After Hunter warns that the hotel is under attack, Rink immediately gets Suzanne Bouchard moving. He gives Sue her reloaded pistol, keeps the Uzi for himself, and leads her into the hallway. Because the elevator could trap them in a kill box, both of them independently choose the fire stairs as the safer escape route.

At the stairwell entrance, the situation changes fast. A gunman appears from the stairs just as the elevator arrives, confirming that attackers are closing from multiple directions. Rink covers Sue’s retreat with bursts from the Uzi, forcing the first man back and then holding off three advancing gunmen in the corridor, but the exchange creates panic among nearby hotel guests and burns through his only magazine.

Rink falls back down the stairs with Sue while pretending the now-empty Uzi is still a threat. On the next landing they hear movement above and below, and Sue fires at a man emerging from the lower level but misses. Trapped between attackers, Rink considers breaking into the hallway, then rejects it because the gunmen may already be maneuvering to cut them off elsewhere in the hotel.

The leader above recognizes Rink as Jared Rington and tries to talk him into surrendering Sue, claiming he only wants her. Rink refuses and realizes the conversation is only buying the attackers time to reposition, just as his own bravado is meant to slow them. To break the stalemate, Rink suddenly kicks open the hallway door to fake an escape attempt.

The bluff works. The gunman above starts rushing down, and a gunman below exposes himself to intercept them. Sue fires three fast shots and wounds the lower man in the shoulder. Rink immediately charges before the gunman can recover, smashes him down with the empty Uzi, takes the fallen pistol, and reaches the final switchback with Sue, where Hunter has successfully secured their route below.