Phil strode across the street and up to a patrolman exiting one of the police cruisers. "What's going on?" he asked.
"Sir, I'm going to need you to stay back," the officer warned him.
"I'm a writer for the paper," Phil lied, pulling out a notepad. "I just want to know what's happening in there."
"We got the call from HQ," the patrolman said. "We're taking down the Forelli brothers for extortion. If we play our cards right, we might be able to tie them to the Gambini family and bust them eventually." He looked around. "But I'm gonna ask you to stay away from the building, okay?"
"I've got info from some good sources," Phil said quietly, "that they're holding a little girl and her mother in there as part of a blackmail bid by Gambini."
"No shit?" That seemed to surprise the officer. "We were told there'd be no collaterals."
"Well, make sure the rest of your people know that," Phil said.
"We've lost four or five hostages in various standoffs so far this year," the patrolman replied. "We'll do our best to make sure the trend doesn't continue." He looked around. "Honestly," he said under his breath, "it'd be nice to have that meta vigilante from New York around in situations like this."
Phil nodded. "I bet." He backed away from the row of police cars and headed back toward the diner - after managing to toss a little cube-shaped device under one of the cars.
Two little amber lights on the sides of the box began flashing steadily.
inside
"There's cops outside," Vincent Forelli called to his brother.
Joe Forelli frowned. "Damn." He looked over in the corner, where Diana Piper held her daughter Latisha and looked back at the Forellis inquisitively. "You think Piper talked?"
Vincent shook his head. "Ain't no way. The guy's a softie. He wouldn't even think about double-crossing us. 'Sides, we woulda known by now if something was up."
Joe nodded. "Still, there's cops out there, and they ain't here for no tea and crumpets."
Vincent shrugged. "They're probably bustin' that crack pusher downstairs." He pulled out his phone. "Still, I better let the boys know." He frowned. "What the hell?"
"What?"
Vincent looked at his phone curiously. "I can't get a signal. I've been talkin' on this phone all day, and now it doesn't wanna place a call."
"Something's up," Joe said as he headed over to the regular phone plugged into the wall.
Grissom
Across town, the mercenary had just pried a manhole cover open and was gazing at the maze of phone lines that serviced this side of the street. It just might take a while to figure this out...
<Griss!>
Grissom rolled his eyes. "What is it now, Phil?"
<We got trouble. The police intend to arrest the Forellis - who happen to have Diana and Latisha - within an hour and are surrounding the house. The Forellis are probably putting two and two together right now. If they sound the alarm, we're gonna have some serious trouble getting the Pipers out of their hands. I took out their cell phones with the static box, but the land lines for their conventional phones are still intact.>
"I'm in the process of isolating the line to my target."
<We don't have that kind of time. They're gonna pick up that phone any second now.>
"I know, but I'm looking at a couple hundred..."
<Cut 'em!>
Grissom shrugged. "So much for surgical precision." He wrapped a length of Primacord around the bundle of telephone cables and climbed out of the manhole, carefully replacing the cover. After putting a good twenty feet of distance between himself and the manhole, Grissom removed a detonator - disguised as a pocket watch on a chain - from his pocket, flipped up the lid over the watch facing, and pushed a small button on the side of the watch.
The Primacord didn't make a lot of noise, but the manhole cover jumped about six inches into the air, then slammed back down and spun around a few times before settling back into place.
It was pretty safe to say that the people in Grissom's building wouldn't be saying much to the outside world.
