Concrete Jungle

by Onkwehonwe Kashatstenhshera

A cartel hitman, an ex soldier, a wayward gunmen with no cause, an ex KGB agent, & a familiar family oriented coke addicted thug find their way to sunny LS finding themselves around similar scum. Immoral car salesmen, low life bangers, king pins, & hackers. When an eventual rift in the friendship divides their destinies, alliances shift & none of them will ever be the same again.

40. Heists And Holiday Homes

Ivan

Baba Yaga's Return

He recieved a knock at the door. Nobody else was home as far as he knew. So either it was somebody for them who would have to wait or it was somebody for him which was only about a one in four chance of being the case. "Just a minute," He said over the intercom. He threw on a white t shirt and blue stonewashed jeans. This was more casual than he usually dressed. He answered and was shocked to see Leela and Sugar outside the door as well as Vasily and Andrei. "What's going on?"

Leela was chewing bubblegum. "Aint you gonna invite us in?" Ivan said, "Yes, of course. Come in," He asked each of them if they wanted anything to drink. He got Sugar a Cognac, Leela was fine with Hennesy, Vasily took a shot of Jerkov on the rocks and Andrei was fine with a can of E Cola. It was from Paul's 12 pack but he'd just replace it.

"So what brings you all here?"

"We can tell you why. But the who part, you wouldn't believe," Vasily began. "We found the man who tried to kill you when you were with Sugar. He's one of the Brotherhood's most notorious hitmen from St Peterberg. Evsei Reznikov call him the Merchant Of Death."

"Great. So Kenny called in one of the assholes from Tambov. Lucky for me he wasn't brave enough to try and make sure the job was done," He then took a sip of the Vodka he had for himself but admitted looking down, "If he was going to kill me thougg, his best oppurtunity was then and there. My memory is a little foggy from that night burt I remember getting shot and blacking out. I wouldn't have been able to do much."

"Don't say that," Sugar said putting a hand on his arm. "You're here and you're alive. That's how it's supposed to be,"

"Yeah, he fucked up. We're rolling with you while you get his ass," Leela stated. "What do I need you for if you're leaving it up to me?" She scoffed but smiled saying, "He aint gonna be alone. So yeah we'll save him for you but we're going to keep all his homies off ya ass cause best believe even if he doesn't need no backup, he's got it. I Eyefinded this guy too. He's dangerous. Evaded the authorities back home. Wanted for killing a cop, former Spetnaz guy," Her eyebrows raised and her eyes widened as she reread that on her cellphone. "How the fuck did he swing that? Those guys are meant to be damn near indestructable."

"Nobody is indestructable. I wish I was," Ivan stated. He then asked, "What is the part you don't think I will believe?"

Sugar looked to the other two Russian mobsters and Leela did the same. "You want to tell him what you told us?" Asked the lighter skinned Baller. "Grisha," Andrei stated bluntly. "It was Grisha who looked into it on your behalf."

"Well, now I'm starting to think that this man is not the one that shot me, then. Maybe he's just somebody Grisha wants dead."

"I understand your skepticism, old friend," Vasily stated. "But it's true. He checks out. Maybe if he was just some man that Keny had around the city watching out for his west coast operations you would have a point but the fact is, according to Lester, he flew in a few weeks ago when yoiu were shot into Los Santos International. The time matches up. It seems like Kenny called in the merchant of death just to deal with you."

Ivan sighed. "Where is Grisha now? I want to talk to him," Vasily annswered, "He's waiting for us at the observatory. That is where he said we should meet up before we begin our assault on the Petrovic family. He wanted revenge on you after you beat him in a fist fight but his father shot him in the leg. I'm sure you heard about this. So either Grisha's anger has faded towards you or he simply is focusing on Boris and is angered with him. I hope he does not try and stage a coup. With the war we have with Petrovic, an inter family war would be the worst thing for us all."

"Good, because he has some explaining to do. If he expects me to just forget his asshole behavior from before just because he has shown me a little beneveolnce he's mistaken."

"Maybe he changed," Leela suggested. "It's not impossible."

"Yes, anybody can change but most won't. Grisha doesn't seem the type to hae remourse."

Vasily leaned in whispering to Ivan, "He's even been treating Andrei with more respect. Instead of intentionally getting vehicles tioo small for him and making him run to the meeting places we have to go to, he just gets the truck he can ride in the back of. Maybe his father's discipline has humbled him."

Ivan replied to his best friend, "Do you know the biblical saying spar the rod, spoil the child?" Vasily chuckled. "Yes but we are both Communists. We are not Russian Orthodox or Jewish or Eastern Orthodox. Religion is a tool for control of the masses. We both know this. Why do you ask, comrade?"

"Because in this instance, there's truth in it. He is spoiled. So either the rod was spared ore it was used too much. Either way it's cause for rebellion."

"There's nothing wrong with disciplining your children even as adults. Americans have lost their way. Their kids disrespect them and now their laws tries to punish you if you discipline them. It's a madhouse, this country."

Ivan whispered back, "My point is that no matter how effective disciplining a child is, Grisha is not a child anymore. Any lessons he could hae learned have fallen on deaf ears. I hope for our sake he has turned over a new leaf and doesn't attempt patricide. We'll have to keep an eye on the old man and make sure that doesn't happen. I still need Markovich to find my father. And even if Grisha did try and be more courteus to me, I doubt he has the same resources to find my father that Boris does. Even if he wanted to do me a favor he would be unable to do this one. Revenge and money is all he could ever offer people like us. He's just a capitalist. His father is more old school."

Ivan turned to the female gang members and said, "Okay, I'll ride with you two. We'll meet Grisha at the observatory. Do we know where we're going after this?"

Vasily shook his head. "He didn't say," Ivan smirked. "I guess the young fool is capable of following at least one of the rules of the art of war. A good general knows where his men are going but keeps it from his soldiers and just leads them. This way if they get caught there is nothing to divulge to the enemy. I didn't think I would see you call him a general."

"I'm not. But if I was, his father would still be the czar."

With that, Vasily and Andrei left and Ivan followed Sugar and Leela downstairs and they got into a bright red Felon that Sugar had arrived in. As Sugar drove them, they had the radio on West Coast Classics and the song 21 Questions by 50 Cent featuring Nate Dogg played. Sugar and Leela both sang along to it. "Girl, Nate Dogg's voice though, damn he was fine!" Bellowed Leela. Ivan chuckled as they listened and he said, "But do they really ask twenty one questions?"

Leela answered that, "Yup. 50 asks 17, Nate asks 4. Believe me, boyt I'll analyze the hell out of a song don't even get me started," She chuckled. "Come to think of it Suga, you kinda look like the girl from the video."

Sugar smiled her full lips curving as she did. "Girl you tripping. Anyway, I can love somebody if they aint got mad stacks or a fancy whip but I don't know about loving a nigga that don't smell so good. You gotta take your ass to the shower and then we'll talk."

Leela howled with laughter as did Sugar. "Well on some real shit, all doggs go to heaven," Leela said as she sparked up a blunt passing it to Sugar. Sugar declined saying, "Hey i'm trying to drive!" Leela shrugged, "More for me and Boogey, then."

She passed it to him. He reluctantly took it and took a hit. He coughed up smoke and she smiled saying, "You aint never got high before have you?"

Ivan coughed up nearly both lungs and then said, "No, I have I just don't do it that often. It's smart of you to not do it when you drive," He said turning to Sugar. "Even if it is harmless it imapirs your mental state."

"Nah, I drive all the time and I'm good to go," Ivan scolded, "Not a very good idea," She shrugged. "Hey how else is a bitch supposed to get her munchies on? I aint finna take the damn bus to Up N Atom!"

"Good, don't" Sugar stated. "The buses in this town are fucked up. Especially the main ones through old South Central. My mama used to tell me about a bus that ran through the Central back in the day, the 90's well I remember them days and even though that was Ballas turf, niggas still got into it with each other. Maybe Families got on thebus some of the time I don't know but I swear the 54 bus was ghetto as fuck. If you got on there you were looking for a fight. We used to have to ride it before we had a car. You growup around here you learn the 54 aint nothing cool."

They finally pulled up to the observatory. Grisha was waiting smoking a cigarette with a few more Russian mobsters plus Andrei and Vasily beat them there. "You sure about this, Ivan? I don't exactly trust these guys. I mean you beat the one with the pontyail up what if he tries to kill you when the bullets start flying?"

"Or worse, what if he's the one that set you up?" Asked Leela. "I'm saying we got your back. Cause you boys at the apartment is one thing I didn't get any bad vibes on them but him he seems ruthless."

"I don't know why you wouldn't get bad vibes from Vasily," Ivan chuckled. "Or me for that matter. We're both ex KGB. We killed more men in the 1990's even after the Cold War ended than you two have in your entire lives combined. I'm not saying that to brag or to undercut whatever stripes you earned for Covenant Avenue. If the Ballas are a gang that respects women, unlike the bikers, this is good. I'm just saying that me and Vasily are not good men either. I do not believe in your God but if there is a heaven or a hell, I know which one I'm going to."

"Don't say that," Sugar said. "You're a good person. And you don't know that you're going to hell."

"Yeah besides at the very least you're loyal, Vasily's loyal I get that about you," Said Leela. "Even Andrei is loyal to a fault. I don't mean that in a bad wa he's just loyal to that bitch Grisha even though he treat him like dirt. I mean I don't know how there could ever be a guy from where he from in our set or even you for yhat matter. If it was up to me you'd both be down but it aint. I'm just saying how I see it but if you was Ballas he'd never be getting dissed like that."

"You can't tell me that nobody ever disrespects each other in the Ballas," Ivan protested. She chuckled saying, "Maybe not but he'd get love from the ladies. Women like a man that could pick him up. Yeah he maybe big and all but that aint no reason to call that nigga fat. Big Pun's fat. Andrei's got strength. He can hold his own in a fight and he aint die of a heart attack so he's strong. Bottom line, you gotta respect your homies."

He got out and walked up to Grisha. "Baba Yaga...how are your wounds?" Ivan said, "They've been worse and better. How about yours?"

"Well, I was contemplating putting a bullet in you for it but it turns out my father was insistant that I don't do that. And you know what happened next. But getting a bullet dug out of my leg that didn't have to be there got me thinking. We got off on the wrong foot. What do you say we try again?"

Ivan sighed. "I guess it's worth a try."

"And you brought your 'friends' along?"

"Yes. They insisted. Besides, Sugar saved my life."

"Sentimentality. Americans are good at that. Fine. But I havea few extra soldiers coming with too. The Petrovic safehouse is going to be a fortress. They're in Chumash. Ineseno Road."

Vasily brought Ivan the weapons he was going to use. It was a Dragonuv Sniper Rifle and in the car he had an AK-74 that he'd brought with . Ivan had his Makarov in his coat as well. In addition, he was given three RGD-5 grenades. Grisha also gave him an extra weapon. "You and me have had our differences but if nothing else, you are an efficient killer. So this is my gift to you."

He had one of his Bravta soldiers gave him a Saiga 12 shotgun and shells for it. He beckoned to Ivan's Sniper Rifle. "You're going to need to use that when we get to the safehouse."

They got back into their respective vehicles. They began to drive out to Chumash. In addition to Andrei and vasily plus Grisha, Grisha had three Bravta soldiers with him plus Evgeny. They were driving off in a black Sentinel. As they drove, Leela tossed her blunt out the window. She got on her cellphone saying, "I'm getting us some backup from the set. I just don't trust that guy. Words is one thing. Actions are another."

"I can take care of myself," Ivan said. Sugar said, "Look, if he's really for real about making peace with you and plus he's got that gun running alliance with us, then it shouldn't be no big deal if we have a couple more people from Davis come through is it? Look, I'm not saying you don't have good guys in their crew too it's just I don't know them. I know you. I know my hood. I can't vouch for them and really you're only aqquaintences with some of those dudes."

"Yeah, cause if he has a problem with you having some of us along with him,that means he was gonna try something. How do you know that shotgun aint about to blow up in your face the second you try and use it? Matter of fact I wouldn't even try and use it if I wasyou. Vasily gave you the Sniper Rifle so I doubt that's shady but I just don't trust..."

Ivan, in a somewhat hasty move, fired a shot from the Saiga 12. Leela cursed, "What the fuck, man?! What are you doing?! You trying to get us booked? That is not smart!"

"It didn't blow up in my face. It's not going to. And if it had blown up in my face just now you would have been right but I wouldn't have known and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. And you would have either killed him maybe or died trying to get revenge. Or maybe not. Or maybe he would have been killed going against Kenny's gang without me there to back him up. Or maybe there was no enemy safehouse. I don't have time to play the what if game. I need these people to get my father out of whatever hole they threw him in. Besides, we're going to be leaving bullet casings all over a safehouse and we're going to leave god knows how many bodies. What is one more?"

"How do you even know he's alive?" Sugar asked. "I know that you want him to be alive but you don't know..." Ivan snapped, "SHUT UP!" This made her jump back. Leela defended her friend. "That wasn't nessecary. She's just trying to help. Would you get your head out of your ass? It doesn't matter if we're going to be laying out Bravta soldiers at the safehouse. You just fired a shot on a freeway. We'll also be disquised when we get to the safehouse so that's the difference but with what you just did, if anybody saw that shit, hell if there's a traffic camera around here you just got us in trouble."

She turned the car around. "What are you doing?" He demanded. "I'm turning this motherfucker around so you can go pick the goddamn shell out of the road so that there's one less piece of forensic evidence. I get you aint been in the KGB intelligence service since 91' man but that doesn't mean you can't still have you know, some intelligence. You gotta think, stupid! That's not even like you. What's going on with you lately?"

"I have no family left," He growled. "My mother has been dead for years my father is locked away and I have a brother and sister...somewhere. My sister wants nothing to do with me and my brother...I don't know. Plus I almost died not too long ago. In fact I was clinically dead, remember?" He turned to Sugar. "I'm sorry..." She glared at him but just kept her eyes on the road. "Look, man, we're out here doing this thing for you," Leela told him. "Even if Grisha don't got your back or even if he do you don't know that. But we got you. You're real. That's more than you can say for a lot of people in this city. But don't be disrespecting Sugar cause she's a sister to me."

"She said my father wasn't alive..." Sugar shot back, "No I said he might not be. You should learn to listen. What do you even got to go off of that he is? I want him to be alive too. I want you to be reuinited. I used to get mad at all the people that had their pops growing up when so many people in the hood don't. But the way it is i the hood, that aint how it's supposed to be. The people that got their dads taking care of business they're the ones who got it the way they're supposed to. My pops was like that when he was alive. But I still saw most of my friends aint even know their dad. And yours got taken away. So you got that in common with a lot of people in my hood too."

Leela nodded stating, "She's right, dog. You can hope for the best but you may want to prepare for the worst. If you still got political prisoners up in the joint from the COINTELPRO days, what you think they're going to do to a guy that was not only a Russian spy but decieved this country into thinking he was an American? In the nation's capitol at that? I've heard stories about the interrogation methods that they do, bro. It's not pretty."

"I know what the IAA does to its political prisoners. And I know what your regular prisons do to its civilians. The one loophole in the 13th ammendment. Prison time. Your prisons are a lot like our 'therapists' back home. Meant to rehabilitate but only makes you worse. Believe me, I know all about the horrors of this country's foreign and domestic policy which is exactly why if my father is still alive I need to get him out of custody. I've been planning this for years. I justdon't know where he is."

"How can you plan it if you don't know where he is?" Asked Leela as they pulled over and Ivan putting his mask on, went out and got the bullet off the freeway. Luckily nobody was around. They pulled out of there and Ivan said, "Because I have enough money stashed away for him to disapear. I've got a man who can make him passports, new ID's birth certificates for just about any country that doesn't have extradition to the United States. If my father has been in prison all of this time that means he has been in there for twenty four years. No matter how bad of shape he is in, he deserves to spend his remaining years free."

"Aight, I get that you got some of that down but you still gotta know where they keep him and don't they make it their business to make sure nobody knows?"

Ivan nodded. "I make it my business to find out anyway. You two don't have to worry. When I get him, I'm leaving and I'm mnot coming back to this country."

Sugar scoffed. "So you're leaving, huh? Just like that?"

"You had to know this was temporary. You and me, neither of us intended to get mixed up with each other. It just happened. It was a random moment."

She pulled over and slapped him. "Get out of my car! Go on! Out!" Leela stopped her. "Hold up, girl. I get that you're pissed at him but we still giotta make sure these fools aint looking to pop him. Ivan, you gotta watch your mouth. Sugar's a tough bitch a bad bitch and all that but she's still got feelings too, dude. I aint gonna have you disrespecting her. She's had too many sorry niggas dog her like that."

"I'm not trying to disrespect anybody. And yes I do care about her. And you are my friend, Leela. The same with Leondre and even Stone, all though I think he may be a little racist. So is Overdose. But this was my plan for a long time. All these years. I just had to wait before I had the resources. I wouldn't ask either of you to put me above your families if it came to that. Why would you expect that from me?"

Sugar was silent and angry. Leela sighed. "Look, maybe you don't think OCB can even help you in the same way that your Mafia boys can. And maybe we can't. We don't got houses up in Vinewood Hills. Or at least not anybody in my neighborhood. Some in the past used to hustle till they were millionaires but those days are gone. This aint the 80's and this aint the 90's. If five o see you getting too long around here they either squeeze you or book you. Either way, you won't be rich. But the thing is, we can still get shit done. You could ask Leondre. Hell, you could even ask Tyson. You may not know him but he's my boo and he's grateful you had my back before. At the very least would it have killed you to try to ask us?"

Ivan looked out the window as they went through Vespucci towards Chumash. "You have enough on your plates already. You have an on again off again war with different Families neighborhoods, you have constant warfare with the Vagos and Marabunta and now the Aztecas. Even if you had the resources you can't tell me a war with four different gangs doesn't have you stretched thin. You're only human. These assholes I work for, Boris and Grisha Markovich, they may have enemies but they have money to waste. And they can reward me for the kind of favors I do for them."

Sugar scoffed. "So that's what this is about? Money? Not finding your pops?"

He grited his teeth. "Listen. Stop jumping to conclusions. I was just saying that they can come up with information easier than you can. They're international. Do you get that?"

"So are we, I mean kinda," Leela answered. "We got Ballas that joined the military and started recruiting at bases overseas. That's the thing to do now. Everybody's doing it."

"Yes but the instances where you do this is far and few and like you keep saying, 'your neighborhood' do you have anybody in your turf that either served in the armed forces or has connections to people overseas? Even if you do that might not be enough. They know you they don't know me. With Bravta, I am one of them."

"Look, I'm not saying don't ask the Mafia for help. But don't put all your eggs in one basket either," Leela said with a shrug as they finally pulled up to their destination. They saw a purple Manana parkee across the street. There were four Ballas. He recognized Overdose from Davis and he also spotted Tyson from the South Side Ballas out of Strawberry. He also had two soldiers with him.

"What's up, dog? How you holding up?" Asked OD holding his hand out. Ivan dapped him. "I'm okay. And yourself?"

"I'm cool man but I aint the one got hit with a shotty, bro. I took a few pistol shells before but never no shotty. That's some hardcore shit. Even with armor on."

"If you say so. I didn't feel so hardcore when the nurse had to clean my bedpan."

OD chuckled. "Hey but they gave you a sponge bath though, right? They supposed to. I'm pretty sure you can sue the hospital if they don't."

Tyson also shook hands with Ivan. "What's going on, boss? How you holding up?" Ivan replied, "Just wanting to find this asshole who shot me."

"Yeah well look, my boy here?" He beckoned to one of the South Side Ballas, a man with dread locks and lighter caramel colored skin standing at five eight with a scrawny build. The man wore baggy blue jeans shorts and a Panics jersey plus a Boars cap on backwards. "He partied with some of those guys before. Now this was before ya'll started beefing with the Petrovic guys so maybe he thought they were with you but point is, he partied with some of the younger generation up in that place and even a couple of bitches they had along with them."

The African American Baller nodded. "Yup. They got some bad bitches in there. Them Moscow girls something else. At least when they young..." Tyson shot him a look and he cleared his throat. "Anyway, so from what I was told before though, that's supposed to be a vacation house for Kenny sometimes when he comes out to San Andreas for vacation. He'll hit up the beach and soak his toes in th sand, all that old people shit. There's this guy in there, Viktor,that's Viktor with a K not a C, he told me that they had this big ass blowout party when his son was still alive. Both the kid and the old man getting their freak on. We always been cool with the Bravta so some of the homies were there too. I wish I could have been there myself but I was doing a bid at Boilerbroke."

"So you think the boss is in there?" The young gang member nodded, "I mean, I'd say at least a 50/50 chance. He always come around at least four times a year."

"Good," Grisha said walking up, overhearing the conversation. "Then we can take him out in addition to Baba Yaga getting his man."

"Won't your father want him alive?" Asked Ivan. Grisha chuckled. "Old man Petrovic is not a man you can easily reason with. When his mind is made up, theres nothing you can do to change it. Father has talked about having a face to face sure, so I suppose we could bring him in and force a sit down but Kenny would not let himself be taken alive. He'd make sure he killed you or you kill him. And even if by some chance we did manage to get him back home, my father may be a man of resolve but Kenny Petrovic is an old friend of his so I am not sure he would even be able to pull the trigger. I do not have such inhibitions. Kenny means nothing to me. And it might take him a minute but in time, he would see that I would be doing him a favor. It would show I am ready to step up my responsibility."

He then narrowed his eyes at Ivan. "So do we have an agreement? You get the merchant of death and in return you leave Petrovic to me?"

"Sure," Ivan said. "I can't say I hold your ambivilance towards the man or hatred. In fact I respected Kenny a lot more than I ever did Faustin, Rascalov or Bulgarin."

"Sometimes, enemies respect each other," Grisha said with a shrug. "Gentlemen in war. Okay. Now we are going to get set up on the left side of the safe house."

Tyson nodded. "Cool. We'll take the right side then."

"Baba Yaga, since you have the Rifle, you should pick off as many Petrovic soldiers as possible. As many as you can."

The men snuck across the street as it was now dark. He aimed down the sights from the hills. It was dark except for the light from inside where a party was going on. He spotted two guards out front smoking cigarettes and he saw Sugar and Leela ducked behind a parked gray Merit hiding just out of sight of the two Russian mobsters. He fired a single shot as the first one took a drag on his cigarette severing the cigarette and striking him in the mouth. The man's brains were decorated all over the front patio as the round exited. The second mobster had just stomped out one cigarette and was in the process of lighting another when Ivan put one in his heart.

The two Baller females were on either side of the door. Leela had an M4 while Sugar had a Benelli Super 90. Sugar knocked on the door. Ivan meanwhile spotted another guard up top out on the balcony. He fired striking the man in the right temple killing him instantly. He zoomed in on a bedroom window where he spotted a scantily clad brunette woman in leather bra and panties performing oral on a mobster on the bed. Ivan fired a shot striking the man in the forehead and before the woman had time to get her mouth an inch away from his cock, he fired a shot through her back puncturing her right lung.

He zoomed back to Sugar and Leela as the door opened and a large Russian male of about six foot nine looked surprised to see the two. Ivan wasted no time. He put a bullet between the man's eyes and he got some brains and blood all over them. Meanwhile, Grisha, armed with a G36, started his assault with his soldiers as well as Vasily and Andrei and Evgeny. Andrei carried an AA-12 which he fired obliterating a Petrovic soldier's skull and he struck another sending a round into the man's bowel and he ran up the stairs and grabbed the man by the throat with one hand and slammed him into the wall breaking his neck.

Ivan converged on the house and the Ballas and the Markovich soldiers began to cut the Petrovic mobsters apart. Four gang members dropped dead from rounds instantly as OD fired two Uzi's and Tyson let off a burst from his AK-12. His fellow gang member who had partied with the Petrovic crime family in the past was armed with a Remington 870 which he used to strike a Russian mobster in the stomach blasting the contents within it all over the wall as they were soon inside the party house. Scantily clad Russian bikini babes fled screaming from the house and two took stray rounds from Overdose and the OCB member with him.

A few of the bikini babes, however were fighting back opening fire with AK's of their own. The OCB member with OD struck one of them in both breasts, the woman being an E cup, a blonde in a black bikini. She went down and the gangster snickered saying, "Damn. Almost a shame to waste them titties. They was real too."

"How can you tell?" Asked OD. "I'm more of a ass man myself."

"Me too but I like titties too. Anyway fake ones look like melons a little too perfect but pear shapes is how the real look. I should have motorboated both of them shits before I dumped on her," This got a chuckle from Overdose but it was short lived as a brunette Russian girl in a red bikini with C cups and a bubble butt fired an AK-47 striking the OCB member with seven rounds in the chest and four in the stomach. "Here's your motorboat," She said in a thick accent. She fired at OD but he took cover behind the sofa however he sprayed from cover blindly and struck her with five rounds in her left bare thigh.

"Fucking gutterslut!" Yelled Overdose. Ivan got his Saiga ready and he saw an SUV speeding towards the house and three men fired MP5's out the window at him. He aimed striking the driver first and let the SUV crash into the car. He then let off the ten round magazine shredding the three passengers. The passenger in the front seat was still alive but breathing hard with a wound in his chest. Ivan opened the door and sneered, "Don't be anti social! Come say hello!" He slammed the man's head on the dashboard and then pulled him from the vehicle and let his bleeding head hit the pavement. Ivan kicked him in the side rolling him onto his back and then brought his foot down with all his weight on the man's throat crushing his windpipe.

The gang member with Tyson fired striking another Petrovic thug in the chest but his triumh was short lived as he was struck with two 7.62 rounds from a rival mobster. Tyson quickly made short work of him striking the man in the forehead but just then, a redheaded Russian woman in a yellow bikini grabbed the wounded South Side Baller from behind with a gun to his head. "Bitch let him go!" Yelled Tyson. "Not a chance," She said with an evil sneer.

She forced him into the bathroom and locked it behind her and yelled, "Get him, boys!" With that, four Petrovic members emerged firing AK-47's at him. He dove for cover behind the couch unable to get to his homie and he took a round in the left leg and anohter grazed his right shoulder and another hit him in the left hip. Meanwhile in the bathroom the Baller recognized the Russian mob female who had taken him in there. She had disarmed him too. "I remember you. We partied together."

"Yes we did," She said with a smile. "You were quite the stud. Too bad you won't be of much use now," She pressed the pistol to his forehead. She then unbuckled his pants and asked with an evil grin, "But before we say our goodbyes would you like me to go down on you one last time?" The gang member sweated as he undid his pants and zipper. She took him in her mouth and he was nervous as she did opening his own mouth. He soon began to scream as she brought her teeth down with full force.

From outside the bathroom, Tyson heard his homeboy crying out but could not get to him. The Russians were starting to converge to where he was. Just then, Leela yelled, "Baby!" She fired her Rifle striking the first one in the sternum with six rounds and she shredded the second with twelve rounds in the gut. Sugar caught the third with a blast from her Benelli taking half the man's head off and she struck the last one in the shoulder blowing a chunk of the muscle between the arm and shoulder out. The gang member fell going into shock.

Vasily and Evgeny were firing their weapons, Vasily with a P90 from the balcony and Evgeny with an AKS. "We've got company!" Cried the latter as they saw five Petrovic vehicles had arrived and more armed thugs converged on the beach house. Ivan began to fire his AK-74 down on them striking one man with six rounds in the right and left shoulders and two in the forehead before he could get out of the car. The next he mowed down with ten rounds in the left leg right leg and abdomen. Vasily made short work of four Petrovic soldiers emptying a magazine into their Baller SUV before any of them could get a foot on ground. Evgeny fired striking one man in the forehead and he aimed at the next one but the man got under the balcony. Grisha managed to also pick off three of the invading mobsters along with his men but in the process, he lost three of the soldiers he had brought with him as one took a 20 gauge blast to the abdomen, the next took twenty rounds from an AK-74, and the last took sixteen in the chest and then the back as he fell, from an M-16.

In a rage, Grisha dropped the three of them making his way upstairs demanding, "PETROVIC! WHERE ARE YOU?! COME OUT YOU COWARD!" He made his way to a room and he spotted him and the older man had a Desert Eagle trained on him. "What do you think you're going to do with that, old man?"

"Grisha," Began Kenny. "Isn't it a little past your curfew to be out this late? This is a party for adults only."

"What would you know about parenting? You couldn't even keep some Serbian yokel from killing your own pathetic offspring."

Kenny fired a shot striking Grisha in the chest but Grisha had a vest on all though he did fall back. Grisha fell over firing the Rifle at Petrovic who bolted but fired two more shots one narrowly missing Grisha's head the next hittng a piece of his ponytail. Grisha fired wildly and two rounds did manage to strike the older man in the right leg. The man fell over and Grisha went to pursue him when he suddenly was slammed against the glass window overlooking the beach. It knocked the wind out of the Russian underboss. A blonde haired blue eyed male with a mustache and a mean look standing at six feet tall who was middle aged stared at Grisha. He then struck the man with the butt of his shotgun knocking the wind out of him longer. The Russian hitman stood over Grisha racking the shotgun. He had two mobsters with him and he had them help Petrovic off the floor. "Otvedi yego v mashinu! Etot bezopasnyy dom byl vzloman," Cried the hitman.

(Get him to the car! This safehouse has been compromised.)

He then looked down at Grisha. "Grisha Markovich. I know you do not have the initiative or the courage to stage a raid like this. Who sent you? Your derilict father?"

"You shot one of our soldiers. ...you probably thought you killed him even...,but you didn't..."

Ivan came up behind punching Evsei from behind and he knocked the shotgun from his arms. "You thought you could kill me you shit?!" Ivan kicked him in the stomach but as he did the Russian thug grabbed his leg and threw him to the ground followed up by a kick to the side of the face. "Baba Yaga...you should have never betrayed Kenny. You just missed him. I didn't miss you but I guess I was not thurough enough."

He lunged at the ex KGB agent and forced him through the shards of glass. The two exchanged blows and Grisha watched for a moment and then snapped out of it going for his Rifle. He aimed Evsei's leg looking to give him a flesh wound so that Ivan would have the upper hand but it was empty. He had to reload. Andrei made his way into the room and helped Grisha to his feet, he was not too badly wounded aside from being ct on the left arm and he had a piece of glass in his left shoulder and a cut on the side of his face. More Petrovic reenforcements arrived and were spraying at them. Ivan meanwhile, threw a hard left hook into Evsei's face causing the man's lip to bleed. He drove a knee into Ivan's ribcage and he flipped him to the ground and Ivan landed back first in the shattered glass. Evgeny and Vasily had moved downstairs and were trying to stop the Petrovic gangsters from getting upstairs.

Meanwhile, the Russian-Jewish gangster kicked Ivan getting him on the ground and knocked the wind out of him. He scooped up a few shards of glass and stabbed him in the face cutting into his cheek. "ARGHHHHHH! FUCK!" Cried Ivan as he bled badly. Grisha tackled the highly trained Russian assassin. He struck him with one good punch but it was short lived as the man delivered a four punch combo to his face and stomach and followed with a kick sending him against the wall. Ivan tried to get up to help but Evsei kicked him in the face causing him to bleed more and Ivan was temporarily blinded as blood got into his eye.

Meanwhile, Tyson insisted that they get to his friend in the bathroom. The three Ballas kicked the door in and they looked to see his friend on the floor his pants down bleeding at the crotch as half his penis had been bitten off. They looked to see the Russian whore who had done it. She smiled at them with bloody teeth a piece of flesh still in her teeth. Tyson fired at her but she was already jumping out the window. "She bit my fucking dick off man...!" Cried the gangster as he was shaking and starting to go into shock. "Just hang in there, bro we're gonna get you fixed up. They fixed Joghn Bobbitt they can fix you...just stay with me, blood..."

The guy started to be unresponsive. Tyson, despite his wounds attempted to carry him but Leela made him stop and instead had Overdose do it. "Where's Ivan?" Asked Sugar.

Meanwhile, Evsei charged at Grisha again and was starting to strangle the underboss.

Ivan remembered he had a ballistic knife in his boot. He flicked it out staggering half blind towards the enemy and with all the strength he had left, plunged it into his back. Evsei screamed as the blade penetrated him. Ivan removed the blade and stabbed him again and Evsei drove an elbow into his forehead knocking the ex KGB member back. Ivan weakly went for his Makarov and Grisha grabbed his Rifle off the ground and Evsei took a shot at Ivan but missed as Ivan dove towards the bed but he fired at the wounded enemy as the man went out onto the deck throwing his shotgun over and he dove off the balcony to the sands below. Ivan and Grisha scrambled for the balcony and Ivan fired his pistol like a maniac off the balcony at Evei. One round from Ivan and onefrom Grisha grazed theh wounded gangster but they mostly missed. Grisha reloaded before Ivan could but an SUV pulled up with a few mobsters inside and Evsei was grabbed and pulled in just as Grisha started opening fire down at the vehicle.

He was about to try and hiut the driver when the front passenger window rolled down and none other than Kenny Petrovic fired an H&K MP7 up at them. Ivan and Grisha both ducked down as the old man sprayed up at them. A Bobcat also pulled up and a bloody mouthed Russian female got in yelling in a taunt holding up a severed bloody member saying, "I save the rest of his sausage for later!" Tyson gritted his teeth joining them on the balcony firing his AK-12 at her but she ducked down and he missed her but Leela also fired at her. They missed her but did strike a Russian mobster male standing next to her who was firing back. Still, Kenny, Evsei and the mutilator woman had escape.

Ivan was not having it. He jumped from the balcony firing at Kenny's vehicle but as he hit the ground he was injured. Sugar ran down to him helping him up. "Stop! You're not invincible! We'll have to get them another time! Come on!"

He groaned, "Take me back to y apartment. Mai can stich me up," She agreed to it but said, "If she aint here you're gonna have to settle for me and Leela."

Tyson stood there in anger saying, "What kind of crazy bitch bites off a man's dick? I get it if you were being raped but what she did was twisted."

"Don't worry. Overdose has got Darell on the way to the ER as fast as he can. While we're at it we need to clear out too, or we're gonna end up on a gray goose."

They all retreated for their respective vehicles. Grisha yelled, "I owe you one, Baba Yaga!" Ivan shot back, "You don't. I'd say we're even."

Meanwhile they were soon all headed out of there as the sirens sounded converging to the beach house. Ivan winced in pain. Leela was driving this time. "You need to be more careful. I normally don't care about age and with you I don't but you're not twenty anymore. You can't jut go jumping off balcony's like that. He's almost killed you twice now!"

Ivan groaned in pain as she tried to stop the bleeding. "The first time was a fluke. A lucky shot. This is really only round one. But I didn't run. He did. But whether you call this round one or two, the next one will be his last. He's a pretty good fighter but it was smart he ran. That's the only reason I didn't kil him."

One Week Later

Mai

Deliver EMP

It was time for them to get rolling with the next job. There was only one more thing to do before the job itself. She was ready for it. She had an M3 shotgun this time around but the same kind of Assault Rifle. The guys had the same weapons as last time with the exception of Redwood who had a G36. They got ready, heading out. She wore a black leather jacket over a lace black blouse plus leather black pants. Ivan wore a black suit and black slacks plus a charcoal tie. He also had stitches on his cheek from where he had been stabbed. Paul was dressed in a black leather jacket over a black t shirt and jeans with a vest on under all that and Neto was just dressed in black tactical gear. They got into a Huntley SUV that Neto had stolen.

The Mexican national began to drive them to the insurgent. It started to rain as they went down Vespucci Boulevard. "Alright let's get the EMP in the LAPV to the HLAR. The LAPV's still at the safe house on North Calafia."

The four of them were silent. Agent 14 "Obviously, this is a malware style attack, so we need to get the Trojan in without it being identified. It's a genuine Merryweather Insurgent with no obvious signs of tampering so once it's in place, it shouldn't be flagged as suspicious. Until it's too late, that is. We're providing you with some firearms to make minimum noise impact when dealing with guards. The rest is up to you. If there are guards in each other's sight lines you'll need to coordinate your take procedure for a gang of criminals like us, I'm sure but I thought worth a mention."

"This is the weirdest job I've ever done," Paul said. "We're going to be attacking government private security for the government. I guess the only smar thing about this is how quiet we're playing this,"

"Yes. Perhaps that will make Uncle Sam think twice about letting a bunch of contract killers who are responsible for war attrocities in the middle east that even the US military would say was unthinkable, operate on US soil. I imagine within a few months, Merryweather will be asked to leave."

Paul admitted, "You seem to know the most about them. I don't know much except that they're like soldiers for hire. And that a lot of veterans don't even like them."

Mai admitted, "I don't. The US Army isn't perfect. I know we've done some pretty fucked up shit. Neto, Paul, Ivan, we've warred with all of you and I'm not saying that's right but at least in the twentieth and twenty first century we've been better at being on the right side of history. And when we do fuck up, that's what military courts are for. Court martials, dishonorable discharges, you name it. But Merryweather never gets held accountable for it."

"Do you honestly think your military court system holds peoprle accountable?" Asked Santa Muerte. "I'm not gonna pretend it's perfect. No system is and I'd say it's maybe at least if not more flawed than the US justice system depending on what aspect of it you're talking about. But when somebody gets a dishonorable discharge, it may not mean anything to you but among us, it's like being a social pariah. They're not elligible for any of the benefits. It's like going to war but getting none of the good things you could expect. No college, no veteran money, nothing."

"So in other words, you've left with pretty much what you started with? The way most armies have been for most of history? You would pretty much be expected to deal with the memories of everythin on your own and make your own way? Don't take this the wrong way cause I know you deserve your money you got from it but to be fair, Americans are way too comfortable. Therapy, counseling and all this other shit."

"Hey don't look at me, Ivan. That's FDR's idea. New deal. Shouldn't we get something for what we did? I mean it's pretty much the same principal as somebody making their wealth in war the way they did in the Roman days. You made your riches through what you plunder from your enemies but we can't do that now. Now we have laws against that. So we need the GI Bill."

"I'm just saying," Ivan stated. "My grandfather served at Stalingrad against the Germans. Do you think the men who gfought in the bloodiest battle in human history got a parade or any of the things US veterans can come to expect if they served honorably? These were men who charged into storm of German artillery. They had two choices. You can either be shot by a German bullet if you fight or be shot by a Russian bullet if you choose not to. It wasn't much of a choice. So those that fought with honor did only the thing that they thought would save the Motherland and make their families proud. But it didn't get better for the country after the war the way it did for you people here. It only got worse."

"Pitfalls of communism?" Asked Mai. Ivan sighed. "Maybe. I don't resent Gorbachev the way a lot of people do. Even in my own country. He inherited a mess. Kind of like your president after Lawton Jr. It's easy to blame a man who has inherited a mess for things like a national debt but if this is what he inherited, how is this his fault? It's Stalin who truly fucked our country up."

Agent 14 spoke up again. "This is almost my favorite part of the process. Putting on the finishing touches. It's like the night before Christmas or the morning before a test. Yeah...I got a degree. In prison. The anticipation is killing me so I guess were all in danger. You'll be haoppy to know we got a good price for the Hydra. That jet's a collectors item. Real nostalgic appeal. I just hope it gets used for what it was built for, you know? And it's out there bombing orphanages instead of sitting in moth balls appreciating in value. The buyer does have a questionable human rights record, mind you. So here's hoping he's not just rolling out for air shows."

"Uncle Sam, hard at work for the benevolence of everybody else, ladies and gentlemen," Ivan said with an eye roll.

They soon arrived and got out, "Everyone, in the Insurgent and get over to Humane Labs."

They got in, with Mai driving. "You see the EMP glow in the trunk. That's our payload. You should think of this as a dress 're getting a feel fr the props, the stage will be set, you'll be working with other actors. Only this is the kind of dress rehearsal where if you screw up, you die. 'Hey man who's name we don't know if we're breaking into the lab now why don't we just go for the target'?Because you'll die. Either Merryweather will kill you or I will kill you for shitting on my very carefully constructed plan."

"Agent Catorce, why don't you come say that to me oin person, cabron. Then we see who kills who?" Neto challenged. Agent 14 ignored it. "You're approaching the target. Pull up outside and we'll talk logistics."

Mai parked the Insurgent as it continued to rain in the night sky. "We've hacked in and put the CCTV on a loop. It won't be stable for long so you'll have to move quick. Let me show you. I'm sending you the live feed."

The camera of the front entrance was sent to Mai's cell phone and she got view on the gate. "I've transferred control of the cameras over to to you. We don't have very long so scan the area quick and make sure you know where the guards are. The guards'll raise the alarm if they see anything suspiscious. If the alarm goes, we're blown. Look out for their sight lines and take them out in pairs if you have to. But you only need to drop them if they're in the way. The aim is to get the Insurgent to the bay at the rear of the facility. Clear a path to the bay. There are multiple Merryweather guards between you and the bay. The bay is near the main switchboard for the facility and its primary generator. It's where the EMP will do the most damage and where it's least likely to be discovered. The more damage the EMP does the longer the lights will be out and the higher our chances of a succesful mission. You only need to take out the guards in your way. Alright, good luck. Get to work."

Ivan did exactly that aiming at the guard at the gate firing and taking the guard down silently with a headshot.

Mai, Neto and Paul began making their way across the courtyard as Ivan kept watch with the Rifle. He had eyes on another Merryweather Insurgent coming his way. Mai then made her way inside too and found his way up some stairs and drew a bead on a guard walking across the coaurtyard. She took the man out with a shot to the throat the powerful round obliterating his windpipe. Paul and Neto found a guard standing next to a scientist and they looked at each other with a nod coordinating their shots. Paul took the guard down with a head shot and Neto put one clean through the scientists neck from the back as they both made their way down the stairs further into the courtyard. Mai watched from the rooftop as she picked off another guard but she made her way down to them. Ivan still was keeping watch outside the facility.

They climbed up to another rooftop before making their way to a platform. "Get familiar with your surroundings. You'll be back here soon!" Agent 14 told each of them. Mai spotted another guard as she stood on the top of the platform looking towards the lower level. She quickly put one in his brain. Paul went downstairs as he was just near Mai and he spotted a guard on a platform on the other side overlooking the platform. He fired a shot through the scope clipping the guy in the throat. They made their way inside and Neto found another scientist. He quickly put one in his back. The man went down with a silent cry coughing up blood as he fell to the ground. Neto qithdrew his hunting knife from his boot as he quickly went over to the downed Caucasian scientist. The guy let out a soft moan and Neto softly whispered, "Shut up," Before putting the knife in the back of his skull.

Paul got behind a parked vehicle spotting a scientist and he whispered to his team mates, "I got this one," He put one in the scientists brainstem. Just as he did, Mai fired her silenced Assault Rifle nailing a second scientists that he couldn't see and she let off a ten round burst nailing the Caucasian scientist in the stomach, the lungs, the heart and the sternum. "Concentration is key, people. Take an anphetamine if you have one!" Agent 14 said.

Neto

He heard the IAA agent's invitation so he wiped the blood off his knife with a purple bandanna he had taken from a Baller. He then put some meth on the knife and snorted it off. Don't have to tell me twice.

"Ahh that's good shit,"

"What's good shit?" Asked Mai. "Nothing, you know, just the four of us out here killing Fairy Weather putos. It's like we're a family!"

"Mind on the job, Neto," She reminded him. Neto found a Humane Labs van and started it after fishing the keys off one of the corpses and he began to drive it the way back. Ivan made his way down the hill to get into the Insurgent. Meanwhile, on the ground, Paul zoomed in on another guard and fired putting it through his neck. Ivan pulled the Insurgent inside the facility throughh the gate pulling it up just outside where it needed to be. "You'll need to hack the security pannel to get the Insurgent into the bay. Go to work on it."

Mai began to hack into the security pannel. Within a minute she got it unlocked. "Paige Hairris you got nothing on me," She said with a grin. "Alright. The Malware is Installed. Pull out," Mai got into the van Neto stole and they began to drive out of there, exiting through the front gate. "I feel sorry for the janitors. He's going to have a hard time explaining that one. Even harder to clean it up," Neto stated.

"That's his problem, not ours," Ivan replied.

"There's a Merryweather team imbound. They have no reason to suspect you. Do not engage," Agent 14 warned. They drove past them making their way out and Agent 14 added, "Okay, hurry up they're seeing live images on the feed," Alarms had gone off as they were driving away.

Soon the four of them got changed as it was almost dawn and each went their separate ways. "I gota get some sleep," Paul yawned. "Aint right to just be going to bed just now. It's too far away for home so I'll probably just go get a motel around here."

Mai nodded saying, "I'll see you back then. I could use the drive,"

"I don't feel like sleeping," Neto said. "Ortega's out here. Maybe I'll go see what he's up to. Or Trevor,"

"I'm going to find a place to crash too," Ivan said.

2013

Packie

He was walking through Mission Row. It was strange to him, being in this city. He'd been to other places these last few years but still, this was different. A Mexican American man with light brown skin was walking by him. "Hey homes. You got a cigarette?"

"Sorry, boyo. No smoke."

"Boyo? Where you from, eh?" Just then, several gunshots went off. Packie withdrew his Handgun as he saw two African American men firing at him. "The fuck you doing in our hood, bitch?! You know where you at motherfucka?!" One wore a purple and gold Panics jersey and had curly hair and wore black sagging jeans. The other wore a purple striped shirt and wore a Boars hat on a snapback, brand new plus baggy blue jeans,. Packie returned fire striking the man in the jersey. He hit him four times. The Mexican American had a 9mm of his own. He fired back striking the second black male in the forehead with two rounds. "The fuck, amigo? Were they shooting at me or you?!" Asked Packie.

"I thought they were blasting at me, homes! Me and them got beef. But you're a white boy near South Los Santos so you gotta watch out."

A Baller yelled, "Yo, that motherfucking cracker and thaty wetback bitch just dumped on Tony and Darnell, dog!" Another yelled, "The fuck aint enough they do that in the pen it's gotta be the streets too?!" Packie yelled, "You shot at me first, assholes!" As he took cover behind a parked dark green Greenwood. "Fuck the Va Ho's! Eat my shit!" Yelled the other Baller. Packie struck the first one in the chest twice and as the man fell over he fired two more into the man's abdomen and one more in his chin. The Ese fired his 9mm into the other Baller. "What the fuck is wrong with these guys?! I'm not even from LS!"

"That doesn't matter to them! Shit, my car's in the impound lot, perro. Look, you're gonna have to cover me while I wire this shit so we can get outta here!" The cholo busted the window open and got inside and began to try and hotwire it. A Baller in knee high socks and long baggy blue jeans shorts plus a purple plaid shirt fired at Packie and one round hit the windshield of the car. "You on the wrong corner, bitch! Only Ballas, bums and customers come round here, mayne!"

"I see two out of three. So when's the dealers getting here?!" Packie yelled as he emptied the remaininbg mag, taunting the gangster as he fired at him. He ducked down to reload as the gangster fired from cover. "You done fucked up! When we get after you city aint nowhere you can hide!"

Packie hit another one with a headshot. "Fuck you Va Ho's! We taking this corner back!" Yelled a Baller. Finally, the guy got the car hotwired and Packie got in and the cholo floored it as Packie fired out the window after a shot shattered the passenger window. He landed five shots wounding a Baller as they tore up the street. "Shit, homes, I owe you for that shit back there. Where you from?"

"Dukes, Liberty City. And it's no problem but I'm really not sure if they were trying to kill you ot me."

"Who the fuck knows? Better to just say they were gunning for both of us. I'm Hector by the way. Y tu?"

"Patrick McReary. Friends call me Packie."

"You got a place to stay?"

"I was looking for a motel but a lot of the places around here are booked."

"Hey, it aint much but I know a place you can stay. Granted you'll stick out like a sore thumb unless you stay inside but you'll stick out less at a motel than an apartment. Plus nobody's gonna believe a gavacho has the balls to stay at a motel in the varrio."

"I guess. So what's the deal with that shit? I mean we got gangs back in Liberty too but it's mostly corner crews and stickup kids. Maybe a few crews imtitating LS and Carcer City guys here and there but there's a lot more independents out there."

"Hey, don't even sweat it. The Ballas are some bitches. Los Vagos? We used to be okay with them i the 90's before the riots started. Had a sweet little drug running operation even but those days are long gone. Crack palaces burn down and alliances die with it. That's just how it is out here. Now these putos got a chip on their shoulders. But I don't give a fuck."

He dropped him by the motel in Rancho. "So listen, man I got a job I need to pull off only my boys from the clqua don't want to do it with me. They've got strikes and they say they don't want to do any small scores to risk a third strike. Burt me I just got misdimenors cause I been careful. Anyway you looked like you can handle yourself. You did good enough against the moyos back there so I can only assume whatever you did back east wasn't legal. You in?"

Packie said, "Well, I'm gonna need to take a shit and have a shower, probably grab a bite to eat, see how a guy goes about getting laid around here, preferably with a woman who was born a woman, as unliklely as that may seem in this city, and then get a good nights sleep. Talk to me tommorow and maybe we can. What's the job gonna be?"

"Knocking off a store in Strawberry. I understand wanting bigger dollars but sometimes you just need quick cash."

"Well, I'm fresh in town so I do too. Let's just say I've had a bit of a setback myself."

2014

Hove Beach, Liberty City

Ivan

Coke Czar

Ivan pulld up to Comrades in Broker which was a known Bravta hangout. He knew it was dangerous to even be back here given that Markovich was at war with him and now with his son Grisha being a problem, but he still had some friends in the old neighborhood. Who despite orders to take him out, might still be somewhat sympathetic. He spotted one of them coming outside a bar. He was a dark haired Caucasian male of about five ten with brown eyes wearing a black leather jacket over a white t shirt and grayish black jeans. "Sasha Romanov..."

Sasha, like many in the Bravta, was a Russian Jew. Only he was Russian American, born in Hove Beach but he was well spoken in both Yiddish and Russian and was well aqquianted with the streets and always had been. He was younger than Ivan by a couple of decades, in his late twenties at most but it had been a long time since he had seen him. Not since 2008. Ivan had gone all over the east coast between 2008 and 2013 but he hadn't been nessecarily banned from the neighborhood back then. Though the heat from law enforcement had been after Ivan at the time and he sure didn't want to get arrested because no matter how different he looked, if they caught him and found out who he was, he'd be taken into government custody. Sasha turned to Ivan.

"Baba Yaga?Chto ty zdes' delayesh'?"

(Boogeyman? What are you doing here?)

He then gave Ivan the customary kiss on the cheek and they hugged and he then let a cigarette. "The fuck are you doing back here, man? I thought you were gone for good. I heard about that bullshit with Markovich. It aint safe for you to be back here. Some fucking Dominican hit our neighborhood looking for you. There was some stink caused out in Northwood. Kenny had to tell them you weren't with us no more. He'll be looking to cut your throat and me for talking to you without killing you."

"I did something...in Algonquin, I admit but I had help. Let's just say this Dominican threatened friends of mine. Both on the streets and in prison. Initially it was just between some Mexican friend of mine and a guy down south but this Dominican, ex Marine who is with a gang from Northwood got involved with some...people in high places. They killed a baby, this same man who attacked Hove Beach. So as much as Kenny may want me dead or even my boss, I assure you Oscar is not a man to get involved with. That man he had with him, the scrawny white one is a serial killer in New Arcadia. He's from up north."

"I thought I'd seen pictures of that motherfucker."

Ivan asked him for his phone number and he gave it. "I need to show you something," He texted him several pictures including of Mark, the Romans, all of his BSU affiliates Oscar AKA Marco, Ana, Devlin, Patrick and Charlie. "These are trhe guys that attacked you," He showed him Ana and Devlin. "These are the ones they work for. The older man has been trying to kill me for years. Anyway, it doesn't matter if you saw me or not. Even if Kenny is not aware we spoke, he at least knows I am in town. Should any of these people come up from New Arcadia you will know what to expect,. This is not to threaten them. That part is over. This is just if you encounter anymore trouble. The Salvadorans and Mexicans I worked with also took some losses too so I may need to pay the Dominicans one more visit before I go back to Los Santos."

"Well if Marco comes after you can tear him apart piece by piece. That little Dominican Schwartza shows up around here again, I'll bury that ape nose up his ass. Same with those other two pricks he hangs out with. And if the Trinity's try and come after us? Well we won't just fuck them up and all the people that associate with them, we'll supply their enemies. I can't stand those border hoppers but they haven't bothered us so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Where as those Dominican monkeys have. Just after you left there was some other guy that worked with Ray Bulgarin, you know the guy?"

"Yes, didn't he get killed?"

"Yeah. By a Dominican Schwartza. As a matter of fact, isn't it that same guy who got laid out in that shootout in the projects? I gotta say, Kenny may be pissed off at you but that gut has caused problems for all of us. We respected Bulgarin. We already had a few skirmishes with those Hinterland wearing faggots. So you might have just earned your way back into Mr. Petrovic's graces but...this shit with Markovich is gonna have to be settled."

Just then, they heard an African American male in a winter coat and dirty brown pants with a missing leg was getting into it with a group of Russian males. "Come on, motherfucker I know one of ya'll took my leg!"

Ivan recognized another Russian mobster this one wore a trrench coat and black slacks. He had brown hair blue eyes and five o'clock shadow. He too was a Russian Jew but he was born overseas. He was in his mid thirties and like Sasha, was also an old friend to Ivan. Grigory Krushnic. He was laughing heckling the black male in Russian. He then shoved him as the man desperatley tried to grab his collar and he said, "I do not have your leg, man. You are in wrong neighborhood. Now fuck off."

"Hold on a second," Sasha stated and he went across the street with his Walter P99 drawn. He grabbed the black male by the coat and shoved him dow. "Do you got a hearing problem on top of being a gimp, asshole?! The man said he didn't have your fucking leg! It's not enough you beg people for change around here you gotta accuse people of stealing your fuckin peg leg nobody has any use for? Maybe some other bum thought to use it for firewood."

"Don't play with me, Sasha! I see the way these guys in the neighborhood look at me funny!"

"They look at you funny cause your smelly black ass hasn't had a shower in a week. Now get the fuck outta here before I take you to the dumps. Do you know what happens when we take outsiders to the dumps? You don't come back," He pistol whipped the man and he fell over bleeding. He struggled to his feet and Sasha fired his pistol near the man's other leg and caused the man to jump. "I'm sick of you fucking guys! Go back to Firefly where you belong!" Ivan walked up and said, "That was really not necessary."

"The hell if it wasn't. He's just acting like a victim now. You think he wasn't a bastard when he had his leg? How do you think he lost his leg?"

"You tell me. You're the one who seems to have a problem with him."

"Look, these motherfuckers from Firefly they try and harass our guys when we drive near there. Whistle at the babes from teh neighborhood yet they can't be civil to us. I get that they like how much ass a Russian girl has but without us there would be no Russian girls. And they disrespect us constantly. They've jumped a couple of merchants under our protection, vandalized the temple even."

"He didn't look like a gang banger, Sasha. He just looked like a disabled man. I thought you were better than that. If I wasn't trying to help warn you against the new enemies you have I'd..."

"What, you'd shoot me? You aint about to threaten me in my own neighborhood are ya? That would be a bad move. After all the jobs we did?"

"No. Not at alll. I'm saying the old you I knew wouldn't have done this but what I just saw you do...reminded me of somebody back in San Andreas."

Grigory finally realized who Sasha was talking to. "Baba Yaga? How are you doing, friend?! Wow!" He exchanged a hug as a jovial smile crossed the Russian gangster's face. "What are you doing here?" Sasha told him a few sentences in Yiddish and his smile faded. "It's not so safe for you to be here right now. I respect what you did in Northwood but Kenny will see it as you bringing us trouble. This is bad timing. For old time sake, we won't tell him you were here."

"Actually, I want you to tell him you did see me. I want you to feel him out for me so I can see if he's willing to work with me. If we work together we can take down Oscar and his Dominican gang. You don't know who Devlin is but Kenny Petrovic has heard of him. Even if he faked ignorance before, he is awware of who Devlin is. Mr. Petrovic knows how to play his cards close to his chest."

He then turned to his two old comrades and said, "They can't threaten his son. I know his son was murdered the las year I was here."

"Yeah but he's got a daughter, remember?" Asked Sasha. Grigory stated, "Listen, old friend, I will talk to my brother and my father. They both have a lot of respect in the neighborhood still and my father is coming here soon from overseas to help Mr. Petrovic. The truth is, Ivan, we've been getting ready for a war with the Trinity's after the stunt they pulled. I don't exactly trust these gangs thy fought with but as the old addag says, enemy of my enemy..."

Sasha sighed as he took a drag on his cigarettte. "Yeah that's the thing. If it's not the Dominicans it's the Yardies. I got a couple of doped out shit lock wearing bastards holed up in Schottler too that have been causing us problems these last few years. Problem is, they got two new room mates. I want to do it clean whn we move on them. Anyway, I can't make any romises but if we can convince Kenny you'ee cool and that you'll try and get old man Markovich to the negotiating table, are you in?"

"Yes, I am."

Two Hours Later

Sasha and Grigory stood in frong of the boss. "The reason we couldn't shoot him," Lied Grigory, "Is there was a cop parked nearby when it happenened."

"That's fine," Kenny said. "I don't want you to kill him anyway."

"No?" Kenny said, "Use youe friendship with him. I hear he really is still only looking for his father to this day. I told those men who attacked our family that he is not under me. Baba Yaga is a formidable adversary. He won't go down easy for at all. They truly are stupid. Those men were with the government and yet they didn't seem to put two and two together. They did not realize that if Ivan was still in league with me, wouldn't it have been my soldiers that helped him storm the projects rather than some low rent barrio trash?"

"Whoa, those guys are fucking government agents? What like FIB or N.O.O.S.E?!" Asked Sasha. "Neither. Nevermind about that. This is a blessing in disguise. We may have lost some good men after what they did but it also means that when they go to look for Ivan, their trail will put them in San Andreas. I pointed them in the right direction. I told them I didn't know where Ivan was. I assumed he must still be out there. But you tell me he is still here even though I did not know this and even this 'Marco' who is supposed to be from this city did not realize he was under his nose? Let them and their goons go and kill Marcovich and his spoiled son and all of his soldiers. Maybe they get Ivan maybe they don't. Whatever happens, they will take them out in order to get to him and be doing me a favor."

"So this means we won't retaliate?" Asked Grigory. "No, we will. You set up a meeting with the Mexican and Salvadoran crew and see if they are willing to do a three pronged strike against the Trinity's. It will only be a few men from us."

"What if they threaten your daughter again?"

"Then I'll cut their tongues out. But they ultimntaley know the price of gang warfare. They attacked us without any knowledge or at least out dated knowledge. Even if their goal is finding Baba Yaga and killing him, and they somehow expect me to not retaliate. But Marco and Charlie and this Patrick are just coming in from out of town. Marco is a running man. His life is down south now. They won't stay behind to babysit Northwood. Their friends will have to pay the price for what they did. Just like we had to suffer losses because of Baba Yaga. If they attack me in my home, I annihalate their army."

Paul

He was approached to take another person down. This time, it would be one of their own. Apparently, the vato had been talking shit about him too calling him a wannabe everywhere from a wannabe Native to a wannabe Vago. Yet would also talk shit about his half breed status. It was funny how that worked with skins. You'd call one another white yet then you'd bash someone for only being half Indigenous which would still imply one was indigenous still. The vato was named Reymundo Suroeste.

Reymundo was of Apache and Tarahumara ancestry and had been locked up since 2006. Paul had been somewhat friendly to him before bin the days and months gone by. And vice versa. He'd even mentioned how he had mixed primos who had lighter eyes just like him.

But that was the the way a lot of Natives were. Even when you knew someone wasn't white you called them that anyway because it was an insult. Of course, the irony is, he'd seen a few of that assholes family members visiting. A lot of them looked more Spanish than Indigenous. That wasn't the reason Paul was knocking him off. A lot of inmates had access to cell phones and therefore could get access to the internet. This guy was on Life Invader a lot for a guy who was locked up and a few Vagos including Sleepy who had been on his friends list, had noticed he was starting to buy into some black and brown unity bullshit. He was starting to share shit from a Chicano Marxist website called the Nican Tlaca Movement. A website that claimed to be about equality between the tribes yet it insisted that all tribes in Mexico should identify as Mexica or Nican Tlaca. The reason tey used for it was that the Aztecs supposedly had the most remaining of their pre Colombbian traditions even though no modern Mexican today was exactly an Aztec in the way it meant to be one in te 1300's, just as no Italian today was exactloy a Roman, it was still their ancestry.

Except the great fallacy in this was the fact that Mayans in Central America and parts of where Neto was from had retained their culture to a large degree. There were more Mayans that did not speak any Spanish than there were people of Nahuatl descent. Plus they claimed to represent black and brown unity and were against brown killing brown and brown killing black. They claimed to be against the barrio violence but when Paul was on the outside he only ever saw their posts speaking against gangs under La Onda and their drug partnership with the Aryan Vanguard. He never saw them say anything against North Side Rifas. Whether it was because Nuestra Syndicato were allies of the BGA and they too believed in black and brown unity, he wasn't sure. Still it didn't matter. A criminal organization was a criminal organization and Raza on Raza violence was just that whether you were from Northern San Andreas or Southern San Andreas. It wasn't that they nessecarily chamopioned North Siders so much as they never condemned them. And in one post he had seen, he'd called out the south Siders for allying with the whites and since they said nothing of Rifas, it presumed them giving them a pass.

What was more hypocritical was they often accused Chicanos and other Natives who disliked blacks of simply being pawns of white supremacy or learning whaht the spaniards taught them yet they never went as hard on black supremacists who claimed the Olmecs were theirs. In fact, he'd noticed on their Life Invader pages they only ever cussed out whites they deemed racist and brown people they considered vendidos but no matter what their black allies said about Chicanos, they never banned them. They were the definition of cucks, of mayateros and if somneone like him wanted to support those assholes on the outside that was one thing. The irony was, the vato had called him a mayatero too because Paul had been friends with blacks on the outside before and had used more of their slang in a past tense. It was one thing if the guy himself was having a change of heart but to accuse somebody else of something in a past tense while currently doing the same yourself was hypocrisy at its finest. Even if this guy had always talked like a vato and never like a mayate, he was still fucking up.

But he was a Vago on the inside doing time for his varrio. To be part of an active gang and post nonsense about how all people of color are the same was insane. He'd tried to hide most of his status's from fellow Vagos on his friends list by customizing his privacy settings but he had slipped up on one and forgot to block one gang member from seeing it and as a result, the vato had reported to the other carnales that this guy was posting pictures of Brown Berets and Black Panthers standing together. It was clear where his cora was. It was gone. Maybe he thought by seeming like a more tolerant guy, he'd get paroled. Either way he hadh to die. In addition to all of that, he was also snorting cocaine a lot and had become hostile to other carnales.

Yet he was too stupid or to proud to PC up. He recalled some of the shit he'd said to Paul when they were cool. "You're more than a lil gang banger you know. You're a warrior for outr people. Don't get all caught up in this pachuco bullshit."

Other times he'd said, "That 'vato' shit is played out homes. This aint the 90's. Homies on the yard don't talk like that anymore," He'd taken a turn for the worse when he'd caught him saying vato among his peers. He'd said "What are you the speech police?" Before proceeding to bad mouth hiom in Spanish. He'd also said Paul's father was an Apple for ever dating a European. He'd killed his father so it didn't really matter now but still. It was disrespect to his family. Even if Paul was himself for preserving the bloodline he couldn't help what his mother was.

He had been assigned to kill him but honestly he wondered if maybe somebody he trusted should get to be the one who did it. For one thing, he saw Paul as an enemy now. But he also underestimated him,. The one obstacle would be that Reymundo was more jacked than him. Paul had lost significant weight inside. Several inches off his waist and if he had been losing it in weight alone and not building up muscle it would have been about eighty eight pounds. Since he'd lost weight, his fallic size had gone from average to above average too. But though he was gaining muscle, mostly in his arms and somewhat in his pecks, his stomach wasn't entirely as sculpted yet. This vato was in his early thirties and had been in prison for eight years so he had been lifting a lot longer than Paul.

Paul still mostly ate with the Indian car so as to maintain deniability about being a gang member. He walked up with another shank. The carnales l watched Paul and Sleepy nodded at him and Paul nodded back. They ran up to a few of the Asian American inmates on the yard, inmates they knew to be members of the Da Nang Boyz. The cholos rushed them and started jumping them. The Asian gangsters did their best to hold their own but there was six of them against ten Ese's. Reymundo stood up from lifting weights to go and get up and Paul looked at his cell phone to see he was posting a meme from the movie Sangre Por Sangre. It had a picture of the cholos with guns to Popeyes head and it said a real vato keeps his mouth shut no matter what.

The irony of course, was that Popeye was a snitch in the movie and while Reymundo was not a snitch, he was on the lista and it was because of the things he said. The CO's rushed forward to break up the fight and Paul grabbed a weight and smacked the muscular man in the face with it. He was a buff Apache male with dark brown skin and his hair tied in two braids his body adorned with tattoos from the varrio he claimed out of Blaine County. The man fell against the bench bleeding as Paul stood over him with the twenty five pound weight. "You fucking bitch ese!" Cried Reymundo spitting bloody teeth out.

He tackled Paul throwing blows to his gut and it knocked th wind out of him and the Apache pounced. The man reached for a shank snarling, "YOU FUCKIN HALF BREED BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!" Paul was afraid he would get caught, perhaps even more than being killed only if he did manage to kill Reymundo he was afraid that he would get caught for that but the commotion was enough that the guards were distracted since of the Da Nang Boyz pulled out a shiv and had stabbed one of the Marabunta members in the chest and now the CO's were trying to wrestle him to the ground. Paul still had hold of the weight but Reymundo knocked it from hius hands. He went to stab him in the ribs but Paul kicked him in his chest sending him crashing against the floor. He had landed on his own blade as he fell sticking himself in the stomach.

Paul grabbed him by the braids pulling the guy's own shank out of him as he bled. "You're no warrior. You don't deserve this," Paul cut his braids off with the knife. The green lit Vago tried to scream but Paul shoved his severed braids down his throat and he started to choke on them and Paul grabbed him by the face, "Who's the gavacho now, bitch?!"

The guy groaned trying to spit them out but he shoved it deeper down his throat and then began to strangle him. He pushed his head down next to the dropped cell phone where the Life Invader post was still visible. "Well look at that. People liked your status. They think you're real. Should have followed your own advice and kept your mouth shut, Reymundo. And you shouldn't have underestimated me. Maybe once I was a punk kid that didn't know shit about shit. But now I'm the last thing you'll ever see in this world. Oh and you used too much coka so you're a reliability. I hope you enjoyed your last visit with your familia."

He still struggled as his face changed color and his eyes were full of tears his veins bulging as he struggled against Paul. His tongue started to turn blue as he lost oxygen to the brain. Paul finally got off him. He grabbed his cell phone to get rid of it too. He knew they would be in lockdown a while when they found him. He wiped his prints off the weight. Thousands of people used these fucking things a day. There was a camera in the weight room but luckily it wasn't near where Reymundo was. It was closer to where the Chicanos and the Asians got into it. He was just out of sight.

One Week Later

Lockdown was finally lifted. The guards suspected that Reymundo was in fact killed by Onda but they couldn't prove it and they weren't sure exactly who. They questioned Paul after the fact asking if he'd had any physical altercations. He had said no and they had said they had known for a fact that Reymundo had threatenened him once in the cafeteria. Paul had said this was true but he had told him to step or shut up and he hadn't done anything but swore he would get him later. He pointed out this was a couple of weeks before the killing.

Still, he had also politicted against other Vagos in some instances, mainly ones who were also from Blaine County, some disputes about who had control over which corner and this was not allowed in Onda either. Poliiticing against a brother was against the reglas and could and often did result in death. In fact most of the Onda involved stabbings in the 1980's that involved Ond going after their own, when it wasn't over drug disputes, was often because of politicing.

He was approached by a male CO, an Asian American Johnny Takanawa. Johnny was a mean looking man with a shaved head and a mustache. He took him into the warden's office. "If I'm here to see the warden, where's the warden?" Johnny replied, "Do yo know who I am?" Paul said, "You're Officer Takanawa. What's to know?"

"Actually, I'm the best goddamn friend you got in this place. I can't say I agree with the company you keep, either. They may not like them," He said beckoning out the window to black inmates as Paul sat down in the chair. "But they're none too fond of guys like me either. Then again, what do I give a shit? i'm not the one that has to live here. Anyway, let's just say i'm a friend of a mutual acquaintance. Ivan Azarov."

"Ivan, huh?"

"Yeah. I'm ex IAA. Now that may seem unlikely to you but let's just say me and Ivan agree more often than we disagree. And what we agree on is that some of the people your friend the Saint Of Death has gotten into it with. You recently took out a C.O. The others may not know who did it but I know it was you."

Paul was silent. "Oh come on don't give me the silent treatment. You're already in prison. Now listen. A certain individual I used to work for named Devlin is the one who made sure that picture of you was taken. Ivan has made some...inroads towards stopping those people who dragged you into a war in the south you had nothing to do with."

"Good. Cause I don't plan on ever visiting anywhere in the south east of New Austin. As a matter of fact, if I had to live the rest of my life either here or as a free man out there, I'd pick here."

"Some would call you a man of convictions for that. Others would say you're a lunatic," Paul replied, "Let em say what they want. I already trusted a New Arcadian once. He probably knew I was gonna get shot and set up too. And he did nothing to warn me. Then again, neither did Lamar Davis. As far as I'm concerned they're all guilty. So why am I a lunatic for not wanting to live in some city that would have nothing i enjoy? They hate it here too. Maybe there is no right or wrong with that. They're just not meant for San Andreas and I aint meant for New Arcadia. I mean it's still Turtle Island and all but only Creeks are really from that soil. I come from forests and mountains. Not swamps and marshes. Besides, I don't know anybody out there. Don't care to either. So it's in their best interest not to fuck with me any further."

"Listen, I'm gonna teach you some things you'll need to survive in here. Maybe, just maybe me and our mutual friend can get you out of here in a year or two. But I'll need some favors done when you get out."

"Sure...I guess. Can you get me laid in here?"

"There's plenty of swinging dicks. Pick one."

"Very funny. You know what I mean," The guard laughed. "Well I hear you got that covered. Something pink on the inside Salvadoran on the outside?"

"I know. I just wanted to make sure you would if i asked. I'm a greedy man. I've had a threeway before and I liked it. It was fun. They were younger about my age. Maybe now I want to try older women. Maybe a fourway or a fiveway. What do you think?"

"I think you're forgetting where you are. But if you stay in contact with me and can be discreet and do what I need you to do when I ask you to do it, maybe we can work something out."

"You asking me to snitch?"

"No. But I may ask you to kill someone in here now and then."

"I got no problem with that," The guard grabbed a file off the table and set it down. "One other thing. These are some of the assholes that set you up as far as threatening you. Now I know you already know who shot you, left you for dead and landed you in prison but these guys knew enough to find out who you were."

He showed him several pictures. "This is Marcus Roman. Grade A psychopath. He'll walk into your house, blow you away and then go into your fridge and make a sandwich. He's been greenlit by the BGA in the past. The DOC intercepted a wire a few years back with orders to kill on sight. Of course, you're a living testament to how much they suck at it. The Dockington BGA have more balls than their pussy counterparts here. Still, they couldn't kill him and never will. If anyone ices him it'll either be his own hand, the cops or somebody close to him. He's running the wards down there. He and neto fought a couple times. Neto almost killed him but he's not so easy to kill. Your boy tried to overdose him. Of course, he tried to do the same before that."

"He's a fucking Creole. I know one when I see one," Spat Paul. "Never met one I could trust. You wouldn't think there'd be that many of them to ever go to Liberty City but I've met them. They were in San Andreas too. Actually never met a Creole man before. Only women and I hate them," He took a breath and said, "He looks around my age. How'd he last against Neto?"

"He had help. He's not the type to play by the rules in a fight. Even if he's evenly matched and is one on one he'll try and grab an object to smash you over the head with it. The thing about this guy is, if he's not a hypocrite, he'll at least not call foul if you ever use the same kind of tactics on him. He's also accused of being a snitch. Now I can neither confirm or deny if that's true but he's thought to be by BGA leadership. And given his tendency to stick his dick in female government agents, I wouldn't put it past him. It explains why he's not in jail."

"Well, he doesn't look like a snitch," Paul observed. "Maybe the type to pay of cops or have them work for him and make them think it's the other way around but dropping a dime? How is anybody willing to work with him? Even if you set aside their little mini LS race war I heard about down there and you put gang rivalry aside and start working with him, how can you ever be sure he won't snitch on you next?" He was referring of course, to the Aztecas he';d been told about from Sunbelt down in New Arcadia as well as the ones from Lincoln Parish. "As much as it sounds like a risk to be his enemy, being a friend sounds much worse."

The guard cleared his throat,"Which brings me to our next person. We'll call her 'Ana' she uses him for a lot of jobs. I'm not entirely certain just how they met but she's had her hooks in him for a while. She's cold as ice. Emotionless. I doubt she's actually human. More than likely assembled from the body parts of femme fatal from all over the world."

"She's actually kinda hot," Paul stated. "I only really for Indigenous women but if I ever did deviate even for just a day, Asian women would be at the top of that list. She also disproves the stereotype that Asian women don't have ass. They say the same about us you know," Takanawa sneered. "Hey, don't take it personal I'm not actually saying.."

"If you were going to be another Westerner who tried an Asian woman, I can tell you Japanese women are ten times more beautiful than peasant chink trash," Paul paused. "Did I miss something? You're both Asians," The man sneered. "True but I can't stand the Chinese. Historically, we always hated each other. I've known Ana for a while and I've told her to her face I can't stand the Chinese. You know they could never beat us in a war by themselves, right? Not when they faced us as the Qing Dynasty and World War II doesn't count since they had to have Western help to do it. Sure, we ganged up on them during their Boxer rebellion with European countries but we were able to kick their asses in a war without help. They're nothing but peasant farmers, poor communist trash. They wouldn't know civilization if they saw it."

"That seems kind of harsh. I mean every race has inter tribal conflicts but don't you think you should put the differences aside?"

"The only thing I see wrong about the Nanking Massacre was that more of them weren't killed. I lost a grandfather in the battle of Shanghai. And my great uncle got revenge at Nanking. Maybe you see it that we should try and unite the way your people tried to. There's always going to be those who don't want to. You can't focus on them. Only on those who will and make due with what you have. But we have control of our country so we don't have a common western foe to unite against."

Paul looked at her saying, "Still, gotta like a woman with shorter hair. And she looks like a femme fatal. But looking at her she looks like the type that would rock your world before putting a bullet in you."

"That's exactly what she is. Kuroi mibōjin."

"Huh?"

"Black widow," The Japanese American prison guard said. "That's what I call her."

Paul looked at the picture of her once again in a red blouse and black leather jeans and the other in a darker red Chinese dress with one bare thigh showing. He didn't want to think about that later but damn if she didn't look good. She looked like the type that would punch a man during sex. Paul had never had that done to him but he wished he had. He'd asked a few to do ythat. It was funny because he'd had anal with women before but for some reason many were unwilling to punch him perhaps because of fear of hurting or angering him. It was a thin line between pleasure and pain though and besides you would lret a woman get away with more while she was riding your dick.

He wasn't entirely sure that was her angle but she looked the type. Definitly a dom and not a sub. That was rare even today. many women despite claiming to be modern were unconventionally conventional and expected men to still dominate. Still, hot as she might be as a non First Nations exception to who he considered attractive she looked like the type that would use her looks to get close and kill. Were he ever in the same room with her, his initial instinct would always be to stay at least ten feet away. There was no shame in admitting women were bad ass and there was always somebody tougher. He'd heard that Neto had been put through the ringer by her too. Of course it hadn't exactly been one on one since he'd fought others that day but still.

Were it him, he wouldn't even try to fight her on fair ground. After all, it wasn't her style either. He could tell and even if he ever could match her fist to fist, skill for skill he knew she'd have a trick up her sleeve. As much as he respected Neto he thought it was dumb of him to fight her. She was the type to always try and be two steps ahead and if she wasn't, she would have a man who would be willing to step in. In Paul's case he knew there wasn't any winning any fair fight with someone like that. Were he in that situation, he would have said to hell with honor. This was the wild west and he would have put one in her forehead from a distance.

He showed him a picture of an older white male. "That's the man she's married to. Old white trash piece of garbage. Devlin. I used to work for that fucking asshole. He's the one who pulls the strings. She pulls hers and she pulls Roman's," He looked to a picture of a darker skinned black male. "That's Marrick Roman. Middle son to the Roman family. Likely going to take over some day when Maurice kicks the bucket,"

He showed him the son and father. "Hmmm. A little mom and pops crime family, eh?"

Johnny nodded. "Just remember every gang started out small at one time. Though I doubt the Roman family will ever have any control of any corners in San Andreas. They wouldn't want to anyway. Still, just to be on the safe side, i'm going to do a little profile of every man and woman of notable Creole ancestry in West Los Santos just to be on the safe side."

"And if they're related?"

"If they make trouble, back east I'll kill everyone in the household in the west."

He showed him a picture of an attractive red haired woman. "I forgot to mention Marcus Roman's in a love triangle with this woman in addition to Ana. Alison Trueblood. FIB. She's from Waston originally. As far as I can gather, she never had the typical Waston accent which is probably a good ting if you're the one fucking her. So she's no southie. From one of the more upscale Waston neighorhoods but she used to fuck this mick cop that worked for Frank Malone."

"No shit? Milky Malone?"

"Yeah. I aint certain but he may have even taken the bitches virginity. She broke it off when she found out he was more of a criminal than a cop. Which is ironic. Now she's fucking a criminal who's an informant. She's damaged goods. Don't let the cute face fool ya."

"Well she almost looks too honest to be a fed. If you could judge from a cover anyway. She doesn't seem cold the way Roman and the Black Widow does," He then chuckled. "So she's attractive for a redhead white girl and she doesn't have an accent. You sure she's from Waston?" The Asian guard laughed at that joke at the expense of women from Waston.

"She's digging her own grave. Now as far as I can tell she had nothing to do with the pictures taken of you or Neto's friends from Rancho but if this war gets escalated again I want you to burn their faces into your memory. Agent Trueblood doesn't play dirty the way the rest of them do but if we need to, we can get to her just to hurt the rest of them. Her dear old Da is still in Waston."

"That probably won't be nessecary," Paul stated. "If she's mixed up with a ward gangster in a city like New Arcadia she's likely to get killed eventually anyway. He's got her dick sanded."

He was shown two more pictures. "This is 'Chalie' and 'Marco' now I don't have as much on Charlie yet but Ivan's on that. Marco is a former Trinity gang member and according to Neto he's the one who showed him the picture of you."

"Fucking asshole. What did I ever do to that prick?"

"Not a thing. That's just it, Redwood. It's not personal to them. They're cold. Calculated. They were involved in a pretty grisly murder in New Arcadia involving a serial killer and a baby. Of course, Mark and Black Widow haven't caught the guy yet and neither has their red headed witch but I've known all along."

"He's the one that killed that Isabella woman I was reading about?" The Japanese American nodded. "If you knew about this why do you let it happen?"

"Kids like you you expect heroes. You got all the bad guys in the country and then you got all the bad guys from outside the country. And us? We're the fucking pivot. Needless to say, unless the New Arcadia comes after me, which would mean a painful death for him, I truly don;t care who he kills. I'm more worried about the men trying to blow us up. Or at least I was when I was IAA. Domestic bullshit is not my problem and now that I retired it's definitely not my problem. Anyway, I thought you should know what you're up against."

"Thanks, I guess. I don't think I'll ever meet any of these people even if I wanted. Fifteen to life."

"We're gonna get you out."

"You expect me to trust a government agent? A guy who's supposedly out yet he's working as a CO just to watch out for me?"

"Ex government agent. And I don't care if you do but I'm a man of my word. Besides, between you and me, Devlin doesn't know i'm alive."

"He doesn't?"

"No. I'm not supposed to be in this country. I was burned years ago. But you'd be amazed what surgery can do. And faking death, dental records,all of that. You don't worry about any of that. Now get back to your cell."

Later he was taken to his cell. He slept for a while but was woken up. He looked to see the Salvadoran American bodyguard. "On your feet," She ordered. "What'd I do?" She looked him over like a steak. She said, "You're in big trouble, bitch."

She cuffed him and moved him from his cell. "Where are we going?" There didn't seem to be any guards or inmates on the tier. He realized dinner had just started and he had slept into the first few minutes. She smacked him on the buttocks with her night stick and said, "No questions. Keep moving."

He sighed. Well, time to pay the piper.

2013

Humane Labs Heist

Ivan got the door for the other three. "So we're good to go. I think," Agent 14 said as he waited in the planning room as they entered. "You've done great. And this won't be a problem. No one is going to want to admit that anything happened here. According to my sources, well, Mr. Percival won't be successfully bidding on any government contracts if he can't stop himself from being robbed. You'll be fine. It's just gonna require a little finesse. Two teams. Chopper, ground crew. All of you will be flying together. Ground crew is going to jump into the labs and set off the EMP, make their way towards the information while the power is crew holds position in the air, deals with incoming security teams. Once the ground crew has what we're after you coordinate an evac and meet my contact with the file. Are we clear?"

He walked out saying, "So remember. If we never meet again, we never met at all. I love you all which is why we pretend that nothing's happened."

"Yeah, if I never see you again it'll be too soon," Neto replied. Ivan sneered saying, "Something tells me this isn't the last we'll see if each other."

Paul growled, "Don't even think about wire tapping my phones. I may not know your name but I know your face."

Mai just looked at Agent 14 in silence saying nothing at all. With that, the four of them go ready and went outside.

They got outside with Ivan getting on the back of Mai's Akuma which she had recently purchased while Paul got into a black Glendale Neto had out front. They began to drive out.

"The bird is waiting where you left it just north of the Alamo sea. You're all flying in together so you've got to get over there. I want this operation over and forgotten about as quickly as possible. So the amount you are paid will depend on how fast it's done. I hope money's a good motivator for you."

"It should be!" Mai said. "Otherwise we wouldn't just let you come to our apartment whenever you feel like it! Seriously. Ever heard of knocking? It's already a close enough call with three men and one woman in the house but they've been pretty good about it. But sometimes a girl wants to just take her bra off and her clothes as soon s she gets in the door and take a shower. I don't want some government agent in there waiting when I do!"

Ivan chuckled. "That's a nice image,"

She rolled her eyes. "Shut up. Don't be a child."

Agent 14 chimed in again. "Ground team, I'm gonna run you through your specialized equipment for the mission. One, night vision goggles-when we trigger the EMP, the lights go out and you need to be able to see. Two, rebreather. You're going out through a cooling tunnel. The rebreather's compact and it'll give you enough oxygen to make the , flare you make the beach shoot a flare and the chopper crew will fix your coordinates. Four, parachutes for the drop. Fivve, Special Carbine with suppressor. Six, pump shotgun with supressor. Seven, grenades. Eight, sticky bombs. Five through eight you should be familiar with already."

Neto chuckled. "I think I'm holding onto this shit even after this job,homes. Night vision goggles? We could have used that back in Chiapas. Oye, carnalito, you been practicing the flying lessons and the parachuting?"

Paul sighed. "Yeah, just not exacty a pilot yet but yes I've been parachuting about three times. I aint really afraid of heights. My only thing is getting to land right. I haven't exactly got that down yet."

Neto said, "I'll try and help you with that. Shit, I've got agoraphobia, perro but fear can be a good motivator. You Kanienkehaka vatos are crazy for not being afraid of heights, ese!"

"Didn't you Mayans build pyramids?"

"Yeah but we didn't live there. I come from the Mayan lowlands. Key word, low."

Paul, being a person who was a forrest dweller from the eastern woodlands of Kanien:keh, to the Adirondak Mountains and beyond, did not share his fear of heights. He'd jumped from tall tree to tall tree. He in fact, had worked on steel before but he didn't tell people that very often. So he had also jumped across scaffolds much like the generations before him who had done the same building the Rotterdam tower. Still, it wasn't the heights he had nerves about. It was the consequences of fucking up. He could control himself going tree to tree or even scaffold to scaffod but a parachute was something he was a novice at.

"Pilot-gunner here's what you're , just in case. Grenades, just in case. And sticky bombs just in case. And we're giving you night vision goggles too. You know as well as I do this operation is the product of hundreds of man hours and millions of dollars. Unless you believe in string theory and an infinite multiverse this is our only shot at this. All that work all that money for nothing. That's a lot of pressure for four people to shoulder. But pressure can turn shit into diamonds. Or it can turn diamonds into dust. What's gonna be today? I'VE GOT FAITH IN YOU! Well,... as much as you can have faith in a bunch of rag tag reprobates. Hastily assembled and motivated solely by their greed. Well, their greed and bloodlust."

They finally got into the chopper and Mai got them airborne. "Okay, here we go. Pilot's taking controls. Airial gunner gets first choice on position. Side facing minigun placements are in rear. High cal explosives in the co pilot sea. Keep in mind there's a longer fire return interval on that one. Ground team, you take the last two positions on the bird and you get ready to jump.

Mai was flying them over the water to the drop zone. "Okay, now. Fly out to the lab to gain altitude. You'll need to be high for the ground team to hit their drop zone and for your bird's electrics to be clear of the EMP. When you're above the lab, we trigger the pulse. Power down there goes out and the ground team can jump. Chopper team will hold position above the lab. Trying to stop the ground team from getting swamped inside."

Finally, they reached the drop zone. "Triggering the EMP. Get ready to jump."

They did and Neto screamed, "HIJO DE LA CHINGADA! FUCK! I NEVER GET USED TO THIS!" Paul yelled, "Holy shiiiiit! WHOOOOO!" Neto landed without much issue but Paul chlipped the side of a semi trailer and fell the wind knocked out of him. Luckily it wasn't much of a drop to the ground. Neto helped him up. "You all right, Oso?"

Paul caught his breath. "I think so."

"Orale, Bear. It's feeding time, wey,"

"Ground team time to switch to night vision."

They did. "Okay ground team, lets go, blow the doors and get into the lab!" Neto set up sticky bombs and let them go off and they got it open. The alarm went off as the two made their way inside. "What we need is being stored in a research station in the center of the facilty," Neto spotted a guard coming and he opened fire with the Carbine dropping him with eleven rounds in the chest. "Move quickly, get through the lab and get the data,"

Paul fired the supressed pu,p shotgun striking a guard in the chest killing him instantly. He struck another in the neck and Neto fired the Carbine emptying the magazine into two soldiers. He reloaded and Paul fired two more shots from the shotgun dropping an already wounded guard and the man cried out as Paul's shot tore his neck flesh apart. "Looks like some systemns are riding on an emergency generator. Long as the main switch is off that won't cause us any problems."

Paul switched to his Rifle as they came down a hall and he saw a muscular Caucasian Merryweather guard with his hat turned backwards wearing body armor on the outside of his uniform. "Thanks for letting me know where to shoot, asshole!" He fired a burst between the man's eyes and blew his brains out. "Keep moving and be ready for resistance. You're no good to us dead. Not quite yet."

Neto growled, "The fuck is that supposed to mean? We aint your pawns, puto! Just remember a pawn can still checkmate a king!" He fired his own shotgun nailing a Merryweather goon in the chest where it met the neck and the vest did not cover. "FUCK YOU AND YOUR TINY BALLS, ROID RAGE BITCHES!" Neto yelled. "YOU'RE HUNG LIKE A FIELD MOUSE! WOMEN LIKE TO BE FUCKED BY METH HEADS! OR AT LEAST GUYS WHO FUCK LIKE METH HEADS!" He fired striking another Merryweather guard in the left arm and the man fell over going into shock and he stomped on his arm and its exposed bone. "Oh sorry I'm so clumsy! Didn't see you there! Hahahaha!"

They came to a doorway entrance where Merryweather was making a stand. "Frag out!" Yelled Neto as he tossed one in the doorway. It went off killing two and wounding two. As they came through, the flames were surrounding the charred corpses and one of the Merryweather guards who was wounded was still writhing in agony as the flames ate his arm flesh . Paul put him out of his misery with a burst to the temporal lobe. He finished the other one as well before the man could aim his sidearm at Paul.

They both took several rounds from return fire but luckily they both had vests on. They took cover behind a wall and Neto fired his shotgun off four times killing one and wounding the other as he blasted the man's left knee cap out. He went forward and brought his boot down on the man's nose and he did so at angle so as to send the cartilage into his brain. Paul had seen people do this with the heel of their hand but he had never seen it done with a kick all though it stood to reason it was possible, he'd just never seen it done at the perfect angle.

Neto dropped two more guards and Paul fired at a third as he tried to flank him, hitting the Merryweather agent in both knee caps and then rthe femural artery in his right thigh. "FUCK FAIRY WEATHER!" Screamed Redwood. "You should be coming up on the research station."

They made it down another hall and Paul cut down two more guards as he put the rounds through their body armor but in the process took two rounds grazing him in the left. Neto also took a roynd that went through his vest but he was on meth so it didn't slow him down much. "FUCKER!" He yelled firing the shotgun at the skull of the already deceased guard. "Enough, man! He's dead already," Paul urged.

They converged down the hall and they spotted another duo and Neto fired the pump off in a rage emptying every round dropping both men and reloading, "ARGHHHHHHH!" He roared with rage.

Meanwhile

They spotted a Merryweather chopper coming in and Ivan fired from the co pilot seat blasting one out of the sky as they flew ahead. He also had a homing launcher with him just in case as he had to wait for the recovery time. He had Mai fly him around the side of an attack chopper and he yelled, "Say goodbye!" He fired and it clipper the tail of the attack chopper splitting it apart as it exploded midair.

They still had three more choppers coming their way.

Back in the lab, Agent 14 spoke to Neto and Paul, "The network infrastructure of that place is state of the art. It won't take long to pull the data."

They both entered the keycards at the same time. Paul plugged in his flash drive and got the data off the compute. The two then headed for the elevator. "Transfer's complete. Go down the corridor get in the elevator."

They took the elevator with their weapons trained on the door but then Neto suggested they go on either side of the door. They did and as they opened, sure enough, two Merryweather agebnts fired inside. The two came from cover both firing into the skulls of the Merryweather guards, Paul blowing chunks of brain matter out from the one he took down while Neto's shotgun blasted the skull into three bloody pieces. Neither man resembled a human anymore. "Somebody won't be a male model any time soon!" Neto taunted.

"Keep going. You need to get to the cooling tunnel. That'll take you to the sea."

Paul shredded three Merryweather guards as they turned the corner and as they got down the hall, he tossed a frag as he saw two more dug in. "Lucky for you you some guards dropped some flares by the pool. Look for them."

They made it out and Agent 14 said, "Alright, get the breathing apparatus and get in the drink," The two began to swim through the cooling tunnel with the flares lighting their way.

Mai, meanwhile, had parked the chopper on the beach and Ivan was posted up on a hill with his launcher just in case anymore trouble came. They waited. Finally, Paul and Neto emerged from the sea where Mai had parked where she knee they would be. "Chopper should be inbound. Let's go get ready."

Mai flew back to where Ivan was and Ivan had his missile launcher trained on the Merryweather attack chopper as it proceeded to pursue and fire upon the Valkarie. He fired and it was a direct hit and watched with admiration as it crashed to the earth. "There's more coming at you! Look out!" 14 warned. Paul and Neto fired upon a chopper that was behind them as Mai flew to Ivan. They dropped two buzzards from the sky and Ivan dropped another one. Ivan then boarded the chopper and they were back in the air again. He fired from the co pilt seat and dropped another chopper. Finally, the choppers stopped coming.

"That was a lot easier than I thought it was gonna be!" Neto called out.

"You clear? Alright I'm done. Meet my contact at the Land Act Resovoir and you'll be paid. You know, I've lost a lot of operatives in the field. I'm happy you weren't some of them."

Neto replied, "I'm not happy you weren't one of them!"

Just then they heard a female voice on their headset. "Okay, you've had your fun. Bring the chopper in and I'll give you a debrief. You want to be paid don't you? That's what this was about? Not just the shooting and the explosions. That's what you've done. Yo've made this country safer but that doesn't mean I've got to like you."

Neto sneered, "Bitch, please. You're just a female version of Agent 14. And you sound like twice as much of a cunt as he is! If you don't pay me, you're getting a machete up the ass!"

They looked to see Karen the agent from before. "When I ran agents in the field, I had to entrap them , cajole them. Threaten them with deportation. You never gonna know what I had to do. Now all you gotta do is give them a couple bucks and a few kind words. I guess there is no accounting for stupidity. But, and I'm serious now, as stupid as you are, you are not gonna talk about what happened here. Because your usefulness to us, well, it just ran out. And for god sake I hope you'e professional enough to get rid of the evidence.

"Yeah? And I'm never gonna give a fuck," Paul snapped. "I'm tired of you government agents. I always wondered what it'd be like to meet one of you Uncle Sam cocksuckers and it turns out you're just as full of shit as the Crown. If not more. I'm not impressed. And you can't deport me because I've got soverighty. That means dual citizenship."

It wasn't of course true yet. He would have to become reeenrolled again but he planned to he didn't care what it cost. "And if you deport me I'll sneak back in," Neto stated. Ivan replied, "And if you try and deport me, I'll kill your entire family while you watch."

"Boys, play nice," Mai warned. She said, "Sorry. Testerone and three very macho cultures. You know how it is."

"Now all you gotta do is give them a couple bucks and a few kind words. I guess there is no accounting for stupidity. But, and I'm serious now, as stupid as you are, you are not gonna talk about what happened here. Because your usefulness to us, well, it just ran out. And for god sake I hope you'e professional enough to get rid of the evidence."

As she departed Ivan sneered, "You don't scare me, Karen. I know who you are and I even met one of the men you tricked before. You're not as discreet as you think you are.I know who you work for too. All the way to the top. Don't ever try and fuck with me. You won't win."

Karen smirked then looked at his stitches. "That's a pretty nasty cut. You should be more careful. As dangerous as some men maybe there's always somebody more dangerous."

With that, the four destroyed the evidence blowing the chopper up as well as all the weapons they'd used but Neto insisted on keeping his night goggles and encouraged Paul to do so as well.

"She's right about one thing though. You need to be more careful at who you go after, Ivan. This isn't the 80's."

Ivan chuckled. "As long as I have Sugar and you, I think I'll be fine. You know, she and her best friend don't even think I'm evil? They don't get any bad vibes from me. Their radar is busted if you ask me."

"Well you're not a bad guy,"

"No, I am. I didn't start off that way but I became what I had to to survive. Over time, I just...lost sight of what I was fighting for. When the Uniuon fell, I was like a Samurai with no master. Now I guess I am Ronin. Anyway, I've killed for money ever since. I tried to tell myself it's for country and freeing the world from globalism but...I'm just not sure I've stayed true to it."

Neto sighed, "Well I am bad. Bad to the bone, homes. I was a fucking revoliutionary fighter, first time in my life I ever did anything right. Then everything fell to shit and I'm back to the same old bullshit. I don't even want to see my old compas cause I know they'd be ashamed. Zapatistas look down on gang banging cause it's self destructiomn. They recruit some ex bangers but the smart ones don't go back. You can't teach an old dog new tricks I guess and I've done too much to ever do right again. Fuck I got so good at doing dirt, I don't know why I should ever try and do anything else. America aint ever gonna fall, homes. Truth be told, I was evil for most of my life, I mean..I have since my parents died. I try to use my evil for good but...that's easier said than done."

"Never say never," Ivan replied. He turned to Paul. "How about you, Oso? Do you think you are bad? Or evil?"

"I don't know," Paul said. "I don't think it really matters does it? Isn't morality all in perspective? I'm not out here killing innocents or raping but I hae taken a lot of sons and daughters, husbands and wives, I'm sure. They all had grieving families. But it's not like my own homelife back east was all it's cracked up to be. I've done bad and good. I live in the morally gray shades of life and that's probably where I'll always stay."

Neto chuckled. "How about you La Chinita? What do you think your moral area is?"

"I'm not bad," She stated. "I've done some bad things, things I'm not proud of but I have't lost sight of what I'm trying to accompkish and what I believe in."

Ivan raised his eyebrows, curious. "And what might that be?"

"Maybe some day, I'll tell you."

24 Hours Later

A congressmen named Henry Jenkins, a Caucasian middle aged male with shaggy brown hair and a graying beard entered his Hotel room in LS. He spotted a Russian American male waiting for him. Secret Service tackled him and he asked, "How did you get in here?!" They cuffed him and he said, "No, wait a minute," They stood him up. "Who are you?"

Ivan smiled at him. "Henry, don't you remember your brother?"

The middle aged male, only a year younger than Ivan, dropped his jaw and his eyes widened. "John?"

---

Ok that's all for this chapter I hope you all enjoyed it. FINALLY the Humane Labs Heist is over. So as far as the character Takanawa (I may change his name from John to Jimmy or maybe something else for now chalk this up to pre edit laziness) is a former IAA agent that faked his own deat h and got facial surgery he used to work with Ana and for Devlin and is now watchihng out for Paul. Paul doesn't understand his views towards the Chinese as I don't see how Asians even today can beef with each other they still are somewhat under European colonization at least in terms of resources going to white countries but at the same time not as much as the Americas so maybe the need to unite isn't as strong. I know not all Asians hate other groups but some still do.

Anyway I wanted him to have an air of mystery. As for Paul and the characters from NA he can't meet them yet but he at least knows what his friends are dealing with. I'm not trying to give a spoiler as far as Zilla's next chapter merely to show the aftermath of whatever he has Marco and Charlie do plus introduce new Russian OC's.

Evsei Agronis the namesake and background basis for the new Russian character Evsei all though visually he's based on the Russian mob member Viktor Bout including his nickname Viktor Bout is Tajik but just like Evsei Agron who he is based on as far as his background so he has a Jewish Russian mobster background just like his real life counterpart who was one of the first Ruissian mobsteres in the United States.

In Zilla's story, Mark had a Haitian rival named Brian and in a way Evsei is going to be in the 2013 timeline to Ivan what Brian was to Mark. What do you think though should I have him be alive as late as 2014? This way I don't sell him short as a threat to Ivan I mean we obviously know that he hasn't killed Ivan by this point but that doesn't mean he can't come back at a later time.

Anyway, I wanted to have Ivan and Sugar have a mini fight and still also emphasize the best friend dynamic with her and Leela and also bring back Tyson (AKA Tyler from SOA) and yes his friend did die from the wound he got from the bikini girl.

As far as Ivan and his fight with Evsei he got pretty fucked up and this is only their first hand to hand. The way I had him jump off and retreat is a little bit kind of taken from Saints Row games where an antagonist will jump to escape somewhere or be saved in some way and you have to get them another time.

As for Henry he is inspired by the character Henry Jennings fom the Americans. I obviously don't know where the show is gonna end so I'm kinda taking the cannon a bit in my own direction in this universe and showing them as adults. Since Ivan's father is based on Phillip from the show who was middle aged in the 80's he'd be a senior citizen now but Ivan still doesn't want him to rot in prison.

As for the way each character said they see themselves morally I wanted to show how each of them see themselves and so each is unique and at the same time, sort of show where each is anyway on the moral meter. As far as the way they talked to Karen telling her off, that too was unique in each way to each character.

So yes, I ended this with a cliff hanger. And as far as Ivan's past we'll get a flashback into his paxt and finally as i intended to this chapter show what happened in Neto's past that sent him to the US.

As for Packie, I didn't have it in me to write a flashback so I put him in 2013 LS and show how he maybe could have met that guy he robbed the store with and we don't get a sense of that guy's name but supposedly he is a Vago and Psackie at one point said Jesus H and normally that just means Jesus H Christ or short for it but Packie would you think just say Jesus H Christ so it's speculation at best that H is his name but I decided to roll with it and have the H be for Hector.

Since Packie is new in town, he'll stay at the same motel as Paul, Ivan, Mai and Neto did when they first got there. Anyway till next time. Enjoy