Vice City Stories: Crime File #767

Prologue: The year is 1988. Vice City is in more turmoil than ever. Anarchy has consumed much of the city. Tommy Vercetti has been taken down and killed by Colonel Cortez through a drug deal that went sour. Colonel Cortez's nephew, Manny, arrives in Vice City from Carcer City. Manny's father was killed recently and all evidence leads that the killer escaped to Vice City. Manny arrives for one thing, and only one thing; to avenge his father. The only question is; who can he trust? In a world where drugs run the dreams and the dreams run the world, nobody is to be trusted.

Chapter One

Manny steps out the revolving door of the Vice City International Airport to be greeted by a taxicab. From inside the taxicab, a man yells,

"Hey! Manny! Long Time, eh!?"

It was Cortez. He looked much fatter than Manny remembered him, back somewhere in '86. He was a big lump of a man now. He grew a moustache but lost most of the hair on his head.

"Hey, Uncle Cortez," Manny replies.

"How was your trip? Fine?"

"Yeah, but the leg room needs some work." Cortez laughed and opened up the taxicab door for Manny and took his suitcase.

"This all you have packed? Here, I will put it in the trunk for you. This is Vice City, Manny, take a break, eh?" Manny slid into the taxi and waited for Cortez, who sat right next to him. Cortez told the driver to take them someplace and he accelerated forward. After a short silence, Manny asked,

"So, how is Mercedes?" This was probably the wrong thing to say because Cortez immediately frowned.

"She's dead to me. She went on to become a lawyer. She couldn't have taken my advice, no, she had to become another one of those clones. As if the world needs another professional liar."

There was another silence. Then Manny spoke up.

"So, tell me, Uncle, the story with this Tommy Ver…?"

"Vercetti. Tommy Vercetti," Cortez corrected him. "He was a good man, a man with vision. When he got to the top he changed. He even scared away his partner, Ken Rosenbaum, I think, who scurried off somewhere to San Andreas. He hasn't spoken to me since. Worse, he won't even do business with me anymore! He might own this hell of a city, but someday, he will fall! "

After some talking and catching up the taxi stopped at an apartment of some kind. Not too shabby but not a palace either. Cortez turned to Manny.

"This is your new place. Beautiful, isn't it?"

Manny couldn't say so. He stepped out of the taxi.

"Thank you, Uncle Cortez. Thank you for everything."

Cortez sat back and laughed.

"Manny, this is the one and only Vice City. Anything you want is yours!"