Prologue: Clean Getaway

Deep in the desolate part of Chicago an old rusty van made it's way silently through the quiet streets until it found a hidden alley where it's screeching breaks sounded as it brought itself to a halt. The soft purr of it's engine died soon after and the passenger door opened as a middle aged man stepped out and looked around.

He was tall, about 5'11" with dark brown hair that reached a little past his shoulders and menacing dark brown eyes that scanned the area around him. He adjusted the dirty brown trench coat and brought out a hand gun as he turned and motioned to the driver of the van, then turned back around and slowly walked to his destination.

Behind him the van's driver came out and quietly shut his door and followed his partner. This one was average sized, around 5'8" and had deep brown, almost black short hair and wore a dirty suit-like coat over his torn black shirt.

Both of them silently made their way into a tall abandoned building and split up.

The driver took the upper parts of the building while his partner took the lower parts. The passenger held his gun out firmly and scanned over the shadowy remains of the building with his hawk like eyes. He side stepped and moved boxes and furniture around with his gun aimed but all was empty.

Up in the top floor the driver made his way up onto the roof and surveyed every inch of it as he circled around with his gun aimed as well. But just like his partner he found nothing.

With his gun still aimed the driver made his way back into the building but was startled as a hand rested on his shoulder and he spun around ready to shoot at his attacker but quickly took his finger off the trigger.

"Chucky! You scared the fucking shit outta me!" The driver whispered angrily.

"Sorry, Ed. It seems that we are shit out of luck. He probably moved off somewhere else."

Eddie Caputo and Charles Ray both shook their heads and pocketed their weapons.

"Where do you think the fucker went off to this time?" Eddie asked as they made their way back to the van.

Charles shrugged. "Who the fuck knows? Maybe he just went out to grab a bite or something," he said tapping Eddie and motioning him to hand over the car keys. Eddie dropped them into his hand and hopped into the passenger side of the van while Charles took the wheel.

"If he did, he'd be at the only place that he's known to go to for a bite," Eddie said as Charles drove them back into the lively part of Chicago.

"Yeah, and it's just a few blocks down from here," Charles said keeping an eye out for any cops.

"You do realize that we can't just walk in there, right?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't wait outside in the van then pluck the fucker when he comes out. It's as simple as waiting for him to come out, blowing his fucking brains out and hitting it out of there."

"I hope it's as simple as you say it is."

Charles gave his partner a side glance. "Why are you so jittery? This will go right, I promise you. After all, has anything we've done gone wrong?"

Eddie grinned. "No, I guess not. Let's go nail that fucker!"

"Now that's what I am talking about!" Charles pressed the pedal down to the floor and skidded into the parking lot of the cheapest and busiest of diners. The place might have been cheap but the food was pretty damned good, better than what the expensive restaurants handed out to their customers.

Charles elbowed Eddie. "Sneak up there and see if he's in there," he said giving him a look.

"Why me?" Eddie complained.

"Don't tell me you are a fucking chicken shit! All you have to do is walk up to the window, peek in and see if you can't spot him. How fucking hard is that?" Chucky demanded.

Eddie grumbled as he got out and jogged up to the diner's window and looked around.

From the van Charles watched him and shook his head. "Big baby," he said leaning against the wheel.

After doing a quick search Eddie came jogging back and leapt back into the van with a smile.

"He's in there alright. He should be coming out soon."

Charles grinned. "Good. Get your gun ready, and when he comes out nail him and I'll fucking floor it," he said pulling the van up a little bit closer to the entrance of the diner.

"What the fuck are you doing? We don't need to be that close!"

"Shut the fuck up! Nobody will fucking notice it's too damned dark out!"

Eddie sighed. "Since none of your plans have gone wrong I will trust you on this, for now," he said rolling down his window.

"You worry too fucking much," Charles told him with disgust.

"There's always a first time, Chucky."

They both turned their attention back to the diner just as their target came out, stopped and stretched out his arms then continued on away from the diner.

"Shoot him, stupid!" Chucky yelled at Eddie making him pull the trigger in a blind attempt busting out the diner's front window.

"You fucking idiot, now look what you have done!" Without caring about their target Chucky floored the van and tried to make a run for it but an officer that had been parked beside the old diner gave chase.

"This is really not good!"

"Shut up and let me think!" Looking in the rear-view mirror Chucky estimated the cops distance from them then looked to the road ahead of them to find any side road or alley that would be their ticket out. His luck went sky high as a dark alley came into view that would lead them to their hideout and leave the cop in a blind chase.

Chucky had taken the alley before and knew every inch of it even though you couldn't see jack shit in it without lights. Of course he's have to rid the officer of his own lights to make the getaway.

"Eddie, I have something for you to do and make it damned quick," Chucky said keeping his eye on the cop behind them. "Try and shoot out the bastard's lights or if you can, shoot the bastard himself so we can make a clean run for home base."

"Can do," Eddie said with a gleam. He climbed over all the seats and sat down in the very back of the van then opened the back doors as carefully as possible, took aim and fired multiple shots at the cop who tried to swerve out of the way.

"What a stupid idea you moron," Eddie said watching the cop lose control of his vehicle and go crashing into a department store.

Closing the doors, Eddie made his way back to the front laughing gleefully.

"I swear they just keep getting more stupid every time they give chase."

"That's one good thing on our side," Chucky said whipping the van into the alley. "And since we have no cop following us, I can actually turn my lights on this time." He flipped the switch to the headlights and sped down the alley until they hit another back road and made it back to the old abandoned house in no time.