The Vercetti Chronicles - Volume 2, Issue 1
It's been two days since the deal went down. Tommy has been sitting in his office since then, trying to figure out who these people are. He's been phoning some contacts in Liberty City, none of them are able to give him any information. Not even Kent Paul, the man in Vice City who has his nose up everyone's ass, can tell him anything about these mystery men from the North. Finally, he gets up from his messy desk and walks downstairs. Like usual, there are soldiers hanging out in the bar. He walks in and pours himself a drink.
"Any word on who those guys were," one of the soldiers, Vin, inquires.
"Nope..nothin'. All I know is that they're from Liberty and they looked like Mafiosos to me. And there's only one Mafia crime family operating out of Liberty."
"The Forelli's." Tommy and all the henchmen look at one man, sitting in an armchair.
"Yeah, no shit it's the Forelli's, prick. I think we've all gathered that now. I'm just wondering why it took them so long to try and get back at us. If they really wanted to get even and take me out, why would they just send down three guys? This doesn't make any sense." Tommy shakes his head and downs the rest of his drink. "No word on the other guys, our backup in the van?
The men shake their head. Some look at the ground, others fiddle with their drinks. They all know what happened to their backup guys. The men in the suits killed them and took their van, everyone has accepted that in their mind. But none of them want to come out and say it just yet.
He exits the mansion and heads down to his garage. Inside is Phil's Patriot and a white PCJ-600 motorcycle. He climbs into the Patriot and tears off, down the mansion driveway. The huge military vehicle dwarfs the Cheetahs and Stingers of the citizens of Starfish Island. He enters the business district of Vice City, the east island. Tommy's mind goes back to the meet two nights earlier. He can see himself, the suited men, his soldiers. He can see the young fuckers who set up the deal to get them. He sees he and his own men start firing at the guys in the suits, killing the one that wasn't fast enough. Tommy can see he and his men duck behind the cars again to reload, as the punks look on, scared out of their wits, in over their head. He can see the suited men run fullspeed at their jeeps and jump on the hoods and climb over onto where Tommy and his men are. He can see Craig get shot, time and time again, over and over, the bullets entering his body, some coming out his back and hitting the ground behind him. Tommy can see himself on the ground, shooting one of the men. He can see him shoot the man in the head. He can see the other man get shot too. Before he knows it, he's pulling into Phil's place, the scene still playing over in his head. He shakes his head and rubs his eyes. He gets out of the Patriot. His Sabre Turbo is still parked where he left it a few days earlier. He walks over to Phil's trailer and knocks on the door. He can hear rustling inside as Phil comes to the door, a bandage over his right shoulder, the shoulder with no arm. Tommy looks at the bandages and looks at Phil.
"Little fucker managed to put one bullet in me with all his flailin' around. I'm fine, don't worry about me. Come in."
Tommy steps into the trailer and sits down. Phil goes over to the fridge and hauls out a bottle of beer. He motions to Tommy, asking if he wants one as well. Tommy nods. Phil hands Tommy a beer and rests on his kitchen counter.
"So what happened to you after? Did you see what happened to the other guys?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry I kinda hung you out to dry there, but I got hit and I had to leave. As I was getting down off the roof, I guess that's when our men in black sprung into action. I got out back and there wasn't anyone there. I walked over to the airport terminal and caught a cab back here. I got the PSG in the shed, you can pick it up when you leave. As for your guys in the van, my guess is those assasins killed em and dumped their bodies in the water. I didn't hear anything so they musta had silencers."
Tommy takes a long draught of his beer. "Goddamn, I'd love to find out who these guys are working for. I'd probably be right if I just assumed these guys were working for the Forelli's, but if they wanted me dead, they woulda sent more men. There were over 20 guys in my house when I took out Sonny and Lance. They knew better than to only send three guys down here. I'm thinkin' this is a new family, just coming up since the Forelli's have been taken out of commission." Tommy takes another sip of his beer and looks up at Phil.
"Well, I got a contact up in Liberty. A guy in the force, Detective Ray Machowski. I'll get ahold of him, see what he can tell me. If these guys aren't just some hitmen those thugs hired and they are apart of some crime family, he'll know which one. I know what they look like, so I'm willin' to bet that there'll be a lot more men up in Liberty walkin' around dressed like them."
"Alright, Phil, thanks. That's gonna be a big help. I'm gonna go over to the Pole Position, that should distract me for a little while. Drop by the mansion when you talk to this Machowski guy. I'll most likely be there."
Phil nods as Tommy exits the trailer and gets into his Sabre Turbo. He pulls out of Phil's place and speeds down the road in Little Haiti, weaving in and out of traffic, Haitians running after him, firing their handguns. Tommy turns right and drives up, past the entrance to Starfish Island, and instead of turning down to go onto the other island of Vice City, he pulls up toward the airport. He stops at the end of the road leading up to the Sea Plane Tours building. There's yellow tape stretching across the road, from one chainlink fence to the other. There are cop cars and even an FBI Rancher parked inside. Tommy thinks back to after everyone who was meant to die that night had died. His guy, the only one that had died had been loaded into the Rancher. They sprayed down his blood with ammonia so the cops couldn't identify him as a Vercetti thug. They drove back to the mansion, cars riddled with bulletholes. Tommy and two men took the dead soldier and the spank back to a boat. Ken Rosenburg and two men dressed as sailors were waiting on board. Tommy climbed down onto the boat. He put the spank under his drivers seat. His soldiers hand the bloody corpse down to Col. Cortez's men. They laid it on the deck. Tommy sat in the drivers seat of the large cabin cruiser, Ken in the passenger's seat, the Colonel's men down on the deck, Rugers in hand.
"So, Tommy, what happened? I mean, it's pretty obvious everything didn't go OK. Tommy...Tommy?"
Tommy's mind is spinning. At this point, he's still under the impression the Forelli's have started to take their revenge. He starts the twin motors on the back of the boat and pulls out into the harbour.
"The little punks set us up...Three guys, Mafioso's from Liberty. They took out Craig."
"Mafioso's from Liberty..wow...MAFIOSOS FROM LIBERTY?! ARE YOU SURE?!"
Tommy zones out amidst Ken's terrified ramblings. He just steers the boat out towards the three old stilt cabins, replaying the events over in his head. Soon, through the fog that had settled on the harbour, he can make out the cabins.
"Shut up, Ken. We gotta be professionals now. We can worry about them when we get back. Hey, you two. Dump that body over the boat. We don't want these guys getting spooked."
Tommy hears a splash as the body is rolled into the harbour. He pulls the boat up to a cabin. Two Squallo 2 speedboats are already parked there. These are belonging to the men he is dealing with. They are Cubans, so Tommy trusts these people, hence the lack of security needed. They are waiting for him inside the Cabin. Tommy, Ken and the two men get off the ship, Tommy with his trusted pistol in hand, Colonel's men with their Rugers and Ken, white as a ghost, carrying the spank. Tommy meets with the head Cuban, they talk, shake hands and exchange spank for cash. Tommy is pulled out of his trance by a tap on his shoulder.
"Sir, you can't be here right now. An official VCPD investigation is underway, you must leave now."
A young, female officer is standing in front of him, arms behind her back, looking up. Tommy looks down at her for a moment before getting into his car and driving away, toward the Pole Position Strip Club, where one of his girls will dance his troubles away.