Chapter 6 – Meet Darkel
Red Valdez, Shoreside Vale, Liberty City, 2001
It was a beautiful morning around a year after the opening dinner, the company was doing well and Equinox was selling like hotcakes because it was being advertised over the radio and television, namely Love TV where most of the television adverts were being shown. Red was sitting on the couch reading the paper for financial news, waiting for Uno Carboni to show up, he had been away all morning, Red was wondering where he had got to.
After a while of waiting Uno walked through the door calmly and walked up to Red.
"Uno, where have you been?" Red asked
"I've got someone here to visit you Red" Uno replied
The person came through the door, Red recognised him immediately, it was… Darkel! He was wearing his usual tatty clothes and ragged beard but the face was instantly recognisable. Behind them were four gang members dressed in black. Red was immediately in shock, and ran over to the curtains and began to shut them hurriedly.
"What's the matter with you?" Uno asked
"If the Liberty Tree catches me in association with a criminal, they'll have a feel day, I won't be classified as a respectable pharmaceutical businessman" Red said
"What, you mean you aren't a criminal?" Darkel asked
"Of course I'm a criminal, I worked for gangsters, but I've tried to keep my slate as clean as possible, at least in the public eye anyway" Red replied
"I hear I'm one of your inspirations" Darkel said
"You are one of my inspirations; it is genius to run more than one gang in a city, you don't get as many betrayers" Red replied
"You don't indeed, no-one has had the guts to ever betray me and even the government wouldn't look down on me because they named the city I live in after me" Darkel said
"Well in a similar way I'm inspired by your new age pharmaceuticals, they have travelled as far as Darkel City now" Darkel said
"You have to thank Dr. LaBrat the head scientist for that, he knows his pharmaceuticals" Red said
"I just came here to say, if you need any help, just call me, you can now know me as your friend, not just an inspiration" Darkel said "if you ever want to come up to my flat in Darkel here's my address"
Darkel handed him a piece of paper with his address on it and it had his signature on it.
"Why has it got your signature on it?" Red asked
"To get past the guards at the bottom of the stairs of my apartment" Darkel replied "I wish to carry out a free favour for you Mr. Valdez, what shall it be?"
"Nah I don't want to bother you Darkel, my friend Uno has already bothered you enough by sending you all the way to Liberty City" Red replied
"I insist" Darkel said
"Okay" Red said "if you must, show the Liberty City Triads that there is someone more powerful than them, shower them in a hail of bullets"
"The Triads eh, I've heard a lot about them from the Leone Family Mafia" Darkel replied
"You are friends with the Leone Family Mafia?" Red asked
"They are one of my button gangs in Liberty, if I think a punk's betrayed us I send them looking for them" Darkel replied "meet one of the leaders of the Darkel gangs, the Warner Streets"
The gang leader had bleached blonde hair.
"Yo' is it Red Valdez?" the gang leader asked
"Yeah" Red replied
"My name's Emaru, these three are Warner Streets homies" the gang leader said
"Shower them in bullets Emaru, I'm counting on you" Red said
"Darkel and Emaru, you must promise to never tell anyone that I ordered you to do this, in fact, never tell anyone that we ever met, in case they have a friend of a friend of a friend that works for the Liberty Tree and it's splashed across the front paper, my business will go downhill" Red said
"Don't worry my man" Emaru said "watch from the comfort of your armchair as we blast the Triads into nothing"
Emaru pulled twin Uzi's out his pocket and loaded them, he proceeded out of the door with the other three gangsters. Darkel walked up and shook hands with Red, said
"We'll carry out this favour, come visit me sometime" and proceeded to the door.
All five walked out of the mansion and stepped into a black Stretch in the driveway.
"Hey driver, take us to Sunshine Autos in Portland" Darkel shouted
The driver pressed down on the accelerator and headed for the Shoreside Lift Bridge, he went through the streets of Staunton Island, across the Callahan Bridge into Diablo territory and finally to Sunshine Autos. The driver parked the car and they all got out. The employee came running out.
"Can I help you?" the employee asked before noticing it was the underground leader of Darkel City and looking in shock
"Yes friend, I'd like your best lowrider please" Darkel said
"What colour would you like?" the employee asked
"Any colour" Darkel replied
The employee went into the garage and brought out a brown Lowrider with a roof and parked it in front of them.
"Have th..this one on me" the employee stuttered
"Good judgement" Darkel said
The driver got in and drove it to the local Pay and Spray in the Red Light District. They sprayed it blue and got the license plate taken off.
They began towards Chinatown and as they got near they began looking for a place where most of the Triads were hanging about, they got near where about a dozen of Triads were standing about, six on each side of the road.
"Get ready" Darkel shouted
Darkel pushed the roof off the lowrider and Emaru and the three other gangsters stood up and began blasting their Uzi's, the first round of bullets blasted a few of the Triads in blue on both sides of the road. They went down drenched in blood as the other Triads got out their Colt 45's and began unloading bullets back towards them. The bullets hit the paintwork of the lowrider. Emaru blasted his twin Uzi's at them until they were corpses full of lead. The driver pressed won on the accelerator towards another group of Triads who on hearing the commotion further down the street had loaded their Colt 45'sand were hiding behind skips. One of the Warner Streets jumped out of the lowrider armed with twin Uzi's and creeped up behind the script and began blasting. He got shot in the chest and walked stumbled towards the lowrider drenched in blood. He collapsed in the middle of the road. The surviving Triads walked up to the lowrider unloading clips. Emaru blasted his twin Uzi's and they were capped. The driver pushed his foot down on the accelerator towards the alleyway where all the Chinatown shops were, the lowrider couldn't get in because of the bollards.
"Yo' you two" Emaru yelled over the noise of a gang of Triads who were running towards the car "get as many as you can"
"Let's blast some more" Emaru said to Darkel
Darkel aimed his Uzi towards them and they were blasted away in a wisp of smoke. A few of the Triads were now running from the opposite direction. The driver reversed into them wiping out most of them and the remaining who survived were immediately blasted by Darkel and Emaru. The driver turned the corner where the other two Streets had blasted over a dozen Triads and were now at the end of the alleyway hiding behind a parked car blasting a few Triads. The two Streets saw the lowrider and made a run for it jumping in. One of them had been hit in the foot.
"Should we hit the road now?" Emaru asked
"Nah, another couple of minutes and I'll have this place torn apart" Darkel replied
They turned the corner and began blasting them on both sides turning the block a couple of times. Suddenly the engine grinded to a halt, petrol was gushing out of the tank.
"We'll have to leave this car, the engine's gonna blow!" the driver shouted above the shrapnel
All five of them jumped out of the car, the Street that had been shot was still limping. Suddenly the driver's head was blown clean off; the bullet had been unloaded from a Triad holding a Desert Eagle, just metres away.
"Let's split the f--k up!" Darkel shouted
Emaru ran towards an alleyway with the limping Street homie when suddenly the Street's leg was blown off by the same Triad. Emaru reacted by grabbing his twin Uzi's and blasting the Triad to nothingness. The Street was lying gripping his lifeless limbless knee.
"Go Emaru, run away" the Street shouted "leave me to die"
"C'mon homie, I'll be shot by a passing Triad any minute, save yourself, you are much more professional than me if you can keep your limbs, just run…." the Street suddenly slipped into a coma from the loss of blood, or maybe he died. Emaru didn't wait to find out and ran into the alleyway. A gang of Triads suddenly passed the alleyway where Emaru was hiding behind some boxes.
"That's one of the killers" the Triad shouted "he's still got a pulse, waste the motherf-cker"
Emaru heard a loud shot and then silence. He sneaked to the end of the alleyway and saw the now headless and legless Street lying on the ground. Suddenly a Fish Van rushed past him and they slammed on the brakes. The back of the Fish Van opened and a dozen Triads with AK 47's jumped out. Emaru ran as fast as he could when a civilian in a Kuruma pulled up. The driver got blown to bits and Emaru jumped behind the car as the car was filled full of holes, Emaru couldn't think what to do next. Twin Uzi's were his only weapon and he had no backup. For a minute he waited just waiting for the car to explode any minute. Then an almighty explosion was heard in the distance, Emaru could feel the heat against his skin. The Fish Van was now lying in bits and all the Triads were lying lifeless on the ground. But now a tank was thundering towards him. Emaru thought he was dead meat. Suddenly the tank stopped and a friendly face popped his head out the tank and gave a smile, it was Darkel.
"Get in" he shouted
Emaru jumped inside the tank and took a seat in secure comfort.
"Where's the other Street?" Darkel asked "the Street that was with me got blown away"
"He got his limb blown off and then his head" Emaru said "where did you get this tank?"
"I jacked a Perennial and then drove as far away as I could till I came to a tank lying out in the street, standing there was a man who said I could take it, he had loads, his name was Phil Cassidy, I took it and headed back to see how you were going and when I saw twelve Triads armed to the teeth I had to help you, let's get back to Darkel" Darkel said
The tank went into the distance along the Callahan Bridge.
Meanwhile Red was watching the aftermath unfold live on Love TV. There was a large subtitle underneath saying "TRIADS MASSACRED IN BRUTAL SHOOTING." The news suddenly crossed for a minute over to a news reporter.
"Well, breaking news even more urgent than the Triad massacre in Chinatown, the leader of the Leone Family Mafia Salvatore Leone has just been murdered outside Sex Club Seven in the Red Light District, whether this incident and the Triad massacre are related is unknown…"
Red turned the television off and looked towards Uno in shock.
"Can you believe that?" Red asked
"I know" Uno said "both events happening at the same time"
Strangely Uno had a smirk on his face.
"What is so funny?" Red asked
"You know you said that if the media caught you speaking to Darkel, you would be in the papers?" Uno asked
"Yes I said that, what about it?" Red asked
"Well what if we could somehow gain control of the papers?" Uno asked
"Great idea, but the only way we could do that is if… you're not suggesting we try and buy the media off Donald Love, he would never sell it to a pharmaceutical company" Red said
"No, what if we took over Love Media, then we could filter any media" Uno replied
"Yes, that's genius" Red replied "we would also be able to filter the television, they would turn a blind eye to any illegal activities we do, meaning we don't have to be as careful"
"I have a plan Red" Uno said "we have to do it sneakily or we'll be on the front of the papers before we can do it, we have to do it subtly, we can't go in and take the business off him, we have to pretend we want to buy it off him, obviously he will say no, but then we could quietly get rid of him leaving the business to us"
"Brilliant plan Uno" Red said "brilliant plan."