CHAPTER 1—Old Friends
Jason thanked the taxi driver as he stepped out and grabbed his bags. Luigi's club was very private, so he went through an alley and around back. Not before going around the back, though, did he pass up a chance to glance and smile at the bunny-clad girls on the sign out front. His bags were somewhat heavy, so he set them on the stairs and knocked on the large door. Several seconds later, two Mafia men walked out, followed by Luigi Gotorelli, the man himself.
"Hey, Jason!" Luigi said in welcome. "Ain't seen you around here for some time. What've you been doing in Vice all this time? I need some good guys like you working for me. Look, I want to hear all about your flight here."
"I don't think you'll like what you're going to hear," Jason said as he picked up his bags and walked inside, past the twin Mafia men and into the lighted club itself.
"Let's go up to your room I've got on reserve and we'll talk."
Luigi closed the door behind him and Jason sat on his bed. "I got to the airport, and I suppose you planned to have some of your boys come and pick me up?" Jason asked. "Because I hope to God those weren't your men that came to get me."
"What happened?" Luigi asked. "Salvatore Leone is downstairs, and anything I need to know, the Don himself would want to know." He headed for the door.
"Wait!" Jason said as he laid back on the bed. "Don't let him know yet. I'll find him up at the mansion later on." Luigi stopped and came back.
"So what happened at the airport? I just sent my guys down to get you, and they obviously haven't come back yet."
"I was picked up by two Mafia Sentinels, both of them looking legit at first, but once we pulled away, one man attacked me with a knife, and the driver accelerated. I acted as well as I could. I killed both in the car, killed one in the other car, and wounded the other two. I doubted they were your boys; I usually get a better welcome than that. I figured they were Triad men dressed as Mafia guys. They came to eliminate me before I could help the Don carry out what he wanted to do. Lucky I got away from that in time, eh, Luigi?"
"Those definitely weren't my boys. Those Triads have gone too far, now!" Luigi ranted. He threw his arms in the air and stalked around the room. "It's nothing we can't handle. But Shadow is still on the loose, and anytime he could—"
BANG!
A deafening gunshot rang from outside. Luigi dashed to the window that overlooked the street beyond and turned back, his face contorted with rage. "Salvatore's been shot! The Shadow is on the roof across the street!"
Jason jumped to his feet and grabbed the handgun he had taken. With Luigi right on his tail, Jason flashed down the stairs and came outside. Salvatore was lying on the ground, bleeding. He had been shot by a sniper's rifle right through the heart—he was already dead by the time they got to the street. A clean kill, but one that the sniper would pay dearly for.
One Mafia man walked up and said, out of breath, "It was the Shadow. We saw him on the building, cargo pants and all. He ran down the stairs and is heading down the street that way!" The man pointed south down the street, where Shadow was indeed running. He came to a stop beside a Yakuza Stinger, and jumped in. The engine revved, and Shadow took off, flying down the street at insanely high speeds. Some Mafia men tried to stop him, but were mushed under the wheels and squirted out the back as the car passed in the process. Jason ducked as sub-machine gun bullets flew over his head—Shadow was going for a drive-by. One Mafia man fell, a victim to the uzi Shadow had fired at them.
"We have to catch him!" Luigi growled.
"Let him go," Jason ordered. "Our first priority is to get the Don inside, and let Joey know about this. Revenge will be taken soon enough, Luigi. On my life, I promise you I will kill that man, and end his reign in Liberty City."
Jason had been given a room at Luigi's club, but he was also given the task of letting Joey know his father had been shot. While Jason wasn't looking forward to having to break the news, he knew someone would have to do it sooner or later. Since Jason didn't have a car, Luigi had some of his boys bring a Mafia Sentinel around to the front, so when Jason walked outside, it was waiting on the side of the road for him, with the keys inside on the seat.
The car roared to life, and Jason cranked the heat. He was freezing in this town, and would be thankful when he would be able to get back to Florida and return to his old life. Before he could go to Staunton and hunt down the Shadow, he'd have to let Joey know what had happened, and then an investigation could be made to locate Shadow.
Joey's auto repair shop was located down near Portland harbor in Trenton, so Jason took off south down the street, waited at a red light, and then turned right, pulling into the right lane on the main highway running on the west side of Portland. Not many cars were out this late at night, so Jason didn't have traffic to worry about, but he did abide by street laws, so as not to attract police attention. Not long after pulling onto the main road, Jason came to Chinatown. This was Triad territory, and not long after he entered, some gunshots could be heard, and bullets ricocheted off the car's armored sides.
Jason cursed under his breath and sped up. He was trying to get through Chinatown before those Triads ripped up his car. Only two bullet holes later, Jason sped down a steep hill, passed a restaurant with multiple trucks and one Kuruma in the parking lot, and flew up the other side of the hill. He made a right, a left, and then and went around a very wide road. Just up ahead on the left, he could see Joey's workshop.
The Sentinel came around the corner, and Jason parked it right on the curb outside Joey's place. Jason turned off the engine, pulled out the keys and placed them in his pocket, pulled on his black leather jacket, and walked outside, slamming the door to his car and locking it behind him.
Joey had owned his shop for almost fifteen years now, and Jason thought Joey was doing pretty well for himself. He usually fixed the Don's cars, as well as other Mafia bosses like Luigi and Toni. Although, he would serve anyone that came to his shop looking to be fixed up.
Jason turned the handle of the door and walked inside. The musty odor of oil floated heavily in the air, and Jason cupped his hand over his mouth until he got used to the scent. Gas of all kinds was mixed with the smell of oil, and it was enough to make him gag for a second. Jason closed the door behind him and watched as a figure dressed in blue mechanics clothes rolled from the underside of a BF Injection (he got a lot of business with those buggies, because they had a certain tendency to break down in the cold, as a result of their diesel fuel) and looked up.
"Joey!" Jason called.
"What are you doing here?" Joey said, smiling, as he jumped up. He pulled Jason close to him and into a big bear hug. "Your letters stopped coming from Vice City some time ago, Beretto," Joey said, becoming more concerned. "What happened, you don't want to see me no more, eh?"
"I just got wrapped up working with Vercetti," Jason responded and returned the hug. "I don't know why my letters stopped, though. I was thinking of you the whole time." In truth, Jason had become enraptured with the opportunities Vice City had to offer. Tommy Vercetti, criminal owner of Vice, lived in a mansion he called the Vercetti Estate. He had lots of money, powerful friends, fast cars, and a whole crap-load of guns—enough to start a gang war if he so chose. In fact, it was Mr. Vercetti who had contributed whole-heartedly to the starting of the war between the Cubans and the Haitians. Tommy had claimed Vice City when he killed Sonny Forelli, an enemy of the Leone Mafia.
"You come with good news for me, Jason?" Joey asked as he rolled back under the BF Injection and started working again.
"Not exactly. I was called into Liberty by the Don, to help with that man they call the Shadow."
"Yeah, I know him. He used to do some jobs for me, until he started working with my pop. He was a pretty good guy, always did what he was told. He never spoke, or gave out his name either, just did as I instructed. Hope to run into him again sometime."
"I doubt you'll ever want to see him alive again, Joey," Jason said grimly.
Joey laughed. "And why is that?"
"Your father, the Don, was killed by a sniper yesterday evening. We all met at Luigi's club, and when he left, he was shot through the chest. Killed instantly, the bullet took him straight through the heart."
Joey rolled out from underneath the car, his face frowning. "Who did it?" he growled. Whoever did it would pay dearly.
"The Shadow."
Joey hurled his wrench across the room. The windshield of a Perennial that was up on a winch shattered, the glass raining down on the seats. Joey slammed his fist against the BF Injection, and sucked his finger when it bled. "That little—" Joey let out a string of curses, all of them pertaining to the Shadow. He let out every curse word he knew, plus a few made-up ones, and then some. "I'll make Shadow regret the day he was born! I'll murder that guy! Where is he now?!"
"That's the thing," Jason said as Joey slammed his knuckles into the wall and left a dent. "We don't know where he is. All we know is somewhere in Staunton. Luigi's boys have been keeping watch over his old pad, and he's also got boys watching everywhere he's been before. Nothing has turned up, and we don't know where he'll go next."
"Even if we did find him, the Mafia is screwed without my father! Who is going to take over until we get a new Don?"
"Luigi tells me Toni Cipriani has agreed to step in, and although he doesn't like it, someone has to run Portland until you can take over. It's up to you to become the new Don of the Mafia, Joey. That's what they want you to do."
"I don't know about that," Joey said, pacing now. "I can't run a third of a whole city, the Triads will eat us alive. We gotta let Toni keep going until I get my bearings. I say we expand into other parts of the city. Take over Shoreside Vale, and trap that freak in his portion of the city. If he shows his face in Portland ever again—"
"Luigi's boys will make sure he doesn't leave alive," Jason said, finishing Joey's sentence. "Don't worry about it, I don't think Shadow will be coming here anytime soon. He left a Banshee parked in the garage, but I doubt he'll risk showing his face again." Jason hesitated, and looked at Joey's face, which looked near tears at the loss of his old man. "When he does, we'll have him trapped like a rat, Joey!"
"I swear we'll make him pay. What's our next step in taking over Liberty City, which is something we've been thinking about all along? Pop's ultimate goal was to own the whole city, like Vercetti did to Vice. Who do we have to kill to take it over?"
"The Triads would have to go," Luigi said as he walked through the door, followed by Toni Cipriani and around a dozen Mafia boys dressed in black, "and we'd have to make a deal or eliminate the Diablos. I doubt the Cartel would give us much trouble, but if so, we'd have to take them out as well."
"Luigi," Joey mumbled. "You're here."
"Yeah, and the only man I can think of that would have enough men and firepower to pull that kind of stunt—eliminating or subduing or dealing with other gangs—is a man in Vice City I know. His name is Tommy Vercetti, and if we make a deal with him, we'd be on our way to owning Liberty City."
Jason Beretto pressed his foot on the pedal of his newly-acquired Mafia Sentinel, and heard the engine rev. He shot down the street, turned left, and drove up towards the Leone Mansion.
The previous day, when Jason had broken the news to Joey, Luigi had interrupted. Shortly after that, Jason was dismissed, and free to do what he wanted for the next day. But in just five minutes, Jason was scheduled to be in a meeting with the most respected men in the Leone Mafia. Men like Toni Cipriani, whom Jason had never actually met face-to-face, Joey Leone, of course, Luigi Gotorelli, and Jason himself. They planned to go over recent events with the Mafia.
Luigi had called Tommy Vercetti in Vice City the previous night, and the man agreed to speak with one of their own, but none of them knew who to send. They were also meeting to discuss this event, as well.
Since Jason had spent most of his days in Vice City, he figured he would be selected for the job, but he wasn't going to count his chickens. He'd learned not to do that the hard way.
A large opening in a concrete wall lead to a sandy path. Jason eased in the gap, turned an immediate left, and ground down the path. After several meters, the path opened like a flower onto a large porch, which was attacked to a small mansion, owned by the Leones. Jason parked his car near the garage at the base of the house, next to two other Mafia Sentinels parked there.
Jason switched off the ignition, got out, locked his car, and dropped his keys into his pocket. He wanted to get this meeting over with, and it was just beginning as he walked into the outer area, which was more like a living room than anything else. Red couches and chairs were strewn on equally as red carpeting, making for an inviting environment.
The coffee table in the middle was littered with empty or full mugs of coffee. Some of them were still piping hot, but some had already lost their heat to the bitter cold of Liberty City.
"Welcome!" Luigi said as Jason sat down next to him. "This here is Toni Cipriani, I don't believe you two have met." Jason shook Toni's hand and then leaned back into his chair. "We have some important things to discuss this meeting, and I think the first thing is, who are we going to send to meet with Mr. Vercetti? The man's a powerful person, and if we don't do this right, our plan will be completely screwed up."
"We should send Mr. Beretto here," Toni said as he pointed at Jason. "As I understand it, Jason has just come from working for Mr. Vercetti, and if anyone like him knows Tommy better, we don't know 'em."
"Actually," Jason confessed. "I never actually met the guy. I did several jobs for an associate of his named Ken Rosenberg. They paid pretty good, but other than that, I never met the man himself. I also worked with a man named Avery Carrington, who is also one of Tommy's partners."
"You've been in closest contact with Tommy," Toni said, "and I think no one could convince him better than you. Point out the things you've done for him, and make sure he understands that once we've taken over Liberty, he'll reap ten percent of our rewards for the next ten years. That sounds like something he won't be able to turn down."
"Tommy told me he's running a dying business," Luigi interrupted. "He's running out of men. Money is no problem, but he wants to meet with one person, and if Toni feels that man should be Mr. Beretto, I agree."
Everyone in the room nodded and agreed.
"Then it's settled," Toni said, putting his hand on Jason's shoulder. "You leave in two days."
Jason leaned back into his chair and listened to the rest of the meeting.
"Our other point of interest is some recent happenings with the Triads," Joey piped up. He was one of the quietest in the group, but when it came to getting down to business, he was the one you wanted. "Alright, the Triads have got us pinned up here. Ever since their fish factory went up in flames, they've been hunting our blood, and since they know we worked with the Shadow, that fits into the problem even more. Shadow was the one that blew their factory, and we've been ratted out to them. The Triads won't stop until the last of us are dead and gone, and they'll own Portland."
"There's not much we can do about them until we get Mr. Vercetti to agree to give us some cash. We need guns, real estate wouldn't hurt, and some nice cars to pull it all off. Also, our boys have been running short lately ever since we were ambushed while investigating Triad laundromats," Luigi said, fondling a knife in his jacket pocket.
There was a sound of a car pulling up outside. No one regarded it as danger until voices were heard. "Get out of there, Cipriani!" a voice roared. "We know you're in there!"
The Mafia men immediately snapped into action. Toni was ushered from the room by two armed men, and eight heavily-armed Mafia men came running from the same door Toni had left through. Luigi, not being a fighter, followed Toni and vanished from sight. Joey, on the other hand, drew a sidearm and tossed a small pistol to Jason, who caught the handgun in mid-air and checked to make sure it was loaded, then he clicked off the safety.
"Let's have some fun," Joey said as they stood up and followed the Mafia men outside.
"You've been around Portland for too long!" called one of the Triad men, who was waving his gun threateningly in the air. "Much longer, and your boys come into Chinatown." He withdrew a knife and mimed slitting his own throat. "This last any longer, and we're going to have to run you out of town, Mafia scum!"
"Tell this to your boss!" Joey shouted back. The Triads stood just past the car guard at the base of the ramp, and the Mafia men were at the top, just over the lip of the ramp. "We ain't leaving Portland, and if he knows what's good for him, he'll get his ass out of Liberty City all together!"
"We make you pay for that!" the Triad returned and fired his gun. Jason just barely dodged the bullet.
"Fire!" Joey shouted. The Mafia men raised their shotguns and fired. Flashed issued from the muzzles, and bangs instantly filled the air as the Triads dodged back behind their trucks, and released all their pistol ammo. In a ground fight, the Mafia could hold their own, but the Triads would simply pull back and resort to car fights, which the Triads knew how to do effectively in their trucks.
"Get around their back," Joey said, and Jason nodded, sneaking off to the side. "Get to one of their trucks and rig it to blow."
Jason slinked around the hedges, as the fight carried itself into the yard. Mafia men started to push back the Triads with their shotguns, but another Triad fish van arrived, carrying a dozen more men, who immediately opened fire. Jason rolled back behind the truck and flattened himself against it as the driver got out and joined the melee.
Under the truck, the pipes connecting the exhaust were blackened with dirt. Jason pulled out a grenade, and pulled the pin out with his teeth. As he spat the pin to the ground, Jason made sure the lever that triggered the device was held down, and he slipped it into the exhaust pipe. Seconds later, he did the same thing to the van sitting caddy corner to the first. If two of the four vans were rigged, it would only be a matter of time before one of them went off. The heat would probably force the grenade out, causing it to explode on the van behind it as they were driving down the road. This maneuver was risky, but it was something Jason had just thought of, and he wanted to see if it would work.
BAM! A bullet whizzed under Jason's arm, and he fell back in surprise. Two Triad men stared down at him, their guns raised. Suddenly, a neat bullet hole formed itself in the center of the one on the right's chest, and Jason kicked the remaining one in the leg, causing him to stumble. Jason raised his gun, and shot the man in the head. He took this momentary cease-fire to reload his pistol as two Mafia Sentinels drove up, each unloading eight more shotgun-laden men.
"We've come to help, Mr. Beretto," the lead man said.
"It's greatly appreciated," Jason returned.
In less then twenty minutes, the Triads were rounded up, and only four Mafia men had fallen prey to them, while more than eight Triads lost their lives. Toni Cipriani stepped from the house and walked smoothly down the ramp. He snatched the lead Triad by his shirt, and pulled him forward. The Triad was bound by his wrists, and Toni frowned as he said, "The Triads ever shoot my men again, and you'll lose five times this much, understand?" Toni growled.
The Triad man nodded, and the vans were sent out of Mafia territory. The Triads gave up their weapons, and in exchange, Toni let them go alive. Before he did, though, he shot two Triad men with their own guns, to make examples to the rest of the slobs.
"Get near us again, and you'll all meet their fate," Toni snarled, indicating the fallen bodies, which were quickly thrown into the water.
"Good thing we didn't let them get near you," Joey said as he slapped Toni on the back while the vans pulled away. The two of them started to go back inside. Jason, on the other hand, moved over to his Mafia Sentinel and pulled out the keys. As he inserted them into the lock, Joey said, "Where you going, Jason?"
"I want to see if my grenade idea worked. If it didn't, I'll make it work," Jason stated. He unlocked his car, jumped in, closed the door, and started the engine. In ten seconds, Joey and Toni lost sight of him as they walked back inside.
Jason pulled out of the dirt driveway and headed straight down the hill. Just ahead was the line of Triad trucks, all driving straight along. Jason had somewhat lied to the Don's son; he was going to see if his bombs worked, but if they didn't, he wanted to know where the Triad's knew hideout was. If they could find that, the Triads wouldn't stand a chance.
Following the trucks right, Jason clicked on the radio, and Chatterbox 109 started up. "Questions usually start with words like 'how,' and 'why,' and they end with your voice going up like this," Lazlow, the host of Chatterbox, said to presumably a caller.
Another voice came through in an over-the-phone tone and said, "Don't mock me! I know where you work! You're just like all the rest."
"How's that?" Lazlow asked as Jason pulled around the corner, while the Triads got nearer to Easy Credit Autos, a place where Jason knew they sold Banshees. He had heard tales of the Shadow haunting that place all the time, breaking the glass of the showroom and stealing the Banshee sports car inside. Nasty stuff to steal cars in broad daylight, but according to Joey, Shadow did it all the time.
"Word is evil dude," the caller said. "And toothpaste, they use it to control us. Why do you think all the commercials tell us to brush twice a day? I...I've read books!" the man finished confidently.
"What an idiot," Jason remarked as Lazlow went on.
"And what book have you been reading that tells you—" Lazlow's voice was cut off as Jason switched off the radio. The small convoy of Triad vans had pulled into the gas station across the street from Easy Credit Autos. Each truck was hooked up to a pump, and they were pumping them full of gas.
"Get out here," one passenger said as he jumped out. "And hold up the owner while we get away with some free gas. We need to save money, you know."
"How will I get away?" the volunteer asked.
"Run fast," the first man growled, and pushed the second into the store, where a gunshot could be heard, and shadows could be seen of another man collapsing.
Jason parked the car around the other side of the gas station where he was out of sight behind a raised wall, and turned off the engine. Since he didn't have much to do, he simply left the engine running, and the door wide open behind him as he stepped up to the wall and looked over.
"They're going to call the police on themselves. If I can frame them and make the crime seem bigger, we'll get rid of some people, and since my grenades haven't gone off yet, this is a good opportunity. He reached into the backseat of his Mafia Sentinel, and pulled out a bottle of alcohol, along with a doused wick and a lighter. Time to go to work, he thought to himself.
"Get that body around back," the lead Triad said as he jumped out of the van. The first Triad man ordered the one that had shot the register man inside the station to drag the body around back of the gas station and dump it. As the leader walked back towards the van, something flew past his head, and the next thing he knew, he was on fire.
The bottle had shattered on the ground, fire mixed with gasoline fumes, and the whole thing exploded. The Triad leader fell to the ground, burned to death, and some flames licked menacingly at the rear of the truck.
"Look out! They're going to blow!" a Triad man shouted as he sprinted away.
No sooner had he said this, then the flames burned through the grenade in the tailpipe, and the whole gas station exploded. The fury and intensity of the fire was so great, that the flames had literally caught the gas inside the pumps alight. The vans' windshields shattered, men burned alive and fell from their trucks, dying in the fire. In seconds, every Triad men present was slaughtered.
Jason jumped back into his car, slammed the door, performed a one-eighty, and drove back towards the mansion before the cops could link the Mafia to the crime. If that didn't show the Triads who was boss, he didn't know what would.
Sheriff Howard Jones walked slowly through the door of the police department. He sighed as two men ran up to him and told him more bad news. The gas station in Hepburn had exploded. Evidence linked the Triads with the crime, and if that was true, it would be necessary to run them out of the area, and back to Chinatown.
Jones knew the Triads literally owned the Chinatown area, but as long as they didn't stick their noses into anything they weren't supposed to, he didn't have a problem with them being there.
As he passed another cubicle on his way to his office, another paper was pushed his way, showing the total number of casualties in the explosion. Two dozen Triads were reported dead, which didn't bother the sheriff too much, as they were gangsters that broke the law anyway, but the sum that really got to him was sixteen innocents killed, including the gas station worker, who was found dead behind the building, which had shielded him from being burned.
"Always the same," the sheriff said as he was handed yet another paper, which showed evidence of tire marks opposite the gas station, near Easy Credit Autos. After closer examination, they appeared to be tire markings of blackened Mafia Sentinels, police found, after comparing them with records they had stored in the police station.
"The Mafia never leave any evidence of their involvement, but I know someone from their gang had to have had something to do with it." The sheriff reached his office, placed all the papers on his desk, and sat down in his chair. The one thing he needed this weekend was more gang wars. The Triads and Mafia had been at each other's throats for weeks now, all because the hitman known only as Shadow had killed the Mafia's Don.
It was surprising the police knew this much, but even though they knew the Don was dead, they didn't know exactly who the Don was. No one had ever seen his face, and even when they found him lying dead on the sidewalk, shot through the chest by a sniper, they couldn't identify him. Fake IDs had probably been used beforehand to keep him out of trouble, and away from suspicion.
"Shame," Jones muttered as he scrawled his lunch order and handed it to an aid that came walking in that very moment. The aid scanned the sheet, nodded her head as Jones picked up the phone, and quickly closed the door.
Jones dialed seven numbers, and then allowed the phone to ring. After eight rings, no one picked up, and so the sheriff slammed the receiver back into the jack, massaging his temples with his left hand, and running his right hand along the handrest of his desk chair. This wasn't going to be an easy day. They needed all the leads they could get on that explosion, and they had to find evidence the Leone Mafia was involved.
The question was...how?