Chapter 20 – Meet Miles
Red Valdez, Momma's Restaurant, Liberty City, 2007
Momma's Restaurant had shut its doors, despite being late afternoon and the surrounding streets were very confused why a top quality Italian restaurant was shut at this time of day. Watching from behind the window stood a now older looking Toni Cipriani.
"Everybody's gonna be asking why this is closed, they better make it quick, they better eat their meals and get the f-ck out of here." Toni said to himself
Suddenly through the back of the restaurant came the scarred, white suited Red Valdez.
"Toni Cipriani." Red Valdez greeted him
"Hey Red, what exactly is going to be happening?" Toni asked "you asked me to shut the restaurant for two hours."
"Don't worry, I'll repay your lost expenses." Red replied
"So tell me what's going on?" Toni asked "before my ma gets angry with you."
"Okay, I'm having a special meeting with someone extremely special." Red replied
"Who exactly is it?" Toni asked
"The President of the United States, Miles O'Donovan." Red answered
"What the…!" Toni exclaimed in surprise "So you're expecting nobody to Miles is missing from the White House and is in Liberty City."
"You'll be surprised how little anyone knows when the president isn't at the White House" Red replied "everyone there covers up for it."
"Come on, every f-cking person is going to recognise him!" Toni exclaimed
"Not when he's completely disguised and is flying by business class" Red said beginning to walk to a seat beside the window of the restaurant "on my airline, Zaibatsu Air."
"You haven't brought your lawyer, I guess there's no legal matters." Toni realised
"I've not told Uno, he completely hates the idea of me getting into politics." Red explained
Suddenly someone familiar walked through the door of the diner. The President of the United States was standing in front of them.
"I can't believe it, that's really you, Miles." Toni exclaimed
"Please call me Miles, Toni, and don't pretend we're strangers, I only stopped being the major of Liberty City five years ago, I used to eat here all the time." Miles began
"Well the spaghetti has got a little better." Toni replied
"Good." Miles replied humorously
"What happened, Miles?" Toni asked
"What do you mean?" Miles asked curiously
"What happened for you to get voted out so suddenly? You were one of Liberty City's most popular mayors." Toni asked
"It's quite a long story, Toni." Miles replied
"Well give me a shortened version of it." Toni asked
"Okay" Miles replied "but what I say stays in here, I do not want people to remember this, if it gets out it may risk my presidency."
"My mouth is closed." Toni replied
"Okay, you may remember way back in 2002 there was a string of murders all over America, it was a scary time for the public, there were murders in Liberty, Shirago, Darkel, Vice, Los Santos and Carcer, every city's police force was going crazy, it was worse than that Starkweather sh-t the year before, the public were begging for more security from the LCPD, however I had secret sources, I f-cking knew who was involved, it was an order personally from Darkel, it was a hit on the Capelli gang, but of course the public wouldn't know that, I knew there would be no more hits." Miles explained
"So what happened?" Red asked
"Well back then I was selected by the Leone Family Mafia to run Liberty, however there were links between Darkel and the Leone's, so what could I do? I feared for my life, if I increased security the Leone's who knew about it, would think I wanted Darkel caught, if I didn't there was a chance of public reaction, I of course refused to increase security, unfortunately due to all the trouble that was going on, I forgot that we were only a week away from the mayor election, I lost." Miles finished, then turned to Red awkwardly "so Red, how may I help you?" Miles asked taking a seat at a table near the window.
"I'll go make some pasta." Toni excused himself
"Well Miles, sad story you had there." Red sympathised
"I don't regret it one bit." Miles replied
"Miles, you are an inspiration to me, I wish to join your party." Red rushed his point
"Well I think I shall Red, what else would add more popularity to the party than one of the top businessmen in America" Miles added "especially with the election next year."
"Who are you running against?" Red asked
"You won't believe it, I am going to walk away with this election, do you remember Arnold Steelone?" Miles asked with a smirk
"Arnold Steelone, yeah, the actor that was in Top Down City and Total Rehab." Red remembered
Miles shook his head knowingly.
"No way, you're facing an actor; I didn't even know he was a politician now." Red replied
"Yeah, he's been the governor of San Andreas for a few years" Miles explained "still, I'm pretty confident I'll walk away with it."
"So I can join?" Red asked
"Why of course, Red." Miles replied
"You don't know what this means to me, thank you very much" Red replied in tears of happiness, flowing over his scar on his cheek. Miles stood up and headed for the door.
"And Miles" Red said causing Miles to turn his head "good luck in the elections next year."