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Warehouse District, Edge of Miami
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Tej's Nova coasts down a half-paved road that looks like it was forgotten by city maintenance sometime around the Carter administration.
We pull into a block of industrial buildings, graffiti on rusted roll-up doors, cracked concrete, chain-link fences leaning like they gave up.
It's the kind of place where either nobody looks at twice or is used to film horror or action movies, which makes it perfect.
Tej slows to a stop in front of one of the wider warehouse units...this one is in much better shape than the others big steel doors acting as the truck bay, maintained drainage pipes, and enough room to land a small plane if you moved a few crates out of the way.
"You're sure this place is safe?" I ask, while stepping out of his whip and scanning the area.
"Yup…belongs to an offshore shell corporation, we could easily put up some cameras if it'd make you feel better…best of all there will be no paper trail linking you to this place…you could build a meth lab in this place and nobody would care." Tej says it like he's the proud owner of it.
"Yeah, I take it you own this shell corporation?" I ask, while walking over to the loading dock and tugging on the steel door. It groans, rolls up slowly, and the inside greets me with dust motes, bare concrete, and a faint smell of disuse. A rat scurries into a corner.
'Home sweet home.'
"Maybe…but this has everything you need; it's plumbed and wired…even has a water heater, toilet, and a shower in the back and offices you could turn into bedrooms." Tej says from behind me.
He fishes into his pocket and tosses me a keyring. "Consider it your Miami safehouse, you screw it up, it's on you to fix it, and Brian no drama…I have a lot going on without your usual antics so don't be going and bringing any extra heat down on yourself and by extension me here.
"I will do my best, and Tej I really appreciate this." I say seriously.
"Yeah, yeah…I know you always do but trouble still finds you no matter what." Tej sighs and rolls his eyes on good natured exasperation.
"Come on, let's head back. Oh right, the other thing." Tej expresses and pulls out his wallet and hangs me a business card.
"Guy's name is Dmitri. Works out of a fake passport office in Little Haiti…his papers are just as good as real deals, but to get them you have to tell him that "Mister Nobody" sent you."
I raise an eyebrow. "Really, is he a B-rank movie buff or something?" I ask Tej but can't help but feel something cold and heavy settling in my stomach.
Tej shrugs, "No Idea, but he gets the job done." Tej says, as we walk back to his car.
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Shadowy Office, Unknown Location ~~ — — — — — — — — — — ~~
The lights are low. A projector flickers as it projects images against a canvas covered wall.
These images look like massively zoomed in Satellite images that are playing but they aren't grainy the footage is crystal clear as it depicts a scene of absolute chaos at an event called Race Wars.
Explosions, automatic gunfire, smoke and fire, people scattering like ants kicked from their hill.
And at the center of it all Brian Micheal O'Connor, pulling a weapon from the door paneling of his car, shouting out commands to a bald guy. As he starts firing on the shits attacking civies while taking cover behind said car.
The man watching leans forward, elbows on the desk, the wee bit of light in the room revealing the man's tightly clenched jaw.
The rim of a whiskey glass glints in the projector light.
"Goddamnit, Brian…" This shadowy cloaked man says, his voice low and soft. "Why is it everywhere you go, chaos follows? and you were just starting to turn a new leaf too." The Shadowy figure continues to mutter, as he reaches toward the edge of what appears to be a desk.
He picks something up and pulls it into the light, it's a weathered photo, old, sun-bleached and wrinkled.
The man's jaw unclenches at seeing a younger version of himself, sharp-jawed and lean, not unlike a young Kurt Russell…to an outside observer's perception.
Next to this man is a beautiful blonde woman, smiling like everything is right in the world and wasn't collapsing down around them.
In her arms, is a cute little bundle of a one-year-old boy with crystal-blue eyes: on the back of the picture three names are written Brian, Micheal and Ellie O'Connor.
"You'd probably say it's because he's like his father," the man whispers to no one. His thumb brushes against her face in the photo. "I miss you, Ellie… I wish things could've been different."
He lifts his glass but doesn't immediately take a drink and continues to just stare between the photo and the screen it replays, the clips from Race Wars over and over again the car with its sliding back body panels and makeshift automatic weapons and missile launchers.
The murder of one Johnny Tran, Nam Cam Lieutenant, under the command of his General father.
"I'll do what I can to protect our son, Ellie." The man says, his voice barely audible.
Behind him, a monitor flickers with a list of flagged vehicles entering Miami…one of them a
Black Toyota Supra with red stripes: Plates: GHST-RX73 – Owner: Unknown, (Brian Earl Spilner
The man leans back into the dark, taps a button on the desk, and the screen cuts to black.
And a flash of his hand going to a telephone can be seen, "Sir?" A voice asks from the other end.
"We have a deep cover operative coming in for a fresh set of papers for himself and two assets to give him the full package."
"Yes Sir, Mr.Nobody Sir!"
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MC
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Getting out of Tej's car, we give each other a quick old secret handshake and then I'm off back to the girls.
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So so far the story pacing has been pretty moderate, minus the three-way relationship with Mia and Letty, but how do y'all feel should we take our time and explore the upgrades Brian and the Girls make to the warehouse along with some racing or jump to the night of the race where Monica Fuentes makes an appearance or draw it out some more bring Suki into the family as a...not quite girlfriend or wife but maybe a pet...collar doggie bed and everything lol jk, on the last part...maybe.