Chapter I

New Vice. Since the city's reconstruction and renaming, it seems what was once a sunny paradise with nothing more than a seedy underworld, had totally gone to shit. The so-called underworld was now on the top of the food chain and the meaning of the word "sin" was re-defined, just to suit New Vice. Corruption and paranoia were rampant; cops, locals, politians, you name them, they were probably the bad guys. True, there were a select few that I could definitely say were honest people, but I personally knew none of them. But hell, they had to be here, if not, this city would've collapsed on top of itself by now, so there are at least a few faces that are managing to keep law and order. Was I one of them? You could say I found myself a little on the fence with that. An ex-Marine-turned-VCPD detective, you could say that I had a very frayed moral fibre within me... but it could only withstand so much more. I tried to make an honest life, but like everyone else, I was no saint...

I was only human.

There I sat on the hood of my '86 Sabre Turbo, gazing off at the setting sun as it sank below the horizon, fading into a dim orange glow. That was one of the few pure things left in this city—every day, I came here, to Vice Beach and found myself admiring the last, weak grip I had on morality and substance. Without sitting here and re-examining everything and everyone, I would've certainly been lost to sin by now. As the sun finally sank below the thin blue line, I decided to call it a day. I got into my car and revved up the engine. As I slipped on my pair of Aviators just for the style of it, a girl approached the driver's-side window of my car—she leaned in and I could practically smell the stench of whore on her,

"Hey, honey. You lookin' for a good time?" she asked me, as seductively as she possibly could. I grinned and looked at her darkened image from behind my sunglasses,

"Sure thing." I said, and she followed up with a smile, but I went on to say; "Just not with you. Go, clean yourself up and get a real job, would you?" I pulled a hundred out of my wallet and slipped it into her cleavage, "Here, and since you didn't need to do anything to get it… how about we keep this little transaction a secret, alright?" after her initial expression of shock and insult, she turned to a smile, and said,

"Thanks hon." I nodded my head and rolled up the window, to avoid any advances from any more of them. I only had so much money I could give to these women. It was a rather short drive from Vice Beach to my apartment, which was right on the shore of Ocean Beach. I slipped my car into the garage and headed inside. As I stepped in, I noticed the blinking red light of the answering machine, I took a quick guess;

Ryan.

Poor girl, apparently one sexual fling while in a drunken stupor wasn't good enough of an excuse for her to take the hint that I wasn't interested. In the prospect of being definite, I pressed the "play" button on the machine, to find that I was right. The second I heard her voice, I clicked "delete" and the message stopped in mid-sentence as it was erased from the memory. I unbuckled my leather holster that was strapped to my chest and dropped it, pistol and all, onto the kitchen table. I opened my fridge and pulled out a chilled bottle of brew, before popping the crown and throwing it back... but I was interrupted by a knock at my door. Setting down the beer, I headed to my door, a little confused, as I didn't usually get visitors. I had the urge to grab hold of my Jericho 941, just in the off chance that it was Ryan, stalking me to the point that she had found my house. In short, if it was her at the door, I was going to shoot her. I slowly opened the door, and I noticed two uniformed police officers. I recognised them as two from my precinct. One of them was a fifteen year veteran on the force--the other was his rookie, right out of the Academy.

"Good evening guys." I greeted, "I really didn't expect to see you two tonight." but the two of them didn't appear to be in any mood for a chat, "Is there some sort of problem?" I asked,

"Detective Rae." said the rookie, "We have a warrant for your arrest." Those words shook me.

"Arrest? Arrest for what?" I asked. The senior officer looked at me gravely and said, "For the murder of Officer Jayson Rae."

--

I sat in the interrogation room, still bewildered at what I had heard. And even though, hearing about the arrest warrant was shocking enough, when I heard the name that followed it, I felt to collapse on the spot.

Jayson.

My brother. My older brother Jayson Rae. I spent my entire life walking in his footsteps, from day one. The day he became a cage fighter, I followed after him like a puppy. The day he joined the marines I scurried behind him. The day he joined the VCPD... well, you get the idea. I hadn't heard about it, until the two officers found themselves on my doorstep. The door to the room open and in stepped my captain. There was so much that I wanted to--that I needed to ask him. I felt the urge to jump out of me seat and beg him for answers, but I had to keep cool. He sat down in the aluminium chair that was opposite to me, some files shuffling in his hand. He threw the files onto the table in front of me--I opened them and looked inside. In the files were photographs, of what I assumed was a car-bombing. I looked up to the captain, pure bewilderment on my face.

"Captain, what the hell is this?" I asked him,

"These." he began, "These Kaden, are photographs from the scene, where your brother was assassinated."

"What is this, some kind of joke?" I questioned, what he was telling me couldn't have honestly been the truth, could it?

"Do you see me fucking laughing, Kaden?" his face was as grave as death, "Your brother's car was blown-up, with him inside of it, this evening."

"What?" This couldn't have honestly been happening. Jayson was really killed by a car-bomb? How? By who? "Captain, you don't honestly think that I did this, do you?" I asked him in desperation,

"Kaden, I don't know what to think. There is so much evidence against you, that it would be ludicrous to bring reasonable doubt into this." he replied,

"What evidence?" everything he was telling me was foreign. I had no knowledge of any bombing until a few moments ago.

"One; an anonymous tip from a witness that said they saw you doing something in Jayson's car..."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" I interrupted,

"Don't cut me off, Kaden!" he barked, "On top of that, we found your prints on the inner workings of the pipe as well, as the coup de gras; a bullet in Jayson's body that matches the ammunition from your firearm."

I felt to throw up. I was being framed... I knew that for a fact. The only question wasn't who would want to kill my brother and frame me, but which one of the hundreds of criminals we had managed to piss off during out years on the force. I spent the last few moments, begging for some kind of help from my captain, but he wouldn't hear it. He was one of my biggest fans, but it seemed that he had lost all faith in me, when he heard of this. After I had a talk with the A.D.A. and my incompetent defence attorney, I found myself being dragged off by the same two officers that brought me here, my hands cuffed behind my back. As I passed each officer and detective I had learned to call my friend, I felt hurt as they stared at me with looks of distaste and hate. As I was being carried off, I realised that I didn't belong here... I didn't deserve what they were giving me... I had to get away. I looked around for a moment, scanning my environment... I had to find someway to get out of this mess...

... the rookie. If I was going to throw anything out there, he had the least chance of seeing it coming. I contiuned to walk along in their hold for a few more moments, planning out my escape. It wasn't going to be easy, but it was all or nothing. Suddenly, I stopped in my tracks, and the two of them along side me stopped with me. Out of nowhere, I leapt into the air, carrying my cuffed hands beneath my feet in true martial arts-fashion before landing solidly on the ground and elbowing both officers in their respective jaws with my elbows, before pivoting and finding myself behind the stunned rookie. I brought my cuffed wrists over his head and wrapped the chain 'round his throat, before tightening it. I didn't want to have to do this to the poor kid, but I had no other choice. He was clawing in front of him, gasping for air. I then heard the clicks of tens of pistols being cocked and readied for fire. However, this kid was my meat shield, and none of them looked like they were going to fire... corrupt cops or not, it wouldn't look good to find out that they peppered a young kid with shells, just to get me. I whispered into the rookie's ear,

"Listen. You help me out and I'll let you go, got it?" and I slackened my hold over his trachea to let him answer,

"Y-yes." he said in a quick gasp for air,

"Good. You have the keys to the squad car, so come with me, open the car and put the keys in the ignition for me. If you either refuse or try to be a hero, I'm going to snap your neck--though I haven't decided whether to do it before or after I strangle you to death." I wasn't kidding.

The rookie nodded and looked prepared to back out of the precinct with me behind him. We both backed out of the front door, and parked at the street corner was the squad car he and the other officer brought me in. He did as I instructed and opened the door, as well placed the keys in the ignition and turned on the engine.

"Good work." I said, "Look, I didn't enjoy doing this, but quite frankly, it was either me, or you, understand?" the rookie nodded again, "Good." I said, "You know, you're a good kid... I'm sorry we had to officially meet under these circumstances." and with that, I looked as if I was about to let the rookie, go, but in the blink of an eye, I rammed him, face-first into the driver's-side window of the squad car, knocking him out. He hit the ground, an unconcious heap and in that only spare second I had, I grabbed his firearm from his hip holster got into the squad car, handcuffs and all, and I sped off. I watched as other officers ran out after me, some trying to shoot out my tires, others tending to the downed rookie.

From this point on, I was clueless. I had no where to go, no one to turn to. I couldn't go home and I couldn't try and beg any members of my precinct for help. I was lost and confused, still trying to get the entire scenario through my head. I needed start somewhere, but as of this moment, I was a wanted man... I was royally fucked. The next time the officers found the squad car, it was abandoned at the docks, my handcuffs in the driver's-seat and pinned beneath it, was a badly scribbled note, saying;

"I'm innocent."