by Tom Barber

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Text-to-Speech: Enabled

Here’s the set-up:

NYPD Detective Sam Archer is on his way home on a Sunday afternoon in New York City. He’s been out of the field for over three months due to a broken ankle and a serious bout of pneumonia from a previous case, but has just been given the all clear for a return to duty, starting tomorrow. Archer takes a seat on a bench in the Upper West Side, enjoying a cold drink and soaking up the last remaining sun of the day. Then he sees something totally unexpected. Two men are crossing the street in front of him, heading quickly towards a group climbing into a car. Both men are armed with pistols. And all hell breaks loose. Shouting a warning and racing to their aid, a ferocious gunfight erupts, shattering the peaceful afternoon. Archer and the group are forced to flee uptown in the strangers’ vehicle, their ambushers giving chase. With their tyres blown out and the car crashing, the group have no choice but to take refuge in a Harlem tenement block, situated in one of the most dangerous areas in the city. Their ambushers are right on their heels and seal off the building, preventing the NYPD from getting close as they start to arrive. Archer and the others are trapped in the building with their attackers. Hiding out with the group from the car in an apartment upstairs, Archer starts to piece together the situation. The people he’s with are US Marshals, protecting a witness, a nine year old girl. Clearly, someone out there is desperate to kill her. But as they barricade themselves in and wait for back-up, none of them realise the full extent of the danger they are in. Others are on their way to the building, ruthless trained killers who won’t leave until the girl is dead. As the scores of NYPD and Marshals on the street desperately try to figure out how they can get to their people inside, Archer and the Marshals must fight to stay alive against increasingly hopeless odds, running out of ammunition, chances and time. Unarmed and totally unprepared, Archer is thrown back into the fray; either kill or be killed. As they encounter the enemy, suffer casualties and Archer learns who this child witness really is, two things become abundantly clear. There’s only one way in or out of the building. And it appears there’s only one way this can end.