It's Going Down Tonight
Night had fallen over Grant City. Jack had some information from that cellphone that he had taken from Marvin Silt. When he called Eve to see if she wanted to join him on looking for Gofer, she was all for it. However, Jack had told her that he only wanted to get information rather than kill him. Eve had her own agenda, but she was willing to help Jack if things were to get hot.
Jack may not be a cop anymore, but his old tendencies to uphold the law were still there. If things got violent, he would not back down and would not be afraid to get violent himself. All Jack wanted was to find the man who was involved in leaving him to die and/or get arrested that one night. If Gofer was involved with the organization that employed Patch, the man who shot and killed Augie Blatz and also shot Jack, then maybe it would lead Jack to finding out who killed his father. He had nothing to lose.
It had gotten darker. It was around 8 PM. That text message had noted that Gofer would be at the driving range. Jack was going to meet Eve at the driving range. Jack was determined to keep a low profile and try to find this Gofer guy one way or another. With Eve having her own problems with Mayhem Inc, she told Jack earlier that she would provide him with visual information that he could use.
Jack parked what used to be Blatz's car a bit of a distance away. He was about to go and make his move once he got inside the place. He opened the door to the backseat and let Shadow out. He would have to make sure no harm comes to Shadow, but the dog had also proved to be quite the help for Jack whenever he got caught in a jam.
"Hello." A female voice caught Jack off guard as it came from behind. He turned around to see who it was.
"Eve, you're here," Jack said.
"Yes, I am," Eve said. "So what's the plan?"
"I go in there and find Gofer," Jack said. "You're my backup if some shit goes down."
"Always come prepared," Eve said as she showed Jack a case and then opened it. It looked like parts of a rifle.
"Wow, you don't fuck around, do you?" Jack said.
"As much as I would like to kill Gofer myself, I will leave you to handle your shit," Eve said. "Gofer will likely have some of his Mayhem Inc guys around, or maybe any other associates."
Eve closed the case. "Don't worry, I have other ways in case I have to get up close and personal."
Eve opened open her coat. While she was wearing a black shirt with black pants, she showed a couple of holsters holding pistols. One was Beretta with a silencer and the other was Desert Eagle. She even pulled out a knife from one of the inside pockets.
"Let's go, Jack, I'll cover you," Eve said. "Just contact me with this."
Eve handed Jack an earpiece so that that they can be in contact. Eve already had hers on. The two were now on their way. Eve went her own way so that she could find a vantage point.
Unbeknownst to the two, Palmer pulled up in his car and looked through the windshield and saw Jack and Eve. He then got out his 9mm pistol. He wondered if he should go through with killing both of them, but right now or later was the real question.
Inside the driving range, Gofer stood in a panel on the second floor as he was ready to swing his club. Even at night this type of place had people practicing their golf swing, maybe even playing 9 holes.
"Nah, nah, leave it out, mate," Gofer said with his heavy Cockney accent as he spoke into a headset that was connected to a cellphone with a tether. "You hire Mayhem Inc, you pay Mayhem Inc. I got a lot of jobs that me men are up for. I don't give a shit if that job went pear-shaped, Mayhem Inc still gets paid, ya understand, ya wanker?"
As Gofer continued to talk, he looked at the ball on the tee and was ready to swing the club. He made a big swing that got the ball to go quite distance.
"I see," Gofer said. "Well, you blokes better pay the fuck up. I got my own shit to worry about. Yes, don't forget, and we will speak soon."
Gofer pushed the button on his phone and suddenly he got another call, but this time it was from Patch.
"Hello, Patch," Gofer said. "Okay, I will finish up here in a bit and will meet you at the docks soon. What the fuck does that bloke Fahook want? Okay, I understand. Well, you know that the Sandman issued that hit out on Slate, so maybe we can discuss with Mr. Ubduhl what he wants and maybe get that big bloke to come find Slate and whack that geezer. I will be there soon. See you there."
Out of the blue, a man with black hair and a brown leather jacket had peered from the corner near a soda machine. It was Jack and he had a silenced pistol on him.
"Gofer, we meet at last." Gofer froze when he heard that and through his peripherals he noticed the end of suppressor right against his face and turned to look some more and saw Jack.
"Ah, bloody hell, fuck me," Gofer said.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard it before," Jack said. "You know who I am, don't you?"
"Yes, I do," Gofer said. "Let me tell you something, Slate."
"No, let me tell you something, Gofer," Jack said. "You tell me where Patch is or I will blow your fucking head off, and you fucking tell me why you hired someone to run me over when I left Iron Point."
A smile rose on Gofer's face. "I don't think so, ya wanker."
Suddenly, some gun-toting hooligans started walking out from a distance in the hallway. Jack looked through his left peripheral and noticed that those hoodlums were ready to draw there weapons.
Oh shit. Jack thought. As soon as Jack as shifted his focus on those thugs coming for him, Gofer ran off. He was gone in a flash. A couple of guys wearing some football jerseys wielding Mac-10s, Uzis, and MP5s, some even with shotguns like SPAS-12s and Mossberg 500s came out from the end of the hall, as well as another stairwell. Jack knew he was screwed.
The only thing he could do was contact Eve, but he was surrounded and it would give her away. However, there was another option as Jack let out a whistle.
"The fuck?" one of the thugs said until another thug yelled as he felt a bite around his ankle.
The other thugs noticed Shadow biting that thug. Before one could try to open fire on the dog, Shadow pounced on that one and took him down and started to bite him in various parts of his anatomy. It bought Jack some time to undo the silencer from his gun and then let out a few shots from his pistol and at least two slugs landed on another thug.
"Get that motherfucker!" a thug said.
"Fuck that, that money's mine!" another thug said.
Huh? Jack thought to himself. But there was no time to waste. Several gunshots went towards Jack and Shadow. All Jack could do was jump off the platform onto the grass below. Shadow ran on his hind legs down the nearest stairwell. The two thugs were already injured from the attacks of the former police dog.
But the thugs weren't giving up as more gunshots went his way, some even shots from the shotguns that managed to barely graze Jack. As soon as Jack got out of the other thugs' sights, they pointed their barrels right at the platform in the hopes that the shots will go through and do Jack in that way.
BANG! BANG! Two thugs dropped with blood and brain matter splattering onto the green turf, flooring, and walls.
"What the fuck?" another thug said and slowly approached the two bodies as some of the brain matter and tissue was all of the place from both men.
BANG! That other thug dropped as blood splattered from the man's neck dropping from a gunshot going right to his larynx. The blood came out from both the front and back.
"Shit, we got a fucking sniper!" one other thug said.
"Fuck that, I'm still getting paid!" another thug said.
Many of Grant City's professional killers or lowly thugs of street gangs came out of the woodwork, but it was clear that some of them weren't too smart as the greed got the better of them as they had fallen victim to Eve's gunshots from above.
As soon as Jack ran towards the outside, he looked around at the bottom near a golf cart and saw one guy running away. It was Gofer.
I got you now. Shadow had finally caught up to Jack.
"Shadow, go after that man, boy!" Jack said.
Shadow raced towards Gofer. The dog ran as fast as he could to try to catch up to the man, but it wasn't long until Gofer reached a car and hit the clicker to unlock the car. Gofer looked around and saw Shadow racing towards him.
"Holy shite!" Gofer said. This dog was rather threatening and ferocious. He was coming right for him. Gofer quickly went into his car and started up and raced away.
Meanwhile, Jack had some problems of his own. One criminal came up to him with a shotgun in hand. But Jack suspected something was up and quickly turned around and laid a hard right hand to the man's gut. The man still had the shotgun in his hand and extended his arm out. Jack grabbed the man's arm and laid a hard attack towards the man's elbow, causing him to howl in pain. But Jack wasn't done as he took the SPAS-12 from the man and pressed the barrel right against the man's chest. Without any hesitation, Jack pulled the trigger, laying the buckshot right into his chest with multiple bloody wounds visible and causing the man's body to fly away and land on the ground.
Many of the men who were present were clearly sent to kill Jack, but why? Why was he suddenly a marked man like this? It didn't matter. All that mattered was getting out of there. Also, where was Eve during all of this?
"Eve, where are you?" Jack said into his earpiece.
"Don't worry about me," Eve said. "These men are all after you. Just go. Get out of here. I'll cover you and I will call you later."
There was no other choice. Either Jack could leave, or get himself killed here. The other option was to shoot his way out, which would be the only way if he had to get out alive in any way. But if Eve was going to handle any potential reinforcements, all Jack could do was leave. But at the same time, he had to make sure Shadow caught up to Gofer at all.
Jack quickly raced his way out of the golf course and into the lot.
BARK! BARK! BARK! Jack turned his attention and saw Shadow crawling towards him. Jack approached him as Shadow slowly crawled and whimpered a bit. It was clear that Gofer was long gone.
"Oh, boy, I'm sorry you didn't catch him," Jack said. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Jack and Shadow went into the car and he started it up. They were off and driving around. However, Jack looked through the rearview mirror on the driver's side.
The car passed me up. I spotted this car near the golf course – a big black Mercedes. With all of Grant City's criminals, this car stood out to me, all shiny and neat. Jack thought.
Jack stopped the car as that black Mercedes stopped and some men came out of the car. A couple of them were armed, but not as if they had any reason to harm Jack. The main guy in a black jacket, he looked to be in his 40s, he had an aura that screamed that he was the important man.
Robert Blanjov? It's got to be him. Jack said and then stepped out.
"Bang! You're dead, Jack Slate," the man said in a Russian accent. It was definitely Blanjov.
Jack stood there all puzzled. Shadow started to growl from the backseat but Jack told the dog to be quiet.
"What's this supposed to be? Cops and robbers?" Jack said. "Look, you want something with me, get in line."
"Relax, Slate, you know, you are the talk of the news, 'armed and dangerous' and some shit?" Blanjov said. "I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse."
Blanjov laughed and said. "I've always wanted to say that."
"For some reason some people want me dead, the Grant City PD want me back in jail," Jack said.
"That's a moot point," Blanjov said. "Whatever you did or did not do, I'm sure you had a good reason for doing it. Want to hear me out?"
"I'm listening," Jack said.
THE DEN OF INIQUITY
It was around 9 PM, maybe even almost 9:30. Hildy worked her usual shift as she danced on the stage but now worked her way to providing a lap dance for some guys while "Honey" from Mariah Carey played on the speakers. It was the Bad Boy Remix with Mase and The Lox, however. She wore a red sequined bikini with fishnet stockings and thong. As she continued to dance, she took off her top at some point.
Why she was still working at this place she even wondered herself. Although she got the extra job at The Oar House as a waitress so that she could continue to get by, ever since this place went under new ownership after Augie Blatz's demise, there had been changes.
While Hildy gave one man a lap dance, she suspected that some men were looking at her. She had heard that the current owner of the establishment had been involved in some shady activity. Although Augie was involved in stuff like that, this form of criminal activity was different.
From a distance, the club manager, Flint, spoke with three men. One was Hector Cruz, manager of the Blue Fly Club that was located a few blocks away. The other two were Boris and Dimitri Volkoff.
"You want that girl over there?" Flint said.
"Yeah," Cruz said. "She might be good for some of my movies."
Boris cut in. "Well, Fahook has been making deals with Fat Chow about having more women work at Black Orchid. That's how we got that whore Ruby into all of this."
Boris looked at Hildy with a lot of creepiness. Although Hildy had a nice enough body to show off at a place like this as well had good dance moves as she was trained as a dancer years prior. Boris looked at her with a creepily evil smile and looked her up and down. While strippers are used to being looked at during their performances, this was rather different.
"I think we might have a winner here, comrades," Boris said.
Dimitri looked at his brother and nodded his head, but didn't look at Hildy in a perverted manner like his brother was.
It wasn't long until Hildy was done with her dance and went into the back. She quickly went into the dressing him and took off the rest of her outfit and went right for her locker and put on her clothes, which were a pair of blue jeans and a gray crop top that bared her midriff a bit with sleeves that go up to her forearms.
"I can't believe I'm still doing this," Hildy said to herself under her breath. She put on her leather jacket and got her purse and was ready to just walk out of there. Many of the other women in there were putting on their makeup, as well as their gear before they went on stage, whether it was the bikinis/lingerie or even the clothes they would wear over it.
"Hey, Hildy." She went full stop when she heard her name uttered by a clearly male voice. She turned around and saw that it was Flint.
"What do you want, Flint?" Hildy said.
"Some men want to talk with you," Flint said. "They said it's a good opportunity for you."
"I'm not interested," Hildy said and turned around.
"You don't even know what is," Flint said.
Hildy turned around to face her boss. "Oh, really? Let's see. You want me to talk with those guys to see if they could pimp me out and maybe fuck some guys for money, whether it's at a whorehouse or in front of a camera, or even just doing it for money as a sex slave. I'm not doing this."
"Look, you walk out that door and you won't come back," Flint said. "You're fired."
"That's where you're wrong, Flint," Hildy said. "I quit."
Hildy just walked out of there with not even a second glance and went straight to her car. It wasn't just tonight that this had been going on. There had been instances when some guys came to her and asked if she was interested in other opportunities, but with more men coming out to watch her dance like that, it was blatant to her as to what was going on.
On the plus side, she may have gotten some information that Jack may need or maybe want. But as of now, she was done with that place.
Author's note: And that was it for this one. The next one will pick up right where this left off, by the way.
Okay, I will admit that the bit with Jack and Blanjov was clearly inspired by the first Max Payne game. Also, I am writing Blanjov as someone younger than how he was presented in Dead to Rights II, and really, there was no real plot to that game. I figured that I wanted to make him similar to Vladimir Lem from the Max Payne games.
I am planning on doing the next one soon, as Jack will find out where Gofer is. Stay tuned.