Spy Racers: World Tour

Chapter 23: The Plan Goes Up in Flames

Tony woke to a pounding ache on the back of his head. He tried to reach up and see if there was a bump as his eyes adjusted to the dark room, but soon realized his hands were tied up. He was also shivering. Apparently his captors didn't even have the decency to give him a clean shirt, as he was still dressed in his gross, sewer-water covered clothes. Perfect, Tony thought. How am I gonna get out of this situation?

"Toretto!" A chipper voice called out, pulling Tony from his thoughts. "Nice of you to finally wake up. I was getting lonely here."

Tony squinted, his eyes still adjusting, and saw a familiar face across the room.

"Shashi?"

"Yup. So...is seeing me locked up enough evidence for you to believe I'm on your side?"

"How do I know you're not just working for Okada and didn't do your job right so he threw you in here?"

Shashi raised an eyebrow.

"If I was still a criminal- which I'm not- do you really think I would work for somebody else? I'm my own boss. Always have been, always will be."

It was a fair point. As much as Tony didn't want to admit it, maybe he was being a little ridiculous with all the Shashi hate. After all, Echo had said she trusted him, and she usually judged people pretty harshly. If they were going to escape the current situation, they'd have to work together, so Tony needed to at least give Shashi the benefit of the doubt- a temporary truce.

"Touché," Tony finally said, earning a satisfied expression from Shashi. "So how did you end up here? I thought you were racing."

"I was. When were heading up the mountain, Layla and I both followed Beck Cassidy into some kind of secret tunnel. I assumed it was a shortcut, which I guess it would've been if I'd gone the same way as Layla, but I took the low route at the fork in the road."

"Let me guess, that's where Beck went?"

"Exactly," Shashi continued. "So the road took us farther down into the mountain, but it was pitch dark- I probably would've crashed if I hadn't been following Cassidy's taillights. Eventually, though, the road opened up into this massive underground warehouse. Kind of like a base, I guess, but I only had about 5 seconds to check it out before there were guards on me."

"Did you see Beck do anything?" Tony asked. "Was Okada there?"

Shashi shook his head.

"I don't remember much- they knocked me out pretty damn hard. But I do remember Cassidy getting out of his car and into another one. I think there were other people in it but they drove away in a hurry through another tunnel entrance."

"Huh," Tony rubbed his head again. Thinking too hard was making it hurt. "Okay, so we can at least say for sure that Okada's team is behind all this, right? I mean, they have a secret base inside a mountain."

"I guess," Shashi said hesitantly. "We at least know Cassidy is up to something. But what about the rest of the team? You got any solid leads?"

"Actually, I sort of do," Tony replied. "Miss Nowhere had me out in the field during the race. I was supposed to just be watching out for Layla and report back to the crew if I saw anything suspicious-"

"But you went after the bad guys alone, right?"

Tony shrugged.

"Yeah...so really, being stuck here probably isn't much worse than the punishment Miss Nowhere would've given me," He shuddered, thinking of the scolding his boss was going to give him assuming they got out of this mess.