Do the Right Thing

I sat there and looked at everything Hennessey had. After Chris filled me in what Hennessey had that put his father in jail, it was no surprise that Hennessey had stuff that got my father kicked off the force and then later killed.

I told Chris that he should go home and that I'll think of something to do with all of this evidence. There was a lot here that could bring down not only Hennessey, but also Fahook and Pinnacle. I know the mayor said he wanted to bring down Hennessey for having evidence, but if he admitted that he had been involved in criminal activity, I couldn't let this city be run by a corrupt mayor, especially one who hasn't done shit to make the city better.

Besides, if Senator Copeland promised to clear my name as well, then maybe I should help him out instead of Pinnacle.

Chris walked down the lobby of the Bay Bell Hotel. He agreed to let Jack look through everything. Chris knew that this wasn't over, but if Jack had all of that evidence, then Chris was one step closer to getting his father out of jail. Both men had their fathers to avenge.

While walked to his car that was parked somewhere in the street, another car was parked outside. But out of his left peripheral, he noticed that the driver looked familiar, as she had blonde hair. However, this woman had two other women in the backseat; one of them looked like she held a gun to the driver's head.

Although he wasn't a cop anymore, Chris didn't forget his cop-like instincts. He quickly went towards his car but then saw a pillar on near it on the sidewalk.

Chris peered out from the pillar and saw that the blonde woman was Ruby who walked into the hotel lobby. Then he saw the other two women exit the car and noticed that they were twins. They were Meeshaka and Shadraka.

"Oh shit," Chris whispered to himself. He quickly picked up the phone and dialed a number as quickly as he could.

While Jack sat at the table, he had some stuff laid out and looked at them. One thing that he noticed was that in the file for Gloria Exner, nothing was found on her. It made Jack wonder if it was either Hennessey or Pinnacle who hired Patch to take her out. Thankfully, Jack and Eve averted that from happening. Jack felt he should call her to inform her on what he found, until his cellphone started ringing.

"Hello?" Jack said.

"Jack, it's me," Chris said.

"Chris, you just left, is everything okay?" Jack said.

"No, everything's not okay, I just saw something you need to know," Chris said.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"I'll have to call you back," Jack said.

"No, wait!" Chris yelled before Jack ended the call.

All Jack was go to the door, with a pistol in hand and then looked through the peephole. It was Ruby. Much to his surprise, he put the gun down and opened the door.

"Ruby, what are you doing here?" He said. If that wasn't bad enough, he noticed a couple on her left eye, as well as a small cut around her mouth area, along with other bruises.

"Oh my god, what happened to you?" Jack said.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ruby said. "You were right."

"About what?"

"That I got too deep in this shit, I can't take it anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

Ruby looked directly in Jack's eyes. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. I can't do this anymore. I'm leaving this fucking city."

"Okay, just go, if you feel you should do it, then just go," Jack said. However, Jack saw that she looked over her shoulders a couple of times, as well as twitched a bit while she looked down.

"But I couldn't just go without saying goodbye," Ruby said and leaned in to give Jack a hug. "I loved you, Jack. In fact, I do love you. We were never good for each other, but you were the only guy who I ever loved. I couldn't leave without seeing you for the last time."

"I understand," Jack said. "I know we weren't good for each other, but don't say I never cared about you."

"I know," Ruby said and quickly backed away from Jack as she pulled out a Smith & Wesson Model 5906 to point right at him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jack said.

"I'm sorry, Jack," Ruby said. Her right arm started to twitch as she pointed the gun at Jack ready to shoot him.

From behind a wall, a familiar Chinese-American woman peered out from a side. It was Eve, who saw what was about to unfold.

She's shaking, will likely shake harder, and maybe piss her pants. Eve thought. She can't do it, she won't do it. The posturing is sloppy, not very confident with a gun. I can tell she's never done this before. If I don't go in, the gun will go off and she will be shocked as fuck.

"Put the gun down, Ruby," Jack said.

"I can't," Ruby said as her voice cracked. Jack saw that her eyes got a little moist.

"Yes, you can," Jack said.

"No, I can't!" Ruby said. "You were right! I am not that smart. I thought that I could try to outsmart some people, but I couldn't. Shit, Jack, I'm a fucking high school dropout who had to sell her body and steal from people to survive. I thought if I could get some money from a powerful man then maybe I can start over, but I can't. I don't know how you can live in danger like this, but I can't. I don't have what it takes."

"Listen to me right now, I can help you," Jack said.

"No, I got to do this for myself," Ruby said.

While Ruby pointed the gun at Jack, he glanced over her shoulder and saw the door handle turn. Eve saw it from behind the wall where she hid. Jack didn't want to turn his attention away from Ruby or else she would have made her move, whether on purpose or on accident.

"I can't go on like this, Jack, goodbye," Ruby said, with her finger on the trigger. Jack didn't want it to end like this. He sensed that this woman had never shot a person before.

With sweat running down from her blonde hair, as well as a tear running down from her right, Ruby's blue eyes shifted as she saw someone coming out from the darkness behind Jack.

"Oh…shit," Ruby said with a scared tone as she saw who had walked out. Without hesitation, Ruby fired a shot.

BANG!

Jack looked down and saw that no blood came out of his shirt, nor did he feel a wound. All he saw was Ruby standing there frozen stiff. Right then, Eve emerged from the darkness, with her pistol in hand and grabbed Ruby and then pressed her gun against Ruby's chin.

"You shoot at me again, and you'll die!" Eve yelled.

"Eve?" Jack said. "What are you doing here?"

Jack's attention shifted towards Eve, who pushed Ruby right to the wall. Ruby's heart raced at a faster rate, now that she knew who she shot at. Although Eve figured that Ruby's posturing and anxiety was a sign that she had never shot a person before, let alone killed anyone. If that wasn't enough, Ruby's face got wetter from the sweat and tears, especially now that Eve was threatening to shoot her.

"Eve, please, don't kill her," Jack said.

"Just do it, okay?" Ruby said, as her voice cracked.

Eve looked at Ruby. She slowly pulled her gun away from her face as she saw how scared this young woman was.

"Relax, I'm not going to kill you," Eve said. "But don't ever do that to me again."

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Ruby, are you done? Let's go." Jack and Eve looked towards the door when they heard what it was said. It sounded like a woman's voice. On top of that, the woman's voice sounded accented.

"Um, yeah, I am," Ruby said in a tone that sounded unsure. She knew she was as good as dead for lying.

BANG! BANG!

Gunshots went off on the outside. A growl heard nearby as Shadow crawled up. More shots went off, some sounded like they came from a semi-automatic.

"I'm going out there," Eve said.

"Eve, don't," Jack said.

"No, they think you're dead," Eve said. "Besides, I have my own business to take care of."

Jack shot Eve a look of confusion. What did she mean by "business to take care of"?

"Stay with Blondie," Eve said.

Eve opened the door and saw two short-haired women dressed in black approaching someone at a corner near an elevator. The two women were Meeshaka and Shadraka. Shadow crawled out through the door. Shadow suspected who was close by. Eve, on the other hand, looked like she was ready to open fire. With her finger away from the trigger, she slowly walked and pinpointed how this could go down. She could shoot one of the twins and then the other in quick succession, but then she saw that Shadow quickly bit Shadraka on her leg. Meeshaka turned around and saw that her sister got bit just as Eve was ready to pull the trigger, until she saw an unfamiliar African-American man peering out of the corner. Eve quickly put down her gun as she saw that the man was armed as well. The man was Chris.

Chris pulled out a can of mace and then tapped Meeshaka on the shoulder. Right when she turned around, Chris sprayed it right into her eyes. He then grabbed her by the head and rammed her towards the wall.

Eve, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention from a potential witness, or to kill a possible casualty, jumped up, spun around, and delivered a hard kick to Shadraka's face, knocking her down in the process. She then made eye contact with Chris.

"Who the hell are you?" Chris said as he pulled out his gun.

Eve pulled out her gun. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

Jack opened the door. "Chris, it's okay, she's with me."

Chris shot a look to both of them not knowing what to say here.

Meanwhile, back in the room, after Ruby had calmed down a bit, she picked up the gun she brought and slowly creeped up towards Jack.

"I love you, Jack, but I have to do this," Ruby said.

Jack turned around and saw that Ruby had the gun in her hand once again.

"Fahook said he will kill me if I don't do it," Ruby said.

Fahook? Jack thought to himself. Jack saw the twins out there and remembered that they were the bodyguards of Fahook Ubduhl. Without hesitation, Jack grabbed the gun from Ruby's hand. He pulled on the hammer, causing the magazine to drop from the pistol and then unloaded the chamber.

"Get out, run while you can," Jack said. "Don't stop."

Ruby didn't say anything. She just quickly took off running right out the door and saw the twins laid out. She got out of there as quickly as she could because she knew what would happen if they caught up to her.

Eve, Chris, and Shadow were now in the penthouse suite.

"Jack, what do we do about those two?" Chris said.

Eve looked out the room. "I will deal with those two later."

"Well, we have to get out of here," Jack said. "Those two will stop at nothing to kill us or Ruby."

"I know a way out," Eve said. "Follow me."

Jack put some of the evidence back into the box, closed it, and then picked it up. Eve led Jack, Chris, and Shadow to the glass door to the balcony. Augie Blatz's furniture was still around as well with chairs, a loveseat, and a table laid out, with the balcony overlooking the city.

"What are we going to do? Jump?" Chris said.

"No," Eve said and pointed towards a scaffolding system that was right by the balcony. This scaffolding system was likely used by people who washed the windows at the hotel. It was also likely that Eve used it to get into Jack's hideout.

Eve led the men and the dog to it. Jack handed Eve the box of blackmail evidence. Jack and Chris lifted Shadow so that he could get on. Eve monitored the controls to have the scaffolding system descend to the ground. They landed in an alleyway next to the hotel.

Chris saw that Ruby's car was gone. Chris looked towards Eve.

"Thanks for your help, who are you?" Chris said.

"My name is Eve Adams," she said.

"Eve Adams?" Chris said, as he remembered that Jack had him look her up.

Before Chris could mention anything, Jack cut in and said, "Eve, this is Chris Jones, my best friend and former partner on the force."

"And an ex-cop, too," Chris said. Chris laid out his hand while Eve did the same and shook his hand.

Jack then turned to Eve. "Anyway, what were you doing up there?"

"Let's just say that when I am hired for a job, I do whatever it takes to find my target," Eve said.

"Wait, you weren't there to…?" Jack said and paused a bit.

"No, I wasn't sent to kill Ruby," Eve said. "And I wasn't sent to kill you. I was sent to kill the twins."

"Hold up, what?" Chris said. "You're an assassin?"

"That's one way of putting it," Eve said and then addressed Jack. "Yes, I was on a job. I had been told that the twins were going to try to kill you, so I was hired to take them out. I followed them. I could have taken them out but I saw that Ruby was with them."

"Shit, Ruby, I know those two are going to find her and kill her," Jack said.

"I wouldn't worry about her," Eve said. "She was ready to kill you. You should forget about her."

"I don't know this lady, Jack, but she's right," Chris said as he cut in. "I had told you that she was trouble. She's made her bed and now she has to sleep in it."

"Trust me, Jack, I can see that you care about her, but you would already be dead if I didn't step in," Eve said.

Jack leaned in closely to her and whispered, "Remind me to buy you a drink one day."

"I'll hold you to that," Eve whispered back.

"So what should we do with all of that evidence?" Chris said. "It's just a matter of time until Hennessey finds out that you stole it."

"I think I know what to do," Jack said. "Come on, let's go somewhere safer."

I had made a couple of calls. Chris drove me, Eve, and Shadow to Chinatown, which wasn't far from the Bay Bell Hotel. Being that I had no beef with the Triads, they weren't going to try to shoot me. The first call I had to make was to Mayor Pinnacle. I had only told him that I found his files, but I had to keep my eyes open about him because I saw some other evidence that could put him in jail. Besides, the man was still in bed with Fahook, who was now running the city with Sanderville now dead.

The next call I made was to Senator Copeland. I told him that I found a lot of the evidence that could take Hennessey down, along with Fahook, Pinnacle, as well as Rafshoon Diggs. Hennessey wanted a scratch of the action, so he stuck his nose in their business. Copeland gave me the okay to take out Hennessey even if he was a cop, but there was a lot more to it than that. I told Copeland that I wanted justice for my father's murder, as well as Hennessey framing my father which caused him to get kicked off the force, as well as framing me for killing Augie Blatz. The senator told me any way I take down Hennessey would help clear my name, whether it's taking him out, or exposing him for the dirty cop that he is, along with our mayor.

But there was one more person I had to call.

Jack put one more quarter in the slot of the payphone.

"Um, hello?" A woman answered, who also sounded tired.

"Hildy, did I wake you?" Jack said.

"No, but I'm tired, what's going on?" Hildy said.

"Listen, I need you to do me a favor," Jack said.

"Okay, I'm listening," Hildy said.

Author's note: I am ending it right here. I only have a few more chapters left before I am done with this. The part with Ruby threatening to shoot Jack was inspired by the bit when Gloria Exner threatened to shoot Jack in the original game.

I also had debated how this will go down. The next chapter will give a little more insight as to what will happen soon.

Next up, will Jack be able to clear his name? Will Hennessey find out that his files were stolen? Find out next time.