FALLEN ACES

Immersive noir, with a hand-drawn look

- Ian Evenden

The wiseguys came for me just after I woke up. I just had time to answer the phone - a warning that I was going to get whacked - and read a pamphlet on boxing left on the counter before they kicked in the door. Then I beat them with a bat.

That was the first time. It didn't end well. I left my apartment and got into the elevator, heading down to the lobby door like the guy on the phone said. But there were goons everywhere. Some didn't see me, so I could take 'em out quiet like, but others were hunting for me. I could hear them coming. So I crouched down, so they couldn't see me. Didn't work all the time though, sometimes I got in a rumble.

Just like the way I found a baseball bat in the closet of my apartment, there are weapons everywhere in this tower block if you know where to look. Like my old pal Dick Ray-Tracing says, "I knew one thing: as soon as anyone said you didn't need a gun, you'd better take one along that worked." But I didn't have a gun. I had a lead pipe, a board with a nail in it, a pipe wrench like I'm Adrian Shephard.