The day after
Caesar waits for Dylan outside the prison gates. He is leaning on the hood of the car and at 8 am sharp sees his friend walking triumphantly towards him. Caesar feels relieved. He has been a turmoil of guilt since he arrested his friend, the best one he has ever had, ironically. Thankfully, Dylan is not the resentful type.
"Man, I'm glad to see you not wearing orange!" Dylan knows what he means - it's not about the color.
Caesar gives Dylan a manly hug and they pat each other's backs.
"Thanks for the fresh clothes. Where to?"
"Your new prison..." Caesar quips. "Kidding! Straight to the office."
Dylan sits on the passenger seat and immediately blasts the air conditioning at full power. "Gosh, I missed this! It was always so hot in there, and not in a good way."
Caesar and Dylan arrive at the covert office after a 30-minute drive. They park the car in front of a one-story structure with floor-to-ceiling windows and a glass door.
Caesar ushers Dylan inside the place. It is a big hall with tall white walls on the perimeter and a few columns in the middle. Empty. A huge space with nothing in it but a couple of doors at the back, one with a restroom sign.
Dylan looks around with a suspicious glare. "What is this place? It looks like an unused gallery."
Caesar smiles at him. "It is, this is your cover. You will turn this into an art gallery with hard work and the help of your new partner, and it will be the front for the taskforce. I will be your liaison with the FBI. Only Agent Michaels and I will know what is truly happening here."
Dylan stops in the middle of the big room, does a 360 studying the place and scowls. "I don't like it, any of it. I have a bad feeling... What if someone annihilates you both? Do I go back to jail?"
"Geez, man! Calm down! You're always killing people! Don't worry. There is a security box with the official documents that reveal the truth about the operation. If anything should happen to me, you will receive my key."
Dylan shrugs his shoulders; that sounds like a decent plan. He trusts Caesar, even if he was the one that gathered the evidence to convict him. Nevertheless, Dylan understands that Caesar is a man of principle; he had a job to do and he did it.
"Now, let me introduce you to miss Shen, she is the art expert that will pose as your girlfriend."
"Wait, how did I get a girlfriend if I was in jail?" Dylan asks, concerned that no one will believe this pretend relationship of his.
"We have it all figured out, no worries!"
Caesar takes Dylan to the back of the gallery through a simple white door, revealing a state-of-the-art FBI office with all kinds of equipment and tech "toys" needed to make this operation successful.
There is a tall and lean guy at a desk, in front of a computer, but there is no girl around.
"My friend, I'm not gay, you know..." Dylan cares to specify, pointing at the unknown guy with his nose but eyeing Caesar.
"That's not..." Caesar smacks Dylan in the arm for his stupidity. "That's Darren, the IT guy."
Darren stands up with a big smile, makes a beeline towards them and stretches his arm. Dylan looks at his hand for a few seconds with apprehension. After spending months in prison, he has come to discover that most men hardly ever wash their hands. Disgusting! Is this dude one more of the unclean bunch?
His working station looks tidy.
"Nice to meet you," Darren says enthusiastically.
"Likewise," Dylan replies inexpressively, shaking Darren's hand.
YOU ARE READING
Criminal Love
RomanceA new undercover unit is created by the FBI to infiltrate the inner circles of illegal art dealing. Dylan Wang is a convicted and talented forger that will be forced to pretend to have a relationship with the agent assigned as his keeper, the sweet...
