The street rushed up to meet Phil and his pair of passengers before the grapple line snapped taut and the three of them began swinging forward at about eighty miles an hour.
"We're gonna die!" Nick DiVecchio cried.
Phil ignored him as he looked over his shoulder to see Patterson turn and follow him in the police chopper. "Hang on. I'm gonna try and lose him." He pulled out another grapple gun and fired it at a right angle, then pushed a button on the first gun, causing the grapple on the first target to pop free and retract into the gun. Phil grabbed onto the second line with both hands, and the three of them began swinging off down a perpendicular street like something out of Spider-Man.
But when Phil looked back a second time, Patterson was still there. And after repeating the process a few more times, the chopper was still following them, as well as several police cruisers on the ground. "Dammit, Patterson," Phil breathed. "What are you trying to prove?"
Latisha Piper clung to Phil for dear life, assisted by a very nervous Nick DiVecchio, as the trio sailed between high-rises, over balconies, and past fire escapes. But nothing Phil could do seemed to shake the police helicopter.
"We're almost on top of them," the pilot announced. "We'll try and snag them."
Patterson nodded. But somehow it didn't feel right, what he was doing. Phil Smith was definitely operating outside the law, but Patterson wasn't quite sure whether he should be trying to stop him or help him.
He had been so close to catching Smith in New York and had failed. Now, he had a second chance.
If he would only take it.
What to do?
Patterson turned to the pilot. "I know this guy's next move."
"What do you wanna do?" the pilot asked.
"Take us up and go left," Patterson ordered.
"You sure, sir?" the pilot asked. "Looks to me like he's gonna go right." Phil was looking off down the street to his right, and aiming a grapple gun down that street.
Patterson shook his head. "I know this guy. He's going right."
The pilot shrugged. "Your call." He banked the chopper to the left.
Phil took off down the street to the right.
"Oops," Patterson murmured.
"We can catch him," the pilot said as he reversed course.
"No, we can't," Patterson said as he fired his service revolver into the floor.
"What the hell are you doing?!?" the pilot shouted.
"Looks like we'd better get back to HQ," Patterson said softly. "Too bad that last jolt tripped the safety on my gun."
The pilot rolled his eyes. "I'd better get a promotion outta this or you're gonna hang." He turned and headed back to headquarters.
Phil was puzzled. The helicopter reversed its course as he continued off down the street, making a circle and heading back toward the diner.
