An Old Friend
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, nor do I make a profit.
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This was not a good day to be Ken Rosenburg. It wasn't a good day to even be associated with Ken Rosenburg. Now he may have had a reputation for being a hack and having to rely on bribery to keep a client out of jail but this was different. To briefly summerise he had just had a drug deal he was overseeing be ambushed where his client had left 3 million in cash in order to survive. 3 million dollars, which was borrowed from the head of the Liberty City mafia family the Forellis
"I stick my head out of the gutter for one freaking second and fate shovels shit in my face." He hissed, pulling into the alley right next to his office.
"Go get some sleep." Tommy Vercetti told him, placing a hand on his back.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'll drop by your office tomorrow and we can start sorting this mess out." He said, almost shoving Ken out of the car, looking both ways before running straight through the main door of his office. The gangster shifted across into the driver's seat and began to drive off for his own little safe house.
"We interrupt this broadcast for a message from the state department. All bridges in the Vice City metropolitan area have been closed due to a severe weather warning, meteorologists are tracking hurricane Hermione which has devastated 5 Caribbean Islands and is heading for Vice City" The radio blared, interrupting Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" mid-chorus, much to the annoyance of Tommy as he drove down the neon lighted streets of Vice City for the first time. Harry had said there was a hotel for the three of them with each person having his own room to avoid any awkward situations, but now that he was dead that would have been more money wasted on this trip. As he pulled up to the Ocean View hotel he shook his head slightly remembering that he had to phone Sonny
"Name?" The receptionist asked, not looking up from whatever he was reading.
"Vercetti, Tommy Vercetti."
"Ah mister Vercetti, your room is up the stairs on the right, room 203." He said handing him his room key and pointing the way towards the stairs, something you'd have to be blind not to notice but as he climbed he thought he could hear a telephone ringing, on the right hand side and aw crap.
"Hello?" He asked, guessing who would be calling a room that only a few people living knew he had.
"Tommy! It's been too long." A Liberty City accent exclaimed over the lines. Of course it was Sonny, the receptionist wouldn't bother phoning a room this soon after taking the key and Ken had probably locked himself in a toilet or something.
"..."
"I know, I know, you're just overwhelmed with excitement. 15 years... seems like only yesterday." Sonny
"I guess that's a perspective."
"Hey, Tommy doing time for the family is no easy business but the family looks after its own. So how's everything in Florida? Sitting on some white gold?" Sonny asked with a smile on his face, all the way back in Liberty, he had no idea how badly things had gone, but Tommy had a good idea of how badly he was going to take the bad news.
"Sonny..."
"Hey I know that the families don't like dealing in drugs but you can tell me, the Forelli family keeps an open mind for these sorts of deals. Anything to stop those freaking Japs getting power here, am I right?"
"Sonny we were set up. The deal was an ambush, Harry and Lee are dead." Tommy said, sounding like someone who had resigned to what was about to come.
"You better be kidding me Tommy, tell me you still got the money. You still got the money."
"No Sonny, I don't have the money." Tommy confessed
"THAT WAS MY MONEY TOMMY! MY! MONEY!" Sonny shouted before throwing his phone down hard enough for Tommy to wince at the sound. "You better not be screwing me Tommy because you know I'm not a man to be screwed with!" he continued, picking the phone back up
"Wait! Sonny, you have my personal assurance that I'm gonna get the money back, and the drugs and I'm gonna mail you the dicks of those who did it."
"Your right Tommy... your not a fool but I got to warn you: if it was anyone else, they'd be dead for this. But because its you, because of our history together, I'm gonna let it slide for now."
"Sonny, you have my word."
"Good, hope to hear the good news soon." Sonny whispered back, before calmly this time setting the phone down. Now it was Tommy's turn to throw his phone in frustration, fuck room service it wouldn't be worth having Sonny breath both down his neck and in his ear until this mess cleaned out, what this needed was a bit of time to think.
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"Go get some sleep he says... ha ha... sleep," Ken Rosenburg laughed sarcastically, his eyes tired and his hands shaky as he paced around the office. In hindsight, if he wanted time to think maybe coming to the now paranoid Lawyer's office was not the best idea in the world "I have been sitting in this office, with the lights off drinking coffee. This is a disaster: We are so screwed man, so fucking screwed, these Mafia gorillas are going to come down and bite my head off, I did not go to law school for this."
"Shut up." Tommy said as calmly as possible given the amount of stress the past 24 hours had given him. "Sit down, and I'm gonna tell you how we're going to solve this." much to Tommy's slight surprise, Ken pretty much snapped out of his panic, sat down as instructed and looked at Tommy hopefully "We find out who took our cocaine, and then I'm gonna kill them."
"That's a good idea... that's a great idea! Let me think...oh! There's this retired colonel: Colonel Juan Garcia Cortez, he helped me set up the deal far away from all of Vice City's established thugs. If you want a lead, he's our best bet and speaking of which, he's holding a party on his private yacht and all of Vice City's big players are going to be there. I have an invite, of course I have an invite. But there is no freaking way I'm sticking my head out the door..."
"I said shut up! I'll go to the party personally, you just sit tight." Tommy said, taking the invitation ticket out of the lawyer's hands and turning to lead. If this Cortez guy had set things up beforehand maybe he could use that to get an ally in this town... a deal gone south would have been a nasty black mark on his record as a concierge.
"Whoa whoa whoa, you can't go looking like that. I like 1970 too but this isn't gonna be some beer and striper party."
"What's wrong with the way I'm dressed?" Tommy asked, slightly offended. It was the 80s right? The 'in' fashion was a lot less tasteful than a simple shirt and jeans so why not just go in that, he'd probably be the least ridiculous looking person there.
"Nothing but you may turn heads the wrong way for the wrong reasons, look here's a tailor, he'll make you look respectable, but tell him I sent you so you can get the first suit on the house. Bastard still owes me for helping him with his tax evasion case... how was I supposed to know the guy had a weed farm?" Ken drifted off, handing Tommy another card before he left the office, it read 'Raphael's boutique and tailor, for the sophisticated party-goer'.
What's with this prick? Now I have to dress like a chump as well as hang out with him? I like this shirt.
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AN: Did anyone else notice that the radio in VC if you take Ken Rosenburg's car always plays Billy Jean? Or is it just co-incidence that both the PS2 and PC versions did this to me?
