This is Fan Fiction based on the Max Payne Computer game series. It is based on a fictional (yet looks to follow the original) time line of events set years before the first Max Payne game, in particular the years before Max enrols into the NYPD academy.
Chapter 7 – Considering the Options
After running recent events through my very sore head, a big part of me just wanted to go back to my apartment and forget about what had just happened, but I had to find out why Jen was hurt and I wanted to hurt the other guy – the Major. All this is for Jen, Max! Just keep telling yourself that!
I cleared my mind and figured that if I wanted to know about "the Major", and with Mitch dead, my only other option would be the barman. I pulled out the blade from Mitch's neck, wiped it clean on his shirt and headed towards the stairs that led up to the delivery hatch which opened out onto the alley beside the bar.
I checked my pockets and found a crushed pack of smokes with one lone sorry looking cigarette in it. It was just about smokeable but I didn't have a light as I had given them to that bastard Mitch. I remembered that he had said the Major was coming to the bar at some point soon and I imagined that he was going to be far from pleased to find Mitch's corpse in the cellar. I looked down the alley and noticed a payphone on the corner. Time to call the cops Max - let the boys in blue take care of this now! That would have been a sensible thing to do, but I was in a dark place already and the chance to sort this out myself could be presenting itself sometime soon.
It seemed reasonable that if I kept an eye on the bar from a safe distance then I could see who comes and goes. I recalled how Jen described her attackers so I would be looking for an older man in a shirt and tie, and my guess was that Flanaghans was not the kind of place that attracted a lot of the shirt and tie type. I straightened out my last smoke and got a light of a passer-by. I took a long draw and headed towards an empty bench over the street from the bar. The temptation to close my eyes and drift away was overwhelming, but so was the memory of Jen lying in agony in a hospital bed.
An hour or so passed by when a cab pulled up outside the bar. There was no movement at first, then out stepped a man easily in his 50's wearing a shirt, tie, and a thigh long leather coat. Maybe it was the tiredness and lack of food, but for a brief moment I found myself actually kinda admiring his coat. I snapped back to reality when I made the decision that this must be the Major. I watched him move into the bar and I started making a plan in my head. Go on Max, get in there and teach the old man a lesson!
Somehow I knew that it wouldn't be that straightforward, and as I ran various scenarios through my mind, I noticed that three or four drunks all left together, staggering off down the sidewalk. I waited for a couple of minutes, took a massive deep breath, then headed into the bar.