John picks a code name. “Roy,” he tells Al on the walkie-talkie.

“Well, listen up, Roy,” says Al, “If you think of anything else we need to know, don’t be shy, okay?”  Another officer mops the blood off Al’s forehead. “In the meantime, I want you to find a safe place to hole up and let us do our job, understand?” Theo, at the drill in front of the safe, listens in.

“They’re all yours, Al,” replies McClane.  The safe’s lock mechanism shows three locks have been defeated so far.

Back at the staging area in front of Nakatomi Tower, an Oldsmobile pulls up to the parked emergency vehicles, followed by an LAPD tractor-trailer and a Chrysler Imperial town car. Out of the town car step two men in business suits, the man in the back seat waving a police badge in the air.

“Alright,” says the badge man, “who’s talking to him?”

“I am, sir,” replies Al.  “Sergeant Powell, Al Powell.”

“Dwayne Robinson, Powell,” says Robinson,” what’s the deal here? What do these pricks want?”

“Well, if you mean the terrorists, sir, we don’t exactly know,” replies Al. “We haven’t heard a peep from them.”

“Well, who in the hell have you been talking to?” asks Robinson.

“We don’t know that either, sir,” says Powell. “He won’t give us his name — but he appears to be the one who phoned in the report. He’s killed one terrorist for sure, and he’s claimed he’s capped two others. ”

“He *claims*?” says Robinson, “Powell, has it occurred to you he could be one of the terrorists pulling your chain?”

IN THIS MINUTE:

Bruce Willis as John McClane

Reginald VelJohnson as Al Powell

Clarence Gilyard, Jr. as Theo

Paul Gleason as Dwayne Robinson