Disclaimer : I don't own GTA3. Some of the characters in this fanfic are based on or taken from thje game. Others are of my creation. I called the main character Jake because I found the name suited.

This fanfic doesn't quite follow the story from the game. He didn't kill Slvatore Leone or Kenji, and hasn't yet discovered who is behind the Cartel. However, he does no work for either the triads or the Cartel.

CHAPTER 1

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Jake heard the alarm going off and slowly opened his eyes. Light shone on his face, forcing his to cover his eyes and blindly attempting to turn the alarm clock off at the same time. When silence finally came, he sat up slowly and opened his eyes.

He rarely came here, since this hideout was smaller than the others, being composed of only one room. Because of that, he also forgot that the rising sun shines directly on the bed at this time of day. That must be the other reason he rarely came here. Yesterday, though, it had seemed a good idea at the time. He had done a job for salvatore Leone, consisting of driving his daughter, Maria, to parties in different parts of the cities. Whilst he found Maria quite pretty, he also found her to act like a spoilt brat most of the time, despite being 2 years younger than himself.

However, he sometimes enjoyed having easy jobs as this one. And it wasn't every day that you can drive a stretch limo. And for once, Maria didn't get completely stoned froma not-to-far-from-lethal mixture of alcohol and drugs. Jake didn't mention these things, but he had a BIG dislike for drugs. He himself had never taken any. Not even a cigarette. That was why he would never work for the Cartel. All they did was make and sell drugs. That was how they built their empire. And Jake rarely passed up an oportunity to weaken their power. He had even dealt quite a blow when he and 8-ball had worked together to destroy one of their floating Spank factories in the harbor.

That must be one of the reasons that the Cartel never offered him work. Word on the street even said that the Cartel was putting a lot of dough into finding out who destroyed the ship. Jake had enough sense to hope that 8-ball had his ass covered.

Slowly getting up, he was just about awake enough to put his jeans on and go over to the coffee machine and set it in motion. He slowly finished dressing while the coffee was getting ready, enjoying the peace and quiet. Too quiet. He suddenly realized that he couldn't hear any cars passing in the street. That woke his up better that coffee ever could.

He slowly walked over to the door and looked out of the spy hole. He could see the road, but no traffic whatsoever. Damn ! Closing the windows curtains, Jake quickly finished dressing and put important papers, false identities, and anything important into a bag. After looked around the room in case he forgot anything, he opened the door between his "apartment" and the garage, which held a dark blue hard-top Stinger, probably his favourite car. This one, however, was not the standard of-the-line model. Joey, Salvatores son, had done some work on it and Jake had also brought some modifications. Opening the boot, he quickly but his bag inside. He then proceded to search quickly but thuroughly the car for bugs. He found one, placed in the left rear wheel arch. He continued a search, just in case there were several bugs.

"Damnit !" he thought as he re-entered his apartment. He took a quick gulp of the freshly prepared coffee and swore again as the hot liquid burnt slightly his throat. He went to the corner of the room where a small cardboard box was. Inside was a small home-made bomb, powerful enough to destroy any evidence in the room, but not so powerful as to do too much damage to the building. The diablos of Hepburn heights wouldn't be too happy if a building on their turf went down in flames. Before setting the timer, Jake checked his Desert Eagle automatic pistol. A full clip, plus 3 more in his pocket, should be enough. There were spare firearms concealed in his car if need be. Jake set the bomb for 3 minutes, and set it off. Picking up the remote off-switch (just in case this was a false alarm), he went to the garage and started the Stingers engine. Pressing a button, the garage doors opened, letting the light and calmness of the outside enter.When the doors were fully opened, Jake still had 2 and a half minutes before the bomb went off.

Putting the car into gear, Jake set off. The car was a manual, as Jake wasn't too fond of automatics. He still had one (he had several cars), and sometimes drove one for "job", but didn't drive them too often. He appreciated the suppleness of having a manual. Moving forward, he had confirmation that he could be worried. He spotted two Cartel thugs, one one each side of the entrance to the small courtyard in front of Jakes hideout. Jake sighed, and floored it. The V8 engine litterally roared to life as the dark blue sports car shot forward.

Just before be reached the courtyard, he saw the 2 thugs start to react and bring up their guns and move forward to shoot. A slight twist of the wheel caused him to bear down on one of them, who was quick enough to avoid the car. Spinning the wheel, Jake brought the car around in the direction of the (???) bridge, planning on going into Yakusa territory. Doing so, he saw what was holding up traffic : 2 Cartel cruisers blacked both lanes in each direction, and a quick glance in the mirrors confirmed the same thing behind him, making it at least 8 cars.

That's why the waited till morning, Jake thought, as he set of. Jake saw he had 2 alternatives : either try to force his way through, or go through the trees between the road and the water. Considering the weight of the Cartels armoured cruisers and of his car, he opted for the trees. Coming up to the cruisers, he saw Cartel henchmen preparing themselves to shoot. They were too far to identify their weapons, but Jake knew the Cartel were quite fond of the AK-47 machine gun, due to cost and reliability.

When Jake was 50 metres away, he veared of the road, heading towards the stretch of trees bordering the street. Just before ebntering the trees, he could see the Cartel scrambling into their vehicules to take chase. A good guess would be that those behind had already done so.

Weaving as quiclky as he dared through the trees, he could see the Cartel moving to cut him off. Veering slightly right, he hoped he could make the concrete walkway before they caught up with him. He cleared the trees soon enough and made up for lost time by acceleration. There weren't too many people here, just the odd person heading to the train station to go to work. Jake still had to sound his horn once to make sure he didn't run anyone over. That would slow him down, badly.

Just as he thought he had made it, a Cartel cruiser shot out of the trees to his left. Jake had just enough time to think Uh oh …and veer to the right to avoid a lateral colision. Changing gear, Jake put his foot right down and prayed. Despite their weight, tha cartel kitted out all their cars to improve performance. Jake had driven the odd cartel cruiser, having had to steal a couple to bring them the the Yakusa But Jake was too busy concentrating on his drining to think these things. He lowered his window, just in case he had to fire the odd shot to slow them down. Whilst shooting out of windows wasn't his speciality, he had been lucky enough on several occasions.

The Cartel, however, didn't wait before opening fire. The passenger would stick his whole upper body out of the window to have a better firing position and was firing away. A quick glance in his mirror told Jake that out of the 4 cars following, only the lead car was in a position to fire. He wasn't doing any good, however. Most of the shots went wild thanks to Jakes driving, and the few that hit ricocheted off the boot lid. Jake drew his own gun and stuck his arm out of the window and managed to fire a few shots. Whilst none hit, it forced the driver to get back in the cars cabin for fear of being hit.

Jake withdrew his arm and placed the gun on the passenger seat so as to have both his hands available for driving. His lead was increasing, but it would be foolish to think the Cartel had no backup plan. They also had the money to put their plans into action, and probably the whole night. Jake scanned in front of him, and saw no iminent danger. A quick glance in his rear-view mirror gave him a shock : the second cars passanger had his body out of the car, and a portable rocket launcher on his shoulder. Jake looked a bit more, and it was obvious that he was waiting to be in a better position to fire. Stealing the occasionnal glance, Jake managed to keep the lead car between himself and the rocket launcher. But his luck would not last forever. Reaching under his seat, Jake removed a grenade from a hidden stash. Taking the pin in his mouth, he tossed the now-armed grenade from his window.

BOOM !! It exploded close enough to the lead car to cause his to veer violently, but not enough to stop. Thankfully, it was alos stil in the lead. But it would now be easier for the person in the second car to take aim. Cursing his lack of forethought, he picked up his automatic pistol and again fired out of his window. Lady luck was with him, as a wild shot hit the tire of the lead car. It veered, causing the second car to have to suddenly alter its course just as its passenger fired. The shot went wild towards the water.

Jake breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the end of the walkway coming up. The woods stopped about 50 metres before the walkway, leaving him enough time to get onto the road and away from the Cartel. A quick glance in his mirror showed him that only 3 cars were following him now. Where are the other 4 ? Jake thought. Probably following on the road …

He continued on. If they were on the road, they wouldn't be far behind, as they had less obstacles to avoid. He had no choice but to jump, and pray. He steeled himself as he saw where he would have to jump from. Nearly at the end of the walkway was a bump, followed by a 5-or-so meter drop to the road. Slowing so as not to overdo it, he braced himself. He had just enough time to look below as he jumped, and saw that the road was free of traffic. He landed, skidding slightly as his tyres lost their grip, but quickly gained control of his car. Accelerating more, he could have sworn he heard a faraway explosion …