Plot summary
Marcus Reed is a gang member who inherited his incarcerated father's criminal empire in New York City.
Several years later, Reed is betrayed by a friend and assumed dead after an ambush. Covered in blood and injured,
Reed shows up unexpectedly at the traitor's house to exact revenge. After a bloody, running gunfight with gang members,
Reed corners the betrayer in a building basement and guns him down. Dropping his empty Uzi, Reed is almost shot and killed
by another gang member, but an NYPD detective named Terry Higgins saves Reed.
Isaiah Reed (Marcus' father) and Higgins have been friends for a long time. Higgins tells Reed that he should be ashamed
of the level he's sunk to. Although Reed willingly offers to allow Higgins to arrest him, Higgins refuses. He says that
he's going to cover up Reed's involvement in the shoot-out, but this will be his final chance to clean up his act before
he's left to the mercy of the NYPD. Reed agrees, and shuffles off to tend to his injuries. As he does so, Higgins sighs
and says, "Merry Christmas."