Max Payne

CHAPTER 3: Playing It Bogart

LUPINO'S MOTEL
"Lupino ran his racket of sex, drugs and contract killings from a sleazy motel and a slum block of tenements. The NYPD was closing in, I could hear the sirens. Their wail was a crescendo, Lupino thought he could get us by taking Alex out and leaving me to take the fall for it. All he had gotten was my attention, I went for the hotel first. It was a sad all thing, with flickering lamps and faded colours, cheap mobster punks and tired eyed prostitutes. I walked straight in, playing it bogart, like I'd done hundred times before. The place was run by a couple of murdering mobsters, with shark smiles.. The Finito Brothers"

FINITO #1: Ladies an' Gentlemen, it's the pain in the butt
FINITO #2: Pain to the Max!
MAX: You're killing me. Did you make that up yourselves or did you get some wino downstairs to come up with it? Don't answer that, A rhetorical question. I've got something for the boss, Lupino around?
FINITO #1: That kinda depends on who's askin' A friend.. Or a junk squad plant! But don't answer... It's one of em' how'd ya put it... Rhetorical questions. Lupino ain't here, but he says bye.

"Lupino wasn't in his cheap motel. Instead, I ran into the Finito Brothers. My cover had been blown, the doors slammed shut behind me and I was dodging bullets like raindrops"

FINITO # 1: Pain in the butt.. Haha.. Pain to the max. Junk squad pig, gotta ticket to marble city for ya.
FINITO #2: Eat First and lyin' down!

The Finito's pull Desert Eagles out of their jackets and prepare to shoot. Max jumps behind a wall near the double door. This was not Max's night to play around. Max loads his Beretta quickly and jumps forward. The Finito's keep shooting but the bullets miss and hit the walls. Max fires at both of the Finito's and they hit the ground hard. Both are now stone cold dead, the Finito's were gone. Near their bodies, a note lay on the table. "I had met Lupino only once. The gangster ran all his rackets through his right hand man, Vinnie Gognitti. Gognitti was a high strung whiner on the verge of breaking apart like an overamped engerizer bunny. He had the brains to run the business but he lacked the balls, always falling short, taking his frustration out on under aged addicts and call girls" Max reads the letter on the table.

LUPINO: The V-Deal goes down at yer hotel. Vinnie you're in charge of this one, Rico Muerte's coming to see it through. Anything goes wrong, an everybody's gonna get dead. Goes double for you. Treat this guy real good, Anything he wants, ya give him. Don't screw this up or yer finito, Finito's.

"A V-deal meant added security, locked doors and lots of nervous thugs with itchy trigger fingers. I had seen nothing coming in, but that didn't mean it hadn't been there. Rico Muerte was a regular Keyster Soze, a spook story told to keep the apes in line. 313, the Finito's had scribbled Muerte's room number on the nitr margin" Everything is quiet in the Finito's office until knocks can be heard at the door. Voices of concern can be heard on the otherside, Max hides behind the wall near the doors.

THUG #1: Bosses? everything alright in there? Bosses, Joey, Virgilio? There not answering, call the others. Tell me to come quick.
THUG #2: Okay, but we can't wait or them, we gotta go in now.
THUG #1: Bosses, we're coming in.

The doors swing open and the thugs run in. The all stand behind the wall Max is hiding behind. Max feels the wall and it's a hollow concrete wall and gets an idea. His thought is to shoot the wall and the bullets should break through. If he's right he wins and if it doesn't work, it's game over. Max tries his luck and blasts through the wall, the screams of the thugs surround the room and they drop to the ground. This room was just full of bodies, Max couldn't stay here long or trouble would occur. Max leaves the room and heads to the nearby elevator but there is no response. He tries the staircase but the doors are jammed. "Getting out was not going to be easy. The staircase was locked and the elevator had been busted for a decade or more" Max was going to have to head through the hotel quietly and hope to not cause attention. He heads out of the hallway and into a room in which the Finito's stayed in. The room was messy, clothes everywhere, drinks smashed on the floor. On the table a radio is working and catches Max's attention. He decides to listen to it.