Rev eyed Doc Hogarth carefully. The Doc was a balding man in his late fifties who operated a small clinic near Bartertown. He had gained a small degree of notoriety in the area for being able to do nearly any medical procedure, if the price was right. He was also the street doc who had patched Rev up after his... falling out with his former associates. As such, he owed the somewhat eccentric doctor a rather large sum of money, which is what had brought him to Hogarth's clinic that day.
"You said you had a job for me," Rev said, "What is it?"
Doc Hogarth smiled. "Oh, nothing much," he replied, "But it would go a ways towards paying off your debt to me. My sources have informed me that Shiroko-Tsuhi is expecting a shipment of medical equipment tonight. It's nothing particularly groundbreaking or top-secret, but it's better than the stuff I currently have, so I'd like you to hijack the shipment and bring it here."
Rev chuckled. "Oh, is that all?" he asked dryly, "How heavily guarded is this shipment gonna be?"
"As I said, it is standard medical equipment, so it will be arriving by armored car. There will be about four guards, including the driver. Nothing you shouldn't be able to handle, and I'd be very appreciative if you did me this favor."
Rev leaned back in the chair he was sitting on, raising one eyebrow. "Just how grateful are we talking here?" he asked. "I was hoping to be debt-free again by the end of the year."
"Grateful to the tune of three thousand five hundred," Doc replied, "And that is non-negotiable. You are free to decline if you wish, but I can't afford to subtract any more than that from what you owe me."
Rev sighed. It was always like this when the doc wanted him to do something. Stubborn old bastard would never budge on prices, always holding Rev's debt over his head. He'd be extremely glad once the whole thing was paid.
"Fine," he said, "I'll do it. What are the details?"
Hogarth smiled. "The shipment is coming in from the west. Its route will pass closest to the Gate at around eleven o'clock. I've arranged for your transportation into Neo York proper, but getting back in with the shipment will be your concern. Understood?"
Rev nodded. "Got it."
"Excellent," Hogarth said, "There's a boat waiting for you near Brooklyn Bridge. Take it across the river and head for the area marked on this map." He handed Rev a crumpled road map; "The shipment will be there on or around eleven. One more thing: I don't pay for broken merchandise, so remember to drive as carefully as you can, hmm?"
Rev grimaced. "Yeah, I'll do that." That said, he got up and headed out of the clinic.
A few hours later, Rev was lying in wait for the armored car. The trip into Neo York had been uneventful, but it had given him time to formulate an idea of how to hijack the shipment. It wasn't a terribly elaborate plan, but he figured it would work pretty well. He looked at his watch. It was 10:54. The armored car would be arriving any minute...
Suddenly a slate gray van with the Shiroko-Tsuhi logo on it came around the corner and headed towards him. 'Here we go,' Rev thought, lighting the wick of the Molotov cocktail he was holding and lobbing it into the path of the oncoming armored car.
As flames erupted right in front of it, the armored car skidded to a halt. The driver and a guard on the passenger's side got out to investigate, and two other guards emerged from the back of the armored car to cover them. Rev, still hidden behind the guardrail, wasted no time. Quickly, he drew out his Beretta and put one shot into each of them. Once all the guards were down, Rev got into the armored vehicle and drove away as fast as he could, heading towards the Gate.
Rev sighed slightly in relief as he sped away, but he knew the hard part was still yet to come. He knew he didn't have very long until Shiroko-Tsuhi realized their shipment wasn't coming in and called the cops, and it was still a good twenty minutes until he got to the gate. 'Thank God there's not much traffic here tonight,' he thought to himself as he turned at the exit that would lead to the Gate.
No sooner had he made the turn than he began to see the flashing lights of police cars. "This is NYPD Incorporated," a voice said over a bullhorn. "You are under arrest. Pull over!"
"Fat chance, pal," Rev muttered to himself, stepping on the accelerator. The armored car couldn't go very fast, but he wasn't worried about getting caught by the cops. He wasn't going to pull over, and he was in an armored vehicle, so he wasn't too worried about them opening fire, either. He continued to make his way towards the gate, just managing to stay ahead of his pursuers, weaving between the sparse late-night traffic.
It wasn't until the Gate came in sight that Rev began worrying. It appeared NYPD Inc. had radioed ahead and called for a roadblock to be set up. There were about four paddy wagons lined up between him and the entrance to the Zone. "Dammit!" he cursed under his breath. If he tried to go through the roadblock, he could damage the equipment, not to mention seriously injure or even kill himself, but if he stopped, he'd get arrested for sure. "Oh well," he said to himself, "No sense in taking the path of least resistance." His decision made, he floored the accelerator and headed straight for the roadblock.
The expressions on some of the cops' faces were almost worth the severe jarring he got as he crashed into the roadblock and barreled straight past. The last crash through the roadblock also shattered the armored car's windshield, peppering Rev with small shard of glass. Biting back a few choice words, Rev sped into the Zone, slowing down gradually so as not to damage the medical equipment. When he came to a complete stop, he slumped down in his seat.
"I have got to stop doing stuff like that," he said, "I wonder if any the stuff in the back is still in one piece?" He shrugged, he'd find out once he got to the clinic. He was more relieved that he'd come out of that alive and un-incarcerated. Maybe he'd get some of his debt erased, and maybe he wouldn't. At least he'd given those cops something tell their kids about, he thought with a wry grin. 'Who knows,' he thought, 'I might even be able to get something for this armored car at one of the local chop shops...' He started the armored car up again and drove down the street, headed back to Doc Hogarth's clinic.
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