The meeting point Brian had chosen for him and Cole was quite unusual.
The night air was so cool that he was shivering a little in his shorts and t-shirt while he was waiting for Cole in front of a display window of a Jaguar dealership.

A glance at his watch confirmed that it was 11.15 pm so Brian dialled Cole's number when he spotted familiar looking headlights.

Looking down at his buzzing phone, he picked it up and answered, already knowing who it was. "Hello." Cole was already in his evo. He started it and the car responded with a low rumble, those new cams had an obvious effect on the idle.

When Cole got out Brian pushed himself away from the shop window, which he was leaning against and greeted the young guy.
"Did you find a motel yet?"
Then he turned his back on him and looked at the cars on display instead.
"How do you like these babies...have you ever driven one?"

The Jag dealership was impressive, surrounding it were Mercedes, BMW, and Audi dealerships, all in one expensive strip of land. Cole looked into the showroom beside Brian. "No, not really, I'm still looking around for apartments." He spotted a blue XKR-S in the center of the showroom. "Now that car, I'd like to drive." He pointed to it. "Never been much a fan of luxury cars, except that one."

Since Brian didn't have any other leads he figured he'd give his next question a try. "Would you know who has one of these...somewhere in his back yard or storage or something?"

His gaze wondered over to the Audi dealership. Then he nodded over towards it. "They have an R8 in there. If I had to go for anything around here-that'd be my choice."

Cole lowered his eyebrows a little, remembering Brian was a cop. Was he seriously talking about stealing these things? Cole answered his first question. "I know of a few in L.A. I hardly know anyone at all in Miami yet." He cocked his head towards Brian. "What are you getting at here?" He couldn't help but wonder if Brian was in the middle of some investigation for some stolen cars, and was probing the underground world to see if there was any involvment.

Cole was obviously smart enough to catch on to Brian very fast so he dropped the subject.
"Never mind...just make sure to stay away from those kind of cars as long as you're in Miami. There's some serious shit going on here."
He walked away from the window and opened his car door.
"How long are you going to be here anyway?"
Then he sat down.
"Ever raced on an open road?" He smirked mischeiveously knwoing very well that he'd better not get caught.

Cole was more than on the edge of his seat to know whats going on with those cars, but he didn't want to put Brian in a situation where he'd have to conceal confidential info within the PD.
"I have hardly any obligations in L.A. So I'm going to hang out here until something big goes down where I need to get my ass out." Cole leaned on the fender of Brian's car. "The police are starting to get smart with the racers there, and it's getting more dangerous each day." He shot a glance at Brian. "Something I'm surprised hasn't happened here."
The open road was where true drivers were made, it was where the ultimate car control was required and smartest driving as well. So of course Cole was up for it. "Come on now, you think I've just done track all my life?" He smiled at Brian.

"The cops in LA are cracking down harder on the street racers because it's become a problem...here the scene is smaller and the cops have better stuff to do." He explained.
Then he reached into his car and grabbed his radio from the dashboard and turned it on.
"You're still pretty young, bro. I'll listen in on them and let you know if they are on to us but I'd still take my plates off if I was you."
Then he walked around, popped his own plates out of the plastic frame and nodded to Cole.
"Follow me...we'll start at the big intersection down the road. Do you know where the big insurance tower is? That'll be the finish. First one there wins...no matter how you get there as long as it is in one piece."

Cole strained to remember where the State Farm tower was. "Isn't that right by the city hall?" He rubbed his chin. That was a fairly straight foward drive from the intersection with a few turns along the way, but it was also on busy roads. He walked to the back and took his lone plate off, there was decent chance of a pursuit, he thought. But that just made the race more badass. "Alright, cop, let's do this." He smirked at Brian and climbed into his evo. The nerves were there, but if professional racing taught him anything, it was how to control them.

"Cop." Brian muttered to himself. It was one of those rare occasions when he didn't want to be a cop.
Buckling up he turned the key in the ignition and wrapped his fingers around the stick.
"Let's go."
Already he could feel his heart beat a little faster and the familiar tingling in his hands. Adrenalin.
He rolled onto the street and waited for Cole to join him. Finally he had some real competition.
Suddenly Brian was more excited than he had been in months about racing.
Driving pretty slowly towards the red light he let his gaze wander over to Cole who was pulling up next to him.
A nod let the young man know Brian was ready. His engine was warm and Brian fully alert.

Cole pulled beside Brian's R34 and nodded back, signaling he was ready. It was convienant that the light should be red. He jiggled the shifter and went to 1st while starting to build boost in the engine. Cole decided to try a 2-step launch since he thought his new cams would magnify the benefit of it.
Looking at the opposite traffic light, it turned yellow, meaning their light would soon turn green. He started letting pressure off the clutch just shy of engaging it. With the engine at redline, the light turned green. Cole slide the clutch out then kicked it in again to build RPMs and dropped it, all within a second, the result was a massive thrust of his body in the seat and an AWD wheelspin. Quickly catching 2nd gear, he hardly even looked over Brian. He could see there was already traffic approacing.

Cole had a perfect start at the first split second of green with Brian taking off just a tiny bit after him.
"Damn pro." The cop muttered and cursed for underestimating him.
Brian would either have to overtake him in the intersection before the oncoming traffic got in the way or stay behind him.
The first option seemed just a little too risky so he stayed behind him throwing in gear after gear. His bumper was glued to Coles until the cars coming towards them gave him the chance to change over into their lane.
Gearing down he made the engine protest while he turned into the opposite lane and brought his car nose to nose with Coles.
There was no time to look over at him. Exerlerating as much as the Skyline would allow him he inched ahead and forced his way in front of Cole scraping the left end of his fender just a tiny bit.

The greater experiance on the street was obviously paying dividends for Brian. Cole envied the way he sliced in and out of traffic, seemingly effortlessly. Up ahead, he could the first street where they'd need to turn right on. The light was red, so there was little traffic in the opposite direction lane, but there were a few cars stopped at the light in their lane. Cole swung his car as far over to the left of the opposite lane as he could without going offroad, tugged the ebrake a little while pulling the wheel right to help rotate the car and downshifted to 2nd, cutting right across the front bumpers of the cars at the light. Brian's momentum through the corner opened a small gap, and Cole managed to sneek his car right along side Brian as they exited the corner.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Cole and grit his teeth. "Sneaky bugger."
Instead of staying on the road, where cars were going pretty slow ahead of them he geared down and went into the opposite lane again, then manouvered the car back into the right lane where another car was blocking the way. Unfortunately there was a car coming towards him in the opposite lane as well. For a split second he stared into his headlights, then spotted a smaller street on the right.
Imemdiately his hand gripped the e-brake and turned his wheel slightly sending the back end of the car into a 90 degree spin into that road to the right. It was just big enough for two cars and ran in a 90 degree angle to the main road. At the next possibility he swung the Nissan around to the left directing it back toward the main road where he could see more cars than he appreciated. The only question was...did they see him.
His foot eased off the gas just long enough to find a gap.
It took him a moment to spot Cole just two cars behind him

"Damn bro!" Cole exclaimed at Brian's tricks, who had gapped him a couple cars. There was a considerable amount of traffic even on the side road he had followed Brian on. As a result, the skyline had to slow a little to be able to dart through the traffic. He decided to take a chance and take the traffic the same way Brian was, but without coming off the gas. The tires sqeaked in protest and Cole could feel the back of the car getting very unstable as he swerved through the traffic. Nonetheless, he kept his foot in it and managed to pull right back up to Nissan's bumper. He wondered if he could pressure Brian into a mistake, but knowing him, it probably wasn't going to happen.
He started looking for alternative route as they slide back on to the main street, the State Farm building was just a few blocks away. The problem was, he didn't know the city well enough to be sure where each of these roads led. He figured his best option was to stick right behind Brian, pressure him heavily, and wait for the last turn to make his move. Catching a bit of a draft, he tapped the skyline's bumper ever so sightly. "I'm right here, man. I'm not going anywhere." He said through his windshield.

In his rear view mirror he spotted Cole a little closer than he actually wanted him. "Man, you're hard to loose."
His mind was going over time when he tried to figure out how to loose Cole.
Just to warn him he tapped the break a little.
Up ahead was a traffic light that was already orange and still far anough away to know what was going to happen.
"Damn." Brian squinted briefly judging the distance before he yanked the wheel to the left and shot across the opposite lane into a side street. His fender connected with a trash can and knocked it out of the way. The back road was so narrow that he could barely get through without hitting anything.

Seeing the light ahead, Cole had absolutably no idea what to do. He saw Brian quickly dart to the left on a sidestreet, to him it looked like a sidewalk. He gazed at the light and saw traffic starting to take off on the cross street. The temptation was certainly there, if he could get through the intersection at full speed without accident, he would have the advantage. There's no way Brian would be able to maintain speed on that sidestreet. As he approached the intersection, he slowed a little just to get one last look at the crossing traffic, seeing a small break to the right. He gunned the engine and went for it, thinking he was clear, but he wasn't. At his blind side, a small truck from the left clipped him on his left quarter panel, violently throwing the car into a vicious tankslapper at 100 mph. "OH SH*T!" Cole chased the back of the car with the steering wheel and after a few seconds got the car back under control. He didn't know how he just saved that, but he knew one thing. He WAS NOT going to do that again. Either way, he needed to focus. The final corner was a left hander and then half a mile down was the State Farm building. He got to the far right side of the road and eased the car smoothly through the car to carry the most exit speed possible. He saw the State Farm Building in the short distance, then he saw the exit to the sidestreet Brian had taken just ahead. Would Brian fly out of it any second? "Focus Cole." He told himself as he hit 4th gear.

The trash cans and parked cars made Brian slow down considerably and curse like a sailor. By now the traffic light had to be green and if he wanted to win he needed to pick up some speed.
Manouvering through the narrow back road he finally spotted a turn to the right which would lead him straight to the road just before the big tower.
Recklessly he skidded across a side walk onto the road. Now it was Cole who was head of him and the bright lights of the tower not even a half a mile away.
"Fuck!" All the cop could do right now was play catch up if nothing got into Cole's way. How did he get here so fast.
A large truck changing lanes suddenly blocked both of their ways.

Cole kept watching the side road, waiting for the sudden appearance of the skyline. As he was passing it, the skyline shot out and filed in right behind. However, Cole was carrying more speed and therefore put a few car lengths on it. He grinned as he checked his mirror, thinking he had this race in the bag.
Then a semi changed lanes, apparently not seeing the fast approaching imports. "Of course it can't be easy." He sighed. Searching quickly for an alternative, he swerved towards a sidewalk opposite from the truck's changing direction. Noticing how high the curb actually was on the sidewalk, he cursed. "Oh, this is gonna hurt." The evo's right front tire slammed the sidewalk and because of the speed, launched the car onto the sidewalk. Using his two right side wheels on the sidewalk and the two left side wheels on the tarmac, he managed to slip by the truck, still maintaining speed. However, up ahead, he saw why the truck changed lanes. A flatbed tow truck with it's bed slanted on the ground was parked right in front of him. Having no time to react, Cole could actually feel his face turn white. The evo went straight up the bed and flew into the air, clearing the tow truck and the car it was assisting. Cole didn't even notice though, all he saw was sky. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" The car started nose diving back towards the ground and with a soild 'thud,' landed back on the ground. Cole couldn't believe the car was still rolling even though the steering felt way out of alignment. Remembering he had a race to win, he dropped the clutch and put the gas to the floor. Checking his mirror to see what Brian would do.