PortlandLiberty CityUSA, 1971
"Hello?" said Tommy over the phone. He was sat at home in an apartment in Portland, slouching in his armchair watching the black and white T.V.
"Tommy, it's Sonny, I need you to go and pick up some protection money a convenience store owes us in Staunton Island, the money's in a briefcase at the top of the multi-storey car park, pick it up and bring the case back here, OK?" Sonny hung up, not waiting for the answer.
"Jesus Christ, I gotta do Forelli's dirty work for him, I like this show." Tommy got up and switched off the T.V. he straightened out his sea-green Hawaiian shirt and walked out the door, looking down the hall twice he locked both the locks on his door.
Tommy got into his car, in the daylight Tommy looked awful, he'd recently got in with drugs. He punched the glove box of his Stallion and it opened dropping the clear bag of powder right into Tommy's hand, Tommy grinned and pocketed the bag for later. He looked under his car seat, then, once he was satisfied, he started the car. He set off up the Callahan Bridge; he looked in his rearview mirror, then smiled and stared ahead, his grin faded and he checked again, he did this every few seconds.
"Grr! Goddamn, what the fuck is wrong with me?! OK, Tommy, keep calm, it's just the coke, you'll adjust, you'll be alright." Tommy relaxed and closed his eyes, he was drifting off to sleep, he was suddenly awoken by the sound of a truck horn, he opened his eyes and swerved violently out of the trucks way, "HOLY SHIT!" he slammed on the brakes and just sat their breathing heavily. He took the bag out of his pocket, and stared at it for nearly ten minutes, then he threw the bag out the window, he drove away, feeling better than ever.
He pulled up to the car park and leaned out of his window; he looked up, sighed and drove his car up.
At the top there were hardly any cars he saw the briefcase on top of a Cadillac. He walked up to it, opened the case and was about to close it when, he thumbed through the piles of "cash" the rest of the notes were blank, he threw them out and, at the bottom was a mass of wires and what looked like a clock. Tommy was confused, then, his eyes widened and he sprinted back to his car, he had left the engine running, and reversed as fast as he could, he kept his eyes on the Cadillac as the briefcase disintegrated in a huge orange ball of lame, engulfing the car with it, for a moment the car didn't move, then the Cadillac exploded, sending it into the air, flipping over a couple of times, Tommy just stared. He sat perfectly still for a few seconds, and then slowly drove his car down the car park. On the middle floor his path was blocked by a black car, he honked his horn and leaned out of his window and yelled. "Get out the way, ya freakin' idiot! Goddamn!"
Tommy honked his horn a few more times and after what seemed like the hundredth time, the black car's door opened, and a man with slick, greased back, black hair, wearing sunglasses and a crisp black suit stepped out. Tommy got out of his car too and started walking aggressively towards the man in the suit.
"Who the hell do you think you are? What the fuck d'you think your doing with your car there."
The man's face remained perfectly still and he said. "This is from Salvatore Leone." He pulled a silenced pistol out of his jacket and started to point it at Tommy, but Tommy was already pointing his .45 at the man's head.
"And this is from Tommy Vercetti!" said Tommy with a grin as he pulled the trigger, the next few milliseconds seemed to go very slowly, the bullet casing flew out of the gun, the flash from the gun barrel making Tommy blink, sending the bullet through the air and into the forehead of the other man, his head jolted backwards violently and his body fell to the floor.
Tommy had gotten used to killing, he came to the conclusion that when times were desperate, kill. He walked over and lifted the guy into the driver seat of his car, then he pushed the car slowly out of sight, no-one would think anything of a parked car in a parking lot.
Tommy decided to pay a visit to the convenience store that had tried to kill him; he sat in his car outside the store and watched the people inside. He waited until it got dark before getting out of his car. Holding his duffel bag, he walked into the store and threw it onto the counter in front of the clerk and pointing the sawn-off shotgun in his face.
"Fill it, fuckface!" he yelled. The clerk hastily filled the bag with all the cash he could find. "What? That's it?" Tommy asked.
"Some guys just came and cleared me out, mob guys." Said the man almost crying.
"Oh, I don't BELIEVE this shit!" said Tommy through gritted teeth as he stepped back, checked his gun and fired it into the clerks face. He grabbed the bag and walked out of the store; he threw the bag into the passenger seat of his Stallion and drove straight to the Bistro.
Sonny was already waiting for Tommy and he walked to the door of the Stallion,
"Tommy I just heard, what the hell happened out there?"
"It was a set up, whoever they were they wanted to kill the pick-up man." Tommy said, calmly. He thought about telling Sonny that he robbed the place, but he decided not to.
"Go on get outta here."