"Crackerjack white. Speaks English. Also, like you said earlier," Michael inclined his head and walked a little faster, "a little young, don't you think?"
Michael wasn't used to being on the older half of the spectrum of people he met. Starting with being underage and in the Army and continuing through his twenties in special ops, he was used to having to compensate for his age pre-emptively -- talk like he didn't notice it, and like he wasn't defensive about it, as anything else would've been blood in the water for the kinds of drug lords and mob kingpins he dealt with. He'd made a couple mistakes there before. Even now, Miami was where people who were too old to have anything better to do went to die. He knew what he was doing, all right, but he had to prove it to people.
Here, though -- "I mean, there's minors acting like they own the place," he said, "college students, even the other Bureau man I met couldn't have been more than twenty-three? I'm thirty-three, Agent, I'm not used to thinking the world's gotten a little more youthful than I can keep up with. There's something wrong there too. What's the point exactly in snatching professionals like you and me and then the cast of Degrassi High, you know?"
The mini-mart at the gas station loomed. Michael slid his shades on, a little unsettled by the emptiness of all the pumps, and went inside, holding the door open for the FBI agent to catch it behind him as he walked through.
Re: [Location]
Michael wasn't used to being on the older half of the spectrum of people he met. Starting with being underage and in the Army and continuing through his twenties in special ops, he was used to having to compensate for his age pre-emptively -- talk like he didn't notice it, and like he wasn't defensive about it, as anything else would've been blood in the water for the kinds of drug lords and mob kingpins he dealt with. He'd made a couple mistakes there before. Even now, Miami was where people who were too old to have anything better to do went to die. He knew what he was doing, all right, but he had to prove it to people.
Here, though -- "I mean, there's minors acting like they own the place," he said, "college students, even the other Bureau man I met couldn't have been more than twenty-three? I'm thirty-three, Agent, I'm not used to thinking the world's gotten a little more youthful than I can keep up with. There's something wrong there too. What's the point exactly in snatching professionals like you and me and then the cast of Degrassi High, you know?"
The mini-mart at the gas station loomed. Michael slid his shades on, a little unsettled by the emptiness of all the pumps, and went inside, holding the door open for the FBI agent to catch it behind him as he walked through.