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A loud car horn could be heard right outside the apartment. Los Santos was just starting to wake up. A small breeze was coming in through an open window. Ryan was lying on his couch watching TV. A half-empty diet coke was on the coffee table next to his black skull mask and his gun.
As the commercial came on Ryan checked his watch. Almost 6 am, time for him to get ready. He downed the rest of his diet coke in one go and walked over to the bathroom. He tied up his long black hair and got out his face-paint. He was almost out of white paint. Maybe he had more in his second bedroom, which he used for storage.
As he walked over to the bedroom door he heard a thump from inside it, muffled by the thick walls. Ryan sighed and pulled out one of the knives he always had on him. He slowly opened the door and flicked on the light.
On the floor a chair lay on its side, tied to the chair was a gagged and very bruised man. Ryan put away his knife and took the chair and man and put them upright. The man seemed to be in his late thirties. His clothes were full of blood and sweat, and he had multiple cuts and bruises all over his body. Ryan leaned in close. The man turned his head away, his entire body shaking with fear.
“What did I tell you about making a mess,” Ryan sneered. The man quickly shook his head back and forward, as if he was saying he wouldn’t do it again.
“Good boy,” Ryan said and changed his attention to the shelf on the opposite side of the room. A few boxes of face paint lay scattered on the middle shelf. Ryan picked up a box of white paint and turned to leave.
The man tied to the chair let out a whine as Ryan turned off the lights. Ryan looked over his shoulder and cracked a grin when he saw the desperate look in the man’s eyes. He closed and locked the door behind him and went back to the bathroom.
Ryan quickly put on his usual face paint. A few minutes past 6 a knock was heard on his front door. A very disheveled man was standing outside. He looked like he just got out of bed, his curly auburn hair a mess.
“Come on Ryan, let’s get going for fucks sake,” the man groaned. He was leaning heavily on the door frame and struggling to keep his eyes open. Ryan walked over to his coffee table, put his gun inside of his leather jacket and slid on his mask. He joined Michael and they walked outside to where a chrome adder was parked, halfway up on the sidewalk.
“Give me the keys, I’m driving,” Ryan ordered. Michael looked at him for a few moments before he slowly reached into his pocket and handed over the keys.
“That’s probably a good idea,” he said and got in the car. He was asleep before Ryan could even start the car.
Ryan sped down the still fairly empty roads, a little annoyed by the gentle snoring coming from the passenger seat, but he decided against waking him up as he had both a temper and a gun and Ryan didn’t really feel like being shot.
Before long they arrived at the building they used as a safe house. It was an old closed down office building and appeared to be falling apart from the outside.
Michael woke up as they pulled into the garage and the car was stopped. Ryan walked up the few steps to the back door and opened the heavy metal door. The safe house looked a lot better from the inside, complete with an entertainment center in the living room, a kitchen, several offices, two bathrooms and a few offices that had been repurposed as bedrooms. They used the second floor as an armory, and there they had everything from throwing knives, to rocket launchers.
A young Hispanic guy was slouching in the couch, playing on a DS. He didn’t even look up as Ryan and Michael walked in. Another man was splayed out on the second couch, he was snoring loudly and his expensive sun-glasses were almost falling off of his face.
Michael yawned and decided that fuck it, and threw himself on top of Gavin and closed his eyes. Gavin stopped snoring and turned over slightly, before grunting once and starting to snore again.
Ryan walked into the kitchen and grabbed a diet coke from the fridge. As he slid off his mask and took a sip from the can, a woman walked out of one of the offices.
“Hi, Ryan,” she said and joined him in the kitchen.
“Morning Jack,” he replied and took another sip from his diet coke. “When are we starting?”
“In a few minutes,” she said, and rubbed her eyes. “Geoff is still finishing up the last few details.”
Ryan nodded. They stood there in silence for a few minutes until a loud sigh could be heard from the office Jack came out of. A man in a suit, with black hair and a handlebar mustache appeared in the door way. He had droopy red eyes and looked like he had been awake for three days straight.
“Could you get them in here, Jack?” the man asked with a yawn. Jack nodded and walked over to the three men in the living room. She clapped her hands loudly, but only got a response from Ray, who closed his DS and stretched before he got up from the couch. The other two were still fast asleep.
“Come on, guys, it’s time to start,” she called but they still didn’t budge.
Ryan pulled out his gun and shot once up in the ceiling. The response was immediate. Gavin and Michael both fell out the couch in a tangle of arms and legs.
“Get the fuck off me you idiot,” Michael grunted and shoved Gavin off of him.
“Wot?! You were the one that was sleeping on top of me you pleb,” Gavin groaned back. They both slowly got on their feet and stretched and yawned before Jack motioned for them to follow her. She rolled her eyes at Ryan as they walked past him.
Ryan finished his second diet coke of the day and joined them inside Geoff’s office. Geoff was sitting behind a large wooden desk which was overflowing with notes, blueprints and a large map of Los Santos. He had a glass in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other. Ryan sat down in the one chair that wasn’t already occupied and waited for Geoff to start talking.
Geoff finished pouring himself a drink and put away the bottle before he took a good look at the rest of his crew sitting on the opposite side of the desk. He cleared his throat and everyone looked at him with expectation.
“So there’s this bank up in Chumash~“