Artis momentarily feigns a pop-up attack attack against Hannah. She sees him in her peripheral vision and aims a pistol in his direction. Artis moves back behind the doorframe seemingly to take cover.

As Hannah goes back to watching out for Gavin, Artis sees his opportunity to pop her. With all the movement and near-blinding light of the helo outside, it's hard for him to get a clear shot. He waits for what seems like forever finally seeing what looks like a shoulder blade silhouetted against the spotlight. Artis takes his shot.

He's not sure where he hit, but judging from the high-pitched shriek and subsequent red mist now running down the window, Artis can be sure it was definitely a solid hit.

Mike shakes his head in aggrevation.

Fuck this. We're out of here.

He moves for the flash-bang, grabbing and tossing it through the blown-out window.

MARINES! WE ARE LEAVING!

As Mike finishes his exclamation and goes to re-cover the entrance, Hannah grasps her wounded shoulder with one hand and moves behind Mike heading towards the back area of the suite.

Hannah moves toward the back of the suite as Gavin and Brian fire parting shots on her. Artis pulls off his grapple belt and readies to fire it at Mike.

Gavin adjusts his position to get a good line of sight on Hannah, firing a narrow burst at her back. The bullets impact at center mass, with a noticable grunt being heard from Hannah. Brian aims for her legs, trying to incapacitate her. Firing two narrow bursts as she crosses his field of vision, Brian is also immediately fired upon by the waiting Mike.

Brrrap!...Brrrap!...Kablam!

Brian's shots slice into Hannah's lower extremities tearing large holes in her cammies. Her speed is noticably lessened, but she is able to continue onward as Mike's shotgun blast rakes Brian.

As all this is happening, Artis attempts to fire his grapple line at Mike's weapon....Attempts, that is.

In a bizarre display of physics which only could be described through a series of mathematical equations and vectors, the grapple line strikes and deflects off Mike's shotgun, ricochets off a chandelier, then comes back and entangles Artis.

Mike cheers wildly, ejecting/reloading the clip of his USAS and takes cover down the back hallway.

"Hahahaha! Dear, you'll never guess what just happened!"

The police helicopter's loud speaker sounds off.

Attention. This is the LVPD. Drop your weapons and put your hands above your head.

The aforementioned goons in the room, seeing the futility of their situation and (more importantly) the two SWAT officers with assault rifles sighting them in, want no part of this fray. They drop their weapons and assume the arrest position.

Just as this is happening inside the suite, outside in the hallway storm SWAT officers out of the stairwell. They are armed for bear and move in on Team Artis' position. Everyone remains cool with the exception of Raven, who foolheartedly fires out of instinct at the SWAT officers.

Needless to say, they drop him with several barrages of automatic fire.

A Mexican standoff is born...

5 SWAT officers vs. Artis and Co.

And as if THAT weren't enough, down the suite hallway (maybe 40ft away) Gavin spots Mike and a very wounded Hannah apparently using someone as a human shield.

Brian lets the tense little moment between himself and another group of professionals last for about a second and a half before he raises his hands, setting the MP5 carefully on the ground.

"Lets hope you boys have good lawyers."

The cops rush in on Artis and Brian, slamming them up against a wall and begin the arrest procedure.

The Deckers emerge from the hallway with a very shaken female in tow. Hannah looking worse for wear, using Mike's shotgun as a makeshift crutch with a pistol in her other hand. Mike has a pistol drawn but not pointed directly at Gavin. He stares at him with an approachable gaze.

"Ok. You want to get out of here? Follow along with us. We don't want to go jail anymore than you do and we're willing to cut a deal to do so. Are you with us?"

Stratosphere Tower: Lobby Level, 8:01pm

The police storm in with all the enthusiam of a protest rally in Beijing. Harry ducks into a souvenir shop, evading arrest and mingles with tourists.

Jess isn't so successful.

As she heads for an emergency exit, she runs into a cop. Fortunately, a cursory glance of his name badge reads Beckerstaff (Re: The cop who drove Jess from the hospital back to the hotel).

Jess snaps back into the Kimberly role.

"You've got to go up there, I think I heard an explosion !"

"That's what we're here for. Let's get you out before one of my colleagues (heh) thinks you're part of this."

With that, the officer escorts her out of the lobby and past the police line. Outside it looks like the Nakatomi parking lot from the first Die Hard movie with dozens of patrol cars, SWAT vehicles and assorted media outlet vans strewn all over.

(Edited by Dieter at 2:11 pm on Feb. 25, 2003)