Disclaimer : I don't own GTA3. Some of the characters in this fanfic are based on or taken from the game. Others are of my creation. I called the main character Jake because I found the name suited.

Chapter 2 is up. Please read and tell me what you think. I would really appreciate heaps of praises, but constructive critisism is also welcomed. I wouldn't get better otherwise.

CHAPTER 02

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Having managed to cross the Callaham bridge, he stopped at a red light and started thinking. He was going to have to use this car less often, as they had seen him in it. That pained him slightly, but if it meant his safety, he would do it.

He wondered what he would do now. The first thing to do would be to chech the car again for bugs, a more thorough search was in order. He knew of a garage not far from Asukas appartment, the kind of place where paint jobs and car blanching were common. He had just decided to go when the driver of the car beeped his horn. Feeling a slight annoyance at his own daydreaming, he set the car in motion, turning right and heading to the garage.

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He arrived at the garage and honked. The doors window above the garage opened about a minute later as the owner stuck his sleepy head out into the morning. Jake stuck his head out of the car window and yelled "Get your ass out here."

"And a good morning to you too."

"Whatever," Jake yelled.

A minute later, the garage doors opened, and Jake drove the car in. The garages working space, seemingly small on the outside, was in fact big enough to have 6 cars worked on simultaneously. Only 2 spaces were taken for the moment, however, 3 as Jake drove his blue Stinger into a vacant space.

"How you been, Simon. Business seems calm." Jake said as he stepped out of the car.

"Depends if you call being woken up just after the crack of dawn by a maniac as 'calm'" Simon answered back. He was 35, but the excess sleepiness and 3-day beard made him look some 10 years older.

"I thought you mechanics usually woke up at the crack of dawn" Jake mused.

"I ain't no mechanic, I'm a car enthusiast" Simon retorted, standing up straighter and jutting out his chin. It would have looked convincing, and Jake was about to say so, just as Simon yawned mouth wide open without bothering to cover it.

"So what brings you here at this hour ?"

Good old Simon, never one to beat around the bush. "I had a run in with the Cartel. They had my car bugged. I want a thorough check-up."

"You like living a calm life, don't you ?" Simon said, as he headed for the tool bench. "First things first, though. You want some coffee ?"

"Yes thanks, I didn't have the time to take some before leaving."

Simon switched the coffee machine on, and set it going. He also switched the security cameras on, and 3 small monitors lit up, casting a pale-blue halo in front of them. Simon had had 3 security cameras placed so as to see the immediate surroundings. Simon next opened a drawer and took out some electrical device that Jake supposed to be a bug-searching device. Simon walked over to the car and started working it over. He did a first, quick check, followed by a more minute search. When the coffee was ready, Jake poured 2 mugs out and brought one of them over to Simon, who took a sip before continuing his search. After 10 or so minutes, he turned to Jake and said "All clear".

"Thanks goodness for that" Jake said, finishing his coffee and putting the mug back onto the counter.

"What happened" Simon prompted while putting his tool away.

"Woke up to find a deserted street. Got suspicious. Left in a hurry."

"How many were they ?"

"8 cars, at least 2 per car, plus 2. At least 18 people, just for little old me."

"How lucky of you" Simon said, his voice thick with sarcasm.

"Tell me about it. One thing stumps me, though. When did they bug my car ?"

"What stumps me is why you're asking me."

"It was a rhetorical question, fool" Jake said with a smile.

"None of those this early in the morning." Simon responded, drinking his warm coffee.

"Thanks for the check over."

"I don't want you thanks" Simon said, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Jake rolled his eyes and said, "Just my luck to fall on a materialistic mecanic (???)."

"That's 'Car Enthusiast' to you. Now get out of here." Simon said, walking over to a wall panel to open the door. Jake took his wallet and placed a 100 dollar bill on the counter, then walked over to his car, started the engine, and backed slowly out of the garage.

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Arriving at his "secondary residence" (although he had quite a few of those), he left the motor running while he got out and opened the garage door. It was a 2 car garage, and already held a car : a Sentinel. Like you can expect, however, it wasn't the standard model. Not in this line of work. It wasn't as pumped up as his beloved Stinger, however, but enough so to make it an interesting drive.

Being in a relatively dangerous "job", Jake was always careful. He had several garages spotted around the city, each containing a car, though not always legally aquired. Joey, a genius mechanic and future head of the Liberty City mafia, was willing to erase a cars identity. For a fee, of course. It was cheaper than buying them, Jake mused. And he could always buy false papers to go with the cars. You just had to know who to ask for them.

He reversed the Stinger into the garage, making it easier in an emergency to make a quick getaway. He didn't want to get rid of the car, but would have to change the liscence plates and probably have to give it a paint job if he wanted to continue using the car. The Cartel had probably given all it's thugs a description of the car, but he didn't want to part with it. It was one of the only cars he had actually bought, and he had spent long hours working on it, adding something here, tweaking something there. Jake knew that he should know the basics of a lot of things to survive in the underworld, and mechanics was one of them.

Closing the garage door behind him, he looked around the courtyard that he was in. The only access in via a 15 metre slope that brings you onto a side street, onto the Yakusa/Cartel frontier. Measuring about 30 metres in length to 10 in width, there was nothing of interest to most people. That's why Jake liked it, there was little chance people would come here to disturb him. He walked over to a lift and pressed the button to call it. The doors opened immediatly with a ding, and Jake entered. He pressed the button for the 7th floor. The doors closed with little noise, and a few seconds later, he stepped out onto a small landing. He then walked down 2 flights of stairs to get to the 5th floor. He always did that, you never could be to careful. Taking out a bunch of keys, he searched through them till he found the right one, and opened the door. Opening the door, he entered his appartment. It wasn't big, but bigger than the hideout he just lost. The flat was composed of 5 rooms : bedroom, living room, kitchen/dining room and bathroom. Oh, and a seperate toilet. The last room was a office/library/storeroom kind of room. Everything which didn't belong to any of the other rooms ended up there. After considering his next move, Jake decided a shower and a shave, followed by breakfast, was in order.

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After a quick shower, shave, and breakfast, he felt much better. Before any move could be made, however, he had to go through the events of the last week, every outing he had done in the Stinger. Except for yesterday, he had been staying in this flat. He hadn't been anywhere much.

The first few days had been spent reading and a few hours surfing the internet. He checked his e-mail every day, as Salvatore sometimes asked for information or proposed a job by e-mail. Rarely, though, as Salvatore responded to events as they arrived, and did so quickly. E-mail, despite its speed, just didn't cut it. Jake also recieved a few newsletters from different 'alternative leisure' magazines.

About 3 days ago, Jake had done some work on a car of his. A recently, euh, …, 'acquired', Infernus. He had brought the car to Joeys, early morning. Only stayed for about an hour there. Went to Simons and had worked for a couple of hours there, tweaking the engine somewhat. Simon had a lot of tools, and even more experience, and was willing to help Jake work on his car, although he tried to do the most he could by himself. He was finished by late afternoon, and brought the car to a newly bought 2-car garage near the Callaham bridge. After leaving the car in the garage, he went to eat in a diner nearby, and then walked back to his flat at 9 'o clock PM.

The day after had been pretty uneventful. He had gone to bring some equipment to the garage. A few well-maintained firearms, a bullet-proof vest, a lock-picking set, that kind of stuff. Nothing expendable, just in case the garage was broken into. He would hate to lose semothing important to a commun thief. At midday, he had gone to eat a pizza, nothing special. The afternoon was spent in the library oposite Donald Loves' building. Shrewd businessman, Love was also a well-paying employee. Jake had rescued a valued old Chinese man from the Cartel. Whilst Jake had been payed, he was sure that he could ask a service from Donald that wouldn't be refused, as long as he didn't ask for too much. He had spent a large part of the afternoon at the library, and had spent the night in a nearby "secondary residence" (more like the fifth, not that it mattered much).

The next day, 2 days ago, Jake had recieved a call on his cell phone from Salvatore, asking him to drop by for a small chat, maybe more. He had gone, arriving at around 2 o'clock PM, and Salvatore had asked him about Luigi. Salvatore was worried that Luigi might be doing some business on the side. After Jake had reasured him, Salvatore asked him to drop a package of at Luigis' and to come back the day after at 7 o' clock in the evening for a job. Jake dropped the package off and headed back to his flat at the edge of Belleville Park. The rest of the day had been spent in the flat.

The day after, yesterday, he had stayed all day in his appartment, cleaning weapons and generally checking inventory. At 5:30 PM, he had left, in the Stinger, and had gone to meet Salvatore, picking up a fast food meal at a drive-in on the way. Arriving at the parking near Salvatores mini-palace at quarter to seven, he had walked 5 minutes to reach his destination. The guard at the door called the main building after Jake had introduced himself, and had been let in. He had driven Maria around, but prefered not to dwell on that. Besides, he had stayed in the limo almost all the time. Returning a sleepy Maria at 2 AM, had had walked back to his car and had gone to his one-room retreat near Hepburn heights, bordering the red-light district.

Which brought us to today. The only real moment they could have planted the bug was yesterday, while the car had been in the parking. Why hadn't they done more, or sabotaged the car ?

Jake thought of the way he had taked to go to Salvatores place. Leaving the flat, he had turned right to stay parallel with the park. Reaching the end of the road, he had turned left to cross the Callaham brigde. After the bridge, he followed the maze of streets to get to Salvatores. He wasn't much liked by the triads, so he had stuck to a relativly neutral territory. He had passed by the Forellis place, too, and wasn't on great terms with them, either.

One possibility crept into his mind : whilst going, a triad or Forelli thug had spotted him, recognized him, and had followed him. When Jake had left his car, the afore-mentionned thug bugged the car, returning to his boss, who sold the information to the Cartel. That was just one possibility, and a quite likely one at that. Rackiong his mind for other theories and coming up with none for the moment, he decided to follow this lead and see where it lead up to …

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"Hello ?"

The person Jake had at the other end of the phone wasn't quite awake, by the sound of his voice. "Hello Ray."

"Jesus, Jake, I told you to try not to call me here."

"My options are limited at the moment."

"Whatever. What do you want ? And why do you want it this early ? I barely just arrived here."

"I need some information, Ray."

"What kind of information ?"

"Cartel mouvements over the past 24 hours."

"I'll need more information before I can give you any more answers. Meet me at the usual place, in 20 minutes ?"

"Make that 30. I'll be there."

"You better, I'd look pretty stupid going there for nothing."

Jake hung up. He was at a public payphone at Liberty Campus, not far from the university. From what he heard, it was supposed to by quite prestigious, as far as universities go. Jake had gone to his local university, but had quite enjoyed it. He considered taking some lessons, but decided he didn't have the time at the moment. He walked back to his Sentinel and started the engine. He would be there 10 minutes in advance to check the area beforehand. Ray had been clear until now, but there was always a first time …

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Jake had checked the area, and it was clear. He sat a relatively long distance away from the public toilets in Belleville Park, and took out todays newspaper. This wasn't Cartel territory, and was relatively safe. Whilst pretending to read the paper, he scanned the vicinity, watching a jogger go across the park. Rumaging through some trash cans a short distance off was a local bum. Jake sometimes gave spare change too. He could always come in handy one day. No one notices beggers, or thinks they aren't worth looking at.

Ray arrived 2 minutes before schedule, and went straight down to the toilets. Jake waited till the time was up, then got up and started in the direction of the public mens' room …

"Ray ?" he called out.

"Hearing a toilet flush behind him, he turned to see Ray coming out of a cubicle, and head to the sink to wash his hands. Jake took out his automatic handgun, removed the clip and ejecting the charged bullet., before pocketing the ensemble and holstering the gun. Ray dried his hands before looking at Jake.

"Out with it. What's so important that you call me at work for ?"

Ray must have been about 50 years old, his brown hair going grey and wearing a few pounds of fat too much. Wearing a white shirt and dark brown suit, he would have fitted in almost everywhere. He was a bent cop in a bent city. Jake had done some work for him, getting rid of an annoying witness and saving his sorry ass. Ray owed him for that one. Time to cash in the debt.

"The Cartel came for me this morning, after they had a bug planted on my car. I need to know of anything suspicious concerning them or the triads in the last 24 hours."

"They went after you ?"

"With enough firepower to take out a small army."

"Hmmm. That you want Cartel mouvement, I can understand. Why Triad ?"

"I haven't been anywhere near Cartel territory recently, but I passed nearby Chinatown recently. I ain't really on the best of terms with them. They must still be sore for the loss of their so-called 'warlords'. Anyway, I also need to know if there is any kind of truce between the Cartel and the Triads."

"All that, huh ? A can tell you all I know right now, but for more specific information, you'll have to wait."

"Go ahead."

"The Cartel have a no-action truce going with the Triads. Neither of them tries to steal the others territory. The triads don't do any drugs other than their opium-smoking parlors, anyway. If one group does something for the benefit of the other, they'll have a debt that will have to be paid back in equal value. Taking out an important enemy, for example, would be a big debt."

"Then why didn't they take me out in the first place."

"That's your problem, kid. To gain face, maybe. You wanna hear the rest of the story, or are you gonna interrupt me again."

"Carry on."

"As far as I know, each group stay on their own side of the water. The Triads already have a lot on their hands, with the Mafia, the Diablos, the Forellis, and others. The Cartel are still at war with the Yakusa over here, but I hear they're quite powerful up in the posher part of town. That's where their HQ is, as far as I've heard. The DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) hasn't made a move yet, though, as they don't have enough proof and are waiting for the 'big one'. That's all I can tell you for now. Meet me back here at 6 tonight, I'll pull a few string and have more information then."

"All right. See you later, then."

"Later, kid." Ray said, turning around and leaving.

Jake took out the gun, reloading it before heading back to his flat.