Chapter 10: Retribution
The engine quietly hummed as the PCJ 2003 motorcycle sped through the empty city streets. Jack felt heavy with all the equipment he had, and struggled to hold his head up with the thick helmet on. He momentarily checked the radar between the handlebars and rode toward the blip on the screen.
He looked at the transparent digital clock readout on the helmets computerized visor. It was just past 1 AM. He had been riding at full speed for almost a half an hour before he realized the blip had stopped. He was making sure not to let the Cartel know he was following them, so he wasnt trying to catch up with them just yet.
He pulled over to the side of the road, and pressed some buttons on the helmet. Bringing up a menu, he managed to connect to the motorcycles computer. He brought up a transparent GPS system on his visor, and narrowed Vince's position down to Shoreside Vale. It wasn't too far away from where he was.
Jack kept the interactive map up, and started off on the bike again. He soon saw the Cochrane Dam. He parked the bike under a tree, and made sure no one was watching him. People would be alarmed of him carrying two submachine guns at his sides.
He walked over to a spot overlooking the whole of Cochrane Dam. He got out his military binoculars, and tried to locate where Vince's signal was coming from. It was coming directly from the bottom of the dam wall. He could make out the same cars he had seen at the construction site. No one was outside, so Jack assumed they were all inside the dam facility.
So that's where the base of operations is, Jack thought.
He decided it would be easier to see what was going on from the other side of the river. He got on the motorcycle again, and drove on the dams road. When he reached the end, he again hid his bike, and was much closer to the dam facility.
He went into thermal vision, and found about 30 people within the building, and about 4 guards hidden around outside. Most of the people inside were scattered around, but he focused in on one large room where it seemed a man was hanging from the ceiling, bound by his hands.
Jack brought up the menu on the helmet, and focused in on that one spot. He activated the wave receiver, and after a few failed attempts, he managed to hear exactly was going on in that room.
Jack heard repetitive punching sounds mixed in with pained grunts.
"You can stop the pain by telling me what I want to know," said a woman voice with a Columbian accent. It must have been that Catalina woman from the construction site.
Silence.
"You fool," Catalina said, "Your silence can only bring you more pain. Miguel, take him away. Later we will show him how much power this dam generates."
Jack watched the large heat figure of Miguel lower Vince's beaten body down. Vince attempted to retaliate as he did so, but Miguel controlled him with a massive strike to Vince's back.
Miguel hauled Vince's body down the hallway, and Jack looked around for Maria. She was sleeping in a room far off to another side of the building. She didnt look like she was harmed so far, and Jack felt a small surge of relief.
He quickly moved the binoculars back to Miguel dragging Vince across the ground. He had taken him across the building to the same room as Maria. He opened the door and threw him in with her.
Maria suddenly woke up and took Vince in her arms. She put him up against the wall and laid her head upon his. Jack targeted the helmet's wave receiver to hear what was going on. All he heard was Maria crying.
At that moment, Jack didn't want anything more than to save them. He just didnt know how. Tommy had Vince's position, but knew Tommy would not send out anyone for help until the Salvatore incident cooled down. The police was Jacks next choice, but then realized the Cartel might kill either Vince or Maria if the police were alerted. Jack didnt want a hostage situation with them involved. Moreover, if the police found Vince, they might trace him back to the Vercetti Alliance.
Jack knew what he had to do. He was the only one who could save them. But how would he save them by himself?
The only entrance to the facility was a large gate that was locked, and had a camera watching over it. He thought about infiltrating the facility by going down the dam wall, but knew hed be spotted.
He decided to gather as much intelligence about the area as he could. He focused on every person and listened to conversation. In his limited knowledge of the Spanish language, Jack found out they were opening the gates around 8 AM to let some cargo trucks out. He figured that would be his only chance of getting inside, so he'd have to wait until morning.
Until then, Jack put his back up against the wall, and kept his visor focused on Vince and Marias position. He would be alerted if anything happened to them.
As he watched, through infrared sensors, the two of them huddling close together against the wall, he felt an emptiness inside. He thought about his own life. When he thought about it, he really had never been loved romantically. Hed had friends along the way, but basically he lived a life of solitude.
He subconsciously assumed Maria had feelings for him, and deep down, he knew he had feelings for her too. It just never hit him how much she meant to him, until he realized she was with someone else. The realization of that was somehow devastating to Jack, and he didnt know why. He didnt care for relationships much, but he wondered why this bothered him the way it did.
Jack thought about this and many other things as he sat there for hours. At one point, he set his helmet to wake him up at 7:45 AM, because he knew he was falling asleep. And so he did, and woke up to a high-pitched noise in his helmet. He scrambled to turn it off, and when he did, he realized it was morning.
He looked around, and was startled to see how visible he was sitting there alongside the road. He was lucky no one had seen him. He snuck behind a bush, and surveyed the facility again.
Maria was still in the same room she was in before, but Vince was gone. Jack looked around the building, and found a figure strapped to a vertical table in the center of a large room, where about 10 people watched him. Jack brought up the audio.
"One more," Catalina said, "It is pleasing to see you in such pain."
One Columbian turned switch, and Vince body started to convulse spastically. Jack heard him cry in pain, as he seemed to be electrocuted while strapped down to a vertical table.
Catalina laughed, "If we do this too much, your heart will explode. I wouldnt want that to happen, now would I?" She same close to his face as the machine turned off, "Tell me what you are doing and who you work for, and I can make your death quick and painless."
Vince just hung there, limp and beaten.
"Then I think we should use some more motivating techniques, no?" Catalina said.
Jack heard noises from Maria's room, for he had focused the sound receptors to receive from her room and where Vince was being tortured at the same time. He saw Maria kneeling down on the ground with her face in her hands, and he heard her crying thoroughly. Meanwhile, a Columbian brought a large blade up to Vince, and cut him on his chest.
"Aaahh!" Vince screamed with weariness in his voice.
"The torture of 100 cuts," Catalina said, "If you dont tell me what I want to know, I will make each one of those 100 cuts as painful as possible, and make sure youre still alive for even more torture." Silence. "Miguel. She ordered Miguel to cut Vince surgically and repeatedly."
Jack heard Vince's cries and wailing, but also suddenly heard Maria talking in the other room. At first he couldnt make out what she was saying, until he brought up the volume from her.
"...Thy Will be done,"she said shakily, "on earth, as it is in heaven..."
Jack realized she was praying to God for Vince, who at that moment was being tortured beyond his threshold. Jack could hear Vince slowly dying with each cut and scream.
"...Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses..."
Jack heard Catalina mock Vince once more, "The legendary assassin. Look at him now. The angel of death helpless. Actually, we are doing the world a favor. The world must have hated you. It won't miss you when you die."
"...As we forgive those who trespass against us..."
The other Columbians mocked Vince too, by laughing in his face, spitting on him, and spilling liquor all over his wounds.
"...Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil..."
Jack couldn't take this anymore. He impulsively jumped onto his motorcycle and began to ready his gear. He turned on the battle vision on the helmet's visor. He readied his weapons to fire.
He started the bike, and down the road to the gate. It was open for the cargo trucks to leave, and two guards stood by. Jack drove by while blasting his gun, killing the both of them.
He stopped his bike, and let his visor target every single person at the dam. They were all Cartel members. He knew he was probably in over his head, but shook that off his mind. They began to come out of the building, and shoot at Jack from the distance.
Jack fired up the motorcycle and rode at them shooting his left submachine gun at the doorway. They were all close together, so he managed to take many of them down. As he got closer, they began to almost hit him with gunfire, so he pulled the motorcycle up into a wheelie, while still shooting with his left submachine gun.
Bullets hit dangerously near to him, and some hit the bottom of the motorcycle. He made sure to use the motorcycle as a shield, but knew his clip was running out and he was getting too close to them already.
He took off his grenade strap and wrapped it around the handlebars. He let go off the bars, and let the motorcycle spin into the doorway. He rolled on the ground, and laid there while shooting with his right submachine gun at the Cartel members. He took out all of the ones outside, but many more were coming from the doorway.
He aimed his gun at the motorcycle with the grenades still strapped to it, and shot it until it exploded in front of the doorway. He used that as cover, and ran behind a cargo box to reload. He put new clips in each of his guns, spun around, and shot at the smoke in front of the doorway.
He ran while shooting, until he dove through the smoke and into the facility. Dead Columbians were littered all over the floor, but some were running at him from down the hallway. Jack took a Columbian's Uzi and shot them down.
Jack picked up two Uzis from the dead guards and cautiously made his way through the hallways. He used his battle vision to detect threats, and was one step ahead of the game when people tried to attack him.
He finally came to where Maria was, and detected a Cartel member coming from each end of the hallway. Jack fired at the first one to come around, with his right gun, then crossed over his left gun to shoot the guard at the other end. When they were dead, he busted down Maria's door. Jack saw the horrified look on her face when he came in. She didnt know it was him, because of his helmet.
"Maria, its me, Jack," Jack said, looking around for any other enemy Cartel members, "I'm here to rescue you."
"Jack?" she sprung to hug him.
"Maria, we dont have time for this," Jack pulled her along. "We have to find Vince. Stay close to me."
Jack quickly ran toward where Vince was, but made sure to protect Maria. He glanced behind him and scanned for anyone. One guard did appear behind them, and Jack pushed Maria out of the way while loading a rain of bullets into the Columbian.
They finally made it to the room where Vince was, and Jack used his headset to see what he would confront inside. Vince was still strapped to the electric torture machine in the middle, and three guards surrounded him.
Jack motioned for Maria to stay in the hallway, and she reluctantly nodded in agreement. He pressed himself against the wall near the doorway, and took out two flashbang grenades.
Sorry Vince, I know youve had enough torture, but this is going to be blinding and deafening. Jack thought as he armed the grenades.
Maria shut her eyes and covered her ears as Jack threw them into the room. Jack immediately activated the senseless feature in the helmet to protect him from the grenades. He waited for only two seconds, turned the helmet back on, and burst into the room with both his guns aimed to fire.
The three guards keeled over holding their eyes and ears. Jack ran to the two on his right, threw away their guns and knocked them out with a heavy blow to the back of their heads with his guns. The other guard began to shoot blindly in every direction, and Jack instantly shot him apart with his two submachine guns.
Jack ran to Vince, who was in a worse condition than Jack had imagined. Jack had only seen his tattered body through infrared, but in person, he looked beaten beyond human capacity. His skin was not even visible anymore. He was painted dark red all over from his dried blood. His face made him unrecognizable, and he didnt even seem to be breathing.
"Vince, Vince," Jack said, as he unlatched him, "It's me, Jack. Can you hear me?"
It was useless. Jack felt his pulse, which was just barely normal. He was alive, but was unconscious. Jack slowly lowered him down, and looked him over for any areas of mortal wounds. It didnt seem so from the outside, but it was obvious there must have been major internal bleeding, as most of the blood on Vince came from out of his mouth.
As Jack was busy with Vince, he had totally ignored the helmet computer screen, until it was too late. A dark red arrow to the right of the screen meant an enemy was close by, and Jack's guns were out of quick reach.
"So, you thought you could save him," Jack heard Catalina behind him. "Valiant effort, but I'm afraid you have just wasted your time and your life. Turn around so we can see who you are before I kill you. Go ahead and try something stupid, I kill you either way."
Jack slowly turned around to see Catalina hold a gun pointed at his head, and Miguel far off in the doorway with his arms crossed.
"Take your stupid helmet off," Catalina said.
Jack slowly unlatched the helmet, feeling a sense of relief overshadowed by overbearing fear.
"YOU?!" Catalina almost put her gun down in shock. "YOU YOURE SUUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!"
Then Jack knew it. This was the same woman who had set him up in the bank robbery years ago, and left him to drown in a river. Jack had no chance of killing her. She was just close enough to hit him easily, and far enough that he couldnt reach her gun. His guns hung at his side, and much too far from his hands. Jack accepted that he was finally out of luck, and cursed himself into believing he could pull off something like this.
"Doesn't matter anyway." Catalina said, with a smile, "If you didn't die before, then I'll get to kill you and the legendary assassin right now. This will show that Cortez that we are unstoppable... Goodbye."
Gunshots.
Jack felt an adrenaline rush like nothing he had ever felt before. Everything went by so fast, yet everything went by so slowly. Million of thoughts ran through his mind as his body tensed for deadly impact. He had closed his eyes, waiting for the bullets to pierce his body, but they never came.
It had only been one second, but it felt like hours. He opened his eyes, realizing he had not been shot at all. Did she miss? How could she possibly miss? If she did, she would shoot again, and definitely hit him this time. Maybe she shot Vince first. That meant he was still in for death.
Interrupting his frenzied panic, he saw Catalina fall forward toward him, shooting once, almost hitting him, then falling to the ground. Her side was riddled with bullet holes, and Jack instinctively dove on the ground away from her, taking hold of his guns and pointing in the direction of gunfire.
To Jack's surprise, it was Maria standing in the doorway. She was frozen there, still pointing the guards submachine gun at Catalina's dead body. Maria had saved Jack.
"Maria?" Jack said, not believing Maria had actually killed Catalina.
"Jack... I-I killed her," Maria said, still looking at Catalina's body.
Jack, Maria, and Miguel all stared at Catalinas corpse in shock. Then Jack saw Miguel frantically pull out a pistol out from his belt.
"Maria, get down!" Jack yelled as he ran sideways toward her, shooting his guns in Miguels direction.
Miguel fired two missed shots at Maria and ran from the doorway, as the bullets from Jack's guns rained on it. Jack ran out of bullets, but stayed close to Maria and took her gun. Jack didnt know whether he had hit him or not. He shot a quick glance at Vince lying near Catalina's corpse and hoped he was still okay. He saw, through the large glass window overlooking the dam, Miguel and another Columbian mercenary running toward a helicopter outside.
"Stay here with Vince," Jack turned to a perpetually frightened Maria, "I have to go after them. Find a way out of here before the cops come."
"Wait," Maria said as Jack began to run off. She pulled Jack to her and kissed him intensely.
He backed away after a few seconds, not knowing how to feel, given the radical amount of emotions he was going through at the moment.
"We'll get out fine," she looked at him worriedly, "Just be careful, Jack."
At that, Jack raced outside, as he heard the helicopter beginning to start. He ran out into the bright morning day, and Miguel was shooting his pistol at Jack from the helicopter. Jack hid behind a crate and tried to stop the helicopter from taking off, but the submachine gun's low caliber bullets hardly damaged it.
Miguel seemed to run out of bullets too, but the helicopter was beginning to take off. Jack couldnt let them leave, so he ran as fast as he could toward it. Miguel yelled at the pilot to leave, as Jack was nearing the helicopter door. Miguel was about to shut it, when Jack threw a smoke bomb directly at him.
The smoke bomb exploded in the chopper, and distracted both Miguel and the pilot. Jack jumped in, pummeling Miguel into the wall. The helicopter was airborne, and the smoke bomb fell out the open door.
Jack ran to the pilot, when Miguel grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him into the back of the hull. Jack hit the wall hard, but recovered in time to duck from a massive punch, meant to impact his face. Miguels fist instead dented the wall, and Jack took that opportunity to jab him in the groin.
Miguel yelped in pain and kneed Jack square in the chest. Miguels fist was about to come down on Jacks head, when Jack dodged it. He used Miguels momentum to reach around his back, and knee him in the stomach. Jack threw his leg behind Miguels leg, and pushed him down.
Miguel slammed the back of his fist into Jacks face as he fell. Jack nearly blacked out, and crashed into the closed door. As Miguel got up, Jack grabbed the handrail above him and pulled himself up to kick Miguel in the face. Miguel fell back and out of the open door. Jack heard him scream as he flew out. Jack looked out and watched Miguel plummet into the roof of an apartment complex below.
"Keep flying." Jack said to the pilot, who was looking back in fear, "Land me on top of a building. Any building."
The pilot cooperatively landed on top of another apartment complex, and Jack told the pilot to get down with him. He and Jack walked into the building, and took the stairs down. Jack made sure the mercenary stayed in front of him, just in case he tried to do anything funny.
Eventually, Jack kicked him down a flight of stairs and left him there. Jack ran to the lobby and went outside. He stepped into the street, breathing heavily, and wondering what he would do then. He wondered what had happened to Maria and Vince. He hoped they had gotten out safely.
He walked down the sidewalk, once again not believing how he had survived or how many he killed
People on the street looked at him with curiosity, with the reconnaissance suit and equipment he wore. He thought about how different he was from them. He knew this feeling all too well. He was different, and he was terrified at the fact he couldnt escape it...
