Chapter 16 – Near Miss
Red Valdez, Darkel City, 2005
Red jumped off the train at Darkel Station. Four years ago Darkel had paid him a visit and Red had promised him that one day he would visit him; he had not visited him once yet so today was the day. Red walked over to the taxi rank and got in a yellow taxi.
"To Warner please" Red said
The taxi driver pushed down on the accelerator.
"You're that guy who owns Zaibatsu pharmaceuticals, aren't you" the taxi driver asked in a friendly manner
"Yes" Red swiftly answered
"Isn't that a bit of a dangerous suburb for a businessman like you to visit, that suburb is overrun by the Warner Streets, one of the deadliest gangs in Darkel City" the taxi driver warned
"I'm not worried about them" Red replied
A few minutes later the taxi halted in the suburb of Warner. Red got out, paid the driver fifteen dollars and took a look around at the decay of Warner. The suburb was a ghetto, there were gangs of kids hanging around that mustn't have had much to do with their time. Weirdly, a brand new house was being built right in the centre of this ghetto. Red walked up to the large block of apartments. He took out the piece of paper with the address on it and the signature that Darkel had signed, he remembered him mentioning that there would be some guards at the bottom of the stairs. As he walked to the stairs he noticed there were no guards to be seen. Red knew there was something wrong immediately; Darkel had insisted that having guards down at the bottom was an everyday occurrence. Red ran up the stairs to the number mentioned on the piece of paper. The door to the apartment was lying wide open and looked as if the lock had been picked. Red walked in holding his Colt 45 aiming in front of him, he slowly walked down the hall and walked into the main room. As he walked in he saw a bloody sight. Darkel was lying in the hall in a pool of blood. He had been shot many times in the chest with what probably was an Uzi. Suddenly he began to speak hoarsely.
"R…r…red, h…h…help me" Darkel said "Get F…fido"
He stopped speaking and went into the eternal sleep of death. Red heard a voice behind him.
"What have you done man?" the voice said
Red turned around and noticed a face that seemed similar but different. He was aiming a Desert Eagle towards Red. He had blond hair and was wearing sports clothes
"I recognise you" Red said
"I'm the leader of the Streets, Imaru" the man replied
"I met your brother a few years ago, I think" Red said
"Yeah Emaru, he got burnt to death, this isn't your work is it" Imaru replied putting the Desert Eagle away
"No, someone by the name of Fido according to his last words" Red replied
"Fido, that f-cker, we haven't seen him for three years and he just comes in and shoots Darkel!" Imaru yelled
"Do you know anything about Fido?" Red asked
"Darkel bribed a policeman who gave him Fido's police file" Imaru replied "His name is unknown but sometimes goes by the alias of Claude, he grew up in Los Santos, before moving to Liberty City, he was then convicted of robbing a bank, he escaped from jail when the bridge the van was on blew up, he is suspected of working for the Leone family, Yakuza and the Capelli's. He hasn't been seen for three years."
"We have to get out of here, one of the neighbours has bound to have phoned the police when they heard the gun shots" Red replied
"You're right man, lets get out of here" Imaru said
They both ran out of the apartment and out of the block. As they ran over the road to the line of houses Imaru said "See that new house being built, that's where my brother was burnt".
Suddenly a dozen DCPD police cars swerved onto the street. Imaru opened the door of his house and they ran in. Imaru led him through the house and then into some sort of garage that led onto the back of the house, inside was a roofed red Banshee.
"You have a reputation to keep up, am I right?" Imaru asked
"Of some sort yes" Red replied
"Well here's a brand new red Banshee, one of my Streets hotwired it the other day, it can get you away from this mess" Imaru replied "we'll answer any questions the police ask us"
"Okay" Red agreed stepping into the red Banshee with a roof
"We thank you for coming to see Darkel; unfortunately you caught him at a bad moment, his death" Imaru said in a morbid tone
"Never mind" Red said pushing his foot down on the accelerator and driving off. Dozens of DCPD cars were screeching into the street at the back of Imaru's house as well. Suddenly one of them swerved straight in front of him and some policemen jumped out. One of them opened the door armed with a Colt 45 and yelled "Get out!"
"May I ask what is going on?" Red asked the policeman now handcuffing him
"No-one may leave this area" the policeman said "there has been a murder, we have to search everyone"
The policeman led him over to what looked like one of his superiors.
"We caught this guy leaving the area" the policeman said
"That guy just happens to be Red Valdez" the superior replied "a team has been searching his company for more than a year and found a lot of links to criminal activities, when we find him in the vicinity of a murder we must take action"
"Who is leading this team?" the policeman asked
"Eddie Nash, he only joined the DCPD a few weeks ago and already he's lowered crime in this city, he has worked for every police department in this country and every city he has joined he has lowered crime, he last worked for the San Fierro Police Department, Eddie Nash will be pleased that we now have a reason to arrest him" the superior replied
The policeman placed Red into his police car and drove him to the police headquarters. The superior had phoned Eddie Nash and told him the wonderful news. The police car parked in the underground parking of the police headquarters and Red was led up some stairs, through a few corridors and into a soundproof room, the door was bolted shut. A few minutes later a man walked into the room. He was a tough looking man with black hair, a receding hairline and he was going grey at the temples. He was wearing a brown suit and sunglasses. He dumped his sunglasses on the table.
"I do believe your Mr. Red Valdez, a half-Cuban leader of Zaibatsu Pharmaceuticals" the man stated
"Correct" Red said
"Well I'm Eddie Nash, the best god damn police officer in the whole of Darkel, if not the world, and I tell you, I am incorruptible, don't try and bribe me with your blood money, you can't get yourself out of this bullsh-t, the last person who tried that in San Fierro got his brains splattered across the wall, and any of his criminal friends complain they now had a headless corpse for a leader, they were too f-cking scared, scared I sent out some criminal mastermind to kill them too. I say I'm incorruptible, but I can be corrupt when I want to be, as long as it is defeating assholes like you." Eddie Nash replied
"I think you're mistaken, you're lack of working with your team from the DCPD is making you miss out vital information" Red replied
"Don't start your bullsh-t" Eddie said "I don't read a bedtime story at night, I read the files to do with this mission, I know more than all of the team put together, plus my mind is much more active than them"
"I'm sure anything you have read is mistaken" Red replied "I am a respectable businessman"
"Don't lie, asshole" Eddie replied "we searched your airline that you own; we found thousands of ounces of cocaine lying in the back of one of the planes flying to Mexico"
"That must be some smuggler we overlooked" Red said "it was my legal representative that managed to buy the airline"
"How about an air hostess that we searched and was found carrying cocaine on her, along with a suitcase full of it" Eddie said
"I can't keep track of every air hostess in my airline" Red replied
"Even one that lives in the same house as you" Eddie said
"We accepted her as a lodger, we didn't know she was smuggling cocaine" Red replied
"How were you f-cking found within yards from a murder scene, I'm incorruptible to him too you know" Eddie said
"I was paying him a visit, we were going to swap business tips, I had no idea he was a criminal" Red lied
There was a knock on the door and the superior policeman walked in.
"How is the interrogation going?" the superior asked
"Not very well, in fact I'm pretty pissed off, he is gave a reason for every suspicion, even if it lies" Eddie Nash said giving a dirty look at Red " we have to accept it and let him off because there is a lack of evidence"
The superior gave a sigh and said "one more fish put back in the water".
"This is not the end, far from it" Eddie Nash said "if you put one foot wrong we'll be on to you like a ton of bricks, the DCPD are watching you and the LCPD is watching you, now get the f-ck out of my sight"
Red walked out of the police headquarters and pulled out his mobile phone, he punched in some numbers. The phone rang a few times and someone answered.
"Hello" the voice said
"Uno, cease all criminal activities" Red replied
"Are you being serious?" Uno asked
"I am, I just got ruffled by the DCPD and Darkel is dead" Red replied
"There are bags of cocaine on a flight to Mexico City which is leaving in ten minutes" Uno said
"Well get them off!" Red yelled
"How am I meant to?" Uno asked
"Call up Misty?" Red suggested
"You call up Misty, you're the one that seems so paranoid about it, we ran one yesterday and we didn't get caught, what's so special about today?" Uno asked
"How do you know there's not a detective on the flight ready to search her while she's in the air?" Red asked
"You call her up; this is none of my business!" Uno yelled in anger
"You know that I could easily take you into my secret basement and fire you?" Red asked
"How do you know I've not planned the opposite?" Uno asked similarly
Red hung up in frustration and punched in Misty's number.
"Hello" Misty answered
"Misty, get rid of all the cocaine, we're ceasing criminal activities" Red yelled
"Impossible, the pilot is about to start the engines of the plane, the luggage cabin is locked" Misty replied "what has brought this on?"
"Misty, I don't want you to lie to me" Red said "but did the police stop you once?"
"The police have never stopped me" Misty said
"I got ruffled by the DCPD, they said they searched you" Red replied
"Unless…" Misty's voice halted
"Unless what?" Red asked in frustration
"Unless it was they American guys who claimed they were just checking I was the smuggler, they asked if I had cocaine, but they claimed they worked for the cocaine buyers" Misty replied
"Misty, you have to watch out, you nearly had me arrested, do this last job quick, then book a hotel as far away from my mansion as you can" Red replied
He quickly hung up, halted a taxi and was driven to Darkel International airport.