Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Rewrite)

Chapter 10: Mall Shootout

Tommy finally made his way in the parking lot in Ocean Bay Marina and parked in the parking lot. He hopped out of his vehicle and walked over to the colonel's yacht. As Tommy boarded the stationary yacht, he looked around to see where Colonel Cortez was at. There were a few guests on board, including a maid, but Cortez was nowhere in sight.

"Tommy!" he finally heard Cortez call. He turned back to find the colonel sitting in a lounging chair. "Come, join me."

Tommy walked closer to Cortez. "This looks delicious, huh?" Cortez said pointing to a large snout resting on the small table by his left side. "Tapir snout?"

"Uhhh... no, no," Tommy replied. "No, thanks."

"Tommy, you are like a pampas breeze that has freed me from the stench of corruption," Cortez told Tommy, "although, I must appear to mourn his passing and carry on with business as usual."

"This isn't getting me any closer to my money... " Tommy reminded.

"Tommy, my friend," Cortez continued, "you are not in Liberty now. Here we do things differently. I will continue with my enquiries but in the meantime I have a valuable deal to close."

"A favor for a friend, Cortez?" Tommy asked, folding his arms across his broad chest.

"You're a good friend, Tommy," Cortez responded. "I knew you would not let me down. I need you to meet a courier who has obtained some valuable technology for me... "

Tommy didn't have time to argue. He was so determined to getting his money that he was not in the rush to run errands for others. But Tommy thought better of it and decided to comply to Colonel Cortez's favor.

Tommy exited the yacht and made his way to the parking lot. He was told to meet a courier at a mall on Washington Beach. Colonel Cortez have given Tommy the address to the mall: 2102, Washington Street. So he hopped inside his Infernus and started the engine.

Tommy rolled through the parking lot and onto the road of Ocean Beach, making a left turn. He drove through the curvy road and made a left turn to Washington Beach, driving straight ahead and into the parking lot of the Washington Mall.

The mall was an open air building. Inside, it had working escalators and two levels of shopping areas. There was also a parking lot on the rooftop with an accessible spiral ramp on the northeastern corner of the outside of the building. Tommy could tell that it wasn't made in over two years, because everything around it looked new.

Tommy put his vehicle in park and hopped out. he made his way inside the mall and casually strolled to the escalators, which he took up to the second floor. As Tommy made it on top, he confronted a French man named Pierre La Ponce.

Pierre La Ponce was a French secret service agent who had contained the guidance chips he had stolen. He was wearing a black beret, purple-and-black polo shirt, and gray dress pants. The French man was looking down from in front of the railing of the second floor and turned around to find Tommy staring at him.

"Ze rain, she is très wet zis time of the year... " Pierre La Ponce said in gratuitous French.

"What?" Tommy asked, twisting his face in confusion.

"Ah, comment?" Pierre La Ponce told him.

"Look, Cortez sent me," Tommy told the secret agent. "Just give me the damn chips."

"Oh...d'accord," Pierre La Ponce replied.

"Freeze, imperialist American pig!" Tommy then heard another French man shouting distantly.

Tommy then looked up to his right to find a couple of French guys wearing helmets and blue suits. They were the French secret service officers from the GIGN.

"Zat iz propertay of ze gouvernment Français. 'and eet over!" one of the officers demanded.

"You American idiot!" Pierre La Ponce bragged as he quickly ran down the escalator. "Zey followed you here!"

Tommy then looked around the mall to find that there were more of the officers from the GIGN: guarding the bottom of the escalators, around the second floor, and scattered on the first floor down below. Tommy was being ambushed, and the French secret service agent was escaping with the chips.

"Shoot him!" the GIGN commander ordered his men.

The officers around the mall fired their bullets at Tommy using assault rifles, and Tommy ducked the flying bullets around him as he took the escalator down. On his way down, he used his Kruger to gun down both the officers that were blocking the bottom of the escalator.

Once the two officers were dead, Tommy ducked behind the walls to avoid the bullets fired at him by the GIGN officers, killing them one by one. Tommy then made his way through the exit of the mall and turned to see Pierre La Ponce riding off on his PCJ-600.

Tommy ran to his Infernus and hopped inside, starting the engine in the process. He shifted the vehicle in reverse and drove out of the parking lot to chase the French secret service agent down Washington Beach. He pulled up beside him during the chase and fired at him. Pierre La Ponce though sped ahead.

"Au revoir, you... you crétin!" he bragged, pulling up slightly further away from Tommy. "You eat my dirt!"

Tommy just pulled up beside the French secret service agent and fired more bullets at him. About eight bullets connected, and Pierre La Ponce dropped rapidly from his bike.

Tommy then stopped the car and hopped outside. He walked over to the French man's corpse and pulled the guidance chips out of his pockets. They were still good as new, and Tommy returned to his vehicle to hop inside.

He drove away and made a U-turn to head back south to Ocean Beach. This was becoming a dire mission for him at the moment, and he hoped that he would get something out of this for all his diligence.

Tommy finally made it back to the parking lot of Ocean Bay Marina and put his vehicle in park. He hopped outside of his vehicle and walked over to the docks, where he boarded the yacht to meet Colonel Cortez.

"Good as new, Cortez," Tommy informed, handing the colonel the chips. "The bastard tried to escape with these."

"Nice work, Tommy," Cortez congratulated. "It is very nice to have a diligent man such as yourself put his hard work in need of the assistance to others."

"Anytime," Tommy replied. "Now if you'll excuse me, I got to handle my own business.

So Tommy exited the yacht and walked back to the parking lot to return in his vehicle. Before he attempted to start the engine, he heard his cellphone ringing. Tommy pulled it out of his pocket to answer it.

"Mr. Vercetti," Mr. Black answered. "Get to the payphone in Vice Point."

Tommy sighed. It seemed like another local who was trying to kill Tommy. So as Tommy started the engine, he backed his vehicle up some, put it in drive, and drove forward for the exit of the parking lot. He wasn't just working for the money, he was also working for survival.