Chapter 1
Danny and Finn
Chapter Description: An introduction to the main characters and the event that changed their lives.
Finn is 36 years old, has brown hair and he is quite muscular. He was waiting in front of the bar in his police car. He was depressed and annoyed that he was once again tasked with breaking up bar fights. He had been training from a very young age to be the best cop possible so that he could help bring dangerous and brilliant criminals to justice. But the problem was that there weren't that many criminal masterminds out there. So most of the time, his job consisted in giving speeding tickets and breaking up bar fights.
Occasionally, he got to investigate a murder scene but he quickly found out that it wasn't like Sherlock Holmes where the suspect is the last person that you would expect and it takes hours for a master detective to come to the shocking conclusion. No in real life, the most obvious suspect tends to be the culprit and there are no twist endings. The hardest part of the investigations consist in gathering enough evidence to incriminate the suspect while following procedure to ensure the evidence is valid in court. He tried for some time to become a private detective but there too, his talent was wasted. He was mostly hired to determine if a person was cheating on their partner or sometimes it was a company trying to find potential dirt on their rivals. But never for serious crimes. So he eventually resigned to his fate. His job might be boring but at least he was paid well.
He waited for another 30 minutes until he saw two drunk guys arguing over who should get the hot girl that was probably interested in neither of them. Evantualy, they started throwing punches and Finn knew it was his time to intervene. He got out of his car and told them : "Hey calm down fellas, we don't want trouble like that around here." But considering the average intelligence of guys who get into bar fights like this, it was no surprise that it did little to dissuade them. One of them men said : "Well we don't want pigs like you around here either." He then tried to punch him in the face but Finn dodged his hit, grabbed his arm and twisted it around his back so quickly the guy didn't have time to react. As he was cuffing him, the other guy came from behind to try to hit him in the head. But Finn simply blocked his hit by stretching one of his arms behind his back, grabbed the man's arm and tripped him with his leg as he pulled him in all without turning around. He then cuffed them both and took them to the back of his squad car for the last 30 minutes of the shift after which he took them to the police station and his work for the night was done.
He got back home at 2 am and his family was sleeping. He was careful not to make too much noise to avoid waking them up. He takes off his shoes and places them in their usual spot against the wall. He likes to keep he things well organized. He takes a quick shower and goes to bed next to his wife, Samantha. Since he started working during the night, he spoke to her a lot less, he thought. When he arrives from work, she is sleeping and when she wakes up in the morning, he is sleeping. So he can only really talk with her during the weekends. Same with his kids. Another downside of his job. He just hopes that he can get back to working daytime hours soon so he can spend enough time with his kids before they grow up.
Danny is 28 years old, has blonde hair and he is tall and slim. He was driving a 1980s Cadillac model to a shady looking car garage. He got out of the car and told the mechanic : “Here’s the car you asked for. Now give me the money, man.” The mechanic inspected the vehicle for a while and then gave Danny 30 000$ cash. Danny said : “Only 30 thousand? But that car is easily worth 80 000$ and I didn’t even brake a window to steal it so it’s in good condition.” The mechanic answered : “It’s still used and you damaged it a bit when you connected the wires to start it without the keys. Plus the crew that will repaint it, change its plate and ship it to the buyer needs to get a cut too.” Danny looks down in disappointment and says : “Alright then. Call me if you ever need my services for something else, homie.” The mechanic answers : “You know I will.” They wave each other goodbye and Danny takes a taxi back home.
on His way, Danny thought about his situation. It was so hard for him to make a stable income. 30 000$ might seem like a lot of money but he only gets the opportunity to receive such a payment about once every two or three months and often the payment is less than that. This time he was lucky. He wasn’t exactly poor but he was worried that he would be if ever he doesn’t get any new “contracts” for a prolonged period of time. Especially since he spends a little too much on strippers and his own car. He also decided to sell booze to minors from time to time but that hardly paid as much. One thing he never did in a long time was get a legal job. He had tried but with limited education and poor interview skills, he was never hired. Of course he could have made considerable efforts to fix these problems but why try so hard to please the society that threatens him so badly when he could just do what he is good at and give a middle finger to the establishment snobs instead?
He got off the taxi once he arrived near his apartment. He only needed to walk one or two blocks but that’s all it took for him to get ambushed by a bandit that must have seen that his pockets were full. The bandit pulled out a knife and told him to give him his cash. Danny said :”Hey you can’t rob me, I do that to other people.” He backed away from the guy until he arrived next to a trash can which he threw at him. While the bandit recovered from this, Danny quickly grabbed his hand and twisted his wrist, forcing him to drop the knife. The bandit tried to punch him but Danny pushed his other arm away and tripped him with his leg. Once down, Danny kicked him in the face once. The bandit then ran away and Danny continued on his way. Once he got home, he ate a quick meal and spent the rest of the night scrolling through the news and drinking beer until he went to bed.
Three months later, Danny got a call from a special client telling him he wanted to meet him in person for a special job opportunity. Excited, Danny followed the directions and ended up at the abandoned looking country shack used as a meet up point. There, the buyer revealed that a rapper with more money than brains calling himself Lil B1ing had just purchased a custom made luxury car that was worth over a million dollars. Not only was it the only car of this model in the world since it was custom made but the fact that it was used by Lil B1ing actually makes it gain value instead of losing some like used cars usually. That thing could probably sell for 1,5 million dollars! However, Lil B1ing has purchased impressive security to ensure he keeps the car and he has been known to have ties with the violent street gang known has the bloods. That means the guards he hired are probably part of this gang and won’t hesitate to kill whoever tries to steal what they are tasked with protecting. So jail isn’t the biggest risk in this heist. Also there were security cameras all around and the garage where the car is kept could only be opened with a secret code. Finally, the car was equipped with modern technology meaning that it can’t be started just by connecting the right wires. It was started with an electronic system recognizing a special key. The buyer contacted Danny because he was one of the best car thieves around. After careful consideration, Danny accepted. With that much paper, he wouldn’t have to worry about cash for a long time. But he would need a crew and some special equipment for it. He asked the buyer for a fake replica of the cars electronic key, a discreet recording device and an assistant. The buyer agreed and Danny could start his plan.
A month later, Danny received his equipment and drove to the rapper’s home. He and his assistant were wearing and contact lenses to avoid anyone giving a good description of them to the police afterwards. They stopped about a 100 meters before the driveway and hid in the nearby shrubbery for over an hour before Lil B1ing arrived from showing off his car. Danny and his assistant got out and followed the car up to the garage and interrupted the rapper as soon as he got out of his car while the garage door was still open. Two patrolling guards stopped and approached the intruders menacingly until they exclaimed that they were huge fans of Lil B1ing and just wanted to meat him in person to get his autograph. The guards appeared to soften a bit but remained vigilant. The assistant distracted the annoyed rapper while Danny discreetly picked his pockets for the key and put the replica in its place. He then set up the camera in a bush and made sure it pointed at the garage key pad. Once his assistant walked away and Lil B1ing entered the code for the garage, Danny discreetly took the camera and they both left. He knew he had to strike during that night because Lil B1ing would realize his key was fake once he tries to drive his car tomorrow.
Finn was scrolling through the news on his phone during his Night Shift at the bar. He stopped on a particular story about two fans going to rapper Lil B1ing’s house just to meet him. The story sparked worries about excessive fan admiration for their favorite celebrities. But as Finn watched the video of the event, he noticed something strange. Only one of the fans seemed obsessed with Lil B1ing while the other was staying in the back and looking around the place. He only approached the rapper once without addressing him and immediately goes to the nearby bushes after. It makes no sense. He seems to be more concerned with mapping the place then meeting Lil B1ing. Finn rewatched the video a couple of times and notices that the man leaves something in the bushes because he returns to the same spot before leaving. The fact that this occurred shortly after Lil B1ing acquired an highly expensive car is very suspicious. This man was probably planning to steal the car and soon. He needed to warn the other cops immediately. But the police chief wasn’t willing to let him off his current task to solve a crime he wasn’t even sure would happen. He tried to contact Lil B1ing but he didn’t want to hear anything from a cop. Finn had to wait for his shift to finish.
Danny arrived again under the cover of night. He was wearing black clothes and a black face mask to reduce his chances of getting spotted by the guards. His assistant went in the nearby woods and started blowing fireworks. The guards were alerted and all but one went to investigate this. Danny sneaked in the yard and waited until the remaining guard was behind the house to quickly punch in the code he recorded Lil B1ing punching. He then used the key to activate the car and got in. Since he had the keys and bode, no alarm was triggered. He started the car and said to himself: “I got the big score now.” But as soon as the car started, it made a loud engine noise. Of course, the car was modified to make more sound since Lil B1ing was a douchebag. This alerted the guard who called the others as they were coming back from investigating the fireworks. Danny drove full speed and the guards didn’t dare shoot him to avoid damaging the car. However, his assistant wasn’t out of trouble yet and the guards figured out he was involved in the theft. They chased him down and shot at him. Good thing that they didn’t shoot well and he only took a bullet in the shoulder before Danny picked him up. He then drove as fast as he could while his assistant patched his shoulder with a piece of cloth. At least they wouldn’t call the cops before they got far away since they were obviously involved in crime themselves.
Finn drove to the rapper’s house as fast as he could. Once he arrived, he tried to warn the guards about the impending theft but they informed him that it already occurred. Finn wondered why they didn’t call the cops before but as he observed the guards, he saw their gang tattoos and realized they were shady themselves. However, now wasn’t the time to arrest them. Lil B1ing was probably involved in crime himself but that doesn’t mean he deserved to get robbed like that. Plus this would give Finn the opportunity to finally stop a highly skilled criminal that could be very troublesome if left at large. He asked the guards which way the thief went and he said he turned right but he could be on any connect road by now. It was about 20 minutes ago that he left. But Finn used his deduction and assumed that the thief would want to use the least populated road because the car he stole is very obvious and he didn’t want to be reported to the cops. Finn thanked the guard and went back to his car to follow where he thought the thief went.
Danny’s assistant was complaining about the pain from his bullet wound but Danny reassured him that they would soon have more then enough money to pay his hospital bill and make his pain worth it. But then they saw a police car in the rear view and Danny panicked. “Crap, how did they find us so soon? We got to lose them quick!” He then sped up. The car he stole was faster than the cop car so he gained distance and was starting to get away. However, the road had a sudden turn and Danny had to slow down and he almost came off the road. His car might be faster but it wasn’t as good for turning as the cop car. The chase continued for a few minutes before Danny decided to use his backup plan. He carried a bunch of nails in one of his pockets which he threw on the road behind him. Finn turned quick to dodge them but they still popped both tires on his right side. He was losing him but then a group of cops set up a carpet of spikes and a blockade to stop him. Danny sticked to the right end of the road and drove as fast as he could. His left tires popped and he bumped the back of the squad car that was blocking the road. The blockade officers realized their blockade failed so they quickly removed the spikes and straightened their car to let Finn pass. The chase continued for quite a while with neither man giving up. Danny had already passed the point where he was supposed to deliver the car but he didn’t want to go there while the cop was still following him to avoid leading him to his partners in crime. Eventually, Finn decided to take a risk since he knew he wouldn’t catch up other wise. He took a turn at nearly full speed and drifted on the gravel road nearly sliding into the ditch but managed to steal himself back on track just in time to avoid it. This allowed him to gain on Danny who slowed downed much more to take the curve and had trouble speeding back up on a gravel road with two missing tires. Finn caught up and tried to push him in a ditch. It failed the first time but he rammed him again and his car fell in the ditch. But he didn’t stop just yet. With his two good tires still on the side of the road, he continued driving with half his car in the ditch refusing to stop. He was now slower so Finn could keep up but wasn’t sure how to stop him. After a few more minutes, he decided to use his gun to shoot out the two remaining tires. It was tricky while driving and he missed one of his shots but he succeeded and the tires popped. After that, the car didn’t get much traction and was very slow.
Danny eventually stopped and Finn got out of his car to arrest him. Danny’s assistant camped out with his hands in the air and Fin cuffed him. But Danny refused to surrender. Finn tried to put him in a submission hold but Danny countered it and punched in the face. He tried to punch him again but Finn blocked. The two exchanged blows for a while until Finn ended up letting a punch in to have the time to grab his arm and subdue Danny. He then cuffed him and went to his assistant to tell him to wait in his car for the other cops to arrive. But as he turned back to Danny, he saw that he had removed his cuffs and pulled out his own gun which he used to shoot Finn in the chest. His bullet proof vest saved him but he was knocked to the ground. Danny sprinted to the nearby forest before he got back up. Finn hesitated for a while and once he heard the sirens of cop reinforcements coming to take the assistant in the distance he decided to go after Danny. He grabbed his radio and signaled his team that he was going into the woods. He just couldn’t let that criminal escape.
