Hunter forces his way through the jammed fire-exit door into the sand-strewn parking garage and moves carefully toward the stairs, carrying extra weapons despite the awkwardness. As he climbs, he hears Rink exchanging insults with a man above and thinks he recognizes the voice, which puts Hunter further on guard.

Gunfire and a struggle suddenly erupt above him, confirming that Rink has engaged the men in the hotel. When Hunter reaches the first level, one of the gunmen steps out of an alcove near the fire-exit doors. Because Hunter is ready and the gunman is distracted, Hunter gains the advantage in a point-blank struggle, smashes the man repeatedly with headbutts, survives the gunman’s desperate attempt to fire, and finally shoots him under the arm at close range.

Hunter immediately takes the dead man’s weapon and turns back toward the fire-exit doors. Rink sends Suzanne Bouchard through to Hunter first while covering her, and Suzanne reacts grimly to the sight of the body, feeling some responsibility for the violence around them. Rink then joins them, and Hunter sees that Rink has also dropped another attacker on the landing above.

Once they regroup, Rink signals that three more hit men are still active. He then reveals that the man upstairs is Stephen Vincent, an Arrowsake operative Hunter knows well from an earlier, hostile alliance in Manhattan. The discovery turns the fight into something more personal for Hunter, who remembers Vincent as a treacherous killer and realizes their long-promised reckoning may finally have arrived.