Angela went into the inner room to check, while Jack pressed his ear against the door and heard several people talking loudly.
["Vance said we can't leave any witnesses. You guys guard the building entrance, and two more people stay to guard the basement. The rest of you come upstairs with me."]
Angela came back and whispered, "There's no one in the room, the windows have iron bars, and we can't find a landline phone. We're trapped here."
Jack left the doorway: "I heard them say that Vance Marcus is in the building, and there are quite a few thugs. We've stirred up a hornet's nest."
"Now we have to find a way to restore communication and call the station for help. I guess we've stumbled into their hideout by accident. No wonder they have bulletproof vests and signal jammers." Angela was a little anxious. The intervals between the gunshots upstairs were getting longer and longer, which was obviously not a good sign.
Jack's mind raced: "I heard they said someone's guarding the basement. Do you think the signal jammer might be there?"
Angela's eyes lit up, and she nodded in agreement: "Even if it's not, the power distribution room is down there. If we cut off the power to the whole building, the signal jammer will stop working."
"So, we need to find a way down to the basement." Jack's eyes fell on the kitchen at one end of the room. He went in and lightly tapped the wall with the butt of his gun, making a hollow wooden thud.
"Looks like drinking with Nolan has its benefits. This guy really likes talking about his old job. I remember him mentioning that these kinds of buildings usually have several ventilation shafts, connecting the upper and lower levels."
"Remember to take me with you next time you drink." Angela patted his shoulder, signaling him to step aside, then kicked through the wall.
Two gunshots rang out. The two of them who had reached the basement simultaneously fired from behind, killed the two guards. Angela stepped forward, kicked the signal jammer to pieces, and turned on the walkie-talkie to call for help.
"This is patrol car 7-A-14. The Bronson Building urgently needs police backup. There are more than ten gunmen. It's an emergency."
Jack was also calling the other two teams on the radio. The situation on the second and third floors was critical. Officer Bishop had been shot and was lying on the ground. Hannah dragged her into a resident's home, where three gunmen were trying to break in.
Tim and Lucy were trapped in Cecilia Olivier's home. The pregnant woman's water had broken, and Lucy was helping with the delivery. Tim was alone, confronting Vance Marcus and several of his men through the door.
"They can't wait for reinforcements. Now they can only rely on the two of us." Angela's fiery temper flared up. She glared at Jack with her big eyes, as if to say, 'If you don't come, I'll take care of it myself.'
Jack handed her his Glock along with the spare magazine: "I remember you showed off your dual-wielding skills. I'll handle the ones in body armor. The rest is yours." He then pulled out his Python revolver.
In a room on the second floor, Hannah pressed herself against the wall beside the entrance, her gun pointed at the riddled door. From the hallway behind the door came the cacophony of profanities from three drug dealers, who occasionally fired a couple of shots. Bullets pierced the wooden door or the drywall, exploding into clouds of white dust against the concrete walls around her.
"Hey, girl, just surrender already. I've never worked a female cop this pretty. Don't worry, we won't hurt you."
Ignoring the shouts outside, Hannah silently calculated her ammunition, occasionally firing back to thwart any attempts to break down the door.
"Hey, Hannah, here you go." Bishop, lying in the bedroom doorway, threw her spare magazine across the living room. Her abdomen was a bloody mess; she'd been hit head-on by a shotgun blast, her bulletproof vest only stopping some of the pellets.
The room belonged to an elderly white couple who were trying to stop the bleeding with gauze and towels, but with little effect; she had already lost a lot of blood.
"Remember to save one bullet for me. These bastards are capable of anything." With that, Bishop fell unconscious.
Just as Hannah was on the verge of a breakdown, Jack's voice came through the walkie-talkie again: "Hannah, we're up here. Try to distract them. Angela and I will take them out from behind."
A surge of joy at escaping death washed over her. Nothing could be more exhilarating than the arrival of her Prince Charming in such a precarious situation. Hannah took a few deep breaths to clear her sluggish mind and began to wait quietly. The second after the assailant fired again, she suddenly screamed and kicked over a wooden vase stand behind her. The vases shattered on the floor with a crisp sound.
The three thugs at the door exchanged glances, then grinned lewdly. One, armed with a shotgun and wearing a bulletproof vest, cautiously moved to the doorway, preparing to break in, when a loud shout came from behind: "LAPD, hands up!"
Before the three could react, the man about to break in had his head split open by Jack's Python, shattering half of his skull like an overripe watermelon. The other two were almost simultaneously riddled with bullets by Angela, who was dual-wielding Glocks.
Without hesitation, and regardless of whether the two fallen thugs were wearing bulletproof vests, Jack fired a shot at each of them to ensure they were dead. Then he shouted into the room, "Hannah, the doorway is cleared. We're coming in."
Seeing him appear, Hannah, who had been tense all along, slowly slid down to the floor against the wall, startling Jack. He rushed forward and hugged her, simultaneously casting his healing spell.
"I'm fine, I was just too nervous. Quick, look at Talia, she's been shot in the stomach," Hannah waved her hand to indicate she was alright.
Jack breathed a sigh of relief and turned to go into the bedroom. The wife of the elderly couple who had been trying to stop Bishop's bleeding looked at him with a tearful voice: "Please help this child, I can barely feel her pulse."
Although he wasn't very familiar with Bishop, Jack couldn't bear to watch a colleague bleed to death. He took out his medical kit, which contained an ampoule of medication for emergency use in patients in shock.
Of course, the most important thing was his healing skills. After repairing the main blood vessel grazed by the pellets and roughly stopping the bleeding, Jack breathed a sigh of relief. Repairing the injury in one go would only cause him a moment of dizziness; he could recover after a good night's sleep. The real problem was saving the patient's life without letting the doctors notice anything amiss later.
As Bishop gradually regained consciousness, the urgent sirens and gunfire came from downstairs; police reinforcements had finally arrived.
At that moment, Angela, who was standing guard at the door with a gun, couldn't contain her anxiety and poked her head in to ask, "Jack, how is Talia? Tim is calling for help. Vance Marcus's baby has been born, and he's after the child."
"Okay, Bishop is safe for now, just a little blood loss." Jack whispered to the kind elderly couple, "Thank you so much for your help. Please take good care of her. My colleagues will be there soon."