SAM AGOSTINO & SAL:
The three of them sit in the Rumpo XL unspoken. Sam's arms are still wrapped around Agostino, Sal finds this to be rather unusual since she seems to have calmed down quite a bit since all the shooting. The drive seems to continue for ever and Agostino decides to break the silence to speed up time.
"Sam?"
"Huh?" She says, barely looking up at him.
"Why'd you're mom send you here, there's nothing but prostitutes and drug dealers. You've already seen all the random gang violence that springs up all over the place, your mom must have known that all of this was here before she sent you."
"Because she hates me." she says quietly.
"That sounds familiar." Sal says peering out the window.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asks him demandingly.
"That's like, the exact same thing your father said about you, --"
"This time it's true though."
"How's that?" Agostino asks.
"I got into a fight with my mom about who treats me better, the courts said I had to go live with my mom because at the time my dad couldn't take care of me. When dad was put on that show, a cop called our house and told us dad had escaped. My mom sent me down here to live with my dad to 'teach me a lesson' is how she put it... She defied the courts order and now I'm going to get sent to a foster home the minute the cops put it all together, and she did the WHOLE thing on purpose!"
Sal slowly and barely turns his head away from the window like his eyes are fixed on something that he couldn't possibly be looking at since the van is moving, he also has a very hypnotic nature about his voice, "You know you give your dad the impression... that you hate him."
"I know, he's never told me but I know. I don't know where the hell he gets it from."
Agostino laughs, "Do you realize that the first day we met you, you asked why you should respect your father?"
"I did?" She says, faking confused.
"Yes you did." the Nicos say at the same time.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, he doesn't really seem like my dad anymore you know? He seems kinda' like, one of my friends or something."
"Yeah if your friends shoot people!" Sal say laughing at her.
"Shut up!" she says, punching him with a mixture of fake anger and happiness. "...He seems more like a dad to me."
"Who?" Sal says confused, "Me?"
"Yeah," she says smiling.
"Holy shit!"
"I could imagine if you were my dad, you don't look like me though..."
"What about me?" Agostino asks, still looking straight at the road.
"You seem like, hmmm... Nope, I can't say it."
"Well Jesus Christ, you told him, and you can't tell me."
"Uh-uh, noo waaaay..." she says slowly shaking her head.
"Awww. What a gyp."
They pull up next to a ratty payphone in the Red Light District, around familiar Diablo territory. They get out of the van facing the away from the front of the payphones towards a large brick apartment complex. The outside of the building is spread apart with hookers, and drug dealers, preparing to deal scores, and score deals.
It was dark flim noir setting, that at this point even Samantha could not get used to. Up until this point she'd been in a nice nearly mansion sized home, and a reletively clean rip-off of Baskin Robbin's ice cream. She had seen a lot of mayhem, but now she was really exposed to the seedy underbelly of the worlds worst city.
She looks on, mesmarized, with both interest and disgust, "I ca not believe you guys actually brought me here."
"You were the one who said you wouldn't mind..." Sal says taking a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, he puts them back, "Shit, I really gotta' quit."
"Listen Sweetheart," Agostino says, "I don't really know where else to take you, we don't have to stay here but it's dangerous to be cruisin' the city when it's almost nighttime lookin' for a place to stay, I know this shit ain't right but we have to do it."
They walk up to the front of the apartment, Agostino point to the intercom. "Okay Sal, call up Misty?"
"I'll give you a cigarette if you do it for me."
"This ain't jail man, I can buy my own cigarettes."
"Yeah but you're out."
"How do you know?" Agostino says quickly.
"Oh, trust me, I know." he says just as responsive.
"Man just do it!"
"Goddamn it! I hate talkin' to that bitch!" He presses the button, "Hey bitch, you up there? --" Sal winces, he meant to say Misty's name.
"Who the fuck you callin' a bitch? Who is this? I'm gonna' come down there and chop your fuckin' nuts off asshole."
"Sorry about that Misty, I musta' pressed the wrong button or somethin'... goddamn controls... One of the other girls likes bein' called names, I just slipped up that's all."
"Who?"
"Who what?
"Which one of my girls likes to be called names?"
Sal has to think, Misty is smarter than he imagined she was, "...Uhh... Susan -- Maria - No... Trudy! That's the one... Trudy."
"Yeah fuckin' right smart-ass, what the hell do you want?"
"You see, I got a girl down here --"
She cuts him off, "I'll be down in a minute!"
"No wait! You don't get it! Goddamn it! Stupid bitch!"
"What's he so uptight about?" She asks Agostino.
"You'll see when Misty gets down here..." Agostino looks down at his shirt, "Holy shit..."
"What?"
"There's bullet hole in my suit."
"Really? Let me see?" She says opening up Agostino's shirt, she sees a small hole through the right side of Agostino's suit jacket. "Wow, you're lucky."
Misty comes barreling down the steps so fast that her last step is actually a jump down three steps, she gets out the door, then looks at Samantha. After a long pause she looks at Sal like he's the stupidest man that ever lived.
"You've got to be fuckin' kiddin' me! She can't be more than fourteen years old." She crosses her arms, "Now listen to me, the last time you brought an underaged girl in here, the cops were all over us for months, it always gets worse when you bring these young girls in and you know that."
"Hey, that last girl had an ID I saw it on her, she even showed it to me! I made a mistake I've never brought you a young girl on purpose, and you better believe me when I say that."
"...Yeah... You're right, she was only a year away anyway, no one would have been able to tell. Still, you must have brought 'Alice' to this 'Wonderland' for a reason."
"Her name's not Alice, it's Samantha," he says pretending he didn't know what she meant. "she needs a place to stay..."
"...And?"
"And... and, nothin', that's it..."
"You brought her here to crash with me and the girls, you know how many perverts are going to be trying to reach up her skirt!?"
"I was kind of hoping you knew a way around that Misty."
"I do, if you have gun."
Sal reaches inside his pocket and pulls out his Barretta. He holds it by the Barrel handing it to Misty, she refuses.
"Hey, don't give it to me. I ain't the one that's gonna' need it!" Everyone looks at Samantha.
"I ain't givin her this thing."
"Yeah, and I'm not taking it." she adds. --
"WHAT THE FUCK!" A voice echoes from the background, a loud voice from Liberty streets.
A Diablo bearing a red bandanna is exiting the building parellel to Misty's. He's got his posse with him, and a shitload of guns that prove in Liberty, you always have a right to bear arms.
The Diablo runs towards Agostino and Sal, blasting his gun, prostitutes run for cover, screaming.
Agostino grabs Sam and runs for the van, with his other hand he points to the driver's side, "Sal, Drive."
"I know, I know." Sal says Jumping into the front of the van. Agostino and Sal quickly rush to the back, the get inside and the van takes off.
They drive up the hill, barely making it any distance at all before a large 'BANG!' emminates from below them and the levelness of the truck is thrown off.
Sal swerves the car, trying to turn in front of a Pay N' Spray, instead the car slowly tilts and the right side slams onto the ground. Sam exits the van first, dazed, she runs for her life. Sal emmerges from the wreckage, he takes his glasses off for the first time examining them, they're broken. "SHIT!" he puts the dark cracked sunglasses back on his face. He slumps over what would be the bottom of the van as he tries to climb his way out. A Diablo rushes at the tilted Rumpo, screams emintate as Sal fires his gun, BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! He barely misses the Diablo, his accuracy is so good that the man decides to hide and duck for cover.
Sal gets his chance and falls out of the van, his back slamming violently into the rocky grated concrete, "AUUGHH! Goddamn IT!" his back feels like it's been scratched with razor blades.
He gets to his feet and runs to the back of the van, as the door opens he waves to his already exiting brother to hurry up. "Come on, we got to move!"
"I know," Agostino says switching his gun to his right hand, "where's Sam? where did Sam go? -
- Sam hears four gunshots in the background, she slams into someone and it knocks her to the ground. The out of breathe man bears a slight resemblance to Fido, one of the gangster's she had met earlier, but he did have a much less foreboding look to him than Fido had had.
"................Oh... My god!" the man says panting, "I...I'm sorry, you okay."
"No, no, theres these two guys chasing us! You have to help." She didn't know exactly if it even was only two guys, but that's how many she'd seen. She sees it was a mistake to give him that number when she was so vague on it. The man unexpectadly pulls two guns from his jacket, and immediatly assumes she's talking about Sal and Agostino.
Who are both now running up to her.
"These guys?"
"No, those are my friends. NOO!" she screams not wanting to hear another gunshot, Sal and Agostino ignore the man, and start blasting like they are escaping hell.
They get every Diablo chasing them for the moment, and then they lower their guns. They feel the familiar cold chill of a gun press agains the back of their heads. Samantha, confused, is the only one who isn't met with a barrel.
"Who are you?"
They can't believe that anyone in Liberty wouldn't know who they were,"You don't read the newspaper?" Agostino asks him.
"I'm Sal, and this is my brother Agostino Nico. We're protectin' this girl for a friend of ours okay? These Diablo's attacked us, and we were protectin' ourselves."
"Who's the girl? Why is she so important."
This question angers Sal, who can't see the point of any of this, "SHE'S just the DAUGHTER of a GUY I KNOW!"
"What's her name?" the man asks pressing the guns harder into their heads.
Samantha figures she'll get to go home if they just answer all the questions, she hastily does it for them, "Samantha!.... Samantha Baldassare."
The look of reconginition that fills the man's face terrifies Samantha.
"Like... Trenton Baldassare?"
Sal is immediately realizing that there is something really strange going on, and the way that the man had said Trent's name suggested that he was an enemy. "How the hell do you know that name?..."
"I'm leaving," the man says abruptly, "I'm not going to arrest you, but I am leaving and I'm taking the girl."
Agostino laughs, that has to be the stupidest thing anyone's ever said to him at this point. "No you're not!"
"She can't live with her father, and she's not staying in this city. She's going to a foster home."
Max strikes a nerve within' little Samantha, and she gets completely depressed, "No! I don't want to go anywhere I want to go home and see my dad!"
"You have to go. It's better for you."
She can't believe what she's hearing, the guy acts like he knows everything, "NO! Shut UP!" she bursts into tears, sobbing, "You don't know me! I just want to see my dad and have a normal day for once!"
Sal can understand her dilemma, he had once been in a similar situation where he would be taken to a foster home, going there eventually led to his life of crime. The two of them had become notorious and Sal's first arrest was for the murder of his abusive foster father. He shot him seven times, no real evidence was brought up against him, the jury said it was only circumstancial and he was released without being convicted.
Him and his brother had been through some rough shit, and that's what made them so protective of this little girl.
"You see man? You can't take her. She can't go to live in one of those places."
"I have to take her it's my job." Somehow Sal gets the impression that the man is lying, proabably to save his own ass.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Agostino says, swerving around he takes a swing at the man's face, the man dodges it. 'Crack!' the butt of Sal's gun smashes into the back of the man's skull.
"Goddamn, you hit him hard."
"What'd you expect." Let's see who this asshole is." Sal reaches into the man's wallet, he pulls out credit cards, all of them are to safe to steal, he drops them on the ground. A badge is inside the wallet... "NYPD... You ever seen that show NYPD Blue? I hate that peice of shit."
Agostino ignores his brothers question looking at the wallet, "NYPD? What's he doin' in Liberty City?"
"How the hell should I know?" Sal says putting a large roll of money in his pocket, "I'll tell you this though, he gets paid an awful lot of money for a cop."
Agostino looks at the ID in the wallet, "Max Payne," Samantha wraps her arms around Agostino again quietly clinging to him. "I think I've heard that name before." he says.
"I don't care if you have, we got to get the hell out of here, when someone's knocked out, you never know when they'll wake up. It could be two seconds from now."
"Yeah, you're right lets get the hell out of here."
They decide to go back to the home in Shoreside Vale regardless of what might be going on there. They get inside and Agostino throws his gun on the coffee table, sitting on the couch. "Ahh shit. This has been a hard day." Samantha sits down next to him, and Sal sits himself down in an easy chair, his gun still gripped in his hand, like an alcoholic with a beer bottle.
"What the..." Sal leans forward. On the couch across from Agostino sits Tony and another man in a S.W.A.T. uniform with his leg taped up, both of them are laughing like crazy. Watching some comedy, acting like buddies.
"Man, this shit just keeps getting weirder and weirder."
The three of them sit in the Rumpo XL unspoken. Sam's arms are still wrapped around Agostino, Sal finds this to be rather unusual since she seems to have calmed down quite a bit since all the shooting. The drive seems to continue for ever and Agostino decides to break the silence to speed up time.
"Sam?"
"Huh?" She says, barely looking up at him.
"Why'd you're mom send you here, there's nothing but prostitutes and drug dealers. You've already seen all the random gang violence that springs up all over the place, your mom must have known that all of this was here before she sent you."
"Because she hates me." she says quietly.
"That sounds familiar." Sal says peering out the window.
"What's that supposed to mean?" She asks him demandingly.
"That's like, the exact same thing your father said about you, --"
"This time it's true though."
"How's that?" Agostino asks.
"I got into a fight with my mom about who treats me better, the courts said I had to go live with my mom because at the time my dad couldn't take care of me. When dad was put on that show, a cop called our house and told us dad had escaped. My mom sent me down here to live with my dad to 'teach me a lesson' is how she put it... She defied the courts order and now I'm going to get sent to a foster home the minute the cops put it all together, and she did the WHOLE thing on purpose!"
Sal slowly and barely turns his head away from the window like his eyes are fixed on something that he couldn't possibly be looking at since the van is moving, he also has a very hypnotic nature about his voice, "You know you give your dad the impression... that you hate him."
"I know, he's never told me but I know. I don't know where the hell he gets it from."
Agostino laughs, "Do you realize that the first day we met you, you asked why you should respect your father?"
"I did?" She says, faking confused.
"Yes you did." the Nicos say at the same time.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, he doesn't really seem like my dad anymore you know? He seems kinda' like, one of my friends or something."
"Yeah if your friends shoot people!" Sal say laughing at her.
"Shut up!" she says, punching him with a mixture of fake anger and happiness. "...He seems more like a dad to me."
"Who?" Sal says confused, "Me?"
"Yeah," she says smiling.
"Holy shit!"
"I could imagine if you were my dad, you don't look like me though..."
"What about me?" Agostino asks, still looking straight at the road.
"You seem like, hmmm... Nope, I can't say it."
"Well Jesus Christ, you told him, and you can't tell me."
"Uh-uh, noo waaaay..." she says slowly shaking her head.
"Awww. What a gyp."
They pull up next to a ratty payphone in the Red Light District, around familiar Diablo territory. They get out of the van facing the away from the front of the payphones towards a large brick apartment complex. The outside of the building is spread apart with hookers, and drug dealers, preparing to deal scores, and score deals.
It was dark flim noir setting, that at this point even Samantha could not get used to. Up until this point she'd been in a nice nearly mansion sized home, and a reletively clean rip-off of Baskin Robbin's ice cream. She had seen a lot of mayhem, but now she was really exposed to the seedy underbelly of the worlds worst city.
She looks on, mesmarized, with both interest and disgust, "I ca not believe you guys actually brought me here."
"You were the one who said you wouldn't mind..." Sal says taking a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, he puts them back, "Shit, I really gotta' quit."
"Listen Sweetheart," Agostino says, "I don't really know where else to take you, we don't have to stay here but it's dangerous to be cruisin' the city when it's almost nighttime lookin' for a place to stay, I know this shit ain't right but we have to do it."
They walk up to the front of the apartment, Agostino point to the intercom. "Okay Sal, call up Misty?"
"I'll give you a cigarette if you do it for me."
"This ain't jail man, I can buy my own cigarettes."
"Yeah but you're out."
"How do you know?" Agostino says quickly.
"Oh, trust me, I know." he says just as responsive.
"Man just do it!"
"Goddamn it! I hate talkin' to that bitch!" He presses the button, "Hey bitch, you up there? --" Sal winces, he meant to say Misty's name.
"Who the fuck you callin' a bitch? Who is this? I'm gonna' come down there and chop your fuckin' nuts off asshole."
"Sorry about that Misty, I musta' pressed the wrong button or somethin'... goddamn controls... One of the other girls likes bein' called names, I just slipped up that's all."
"Who?"
"Who what?
"Which one of my girls likes to be called names?"
Sal has to think, Misty is smarter than he imagined she was, "...Uhh... Susan -- Maria - No... Trudy! That's the one... Trudy."
"Yeah fuckin' right smart-ass, what the hell do you want?"
"You see, I got a girl down here --"
She cuts him off, "I'll be down in a minute!"
"No wait! You don't get it! Goddamn it! Stupid bitch!"
"What's he so uptight about?" She asks Agostino.
"You'll see when Misty gets down here..." Agostino looks down at his shirt, "Holy shit..."
"What?"
"There's bullet hole in my suit."
"Really? Let me see?" She says opening up Agostino's shirt, she sees a small hole through the right side of Agostino's suit jacket. "Wow, you're lucky."
Misty comes barreling down the steps so fast that her last step is actually a jump down three steps, she gets out the door, then looks at Samantha. After a long pause she looks at Sal like he's the stupidest man that ever lived.
"You've got to be fuckin' kiddin' me! She can't be more than fourteen years old." She crosses her arms, "Now listen to me, the last time you brought an underaged girl in here, the cops were all over us for months, it always gets worse when you bring these young girls in and you know that."
"Hey, that last girl had an ID I saw it on her, she even showed it to me! I made a mistake I've never brought you a young girl on purpose, and you better believe me when I say that."
"...Yeah... You're right, she was only a year away anyway, no one would have been able to tell. Still, you must have brought 'Alice' to this 'Wonderland' for a reason."
"Her name's not Alice, it's Samantha," he says pretending he didn't know what she meant. "she needs a place to stay..."
"...And?"
"And... and, nothin', that's it..."
"You brought her here to crash with me and the girls, you know how many perverts are going to be trying to reach up her skirt!?"
"I was kind of hoping you knew a way around that Misty."
"I do, if you have gun."
Sal reaches inside his pocket and pulls out his Barretta. He holds it by the Barrel handing it to Misty, she refuses.
"Hey, don't give it to me. I ain't the one that's gonna' need it!" Everyone looks at Samantha.
"I ain't givin her this thing."
"Yeah, and I'm not taking it." she adds. --
"WHAT THE FUCK!" A voice echoes from the background, a loud voice from Liberty streets.
A Diablo bearing a red bandanna is exiting the building parellel to Misty's. He's got his posse with him, and a shitload of guns that prove in Liberty, you always have a right to bear arms.
The Diablo runs towards Agostino and Sal, blasting his gun, prostitutes run for cover, screaming.
Agostino grabs Sam and runs for the van, with his other hand he points to the driver's side, "Sal, Drive."
"I know, I know." Sal says Jumping into the front of the van. Agostino and Sal quickly rush to the back, the get inside and the van takes off.
They drive up the hill, barely making it any distance at all before a large 'BANG!' emminates from below them and the levelness of the truck is thrown off.
Sal swerves the car, trying to turn in front of a Pay N' Spray, instead the car slowly tilts and the right side slams onto the ground. Sam exits the van first, dazed, she runs for her life. Sal emmerges from the wreckage, he takes his glasses off for the first time examining them, they're broken. "SHIT!" he puts the dark cracked sunglasses back on his face. He slumps over what would be the bottom of the van as he tries to climb his way out. A Diablo rushes at the tilted Rumpo, screams emintate as Sal fires his gun, BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! He barely misses the Diablo, his accuracy is so good that the man decides to hide and duck for cover.
Sal gets his chance and falls out of the van, his back slamming violently into the rocky grated concrete, "AUUGHH! Goddamn IT!" his back feels like it's been scratched with razor blades.
He gets to his feet and runs to the back of the van, as the door opens he waves to his already exiting brother to hurry up. "Come on, we got to move!"
"I know," Agostino says switching his gun to his right hand, "where's Sam? where did Sam go? -
- Sam hears four gunshots in the background, she slams into someone and it knocks her to the ground. The out of breathe man bears a slight resemblance to Fido, one of the gangster's she had met earlier, but he did have a much less foreboding look to him than Fido had had.
"................Oh... My god!" the man says panting, "I...I'm sorry, you okay."
"No, no, theres these two guys chasing us! You have to help." She didn't know exactly if it even was only two guys, but that's how many she'd seen. She sees it was a mistake to give him that number when she was so vague on it. The man unexpectadly pulls two guns from his jacket, and immediatly assumes she's talking about Sal and Agostino.
Who are both now running up to her.
"These guys?"
"No, those are my friends. NOO!" she screams not wanting to hear another gunshot, Sal and Agostino ignore the man, and start blasting like they are escaping hell.
They get every Diablo chasing them for the moment, and then they lower their guns. They feel the familiar cold chill of a gun press agains the back of their heads. Samantha, confused, is the only one who isn't met with a barrel.
"Who are you?"
They can't believe that anyone in Liberty wouldn't know who they were,"You don't read the newspaper?" Agostino asks him.
"I'm Sal, and this is my brother Agostino Nico. We're protectin' this girl for a friend of ours okay? These Diablo's attacked us, and we were protectin' ourselves."
"Who's the girl? Why is she so important."
This question angers Sal, who can't see the point of any of this, "SHE'S just the DAUGHTER of a GUY I KNOW!"
"What's her name?" the man asks pressing the guns harder into their heads.
Samantha figures she'll get to go home if they just answer all the questions, she hastily does it for them, "Samantha!.... Samantha Baldassare."
The look of reconginition that fills the man's face terrifies Samantha.
"Like... Trenton Baldassare?"
Sal is immediately realizing that there is something really strange going on, and the way that the man had said Trent's name suggested that he was an enemy. "How the hell do you know that name?..."
"I'm leaving," the man says abruptly, "I'm not going to arrest you, but I am leaving and I'm taking the girl."
Agostino laughs, that has to be the stupidest thing anyone's ever said to him at this point. "No you're not!"
"She can't live with her father, and she's not staying in this city. She's going to a foster home."
Max strikes a nerve within' little Samantha, and she gets completely depressed, "No! I don't want to go anywhere I want to go home and see my dad!"
"You have to go. It's better for you."
She can't believe what she's hearing, the guy acts like he knows everything, "NO! Shut UP!" she bursts into tears, sobbing, "You don't know me! I just want to see my dad and have a normal day for once!"
Sal can understand her dilemma, he had once been in a similar situation where he would be taken to a foster home, going there eventually led to his life of crime. The two of them had become notorious and Sal's first arrest was for the murder of his abusive foster father. He shot him seven times, no real evidence was brought up against him, the jury said it was only circumstancial and he was released without being convicted.
Him and his brother had been through some rough shit, and that's what made them so protective of this little girl.
"You see man? You can't take her. She can't go to live in one of those places."
"I have to take her it's my job." Somehow Sal gets the impression that the man is lying, proabably to save his own ass.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Agostino says, swerving around he takes a swing at the man's face, the man dodges it. 'Crack!' the butt of Sal's gun smashes into the back of the man's skull.
"Goddamn, you hit him hard."
"What'd you expect." Let's see who this asshole is." Sal reaches into the man's wallet, he pulls out credit cards, all of them are to safe to steal, he drops them on the ground. A badge is inside the wallet... "NYPD... You ever seen that show NYPD Blue? I hate that peice of shit."
Agostino ignores his brothers question looking at the wallet, "NYPD? What's he doin' in Liberty City?"
"How the hell should I know?" Sal says putting a large roll of money in his pocket, "I'll tell you this though, he gets paid an awful lot of money for a cop."
Agostino looks at the ID in the wallet, "Max Payne," Samantha wraps her arms around Agostino again quietly clinging to him. "I think I've heard that name before." he says.
"I don't care if you have, we got to get the hell out of here, when someone's knocked out, you never know when they'll wake up. It could be two seconds from now."
"Yeah, you're right lets get the hell out of here."
They decide to go back to the home in Shoreside Vale regardless of what might be going on there. They get inside and Agostino throws his gun on the coffee table, sitting on the couch. "Ahh shit. This has been a hard day." Samantha sits down next to him, and Sal sits himself down in an easy chair, his gun still gripped in his hand, like an alcoholic with a beer bottle.
"What the..." Sal leans forward. On the couch across from Agostino sits Tony and another man in a S.W.A.T. uniform with his leg taped up, both of them are laughing like crazy. Watching some comedy, acting like buddies.
"Man, this shit just keeps getting weirder and weirder."