It was day two in Las Venturas. Tommy, Claude, Phil, Mario, and Ken were relaxing in their hotel room. With nothing currently in action, everyone was entertaining themselves. Claude was watching TV, Phil and Mario were playing a shooting game on the PS2 (which was left in the hotel room), Tommy was reading a note, and Ken was… well he wasn't doing anything.

"Claude, you wanna go to a casino? I ain't got anything better to do." Tommy asked, getting bored of his book.

Claude shook his head, "Anyone else want to go?" Tommy asked. Nobody responded. They got into the blue Admiral and drove down the strip. Lights lit up the sky as it turned from red to dark blue. Traffic moved slowly through the strip, and a song came on the radio which Claude was bowing his head to.

"What is love (love)? Baby don't hurt me! Don't hurt me! No more." The radio blasted. Tommy and Claude were moving their heads up and down. Eventually, Claude hit the window and it shattered. He grabbed his head.

Tommy looked at him. "Ahh fuck. I didn't get car insurance… Oh well, don't worry about it Claude." They parked outside of The High Roller, one of the highest rated casino's on the strip (the clowns pocket was the least rated, and was replaced by a replica Eiffel Tower).

They spent an hour in the colorful casino and they both did terrible. Tommy lost two hundred, Claude lost three hundred. They exited the casino out to the well lit entrance. The air was warm and comfortable, it would be perfect for swimming. They sat at the bench and enjoyed the warm night air.

Tommy cell rang, "Hello?"

"Tommy! Tommy! Guess who it is!"

"What do you want Ken?"

"Well, how much money did you bring?"

"My credit card."

"Oh, well, the hotel room down the way caught fire, a meth lab, almost exploded, so uh, we need to move to a different hotel. We were thinking the V Rock Hotel, that okay?"

"That's fine, be there in a sec. Wait… I thought they was no vacancy there?"

"There is now!" Ken hung up the phone.

Nicoletti Cruz sat in his office, near the top of Caligula's Casino with his feet upon his desk, taking a drag of a cigar. It felt good to be the Don of the Las Venturas Mafia. Anything he wanted he got, weather it was women, guns, strippers, anything.

Connor was sitting in a chair up against the wall to the right of Nicoletti. "So, what was your plan again?"

"Hopefully those detectives followed us. We need your help to take them out."

"Why you to weak to do it yourself Mr. Leader-of-the-Mafia-in-three-cities? Just kidding Connor. Well then I think we'll need to find out if they followed you, eh?" Connor nodded. Nicoletti picked up the phone next to him and dialed in a few numbers. "Hello, George? Yeah. Good. I need a search on the flight manifests from Francis International… Okay. Uh, their names Connor?"

"Max Payne, and Pierce Jefferson."

"Yeah, okay. Manner, Alpha, Xam… Portal, Alpha, Yarn, Neon, Earth… Okay good, now Portal, Intercept, Earth, Crow, Earth… Journey, Earth, Fear, Fear, Earth, Render, Stand, Outer, Neon… Okay, I'll be waiting." Nicoletti hung up the phone. "They're going to hack into their computers, they'll keep us updated."

Connor grinned, "Excellent."

It was getting pretty late, just past ten o'clock, Tommy and his group were loading their stuff into a hundred dollar room. As soon as the got settled in, they realized how large the room was. It had a great view of the pool and was very, very comfortable.

"Umm. Tommy, and Claude. I've been meaning to talk to you." said Ken, approaching the two.

Tommy turned, "Well what is it Ken?"

"In private." The three went into an isolated room. "Okay, you know how I am good with computers? Well, I was browsing the Las Ventura Hospital mainframe-"

"Wait, why the hell were you doing that?" Tommy questioned.

"Nothing better to do." Ken pulled out his laptop. "And I found this." He showed them a list of names. "Look right here," He pointed to a name. "Jack Speed, born on August 14, 1994. Father: Claude Speed. Mother: Katie Zhan Speed."

Claude stared at the scene in disbelief. "Oh my god." He sat down on the bed with Ken, while Tommy stood above them. "I have a son?"

"Who is Katie Zhan?" Tommy asked.

"I-I." Claude was shocked. "I met her at a dojo in San Fierro, when I was dating Catalina. We later met up, she had broken up with that Carl guy, as I with Catalina. We fell in love… but later it got… It got out of control, and it just didn't work out, ya know? We moved, and lived in Las Venturas for a while, then I left her to return to Liberty, I didn't know I got her pregnant."

"Does she still live here?"

Claude shrugged, then looked at Ken. Ken didn't get it until a few seconds later. "Oh! One sec." He went back to his laptop and started looking stuff up for a few minutes. "Uh, yeah… Katie Zhan Speed, at… Hold a sec…" They typing continued, "Almost there…. Just a little more… Okay… Katie Zhan, at… 1888 White Street in… Redsands West."

"Wow." Claude took a deep breath. "I need to talk to her now."

"You have a fourteen year old son Claude… Congrats." Claude smiled. "Now," Tommy headed for the door, "Let's get some rest."

The next morning Tommy and Claude arose before everyone else. At nine am they got dressed and left for Katie's house. Tommy drove Claude through the city which was already seventy degrees out, the sun bearing down on them without a cloud in sight. A typical November heat wave for Las Venturas.

When they neared Redsands, they noticed how good the neighborhood looked. Various people wondering about, others inside their houses, some watering their lawns. Each of them had their own set of problems, and their own lives. It was kind of interesting to think about. They came up to White Street and drove up to the house. "Okay Claude, I'll be waiting out here man."

"Thanks Tommy." Claude stepped out of the car and walked upon the sidewalk, and up the driveway. An AT-400 roared above them leaving the airport, waking up any sleeping neighbors. It's thrusters echoed for a bit.

Claude knocked on the door. An Asian woman with pony tails opened the door. He face turned blank. "Oh my god, Claude. What are you doing here?"

"I just found out something that we need to talk about."

"No Claude, we already tried that, it's not going to work out, I told you I'm done."

She tried to shut the door, Claude stopped it with his hands. "No, if I haven't meet my son yet it's not." She was shocked to hear the words that came out of his mouth.

"Oh my god." She opened the door. "How did you know?"

"A little birdie told me."

Tommy watched curiously from the car, inspecting the situation. Claude disappeared inside, leaving Tommy to sit in the heat. This was going to be a long day.

Claude walked through the neatly organized home. He inspecting the glass coffee table, and took a seat on the beige sofa. The house was pretty small, but it was comfortable. The walls were sky blue, with white trimming, it looked like a middle-class home. She was doing good.

Katie sat down across from Claude. "Where's he at?"

"He's at school."

"Why didn't you-"

"Because I didn't want you to get involved, okay. I didn't think you would be a very good father, with all of your killing, and-and rage."

"Oh I see. But I wouldn't show that side of me to my son."

"So what? You would hide your true self? Besides, we were broken up, it would be better if you didn't get involved."

"I want to see him." Claude leaned foreword.

"No, I don't want you to."

Claude raised his voice, "I have a right to see my son damn it!"

"Okay. You can come buy tomorrow, it's Saturday. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for work. Goodbye."

Claude got up and walked out. He pulled himself into the passenger seat.

"How'd it go?"

"I get to see him tomorrow."

"Haha!" Tommy slapped Claude on the back, "Alright man, alright. Let's go back to the hotel."

Later that day Katie was at the bank, where she worked. She walked in, "Hey Katie, 'bout time you got here."

"Oh, hi Jay. I know, but get off my back, okay?"

She got ready and walked up to the cash register. A few minutes into her shift a group of men dressed in black burst through the door, wearing masks and wielding high-powered assault rifles.

"Everybody down! This is a raid!" There were five men.

One holding a shotgun ran up to the register, "DON'T MOVE! Touch an alarm and I'll blow you fuckin head off!" He aimed it at Katie's face. She almost started to cry. "Now all you fuckin clerks fill this bag with money if you want to see your kids again!"

"I'm gay!" One shouted. The masked gunman aimed at the person who said it and blasted them, creating a blood bath around him.

"Anyone else want to be a wise-ass? Didn't think so!"

It was only a matter of minutes before the garbage bag was completely filled with cash. Katie tripped a silent alarm. "Good, good, it was a pleasure doing business with you!" The leader yelled.

Cop cars pulled up, surrounding the area. "Oh shit 'T!' They cops! The cops!"

"Damn it! Who the fuck hit the alarm!" He started shooting at random targets. "Come on! There's a back door! The group of men headed out, shooting random innocent people on the way out…

It came later that day on the news.

"Hello, and I am Julie Chen new reporter for Liberty City Channel seven news… Wait, what the hell? Anyway, I stand outside of the Las Venturas bank, which has been robbed earlier today. A few were left dead, Jay Keith, Martin Lopez, Katie Zhan, and the rest names are to be withheld. That attacker is thought to be mafia warlord from Liberty City 'Toni Cipriani' although authorities are not sure of this assumption. Here is the tape."

The TV showed figures of a few men in black holding guns, robbing the bank, holding up people, and eventually a gun fired off and they stopped rolling the tape.

At the V Rock Hotel, Claude's face turned purple. All hell broke loose as Claude screamed bloody murder. Knowing this, the Mafia was going to pay, especially Toni. Claude stormed out of the Hotel, heading for the car, probably to pick up his son, who was probably being held at the police station.

Everyone at the hotel let Claude go, without any attempt to stop him. The room was silent after Claude left. Not a word was said the rest of the night.

Back at the crime scene, multiple detectives were at the scene, one shouted. "Damn it! I can't believe this! How the fuck could I be too late?"

Max was sitting on the police cruiser, Pierce standing next to him, they were watching the area, examining the people working. "You know Pierce, this is really getting out of hand. We need to bring these guys down, now."

"I know Max. So where do we start?"

"I would guess… Toni. Let's keep tabs on Caligula's. Follow them. If we happen to get into a confrontation, oh well. But for one thing is for sure. I am NOT going to let these bastards kill any more innocent people. Pierce, let's take these bastards down, for good."

"Alright dawg." The shuffled back into the cruiser and drove back to the Visage, getting ready for a stakeout tomorrow morning, which was going to be a long day. Max ordered his customized LX-34 light pistol to be arranged for pickup at Ammu-Nation tomorrow, along with a few bullet proof vests, etc.

Conflict was rising, people were getting angry. The Mafia had put a pretty large target on their back. It's only a matter of time until something big happens…