Chapter 10 – Darkel Decay

Fido, Capelli's mansion, Shirago, 2002

Tommy Vercetti told Al, Tony, Toni and me the entire story of how he was involved in the killing of Al's four sons.

"So… there never was a lawyer named Timothy Roth" Al said "it was just an attempt for the Forelli's to gain more power in Liberty City"

"Yeah" Tommy said "and they left me with the mess that they created, Mike must've ran out the fire exit without me, the LCPD thought I was the Harwood Butcher, a mass murderer at that time, the only reason I didn't serve a life sentence is when the murders started happening again that had the clues of the Harwood Butcher, I got let out in 1986"

"One thing I wanna know" Tony asked "is why you told the court you murdered my brothers?"

"To stop Mike Forelli getting out of trouble" Tommy said

"Is this Mike Forelli still alive?" Tony asked

"No, he got killed in a Leone car bomb last year, since then the Forelli's have disbanded, they have no more sons to run the Forelli's" Tommy said

"Good" Tony said "because if he was alive he would be dead by tonight"

"Why did you trust Sonny Forelli, when there might have been a chance that he double crossed you?" Toni asked

"Well think, you've came out of prison, you have no money" Tommy said "I left all my money in Las Venturas, the only thing I owned was the shirt on my back, in fact I had to get that back from the prison guards, I come out of prison, and I'm met by one of Sonny's men and taken to Marco's Bistro, he doesn't even mention what happened fifteen years earlier, he pretends that we still had business together, I had no-one else to trust, he said to do one job down in Vice City then we'll never do business again, so I thought, what can go wrong, I wasn't even sure that he'd set me up anyway, who would even think that the f-ker would set me up again"

"Hey Tommy I forgive you," Al said walking over to Tommy while holding out his hand shaking it with Tommy "it's all in the past, I forgot about my sons long ago, that's why I moved away from Capelli's Restaurant and Liberty City to Shirago, so Tony and I could start a new life, I believe Toni found the unused restaurant a few years later and took it over and I'm glad for him for that, it was my pride and joy, but you have to move on"

"So you mean if you knew it was the Forelli's who did it, you wouldn't have acted differently?" Tommy asked

"If I knew at the time, yes I probably would've avenged them" Al said "but I didn't, so I moved on, which I'm going to do again after this robbery"

"What?" Tony said "where are you moving to?"

"I'm moving to Caronto, so when you four rob the bank, the minute I have my hands on that money, that's the last you'll see of me"

"You mean, you're leaving me the title of Don"

"You can do what the heck you want, Shirago is no longer my future, I don't want to see this city again"

I was sitting listening to this conversation the whole way through, almost in shock.

"Can we discuss this robbery?" Toni asked breaking the ice

"Yes Toni" Al said "please explain to us?"

"Right Fido, I think you should be the driver, since you are the best driver here"

"Tommy and Tony, I want you to help me begin the robbery" Toni said "I'll crack the safe."

"Have you ever cracked a safe before?" Tommy said

"No" Toni said "but I think I can practice"

"Okay, I think we'll discuss this later?" Tommy said "I kinda wanna check into a hotel around here, then we'll discuss the robbery tomorrow, you don't mind do you"

"Nah sure" Toni said "in fact I'll give you a lift to a hotel in Port Shirago, it's nothing fancy, but it will do"

"Okay" Tommy said

And with that Tommy and Toni walked out of the Capelli's mansion into Toni's sentinel and they drove away.

"Well, we learned a lot of things there that we didn't know before" I said

"Yeah" Tony replied

"Tony, do you mind if I have a word with Fido" Al asked

"Yeah I don't mind" Tony said walking out the room

"So what is it Al?" I asked

"I need you to do a favour for me?" Al said "there's a man in Darkel City who I do business with?"

"Exactly what sort of business?" I asked

"I regularly sell cocaine to him, he buys it?" Al said "So what I want you to do, is tell him that I'm going away for a while, but he can buy one more large package of cocaine if he can pay the whole money just now"

"Right, I'll do it?" I said

Al went over to a small cupboard and pulled out a small briefcase, he put it on the table and put a number into the security lock.

"Now, the number's 6-6-6" he said while opening it.

He took a large package out of the case.

"I don't want you to drive there; you might get stopped by the RSPD, because you have to go over the country side to get to Darkel, I think the best idea is to take the train" he said

"I could sail over the Great Lake?" I said

"Still too risky Fido" he said "the RSPD know that people use the lake to try to smuggle into Canada without being seen, they might think your trying to smuggle into Canada, no the best idea is the train, the police never search the trains"

"That's fine" I said

"I would watch out when your in Darkel, it's a dark place, the city has no Mafia families, but it's overrun by three street gangs, the place is literally run by a mysterious underground leader who the place is named after, the suburb your delivering this to is one of the worst in Darkel, so I would take a taxi straight from the station, I would also carry a gun with you"

"So what suburb do I deliver this to?" I asked

"A suburb called Warner"

Al handed me a card with the address on it.

So I made sure I had a Colt 45 in my pocket and I left the mansion with the briefcase and headed to my red Banshee, I drove all the way across town to the Shirago Train Station. I walked up the stairs to the stone white building and went inside. There were some screens up, telling all the trains that were arriving and departing, I walked up to the ticket desk.

"Hello, could I have one ticket to Darkel Central please" I asked

"Yes" the lady said "that will be 5"

I handed over the credit card that Misty gave me and she took the money off and gave me the ticket and the card back.

"The train will arrive at 2 pm at platform 9" she said

I looked at my watch; it was 1:50 pm, I only had ten minutes. I sat in the waiting area beside platform 9 until the train pulled up and the doors opened, I walked into the train, this is when I suddenly became paranoid, maybe I shouldn't have done this mission, what if an SCPD or RSPD officer is on this train and they were searching for anyone with drugs. It wouldn't be Al who got caught, it would be me and I would go the same way as Tommy, sent to prison for something that wasn't my fault. But there was one thing that was different between Tommy and I, I was sure that Al Capelli wouldn't betray me like Sonny Forelli did. Using this thought to calm my nerves I placed the briefcase on the overhead shelf and took a seat on the fairly busy train. It took around fifteen minutes to get to Darkel. Once I got there I picked up the briefcase and stepped off the train, I walked out of the station to the taxi rank and jumped in a yellow taxi. As soon as I got in the taxi it started driving.

"Where do you wanna go?" the driver asked

"I'm going to Warner" I replied

"Warner? Rather you than me" the driver said

"What do you mean by that?" I asked

"Warner is one of the worst suburbs in Darkel, that's supposedly where Darkel lives and they're run by the Warner Streets" he said

"Well, I don't wanna particularly go there, but its business" I replied

A few minutes later the taxi started going down the street in Warner where this cocaine buyer lived, the place was a ghetto in the centre of decay, far from the nostalgic Mafia-run streets of Shirago which always seemed you've been there before, Warner was full of houses that were falling apart, some of them had been burnt, the place had two high-rise eyesores and the streets were littered full of young wannabe gangsters who obviously had nothing else to do with there time. I was dropped off beside the house and I paid the taxi driver 10, I told him to wait while I went into the house. I knocked on the door. A few seconds later the door was answered by a man wearing brown tramp-like clothes holding a Colt 45 to my face. The man had greasy hair, had a lot of stubble on his face and his nose was starting to thin out probably due to all the cocaine.

"What the f-k do you want?" the guy asked

"I work for Don Al Capelli; I believe he sells you cocaine" I said

The man put his gun away

"Yeah, he does sometimes; I think you better come in"

I walked into the house; it had obviously not been cleaned or decorated since the man had moved in.

"Do you always answer the door, gun to the persons face?" I asked

"Yeah, I've got a license for it" the man said "but never mind that, I didn't phone Al to ask him to send me any cocaine, I've still got a lot" the man said

"Well he's moving to Canada for a while and won't be able to supply you anymore, so he wants to sell you what he's got left, then after you've snorted all that, you'll have to find a new dealer" I said

"Fine" the guy said

He took out some scaled underneath a pile of rubbish. I pushed 6-6-6 into the briefcase and took out the package of cocaine. He weighed it.

"I'll pay you 100 000 for the whole package" the man said

"Fine" I said

The man went into another room and took the empty briefcase. He came back through and the briefcase was full of money. I closed the briefcase, thanked him and started towards the door. I opened the door and walked out with the case. The taxi had disappeared out of sight; I started walking towards the direction the taxi had come in. Suddenly I felt a knock on the back of my head and the world fell into darkness.