Chapter Text
Calafia Bridge at dawn is a sight to behold- you can watch the sun rise over the Alamo Sea, and the view west down the creek to the ocean is nice too. What Ryan hated was the fact he had to be here at dawn instead of in his bed. The air had a sharp chill to it, and Ryan zipped up his jacket and put his hands in his pockets. Dawn was the coldest time of day.
At least the mask helped keep his face warm.
“I think I see them.” Jeremy called out. He pointed down the road, and in the distance Ryan could make out dust billowing up from a black dot steadily approaching.
“Yep, that’s them.” Ryan replied. “Gav? You ready?”
“Almost!” Gavin shouted from the back of the van. The van was a bit of a downgrade to the vehicles they were used to, but it wouldn’t stick out so much when they drove back through Sandy Shores. Secrecy was important, which was why they had to meet at dawn too.
Ryan leaned against one of the metal beams supporting the bridge.
“Are you going to come out, then?”
“In a minute!”
“They’re gonna be here in a minute!”
Gavin stepped out of the back of the van, a grin on his face. In his hand he held a duffel bag filled with documents and money. He dusted himself off a bit, checked the bag was closed, and all but skipped over to Ryan.
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just it’s all a bit exciting, isn’t it? Our here in the middle of nowhere, making deals and looking all intimidating and such.”
“Jeremy and I are looking intimidating. You just have to make sure the deal goes smoothly.”
Although, Jeremy looking intimidating was a bit of a stretch. The purple and orange combined with the cowboy hat was an… interesting style choice.
But then again, Ryan himself went around everywhere in a skull mask, so he wasn’t one to talk about style.
“I know, I know.” Gavin replied. “I’m just… excited.”
Ryan and Jeremy were no strangers to these sorts of deals, but Gavin was much more at home behind a computer screen than out here in the thick of it. Not that he wasn’t capable of handling himself in case things got hairy, he was more than capable of looking after himself. When he wanted to, Gavin could smooth talk the gun out of a policeman’s hand. He just didn’t like talking to strangers.
Geoff and Jack had grown far too busy to personally attend each transaction, so they were trying to make Gavin more comfortable with doing them. Ryan and Jeremy were just here to provide support.
Michael was laid up in bed after a particularly lucky bullet tore through his leg during a confrontation with another crew. He was part of the reason why they were here in the first place.
The black dot grew into a car, and soon it pulled up in front of them. Three men climbed out, but Ryan saw another waiting inside. Probably just trying to keep the numbers even.
Gavin walked over to them, a fake smile planted on his face. He shook the front guy’s hand, and then put some distance between them. The three men appeared unarmed, but then again so did the three of them. Ryan did have a pistol tucked away on his person, as well as a few knives, but he wasn’t expecting any trouble. He’d done deals with these people before.
“You’re not Ramsey.” The lead guy said.
“And you’re Turner.” Gavin replied. “Ramsey is rather busy these days, I’m afraid. We can still make a deal.”
Turner took a few steps closer to Gavin, some swagger in his step. Ryan pushed himself off the bridge support.
“If Ramsey can’t deign to come see me himself, then maybe I should take my business elsewhere. There are other crews, with more money.”
The words sounded uninterested, but Turner’s eyes were locked on the duffel bag in Gavin’s hand. Gavin had seen his eyes as well. He gave the bag a pat.
“No one else has this dirt on the Senator. I can give you a personal guarantee on that.”
Gavin was telling the truth. He’d stolen that information himself.
Turner pretended to think about it for a while. Eventually he clicked his fingers and the fourth man brought something out of the car and held it up. It looked like a square of heavy fabric.
“The armour prototypes. Reinforced with carbon nanotubes, lined with enhanced Kevlar, light as a feather. Stolen straight from the testing lab.” Turner explained. “This could stop a .30 calibre armour piercing round dead in its tracks, and Ramsey could still wear it under one of his suits.”
Gavin nodded appreciatively. “May I?” he asked, gesturing.
The fourth guy handed the square over. Gavin fingered the fabric in the same way a shopper would a shirt or a piece of fruit. He nodded and passed the square back.
“It’ll do. We’ll take twelve.”
Turner raised an eyebrow.
“Twelve what? Twelve squares? Twelve boxes?”
Gavin floundered for a moment.
“T-twelve of what we agreed on.” Gavin replied.
That was almost a smooth recovery, Gavin.
Turner nodded and gestured to his men. They unloaded three boxes onto the side of the road. Jeremy and Ryan stepped towards them.
“Not yet.” Turner said.
They stopped.
“The price has gone up.”
It was Gavin’s turn to raise an eyebrow.
“I’ve got the money and the papers right here, ready to go. Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”
“The prototypes just got more valuable.” Turner sneered. “One seventy five.”
“We agreed on one twenty. And the papers.”
“One seventy five, or you walk away with less than nothing.”
Ryan didn’t like the sound of that. Not at all.
He took his hands out of his pockets, put them behind his back, and squared his shoulders. He could feel the shape of the pistol grip through his jacket. He saw Jeremy mimic his actions out of the corner of his eye.
Gavin didn’t turn around to look at them, but he must have picked up on the change in atmosphere. Immediately his voice took on a darker tone, and he tilted his head to the side.
“You see, Turner, my boys aren’t nearly as good at negotiating as I am. Their style of negotiation involves less… talking.”
Ryan stared at Turner, unblinking. Turner’s eyes flicked to him and away again, but then settled once more on Ryan once he registered the intensity of Ryan’s stare. There was no fear in this stare, no uncertainty. There was only stone cold calculation.
The men behind Turner shifted uneasily. Something about Ryan’s hands hidden behind his back put them off. Most people when threatened would react defensively, but Ryan looked more at ease now than when the negotiations began.
They were right to be worried.
Next to him, Jeremy smiled. It wasn’t a smile that offered reassurance, or set the recipient at ease. It was a smile that showed not even the slightest concern for danger. Absolute certainty. A sort of warm emptiness that contrasted perfectly with Ryan’s ice.
Gavin raised his voice.
“So you can either negotiate with me, or with them. Which is it going to be?”
One of Turner’s men visibly quivered in his shoes.
Everyone had heard of the Vagabond. Less had heard of Dooley, but Ryan was sure that was working to his advantage. The Vagabond was becoming an almost familiar threat in Los Santos. Jeremy was a wildcard.
Turner glanced behind him and took in the state of his men. He looked back at Gavin and gnashed his teeth together.
“…Fine. One twenty.”
“Not good enough anymore. Because I’m such a brilliant negotiator, you’ll take one hundred thousand and not a cent more.”
Turner’s eyes flicked to Ryan’s.
“…Fine! Take the boxes!”
Ryan walked back over to the crates. He opened one, and inside sat four rolls of the prototype armour material. He nodded at Gavin.
Gavin put the duffel bag down and opened it, withdrawing twenty thousand dollars from it. He passed the money to Jeremy, and gave the duffel to Turner.
“Absolute pleasure doing business with you, Turner.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“On a bed of high tech body armour. Cheers!”
Turner and his men climbed back in the car and drove away, sending dust billowing up into the air.
Once they were out of sight, Gavin sagged.
“Oh thank Christ!”
Jeremy stepped over to him and clapped him on the back.
“You did great! You didn’t look worried at all!”
“I thought I was gonna vom.”
“Your nerves didn’t show.” Ryan said. “And, you saved twenty grand. Ten out of ten.”
Gavin straightened up a little.
“I just want to go home and back to bed.”
Ryan looked back down the road and frowned.
“I really didn’t think they’d be any trouble. I’ve met with Turner half a dozen times before, and he’d never been hostile before. I should have been more prepared.”
“Hey, it was fine.” Gavin cracked a smile, a genuine one. “We got it sorted didn’t we?”
“True. Geoff’s going to be so pleased, I bet you’re going to do all the deals from now on.”
Gavin sighed. “Great. Perfect.”
Jeremy kicked at the loose stones on the road next to the bridge.
“Why do you think Turner turned into such a prick?” Jeremy asked. “It’s not like him.”
Ryan lifted his mask up a bit to scratch his face.
“He mentioned selling to other crews. He might be trying to make a bit of a name for himself, expand his territory.”
“Nah.” Jeremy replied. “He doesn’t have the spine. He all but crumpled when we turned on the charm and Gavin put on his spooky voice.”
“You think he’s under the thumb of another crew? One that’s using him to make things more difficult for us?”
“Could be. I’ll get some people to start asking questions.”
They stared at the three boxes on the side of the road. They looked heavy.
“Come on then,” Ryan said, “Boxes in the van. I want to take a nap.”
They each picked one up, Jeremy and Gavin making mock groaning noises as they did.
It wasn’t too heavy. Ryan walked slowly towards the van.
Jeremy approached him, a broad grin on his face.
“Thanks Ryan!” Jeremy said, and put his box on top of Ryan’s. “You’re a real friend.”
Ryan staggered under the weight of two boxes.
“Fuck you, Dooley.”
Jeremy laughed.
“Yeah, thanks Ryan!” Gavin said, and walked over to him as well, box raised.
Any sensible person would have put the two boxes down and left one there. Ryan stopped walking and moved to do so-
“There’s no way he can carry all three!” Jeremy said.
Well.
Now he had to.
Ryan dutifully lowered the boxes, low enough that it was easy for Gavin to place his on top. Very slowly, Ryan stood up straight.
“I got this.”
He took one step forwards.
This proved to be a mistake, as the stack of boxes tilted forwards dangerously.
Ryan hurried to correct the motion, but now the boxes were falling to the left.
Ryan chased after them.
His foot slipped on a loose stone by the side of the road.
Ryan fell.
“Oh fu- oof!”
Ryan tumbled down the steep incline next to the bridge. The boxes fell with him, colliding painfully with various parts of his body. A particularly nasty corner hit the side of his face.
He slid over a lip and crashed into the creek below.
At dawn, the water is icy.
Ryan ripped the mask off his head and surfaced, gasping for air. The water was only a foot or so deep, so it wasn’t too difficult climb to his feet and scramble out of the water. Which he did. Very quickly.
Fantastic. Just how he wanted his day to start.
He looked up towards the bridge.
“Stop laughing!”
Gavin and Jeremy were howling, complete with tears and knee slapping.
“Oh my God,” Gavin managed to say, “I wish I had my phone out!”
“The box!” Jeremy yelled. “Grab the box!”
One of the boxes had fallen in the water after him. Ryan sighed, debating whether the thirty grand box was worth going back out for. He waded back into the creek and grabbed it. Then he waded right back out.
“Nice morning swim, eh?” Jeremy shouted. “Still want that nap?”
“Just come down here and pick up a box, would you?”
“Nope, you come up first. If I go down there you’ll push me in.”
Ryan wrung out first his shirt, and then his ponytail. Everything was soaked, and his clothes had also picked up quite a bit of debris from the fall. Ryan hauled the dripping box up and out of the ditch and dropped it on the road. He pulled a face. He was covered in twigs and leaves, and he could feel where bruises would start to form.
“Hold still, hold still.” Gavin said, pulling out his phone. “I’m going to send this to Geoff.”
“If you do, I will murder you. To death.”
“Oh, shut up. Look, all your face paint’s running off! You look like an emo kid!”
Ryan had opted for just some black paint around his eyes for today, and he could imagine how his faced looked with it all running down his cheeks and into his beard.
“That’s it.” Ryan took a few steps towards Gavin. “You’re gonna die now.”
“No! Wait”-
Gavin tried to run back to the van but Ryan shot a hand out and grabbed his collar, and pulled him into a bear hug.
“No, don’t! I’m gonna get all gammy!”
“Too late.”
Jeremy laughed in the background, loud guffaws that were strangely infectious and Ryan soon found himself joining in.
“I’m going to have a massive bruise on my face.”
He let Gavin go and almost immediately started shivering. It was what, quarter past five in the morning? Far too early for this sort of nonsense.
“Hey Ryan!” Jeremy called out.
Ryan turned his face towards Jeremy.
Jeremy snapped a picture on his phone.
Ryan sighed.
“Do you want me to hug you too? Because this is how you get hugged.”
“Okay, okay, I’m done. Gav and I will get the other two boxes.” Jeremy shrugged out of his jacket and handed it to Ryan. “Here- warm up a little.”
Ryan took the jacket and nodded his thanks. Jeremy and Gavin headed down the slope to retrieve the boxes, and by the time they returned, Ryan had already taken off his wet shirt and jacket and replaced it with Jeremy’s purple one. They loaded the boxes into the van.
The wet pants, bare chest, and purple blazer were not a good look. Jeremy was broad, but the blazer’s arms were far too short on Ryan. He caught Gavin and Jeremy snickering behind their hands.
“Can we go now, please?” Ryan asked.
“I’ll drive.” Jeremy said.
“Can you turn the heat on?”
“Of course, man. Get in. Do you want to stop off at breakfast place and get something warm?”
“…Yeah.”
“Alright, we’ll do that.”