Everyone in the apartment was blinded by the flash-bang, and everyone except Phil could barely hear over the ringing in their ears. The four mobsters in the room cursed and flailed around the room wildly, clearly out of commission for the time being.

Phil's pulse pounded. He couldn't see. He grabbed an end table and pulled himself to his feet frantically.

Concentrate.

Think.

Slowly, Phil began to reel in his racing pulse as the world gradually took shape around him. His eyes weren't functioning, but he could 'see' by piecing together 'images' of the room gathered by his other senses and assembled by his telepathic mind. He dashed into the back room and was greeted by a hail of bullets ricocheting off his psionic shield.

Two more mobsters stood across the room, on either side of the Pipers. They were clearly unaffected by the flash-bang and were clearly out for blood.

Phil deflected several more bullets, but refused to draw his gun. I'm not going back. I'm not going back.

"Drop the gun, man!" one of the mobsters shouted. "Or they both get it!"

The other mobster moved toward Phil with his gun drawn. "Drop it!"

Phil looked at Latisha Piper cowering in her mother's arms.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," he said.

Quicker than the human eye could register, Phil grabbed the mobster's gun hand, twisted his arm so that the gun pointed straight into the ceiling, spun into the man's body, and pummeled him in the solar plexus. The mobster dropped the gun and staggered back as his buddy fired two shots at Phil. Phil deflected them easily and turned to face the other attacker. He didn't see Luigi Paterno standing over Diana Piper.

He saw Agent Fisher standing over the wounded body of Gabi Riviera.

Phil glared at the man. "You're starting to piss me off, you know that?"

He threw one punch, adding as much TK power to it as he could muster.

Luigi Paterno lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall so hard that the room shook. He slumped over and fell to the ground, leaving a man-sized dent in the plaster.

Phil spun to face the other man as his eyesight returned. He was shocked to see a kid who didn't look any older than him, lying face-down on the floor with his arms outstretched. "Don't hurt me!" he cried. "I didn't wanna do it! Joe made me do it!" He looked up at Phil. "I'm only nineteen! Please don't hurt me!"

Phil paused. "What's your name?"

"N-Nick," the kid managed to croak. "Nick DiVecchio."

"Nick," Phil said, "I'm gonna ask you to stay there, or else I'll have to hurt you very badly."

The kid obeyed. Phil turned to the Pipers. "I'm going to need you to come wi-"

A hail of gunfire erupted from the doorway. Phil dove in front of the Pipers and extended his telekinetic shield over them, but he took one look at Diana Piper and realized he was an instant too late. He felt Latisha grab onto him tightly as he turned to face the doorway.

"Nobody makes a fool of the Forellis," Joe said, brandishing an Ingram. "I hope you went to confession this morning."

"Cover your ears," Phil whispered to Latisha. The little girl obeyed, trembling with fright and trying frantically to get her mother to respond.

Phil smiled at Joe Forelli. "Die slow, you filthy sonofabitch."

BLAM! BLAM!

A textbook FBI double-tap with the .44 relegated the mobster to dinosaur droppings - prepared to lie there until fossilized. Powered by sheer killer's instinct, Phil gunned down two of the mobsters, then suddenly realized that Nick DiVecchio had just dropped the other two.

Phil jumped to his feet and grabbed Latisha. "Let's go!" he shouted.

"I want my mommy!" Latisha screamed.

"Your mommy can't help you," Phil said bluntly. "We have to get out of here." He turned to DiVecchio. "If you wanna be on my side, get us the hell out of here."

The would-be mobster jumped to his feet and headed for the fire escape. "This way!"

Phil ran after DiVecchio, carrying Latisha and keeping one eye on the door. The two men slipped through the window and made their way onto the fire escape as the SWAT team battered down the door of the apartment.

"I think we're in trouble," Nick lamented as a police helicopter zoomed overhead.

"Stay where you are!" the helicopter loudspeaker boomed.

<<I'm not with the Forellis>>, Phil transmitted to the helicopter pilot.

"I know you're not!" a voice called from the chopper. "I know who you are!"

<<Well then, who are you?>>

"This is Detective Rick Patterson. I transferred here from the NYPD. I know all about you, Mr. Smith."

Phil froze. <<You can't come after me. I'm dead. That case is closed. You closed it.>>

"I'm not here to arrest you! I want to help you!"

<<The best help you can give me>>, Phil warned the detective, <<is to stay out of my way.>> He pulled out his grapple gun.

"What are you doing?!?" DiVecchio demanded.

Phil aimed and fired, latching onto a building across the street.

"Don't do it!" Patterson shouted.

<<Sorry, detective>>, Phil apologized, <<I'm on a schedule.>> He turned to Nick. "You might want to hang on to something."

"What?"

Phil handed Latisha to DiVecchio, who grabbed onto Phil's shoulders. Phil walked to the edge of the fire escape, took a deep breath, checked his grip on the grapple gun, and jumped.