Max Payne

CHAPTER 3: With Rats and Oily Water

OUTSIDE THE DOCKS
The storm rages through the air, freezing everything in its path. Just at the end of the docks, a long boat has been anchored. "I had found Boris Dime's ship" He crosses over the snowy bridges and stops at the front of the boat. "Rust had crept over the sides of the cargo steamer a long time ago, Boris Dime would be on board. I'd have to smoke half of his crew to even get near the gang plank. The guns were probably being kept in the hold, buried amidst the rats and oily water" Max pulls out all his guns and reloads all of them, this was going to be a war for the boat. He would be stupid to go to the boats entry plank, many thugs would be guarding. He heads over to the boats anchor and climbs the chains to the side of the boat. As he tries to reach for the last chain, it snaps and falls into the water. Max would have to get off near the middle of the ship as there was no more chain to the top of the ship. Moving from side to side, he jumps and grabs the icy poles. He sneaks behind the ships crates and observes his surroundings. They were crawling all over the ship, one on the pier, one at the top of the ship, one in the ships hold and a couple below the deck. Theirs no way Max could take them all out without getting shot. Walking up to a few containers, he checks to see if any of them open up. Most were locked until he came across the very last container. He opens it up slowly and heads inside, for some reason, the smell of cigarette smoke lingered in the container. Near the entrance of the container,  a voice can be heard shouting.

THUG #1: Dime! Dime! ahhh Dime!

Max looks up and spots a hidden camera zooming towards him. The thug had alerted the surrounding thugs and now know Max is here. He pulls out his gun and smashes the container door open. A couple of thugs come rushing around the corner. One slips over a frozen puddle while the other continues running. Max hides behind another container and prepares his shot. A gunshot is heard next to him, when he looks back at the thugs, it seems the one that slipped got killed by the other thug. Max couldn't hide behind this container for long so he grabs a nearby crate and climbs on top of it to get to the top of the containers. If only there was a way to trapped them all without sinking the ship. Suddenly Max remembers he has a grenade that was giving to him by Vladamir during the drive here. Then he gets an idea, the grenade wouldn't cause enough damage but the impact of the explosion could make the containers crash onto each other. Proving his theory, he takes the ring of the grenade and throws it into the previous container he was in. Total silence in the air for a minute until it explodes. The containers begin to crash and roll over on to each other, squishing any remainder thugs that were guarding between the ships deck. The amount of times, Max had gotten luck during his police run was unthinkable, how long could he keep this up. Without hesitation, Max hopes down off the remaining containers and climbs up the ships deck. He enters the ships cabin and looks around. The controls for the ship were offline due to the storm and the emergency exit had been boarded up, no way in and no way out for Boris Dime. Suddenly the ships phone rings, Max walks up to it and picks it up.

VOICE: Dime? Angelo Punchinello here.
MAX: Angie! Tell me, how much did Dime cost you? I bet it was more than his name.
ANGELO: Max Payne!!
MAX: Right the first time.
ANGELO: Your dead, punk!
MAX: You sure you're not confusing me with Boris here? But you are right of course. Pretty soon, we should get together and have a talk.
ANGELO: You son of a....

Before Angelo Punchinello could finish his threat, Max slams the phone down. "Pissing Punchinello off was a dangerous game, but when people get mad, they make mistakes. I should know. That's where I wanted Punchinello, mad enough to trip over his own feet, preferably into a grave" Max walks to the back of the cabin and find the holds doors. He pulls it open a few times until it clicks and flies open. Below the door was a staircase going down to the bottom of the ship. Max slowly walks down and pulls his gun close to his waist. When he reaches the bottom, he finds the holds entrance. He kicks the door open straight ahead from Max, Dime stands still holding machine gun at the door.

DIME: Tell the gentleman, Dime sent you.

He begins to fire his machine gun at Max. He quickly jumps behind the door and prepares his kill shot. Its just him and Max now, let the gun fight begin. Max pulls himself inside and begins firing his gun at Dime until he decides to retreat to the boiler room. Max quickly runs to the room before he finds an escape route. When he gets to the boiler room, the room goes back and no sound can be heard. The lights power on but in a blood red colour, something out of a horror movie. Max slowly walks towards the middle of the room when he falls to the ground. When he turns around Boris is standing there with his hands out. He pulls his hands on Max's neck and begins to strangle him. Max couldn't breath, he could feel his blood getting thicker and his air supply running out fast. Suddenly the loudspeakers begin to make noises. Boris stops choking Max and and gets up to investigate where the loudspeaker is. As he's distracted, Max looks to his side, his blurring vision was helping the situation. Near his body, a metal pipe sits. He quickly reaches it and gets back on his feet. He carefully sneaks toward Boris and swings with all his might, cracking the skull of Boris. He falls to the ground and stops moving. Max catches his breath again and moves to the back of the boiler room. Inside the room, supplies and a bunch of guns lay scattered across the room. Max had found Vladamir's supplies, then the loudspeaker turns back on and a familiar voice begins to speak. It seems Vladamir had found his way onto the ship.

VLADAMIR: You know how to handle yourself. Anybody who says different is calling me a liar, Vladamir here. Collect all the guns and ammo you want, meet me on the bridge afterwards.

Max grabs the bags of heavy guns and ammo and heads out back to the deck. At the bottom of the pier, Vladamir sits inside his car.

VLADAMIR: Did you get everything you need?
MAX: Check
VLADAMIR: I owe you one. Anything you need..
MAX: This is my solo. When I'm through, Punchinello won't be anybody's problem anymore.
VLADAMIR: Clear as Vodka, but anytime you get between a rock and a hard place, just whistle. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
MAX: You really get a bang out of this big time gangster act, don't you?

Vladamir starts the cars engine and drives Max back into New York City.