Caitlyn didn't look up from the Packard she was working on, but her hand did stray to the wrench nearby, just beyond that was an axe-handle, ever ready for her defense.  Her father might not have been Married to her mother, but she had definately picked up his temper.  He had  also taught her that her garage was her castle.  And this person was walking in like he owned the place.  The sound of his gait and the fact that there were two other men with him who had stopped at the door, told her that this person was, or at least thought they were important. 

 She finally looked up when the man in question cleared his throat loudly.  I help you with something?  She asked, hoping that this was not another attempt to extort money from her.

She tried to hide both the quaiver in her voice and the fact that she was a girl. Her leather apron was streaked with grease, as was her face.  She turned to face the speaker finally pinning him with her green eyes. 

I asked if I could help you? 

 The figure stepped back a pace, obviously surprised. I must be looking for your father, I mean, I'm looking for your father. 

Richard?  Caitlyn asked.  She sighed, Are you looking for Richard Rossi? She made a face, he might be her father but she was tired of living in his shadow even here in LA.

The man shook his head.  He didn't give me a first name.  The guy just said the name was Rossi and that he was the Mechanic here. 

 Caitlyn laughed and then winced inwardly as she realized how childish and girly that sounded.  Leave it to one of the boys to tell him the last name without telling him who it was.   Only Rossi here, she said without giving any further identification.

Now you seem to have me at a disadvantage sir, you know who I am, and I don't know you... Mr?...

Mr. Lorano.. Dominic Lorano.

I walk through the garage without further explanation, gazing over the tools, the half-finished car, jacked up. My eyes flick over the innards

I'm not gonna lie to you.. This means nothing at all to me. And that's why we need your help. How good are you at this? 'Cos if you're gonna help us we don't just need a grease monkey. If your average mechanic is a nurse, we need a surgeon with 20 years experience.

Caitlyn smiled. 

Been doing this for as long as I could close my hand around a wrench.  Trained under the best.  You tell me what you need and I can give it to you, but I can give you something that most other shops won't.  I know some friends of friends, and a lot of them work here, so anything you say here will never leave the building without your sayso.  That's why people come here.

She smiles and walks a little closer.  What do you need, how fast do you need it, and for how many people.

Well.. This job is a little unusual. If you'd care to come with us?

I gesture outside to a waiting cab, still chugging away outside.

Trust me, you'll be paid well.

She looks over at the gentleman and then at the two other mechanics in the garage.  She shook her head as they both reached for weapons.  I won't say that money is not a concern to me, but more than that, I need to know that if I go with you, I come home..aiive.

What can I give you more than my word of honour? What else would weigh up against a life? And besides... From the way you carry yourself you'll be able to take care of yourself. Do you need a guarantee that we won't harm you, when you suspect we couldn't anyway?

Dominic leans on his cane, waiting for your reply

Caitlyn smiled. 

Your word is enough.  In this life words are worth blood.  I have become overly-cautious of late, what with some of my friends falling out of favor with friends of friends and never being seen again.  She walked toward the door, gesturing for her men to stay behind as she got into the cab.  She had to trust them at their word, after all, what was a man of respect worth if not his word? she thought. 

So what sort of job is this that you cannot speak in front of my men? 

Cait seated herself in the back of the car and was not surprised when the gentleman sat down beside her.  He rattled off an address before the car pulled away from the curb, and despite his assurances, she did have a fleeting moment where she wondered if she would ever see the garage again.

Ok.. I'm not sure if you can do this, or even if it is possible to be done..

I stow my cane below the seat, and sigh quietly

A mechanic, one we know nothing about, is supplying a rival family with parts, with upgrades, souping up their cars in ways we can't begin to match, even with your considerable prowess.. What we need you to do is have a look at his work. We managed to grab one of the cars he worked on, though it cost us many men..

I sigh again, looking up at you

You understand what we're asking of you? We need you to try and help us work out who this unkown mechanic is from his work.. So we can deal with him.

I know a lot of mechanics, I don't know if I will be able to tell any of them by work alone, but I am willing to try.

Cait smiles.  I take it you have a garage?  Do you want me to see if I can give you some edge over them as well?  Something that they can't or won't do?

Cait was pretty good by now at taking notes without writing things down.  Her papa had taught her never to write down anything that might get you investigated or killed.  I do have a question for you though?  What if I know the mechanic?

Well, when I say deal with him.. We would rather have him..

I remember my earlier mistake

Or her, or course, on our side. Killing them is a last option. And if they know you.. Well, it'll be all the easier to bring them on board, no?

We pull up at a dingy garage, and I get out, wincing as I first put pressure on my leg

But the first priority is finding out who is doing this. If you can give us an edge in getting them that would be great too.

Cait nods.  of course, but many of these men are...bound by words of honor, if not blood to other people, so havng them go against their sworn word to work for you.... it might not happen. Cait smiled, of course a lot of them are leveraged to their eyeballs which is how they end up working for men like yourself.

Cait got out of the car and looked at the car before her, the chassis looked normal, none of the obvious modifications people made, though it looked likd there might be just a bit more weight than normal. 

She nodded at her companion.  You'd better get that leg seen to, I'm gonna be here for a while digging around under the hood of this.  If I'm lucky it will be one the pros who signs his work.  If not, it might take a while.  You OK with that?

This leg? I've had it seen to.. This is as good as it will get. All I can do is try and numb the pain occasionally, without being on pain meds so much I lose my mind. A thin line to walk, by all accounts.

I sigh, sitting in the opposite corner of the garage, massaging my thigh

Yeah, I'm fine with it taking a while.. If you need a hand we have some engineers here, and I'm always willing to lend a hand where I can.

Fulmineo put his cigar down slowly and blew out the smoke. He rubbed out the tiny flame in the ash tray. He looked around at the men he was forced to work with.

" So you geniuses let them get their hands on that car?"

" Yea boss. They came outta nowhere. There was nothing we could do." said one of his underlings

" I'm sure thats true. But as always there will be repercussions. Failure will not be tolerated."

Fulmineo nodded to his trusty Body Guard. He quickly pulled out his luger and shot the man knelling before his boss.

" You! You've just received a promotion. Get  a team together and find that car!....Now!"

Caitlyn was already shoulders-deep in the innermost workings of the car.  And everything she was seeing was eerily familiar, a style she knew well even before she saw the signature.  She wasn't sure whom he was working for but she would swear she knew who had done this car, and that meant that she knew someone would be looking for it.  If the mechanic was who she thought it was, there was going to be trouble.

She pulled herself bodily out of the car and stretched to work the kink out of her back.  Her carefully pinned hair had come down sometime during the whole thing and now sat in a rather haphazard ponytail at the back of her neck.  She leaned back resting for a moment.

I recommend you drive the car out to the closest resturant and pray it gets stolen.  We don't want the people who made it finding it here.  I've learned what I can and the news isn't good.  I know who made the car, but I don't know who ordered him to make it.

The men that were gathered at Fulmineo's ordered were slowly driving around town. Looking for signs of that stolen car.

" Hey maybe we should try one of our rivals neighborhood. I mean who else would steal it?" said one of the men assembled.

" Of Course genus thats where we are right now." someone answered.

" Then why is noone sounding the alarm? If this was my territory we would've caught a serious case of lead poisoning by now."

" Maybe the genius'es haven't noticed yet."

As they turned the corner they noticed a nice little shp. With some girl in front of it. Not bad looking either. Suddenly one of the men shouted. "Hey that's the car.!" 

The leader stuck his hand in his pocket  and called the boos. The rest of the men sat back and waited.

Waiting in the doorway I hear the whole conversation. Only when I hear that they've spotted the car do I act, stepping up behind the group of men. I draw my two Beretta pistols, aimining them at the back of two men's heads.

The correct plural of genius is genii.

I smile, my fingers tightening on the triggers

Now, can any of your genii give me one... good... reason why I shouldn't kill you right now? You're out of your territory here. One gunshot and our men will swarm the joint. You'll never get the car back. You're out of your depth here.

I look across to Caitlyn moving the car to a nearby restaurant to be stolen. She quickly moves out of sight and I breath a sigh. The last thing I wanted was the civvy engineer getting caught in the crossfire.

Cait caught the standoff in the mirror and cursed.  She parked the car, grabbed a carpet bag out of the trunk and went into the resturant she had chosen.  She quickly changed clothes, making sure that both her gun and the wrench she used were stowed where they belonged.  When she left the restroom she had changed clothes, her long dark hair carefully pinned up under her fedora, her coat fitting well enough to make her look like every other young Goomba on the street.

She casually walked the few blocks back to the garage where Dominc was and slipped in through the side door trying to stay out of sight but close enough that she could do something if she needed to. 

Fulmineo smiled a crooked smile. So they  found it Huh? I didn't think they'd find it so quickly. Those GENII had a use after all. Fulmineo thought. As Fulmineo watched,his Body Guard  Recieved a call.

" Really? Sounds bad. Yea I'll tell the Boss man right away."

" What is it?" Fulmineo asked

" You know those hitters you hired to watch our guys looking for the car?"

"Yea. What happened?"

" One of them Just called. He says the car that found it is being held at GunPoint. Oh and the mechainic that was working on our car? She slipped into a restaurant. Presumably to provide cover. What should we do?"

" I didn't want to reveal my hand this early but......I know that Girl. Her father is in my employ. Get someone in that restaurant and tell her that if she wants to live she should get in that car and drive to THAT location. The one where we did that Job a few years back."

" Okay I got you boss. But we haven't used that place in a while. How do we know its secure?"

" I know its secure. I was there a couple days ago. I wanted it prepped in case we needed it. Anyway get the Girl in that car and over there. We'll deal with those incompetent fools later."

" Sure Boss. Whatever you say."

I think we have a problem sir, The young 'man' came out of the shadows.  I can't promise that they didn't see me, and, if they did they would recognize me.  So I guess I had better tell you who made the car and how I play into this.

Caitlyn sighed, she hated this.  Getting fought over was one of the reasons she always pretended to be a boy, and why she had her own garage.  She hated being leveraged.  The mechanic is one of the best in the business, and the man who taught me to turn the wrench.  He's....His name is Richard Rossi, but most of his boys call him Ducky.  Short little bastard with a hot temper.  But if it has an engine he can fix it.

Caitlyn paced, trying not to toy with her hair or her hat.  If they recognized me, then they will be looking for me.  What should we do?

Out of the corner of her eye she sees the car drive up, and, to her dismay, she knows the driver, if she hadn't been sure that Ducky was making the cars before, she would have been certain now, she recognized the driver of the car as working for the same family that had leveraged her father.  She pretended not to notice them as she kept speaking do Dominic, They will be sending people here looking for us if they saw the car.  Most of them don't know who I am, but they know Caitlyn

Cait had practiced since she was younger, and could slip in and out of the 'gangster' personna at will.  Most people knew this young man as one of Cait's boys, an errand boy for the garage.