Chapter 8: Mayhem at May Stadium
Copyright Notices: As with the previous chapter, this chapter features names, teams, and other references that are the official property of Major League Baseball. No infringement is intended. Also, the opening scene of this chapter replicates the opening mission of Watch Dogs, and as noted before, all characters, locations, etc. are the official property of Ubisoft and any other related entities.
[Author's Note: We're finally getting to the main storyline of Watch Dogs. Sorry that it's taken kind of a long time, but my writing style sometimes calls for a lot of character development and backstory.]
Locker Room
May Stadium
Parker Square
Later That Night
Aiden Pearce thrust a bloody and battered Maurice Vega onto the floor of the home team locker room at May Stadium.
"You've gotta believe me, man!" Vega uttered as he rolled on to a laying position and looked up at his captor.
"Who gave the order?" Pearce sternly asked.
Vega was now whimpering in pain. "Come on", he pleaded, "I told you…I don't know!"
Aiden Pearce then scoffed with frustration. "You don't know", he parroted. He then extended his cell phone in his captive's direction and pressed a button. Filtered voices from an audio recording were then heard from the phone.
"Hit the family?" Vega's voice said.
"That a problem?" Another male voice said in response.
"Nope", Vega's voice replied, "I'll scare them good. You'll never hear from him again."
As Vega tried to inch toward an open cubby, an increasingly livid Pearce grabbed him by the back. "So, what do you think, Maurice?" Pearce barked, "Did you scare me?" He then shoved Vega onto the edge of the cubby.
Maurice Vega rolled partly over and faced Pearce once again. "It was a job, man", he said with an anxious shake in his voice, "I didn't know."
Pearce then knelt down intimidatingly close to Vega's face. "Who was on the other end of the call?" he asked, "Give me a name."
"They never gave me a name!" Vega hollered.
"Yeah", Pearce said, "I'll give you a name." He then put a hand around Vega's throat. "Lena. Lena Pearce."
Aiden choked his hostage tighter for a moment before letting his conscience prevail and let him go.
Maurice Vega coughed and regained his breath. "I didn't know about any kids, alright?" he said, "That wasn't supposed to happen."
Pearce then pointed a finger in the man's face. "I want you to think very carefully", he said with a very commanding tone, "Think."
"Look man", Vega said, "Even if I knew a name, you couldn't get me talking. These guys…I've heard stories, man. They're like nothing you've ever seen before. You gotta walk away from this, man."
Pearce then stood upright and looked Vega square in his eyes. "Some things you can't walk away from", he said very matter-of-factly. He then withdrew a handgun from within his trench coat and pointed it at Vega's head.
"Please!" Vega begged, "Please!"
"Who gave the order?" Pearce said, his tone now demanding an answer in the direst of ways.
Maurice Vega was now completely panicked, as if his life was flashing before his eyes. "I spoke to him on the phone!" he yelled, "He told me where to find you!" He then broke into desperate tears. "That's all I know, man! That's all I know!"
"Give me a name!" Pearce said once again as he put his finger on the gun's trigger.
"I don't know!" Vega shrieked with despair.
Meanwhile, the epic baseball clash between the Boston Red Sox and the home team, the Chicago White Sox, was at the bottom of the eighth inning. In the stands among thousands of wound up fans and waist deep in the electric excitement, off-duty Detectives Troy Harrison and Abigail "Abby" Asher hooted excitedly for their respective teams.
Harrison was dressed in a Boston Red Sox t-shirt that displayed David Ortiz's number 34, while Asher was clad in a Chicago White Sox t-shirt bearing Paul Konerko's number 14. The two also wore respective baseball caps on their heads, fitting in well with the thousands of others around them. The two friends had to practically holler to each other just to converse due to the noises and commotion from the fans around them.
"So, how did you even get these tickets anyway, kiddo?" Harrison asked in a shout.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you", Asher shouted back before chuckling.
"I'm intrigued", Harrison replied, "Try me."
"You know that pizza place across the street from the district that's open all night?" Asher asked.
Harrison thought for a second and nodded. "Yeah", he said, "What about it?"
Asher chuckled. "I went to call in a dinner delivery order for the squad two nights ago and ended up calling WKZ Radio by mistake", she admitted, "I guess their call-in number was only two digits off from the pizza place. I ended up being the lucky third caller in their baseball ticket contest!" The young detective then burst out laughing.
Harrison broke out into gut busting laughter right along with his friend. "Wait a minute", he asked once he had regained his breath, "You're telling me that all you wanted to do was order a couple pizzas for your squad and ended up lucking your way into free tickets to the biggest baseball game of the season?"
Asher nodded. "That just about sums it up", she said. The two friends then playfully bumped fists.
The portable radios that the two detectives had clipped to their waistbands suddenly chirped to life. "Squad to all units in the vicinity of May Stadium and all units on the Citywide", the voice of a male OEMC dispatcher said through the radio, "We have a nine-one-one call reporting a possible Code Five-Eddie on the lower level of the stadium. Multiple Parker Square area units are responding at this time."
Harrison looked to Asher. "Code Five-Eddie?" he asked, confused.
"It means that there's some kind of disturbance happening on the lower level", she clarified, "As much as I'd hate to put a damper on our fun night out, I'd have to suggest we respond too, Troy."
Harrison sighed regrettably before nodding affirmatively. "Copy that", Harrison replied before grabbing his radio off his waistband and keying the mic. "Thirty-Four-Henry-Edward to Squad", he said into the radio, "I'm currently on location at the stadium with Thirty-Four-Nora-Charlie. You can hold both her and myself down on that Code-Five-Eddie call, over."
"Squad to Thirty-Four-Henry-Edward", the dispatcher replied almost immediately, "Copy your request and location. Be advised, possible armed subjects have been reported on scene. Approach with caution, over."
The two detectives promptly got up from their seats in the stands, removed their badges on chains from their side pockets and put them around their necks. They then pulled up the backs of their shirts and pulled out their respective firearms. Asher was armed with a Glock .45 Auto G21 handgun, while Harrison was armed with a Sig-Sauer P-226 handgun that he had customized with a handmade blue-tinted textured grip made from durable composite plastic.
A very overly curious 8-year-old boy seated beside Asher's seat eyed them inquisitively as they armed themselves.
Seeing this, Harrison cautiously holstered his gun and knelt to the young boy. "It's okay", he said, "My friend and I are police officers." He pointed to his Detective's badge. "See?"
Asher then held up her own badge for the boy to see. "There's nothing to be scared of, okay?" she said with a certain warmth in her tone.
"Are you guys going to save the city?" The young boy asked in that unintentional yet playfully prying tone that only an 8-year-old would use.
The two detectives chuckled. "Something like that", Harrison said before patting the boy's Chicago White Sox cap. "Enjoy the game, bud. Catch you later."
After discreetly getting the approximate location of the so-called "disturbance" from a stadium security guard, Harrison and Asher made their way to a long, dark corridor on the level just below the stands. Harrison held up his free hand to Asher once they reached one particular corner, indicating that they should both stay put for the moment in case there were suspects on the other side of the corridor.
"Have you got a flashlight on you?" Asher whispered.
"Unfortunately, no", Harrison whispered back as he went to peer around the corner.
Even in the dark, Harrison could see at least four dead bodies laying along the walls of the dim corridor. All appeared to be men in hooded sweatshirts and jeans, and they all appeared to be sporting the same tattoos, at least as far as Harrison could see.
"We've got at least four bodies here, Abby", Harrison said quietly, "I'm seeing both gunshot and stab wounds. Call it in and tell them we need the Medical Examiner, detectives, and the Crime Lab."
"Got it", Asher said before grabbing her own portable radio and keying the mic. "Thirty-Four-Nora-Charlie to Squad", she said quietly into the radio, "Be advised, Thirty-Four-Henry-Edward and I have at least four homicides on the lower level corridor at May Stadium. Requesting the Medical Examiner, district detectives, and the Crime Lab ASAP, over."
"Squad to Thirty-Four-Nora-Charlie", the same male OEMC dispatcher replied through the radio, "We copy your requests, and personnel is being notified. Be advised, Patrol-Henry-Two is on scene close to your location and is reporting two additional deceased at his location, over."
"Thirty-Four Nora-Charlie", Asher replied into the radio, "Copy. Please advise Patrol-Henry-Two that two plainclothes detectives are close by, over."
Before the dispatcher could acknowledge that request, a male voice was heard in the darkness. "Chicago Police!" The voice shouted in a very commanding tone, "Anyone in here, call out now!"
A very bright fluorescent light came on over head. A young African-American CPD uniformed officer in full uniform rounded the corner into the hallway holding his gun on Harrison when he noticed that Harrison himself was holding a gun. "Drop your weapon!" the officer commanded.
"Take it easy, Officer", Harrison said as he holstered his weapon with one hand and held up his badge with the other, "I'm Detective Troy Harrison, CPD District Thirty-Four Homicide squad." He motioned to the corner of the hallway with a nod of his head, at which point Asher came out from the corner behind which she had been hiding and held up her own badge. "That's Detective Abigail Asher", he continued, "She's a friend of mine from Narcotics. We were upstairs watching the game when we heard the Code Five-Eddie call over the Citywide."
The young officer took in the scene around him for a moment before sighing deeply and holstering his weapon. "Sorry about that, Detectives", he said with a very repentant tone, "I'm Officer James DeYoung with the Thirty-First District. I take it you're Thirty-Four-Henry-Edward, right?"
Harrison nodded. "That's right", he said.
Asher then held up her portable radio. "...And I'm Thirty-Four-Nora-Charlie", she said, "We just called for the M.E., some detectives, and the Crime Lab."
"So I overheard on the radio, ma'am", DeYoung said, "OEMC has everybody rolling. Half the coppers in my district are upstairs. What the hell went down here?"
"With all due respect, Officer", Harrison said, "Damned if we know at the moment. I see four homicide victims here." He motioned to two of the male bodies. "These dudes have been shot", he continued before making another gesture to the pair of male corpses across from them, "…and it looks like these two were stabbed. If this is one killer, he or she is pretty efficient. No messy blood spatter, no bloody footprints indicating the perp's quick exit."
"I hear you", DeYoung said, "I just found three more male bodies around the corner before I stumbled onto you guys. Is it just me or are all these guys sporting the same tattoos?"
Asher pulled the sleeve of her t-shirt over her hand before kneeling to one of the dead male gunshot victims. She carefully pulled up the left sleeve of the man's hooded sweatshirt, exposing some very distinctive black tattoos which made a sleeve of their own in fresh ink up and down the deceased man's arm. "Black Viceroys", she said, "They control at least fifty percent of the drug traffic in The Wards. They're run by a guy named Delford 'Iraq' Wade. He's one ruthless punk you do not want to cross."
A lightbulb went off in Harrison's head. He took out his cell phone and dialed a number. "Voight", Harrison said into the phone, "It's Detective Harrison from the Thirty-Four. Yeah, we met at the King homicide scene. You said to call if I needed anything, and I'm afraid that time has come. We need you and Olinsky at May Stadium as soon as you can get here."
