"He's gone," Phil replied as he set down between two apartment buildings. "But I've got no idea when he's coming back. We gotta get to my car, now."
"Wait!" the would-be mobster called as Phil started to run off, still carrying Latisha Piper.
"What is it?" Phil asked, turning.
"I gotta know!" Nick called. "Who are you?"
"Why do you care?" Phil asked.
"You just slipped past about fifty cops and wasted four of my guys!" DiVecchio snapped. "I gotta know who the hell you are!"
Phil scowled at him. "Watch your mouth," he said coldly, indicating the child in his arms.
DiVecchio jogged up to him. "Look," he began, "I think you owe it to me to-"
Still holding Latisha with one arm, Phil whirled around faster than DiVecchio could blink and slammed the kid against the brick wall of one of the buildings. "Look," he growled, "I just got done saving your sorry butt from 'your guys' and those fifty cops. I'm doing my job here. My girlfriend's dead, the FBI and at least two police departments are after me, I was just forced to kill people for the first time in almost three months, and I think I dropped my car keys back there. Don't piss me off!" His face reddened. "Sorry," he apologized to Latisha, who by this time was nearly catatonic and well past caring.
<Sandcrawler here.>
Phil had completely forgotten about his secure line to Grissom. "What's the situation?" he asked.
<Job's done>, the merc replied, <but I've run into a... complication. Or two.>
Phil's eyes widened. "Where are you?"
<Coming by your 10-20 in about five minutes.>
"Wait!" Phil warned. "There's cops all over the place. Are you going to the exit point?"
<That's a negative, mate. Denyce 'ere's not looking too good. I'm heading off to get 'er some medical attention.>
"Hospitals ask questions!" Phil argued.
<You have a better idea?> Grissom replied impatiently. <I'm not telling you how to run your operations, am I?>
Phil sighed. "All right. Chances are you won't have an APB on your head within the next few minutes, at least."
<What's that, mate?>
Phil rolled his eyes. "I'll tell you in a moment. Look, I'm gonna head for the hospital and look after Denyce. You'll probably want to get back to the island; I got a call that the team just returned. I'll take the girls to the exit point once Denyce gets out of the ER."
<You sure you got it handled, mate?> Grissom asked uneasily.
"You forget with whom you're dealing," Phil said with a smile. "Get to the hospital; I'll be joining you shortly."
