Advance Informant
Accompanied by the heavy, suppressed breathing on the line, a burst of sharp static soon crackled from the other side of the phone.
Arthur Sterling sat on the edge of the sagging motel mattress, the cheap metal springs groaning softly beneath his weight.
Outside the thin, single-pane window, a flickering neon sign cast a harsh, intermittent red glare across the peeling wallpaper of the cramped room.
He pressed the brand-new cell phone closer to his ear, his enhanced senses picking up every microscopic audio detail.
He could clearly feel the acoustic shift the phone's microphone had just been firmly covered by someone's large, calloused hand.
Then, a deep, resonant voice bled through the tiny gaps in the fingers. Even with his supernaturally elevated hearing, Arthur could only catch broken, intermittent fragments of the hushed command.
"Ask him... what does he exactly mean... ask him clearly..."
It was a man's voice, heavy, authoritative, and chillingly cold. If Arthur's sharp instincts weren't completely mistaken, that was undeniably Dom giving the orders.
Soon, the heavy hand covering the receiver moved away, letting the ambient noise of the Toretto house flood the connection once again.
Mia's voice came through, trembling slightly with a mixture of anxious tension and genuine fear.
"Arthur, what exactly do you mean by that?" she asked, her breath catching in her throat. "Someone is aggressively targeting Dom?"
Dom was simply Dominic Toretto's street moniker; the undisputed king of the Los Angeles asphalt was affectionately and fearfully known strictly as Dom.
Arthur had meticulously planned out every single syllable of this conversation well in advance, so he answered Mia with smooth, calculated precision.
"It definitely seems like someone has their eye heavily on Dom's operation," Arthur lied, lacing his tone with just the right amount of grave concern.
"A couple of days ago, I started feeling like I was being closely followed. The other party's tracking skills were incredibly sophisticated, almost military-grade.
I could only faintly feel someone watching me from the dark shadows, but I could never actually spot their tail."
He paused, letting the heavy silence build the necessary tension.
"Then, this morning, I had that massive, violent conflict with Slant and his armed crew violently breaking into my apartment."
"But the real problem came this afternoon," Arthur continued, his voice dropping to a serious, urgent whisper.
"Two guys claiming to be federal agents tracked me down and cornered me. They asked me a series of highly specific, bizarre questions."
"Most of their interrogation was directly related to Dom, his inner circle, and the heavy vehicle modifications your crew has been running out of the garage."
On the other end of the line, that heavy, suppressed breathing instantly reappeared in the background.
Even Mia, who was tightly gripping the phone, had her own breathing become noticeably shallower and much, much heavier out of sheer panic.
However, Arthur simply pretended not to hear anything unusual, flawlessly maintaining his role as the concerned outsider.
He continued, his tone perfectly even: "I can't be absolutely sure if they were really FBI, but I managed to play dumb and fool them for the time being."
"I'm calling you right now just so you can urgently notify Dom."
"Although I didn't get a close look at a federal badge, I seriously reckon no one would casually pose as the FBI just to trick a neighborhood mechanic.
For whatever dark reason, your brother and his crew might be under active federal surveillance right now."
"Tell them to be extremely careful and lay low!"
Exposing to Dom in advance that they were being actively watched by the FBI was a highly strategic move Arthur had formulated a long time ago.
For the undercover Brian O'Conner to successfully get close to the highly vigilant, paranoid Dom and his tightly knit crew, the difficulty was anything but ordinary.
The absolute only viable breakthrough point the federal agent could possibly exploit was targeting the innocent Mia.
So, Arthur had planned long ago to find an organic, believable excuse to inform Dom and the others that they were being hunted by the feds.
However, the actual, chaotic development of events had been far stranger and much more violent than his initial strategy.
Arthur absolutely hadn't expected that the hulking Vince would jealously block his door and violently target him.
As a direct, bloody result, before he had even managed to smoothly join Dom's elite team, he had already engaged in a brutal, bone-breaking war with several of its core members.
But although his original infiltration plan was violently disrupted, Arthur had unexpectedly discovered Brian working his undercover retail job today.
Clearly, the FBI had already firmly set their sights on Dom and the others for the massive string of highway heists.
It was just that, for the time being, the federal authorities lacked the solid, undeniable evidence required to raid the house and arrest Dom's crew.
Even if it was strictly just to prevent Mia from being snatched away by the handsome federal agent, Arthur felt it was absolutely necessary to give Dom a massive heads-up in advance.
After all, that towering, stoic man was his prospective brother-in-law.
As for whether his advance warning would completely ruin the FBI's sting operation and lead to them failing to catch this wave of high-speed highway bandits?
That was absolutely not something Arthur cared about in the slightest.
He was a lone survivor navigating a deeply dangerous, cinematic reality. The gritty, unforgiving education he had received on the streets made him perfectly willing to leverage chaos to his own absolute advantage.
On the other end of the line, the familiar, crackling static reappeared.
Arthur was absolutely certain that Mia had tightly covered the phone's microphone again to relay the terrifying news to her brother.
However, he simply leaned back against the cheap headboard and waited.
For the time being, Arthur was absolutely not ready to completely expose Brian's exact identity.
At the very least, he would wait patiently for a while before dropping that lethal piece of information.
It would be a far better strategy to wait until Brian had proactively appeared around Dom and the others multiple times, firmly establishing his presence.
Then, Arthur would pretend it was a sudden, shocking realization and urgently tell Dom that Brian was actually one of the federal agents who had aggressively questioned him.
Of course, there were massive, glaring loopholes in that fabricated story that wouldn't hold up to calm scrutiny.
But Arthur firmly believed that as long as a federal rat's identity was suddenly exposed in their midst, Dom and his paranoid crew wouldn't have the mental energy or the time left to focus on the logical inconsistencies of his story.
Along with that explosive revelation, the entire FBI field office would also be thrown into an absolute, scrambling panic for a while as their operation burned to the ground.
And by the time the authorities were done frantically doing damage control and actually had the time to review the exact reasons for the mission's catastrophic failure.
Arthur logically estimated that he would either have already flown far away from Los Angeles with Dom and the others or he would have already successfully seized the massive, glittering mountain of gold from Steve's heavily fortified mansion.
Regardless of how it played out, at that point, he absolutely wouldn't care about an FBI investigation while sitting on thirty million dollars.
Without making Arthur wait in the quiet motel room for much longer, Mia's voice finally rang out over the speaker again.
"Thank you, Arthur!"
Her voice vibrated with profound relief, sounding like she was in an incredibly good, deeply emotional mood.
Clearly, Mia was overwhelmingly touched that Arthur had discovered the FBI was secretly investigating her older brother ,and even after being repeatedly targeted, violently harassed, and attacked by several of her brother's loyal subordinates, he still hadn't hesitated to call and notify them of the danger.
Mia was incredibly moved in her heart.
Because she knew perfectly well that Arthur owed absolutely no loyalty to her brother or his crew.
In fact, their relationship had become downright hostile and bloody now because of Vince and Slant's unhinged actions.
But Arthur still called her and asked her to pass this highly critical, life-saving news to her brother.
Clearly, he did this entirely and exclusively because of her.
This undeniable proof of his care undoubtedly made the stunning mixed-race girl, who had just recently experienced a profound physical and emotional transformation with him, feel incredibly cherished.
Along with that realization, the passionate feelings that had been forcibly suppressed over the past few days because she couldn't see Arthur surged up, burning hotter than ever.
Arthur also deeply knew the golden rule of deception: speaking too much always leads to fatal slips.
Moreover, Dom and the others were definitely standing right beside Mia, listening to every word.
So, he didn't plan on dragging the conversation out any longer.
In any case, the heavy paranoia that needed to be planted in Dom's mind was already firmly rooted.
If, even with this massive warning, Dom and his crew were still careless enough to get caught by the FBI , then it would have absolutely nothing to do with Arthur; at most, there might be a tiny bit of logistical trouble later on.
"You really don't need to thank me," Arthur replied, his voice a low, comforting rumble. "Although I have absolutely no idea why the FBI is aggressively investigating Dom..."
"...I absolutely will not let you get hurt in the crossfire!"
"Alright, Mia. I am completely exhausted from the move, and I'm going to get some rest now."
"I'll contact you the second I've settled on a secure new place to stay."
"Mm. Be safe," Mia whispered softly.
Hanging up the phone quickly, Arthur looked down at the glowing device in his hand, a sharp, victorious curve involuntarily forming at the corners of his mouth.
He didn't actually care whether or not Dom ended up in a federal penitentiary.
But if Brian wanted to smoothly use Mia as a stepping stone to get close to the crew, Arthur was going to aggressively shut him down, even if there was only the slightest possibility of it working.
Brian, you'd better just stick to being a shiny, promising federal agent, Arthur thought mockingly.
The deep, dangerous waters around Mia are way too big for you to handle. Better leave the heavy lifting to me! Just as he was finalizing his mental strategy, a sudden, sharp knock echoed from the heavy wooden door of his motel room.
Arthur's muscles tensed instantly, completely taken aback by the late-night disturbance.
From outside the poorly soundproofed drywall came the sleazy, unmistakable voice of the roadside motel owner.
"Sir? The night is awfully long and lonely out here," the man offered through the door.
"Do you perhaps need some fiery friends to keep you company and chat away the hours?"
The absolute moment the suggestive voice sounded, Arthur couldn't help but vividly recall a certain, highly specific biological skill that had been triggered by his passionate night with Mia ,but hadn't gained a single experience point or leveled up since!
A man armed with a proficiency system could never afford to ignore a golden opportunity to grind experience points.
He thus decisively, and with a calculating smile, agreed to the late-night offer!