--Chapter 13--
Out of Town
Marcos Bistro, Early 1986
The bistro had barely changed through the years. The same old building, with the same old men dwelling and planning inside of it. It had been a decade and a half since the Harwood incident. It was quiet after that, but slowly, business got back to usual, and after fifteen years, Vercetti was just the name of an old friend that would probably never be seen again. Business was good lately, and things were quiet, so Sonny, Ronny, Harry, and Lee decided to take the night off and have a few drinks, play cards, the usual. While they were doing so, a mafia man barges into the room, the entire group stopping and looking at him. He walks over to Sonny, and leans down to whisper to him. "There's something I think you should see." Sonny nods and grabs a letter out of the mans hand.
Sonny begins reading the contents of the paper, his eyes moving slowly from left to right, from top to bottom. The rest continue to pause their drinking and card playing, watching Sonny to see what was up. Sonny lowers the paper slowly onto the table, with nearly a shocked look on his face. "Tommy Vercetti, huh...shit! Didn't think they'd ever let him out." Harry and Lee look at eachother and grin, glad that their old friend would be back soon. Sonny and Ronny had less of an enthusiastic reaction. Harry looks over to them, "He kept his head down, helps people forget."
Sonny leans forward, putting his elbows onto the table. "People will remember soon enough. When they see him walking down the streets of their neighborhoods, it will be bad for business. We don't need this distraction." Ronny responds, in almost a paniced tone, "Well...what are we gonna do Sonny?" "Maybe he can help us with the Triads?" "We treat him like an old friend and keep him busy out of town, Ok?" Sonny says, ignoring Lee's suggestion. "We've been talking about expanding down south right?" "Yeah.", the others respond. "Vice City is twnty-four carat gold these days. The Columbians, the Mexicans, hell, even those Cuban refugees are cutting themself a piece of some nice action."
Harry tries to get them to let Tommy stay, "But it's all drugs, Sonny. None of the families will touch that shit." "Times are changing, the families can't keep their backs turned while the Triads, Hispanics and our other enemies reap the rewards. Refusing to enter narcotics is one of Salvatore's many weaknesses. I think it's time the mafia here changes its style." They all look up at this nearly-treasonous talk about Salvatore, but don't reject the idea."So we send someone down to do the dirty work for us, and cut ourselves a nice quiet slice, Ok?" "We could use the funds to get resources against our enemies." Ronny says, knowing the mafia is slowly weakening in Liberty City.
Sonny looks up from the paper on the table, "Who's our contact down there?" "Ken Rosenberg, schmuck of a lawyer. How's he going to hold Vercetti's leash?" Ronny says, obviously not a fan of Rosenberg. Sonny responds, obviously having a plan on how to go about this. "We don't need him to. We Just set him loose in Vice City. We give him a little cash to get started, Ok? Give it a few months. Then we go down, pay him a little visit, right? See how he's doing." Sonny nods as he lays out the plan.