" Geoff asked, his voice cracking in his vexation. "What happened? I'll tell you what fucking happened!" Geoff pointed at Ryan. "This idiot can't stop team killing!" Geoff moved over to Ray. "This one can't do anything period." He pointed at Michael. "Your dumbass can't stop making stupid mistakes!" Geoff smacked the phone off the table and into the wall, clearly having aimed for Gavin. "And you can't handle the simplest of tasks. Thanks to all of your idiocies, Jack is now in lock up for the next 60 days and Matt refuses to bail him out!"
"Only 60 days?" Ryan asked, incredulously.
"He managed to convince the cops that he was taken hostage by these idiots," Geoff said, jerking a thumb at Gavin and Michael. "He gave them descriptions that matched some of Simeon's clowns and Matt at least paid off some goons to alter some of the evidence. So he got 60 days for running from the scene."
"Isn't that good news?" Ray asked.
Geoff glared ferociously. "No it's not good news. The only one worth a damn is in lock up. We have to call in fucking Kerry and because Ryan's a fucking psycho, Matt and Burnie are back to being all over our asses. The only good news is that the word on the street is the Fake AH Crew has pulled off three successful heists. No one knows we failed but us and our god damn employers who will grease our ass." Geoff kicked a chair over and slammed his fists down on the table. "Get your fucking shit together guys!" he shouted. "We can't afford any more mistakes! Do you fucking hear me now you sacks of shit?"
The Crew nodded, completely cowed by Geoff's anger. Geoff shoved away from the table. "Michael, you're up. Tell us your plan when Kerry gets here and God help you if it fails."
Kerry entered the room a short time later and settled behind the table next to Ray. Ryan skulked in the back, unhappy with the fact that Geoff had basically accused him of sabotage the one time he had actually accidentally caused mayhem. Geoff just stood in the back, trying to get a grip on his temper.
Michael stood at the front of the room in front of a heavily marked map. Despite being freaked out by Geoff earlier, he was strangely calm. He had planned out his heist carefully in the last week and had finally lit upon a good plan. He just hoped that the people he needed would go along with it.
The thing was the Michael was tired. He was tired of failing because he got stuck with Gavin, or failing because he was left out in harm's way. Geoff constantly complained that so many of them mucked up the works. Maybe it was time to trim the fat on the AH Crew. It would all depend on Geoff though. Either Geoff would go with Michael's plan, or he would put a bullet in Michaels' brain. Yet given the towering rage the Geoff was in, Michael had a feeling that now was a good time to strike.
"All right," Michael said to the strangely somber group. (That would change.) "It's heist time. We've done this a few times and it hasn't gone very well."
"Someone tried to pull a fast one on me," Ray grumbled.
"Not fast enough apparently," Ryan snapped back.
Ray opened his mouth to argue, as did Geoff while looking murderous, but Michael cut them off. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Here's what happened last time: it got away from us. We can't let our previous failures put us down."
"I would just like to say for the record," Ryan chimed in, raising his hand. "I didn't hit Geoff. On purpose."
Geoff's face went so still that even Ryan was frightened.
"You punched him in the face," Michael said carefully.
"He walked into it," Ryan insisted, edging away from Geoff.
"Oh good God, I DON'T FUCKING CARE!" Geoff shouted. "It's in the past, let's move the fuck on!"
"New heist, new day!" Michael said, trying to regain control of the room. "Ok, so as you know Jack got got hard. He's still in Los Santos lock-up. We've asked Kerry to step in for now."
Kerry shook his hipster/skater boy haircut out of his face and grinned. "Guys I really appreciate this opportunity," he said, clicking his pen and crouching over his pad.
"Kerry the notes guy," Ray muttered, rolling his eyes.
Ok!" Michael said loudly. "Let's get down to it. Gavin," he said, pointing at the big-nosed brit, who cringed. "Cut the shit. You're the one, every heist ten seconds in—injured, unavailable, in the sewer, whatever! So step number one, complete the fucking heist. Goal number two—which is very unrealistic because it's never gonna happen—have Gavin survive and be useful."
Gavin looked triumphant, the other's exasperated. It surprised no one that Michael would look out for his best friend, but it was rather annoying that it had been built into his heist plan. They did agree that it would be an interesting challenge however.
"In fact," Michael said, gesturing to the map. "This heist is almost specifically design to keep Gavin alive because I feel that it would be just as much of a challenge as the actual heist."
"So we're leaving him in the apartment?" Ryan asked sarcastically.
Michael rolled his eyes. "No, we don't want to be boring about it Ryan." He turned to the map and pointed at the first of many dots. "All right, we are going to start the heist here, at my apartment. You can see it says plan A, Plan A stands for alcohol." He looked back at the group. "We're all going to get revved up. Ray you can hit the bong, it's a good substitute."
"Can I do both?" Kerry asked, raising his hand.
Michael rolled his eyes yet again. One day they were just going to spin right out his head. "Yes Kerry, as long as you talk notes."
"Booooth,"Kerry said, drawing out the word as he wrote it down carefully.
Michael rolled his eyes but kept going. "I've scoped out a location, some of you may be familiar with it. We recently pulled the fast cash job there—it's a bank. And we are going to hit it, hard." Michael pointed to the map at the next marked spot. "The bank is here, everyone know it?" There were general murmurs of assent. "Ok so we are going to split up into three teams.
Michael turned back to the group. "Kerry, you and Geoff will be team…hm…OG doesn't work since you're not Jack. Let's go with Team OG2."
"Got it," Kerry said, continuing to scribble. Geoff rolled his eyes and gave Michael a look that could peel paint.
"You guys gotta get a helicopter and provide aerial support," Michael hastily said before Geoff could cut in. "Kerry you'll be flying, Geoff you'll be leaning out of the helicopter giving covering fire while we're in the bank."
Geoff nodded. Capping some ass suited his mood well. There were worse jobs.
Michael looked at Gavin. "Gavin, you and I, Team Nice Dynamite, we'll be hitting the bank, getting the money, taking out any witnesses." Gavin grinned and Michael took a deep breath internally, praying to God Gavin could handle this.
"Ryan and Ray," he continued, "R Connection—you're the killing machines; you'll be positioned outside the bank. You kill everyone in sight. All the cops—dead. You need to clear a path for Gavin and I."
Ryan saluted.
"How do we get out Michael" Gavin asked, not liking the idea of charging out the door into a war zone.
"After Ryan and Ray clear a path, we will exit the bank and run across the street to this alley here." Michael said, pointing at the map and tracing their path. "Ray and I know a guy—ex-military, no names—he'll provide Gavin and I with two tanks. We'll take the tanks all the way down into the southern part of the city here and merge into the trolley underground tunnel here. We'll lose our police tail that way. At the end of the tunnel, we'll have two bikes waiting because we haven't used enough bicycles."
"That's true," Ryan said.
Michael nodded. "This is also the most dangerous point in the heist for Gavin because he is out of the tank and on a bicycle."
Everyone had a sudden vision of Gavin flying off a bicycle after being hit by a car…or somehow ending up on top of a mountain with a bicycle. No wait…that was the last job….
"It should be about forty feet to the dock and the boat waiting for us though," Michael said reasonably. You need to be alive for like…ten seconds Gavin."
"I can do that," Gavin said cheerfully.
"I doubt that," Geoff said nastily.
"We get in the boat and go around here," Michael said, drawing a path around the edge of Los Santo until he came to a rocky coved beach they all new. "Right there, that's the meeting point. That's how Gavin and I get out,"
Michael moved on to Ray and Ryan, who were looking apprehensive about their roles already. In the end, it wouldn't matter Michael knew but it was disconcerting to think they might have had even the slightest hint as to what Michael had in store for them in particular.
"Ray and Ryan," he said carefully, "We have a tired and true tactic, I'm sure it will be fine—you guys are going to get away on a motorcycle." Because it is about damn time someone else got flung off one of the god damn things, Michael thought to himself.
"One or two?" Ray asked.
"One of course!"
"Right…" Asshole, Ryan and Ray thought simultaneously.
"You wanna head north, take the cops into Los Santos County and lose them. You're going to come around to the meeting point from the north, but halfway through, you'll change vehicles. You'll ditch your bike for a car that Geoff's gonna plant here."
"When do I plant it?" Geoff asked.
"Before we start," Michael responded. "Now you and Kerry, you'll be in the helicopter still. You're gonna fly off, lose your police tail, and land the helicopter right by the Vinewood sign. There will be a car waiting for you there. You'll come down through the city from the south side and meet up with Ray and Ryan." Michael looks over at the R and R connection and grimly adds "God bless their souls, if you should survive."
Ray and Ryan chose equally ticked off looks to send back to Michael.
"There will be a boat waiting for you all here," he says, pointing at the beach. "Now it's a big job, a lot of vehicles, a lot of prep so I brought in a third party for the boat and other stuff. I gave him the ocular pat down. He's a black market dealer, no names. We should be set."
Michael traces their final path through the sea. "All three teams in the boats will travel east over here, we hit international waters to split up the money and we go our separate ways." In more ways than one Michael thought to himself.
Ryan and Ray in particular look skeptical at this plan. True they were the strongest on the team as far as weapons and killing, but it seemed as though Michael deliberately was leaving them out in harm's way. Ryan glanced over at Geoff to see if he had picked up on it too, but Geoff was still glowering and Ryan didn't want to push it.
"All right," Michael said. "Everyone know the plan?" The Crew responded with various noises of assent. "All right let's do it! We meet tomorrow at my place."
The gang got to their feet and headed out, Kerry still scribbling on his notepad. Geoff was about to be the last one out but Michael took a deep breath and took a big chance.
"Geoff, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Geoff reversed path and stepped back into the conference room at Michael's words, shutting the door behind him. He was still pissed about Jack and despite Michael's solid sounding plan, he was not optimistic about anything anymore. It didn't help that they were dragging a rookie along with them and then Geoff himself had gotten stuck with him.
Michael looked nervous while Geoff waited for him to speak. Finally the man shrugged, like he was throwing caution to the wind. "So…Geoff…fuck Ryan and Ray."
Geoff looked back at Michael in surprise. He supposed he should have seen this coming. There was so much tension in the group that he should have expected a split long ago, he just wouldn't have pegged Michael as the one that broke. It wasn't that shocking still. Michael was one of the few who took these jobs seriously and he was fed up with the slacking off, the failure, and the betrayal (mostly courtesy of Ryan.) True, Gavin was a large cause of their problems, but Michael was too close to the Brit. He would never sacrifice him. But Ryan the traitor and Ray the wild card? Fair game.
"Hear me out," Michael said hastily. "All Ryan does any more is throw us under the god damn bus to save his own fucking neck. And Ray is too close to him and is clearly hiding his own abilities and assets. I mean did you hear how fast he took Ryan down last week? He isn't giving his all to the crew unless it suits him and I am god damn sick of it."
"Why tell me this?" Geoff asked. "What the fuck makes you think I won't kill you were you stand?"
Michael cringes. "Because Ryan and Ray left you for dead and for lockup last week. And Ray stood by while we did all the work. You really gonna let that stand? Ryan is too much of a loose cannon and Ray is too much of an unknown, despite the years we all have together." Michael paused for a moment. "I can get Gavin up to scratch, you know I can. With Ray and Ryan gone, we might have a shot at a clean job with no trail of dead bodies and livestock. I mean where the fuck is Ryan even finding that shit?"
Geoff thought about this for a moment. Did he really want to encourage this mutiny? Could he really knock off two of his own while scrambling to keep the gang above water before Matt and Burnie capped them all?
Maybe it was the way his head throbbed where Ryan had hit him, or the bruises he felt from flopping around the getaway car just before Ray and Ryan left him. Maybe it was the anger at Jack being locked up when he and Michael and Gavin alone had done their jobs last week, Gavin's shenanigans notwithstanding.
Whatever it was, Geoff was pissed and he wanted someone to pay. His temper got the better of him this once. And he hoped it wouldn't bit him in the ass.
"So what's the real plan?" Geoff asked.
Michael grinned. "Ok, so, Ryan and Ray are definitely gonna die on that bike or in that fight. Or at least go dark like we all do at some point in these jobs. I wanna ensure it. I want them dead as shit. Ryan's going to fucking betray everyone as always. We are all dead if Ryan's in play."
Geoff rubbed his sore head. "Unfortunately true."
"Ray's too quick. Like I said, what he did to Ryan last time? I can't trust him anymore. I don't want anybody that good on our team because I feel threatened, don't you."
Geoff nodded hesitantly.
"So, hopefully they die on the bike," Michael said. "But if they don't, the vehicle you're going to plant is going to have explosives in it."
Geoff shuffles his feet for a moment, looking at the ground and weighing this idea. "Ignition bomb?"
"Yup," Michael replied, grinning. "The second they start the car—boom!" he shouted, banging the table for emphasis. "Hopefully they both die. If one survives, play dumb. They'll be in the middle of nowhere, out in the woods and confused. Blame it on Simeon or some shit. We are being targeted by his crew so they'll probably buy it."
"Sometimes shit goes wrong," Geoff adds.
"Yeah," Michael says. "Right. So then if one of them happens to make it, we'll take them out on the beach." Kill them in cold blood, Geoff thinks. "The three of us escape then, split the money, and go our separate ways."
Geoff thinks for a moment. The plan would eliminate two of the five problems he drags around with him, including one of the worst. He still had his reservations, but maybe with a smaller, more manageable crew he could cut their losses and reduce the chaos that followed them. If he had the luxury, he'd bump Michael too for planning this act of betrayal but he couldn't. The man had money and resources the gang needed. Gavin had the foreign contacts too. But Ray and Ryan, despite their talents, were expendable.
Geoff sighed heavily. "All right. Fuck…let's do it.
It wasn't until much later that Geoff realized that Michael had said "the three of us."