Sonny and Rico are just leaving a neighborhood watch meeting with two other cops, Tim Durier and his partner ‘Dicky’ when they hear glass shatter down the block. Three Latino gang kids are smashing a store’s front windows and beating up the owner. Durier and Dicky race to the scene, but the leader suddenly pulls out a shotgun. Dicky doesn’t even live long enough to hit the pavement. As the punks run down the block, Sonny and Rico are after them, diving for cover as two of them jump into a moving pickup’s bed and spray machine-gun fire at the cops. The third turns into a gallery of stores and Sonny follows, dodging more gunfire as the punk escapes. Rico now must tell Sonny that Dicky was killed.

No one in the neighborhood will talk, but the Rico recognizes faces in the mugshot book. The Escobars are a four-brother gang with several years of coke raps and up to now, strictly small-time robberies. Sonny and Rico spend the entire day chasing dead ends in search of the gang’s whereabouts, which leads them to Pepe, a nightclubbing informer who gives them the name of the Escobar’s hiding place, an abandoned oceanside hotel dubbed ‘The Maze’. Sonny and Rico don’t like what they see when they check it out. The building’s packed with squatters, and there’s no easy way in. Durier’s perfectly willing to charge in shooting, but Castillo has a better idea-an inside man. I must be someone who can pass for a local and speak to the squatters in their language. The undesirable role falls to Rico.

Dressed as a street musician and using his patented Jamaican accent, Rico slip into the building and stakes out a room for himself. Outside, Durier grows agitated and decides to charge in alone. As Sonny yells for him to stop, Castillo orders the tactical division to move forward. The Escobars see them and two open fire. By the time the platoon in in the building, the gang has herded all the squatters into one room, threatening to kill them if the cops don’t leave. Tubbs joins the captives to maintain his cover.

In their temporary headquarters, Sonny briefs the Lt. Davis tactical platoon leader that Tubbs has a concealed firearm and is experienced in these situations. Then they both lay into Durier for his stunt, which he defends by saying with his partner dead, he didn’t want Sonny to lose his. Castillo confines Durier to the room until the final assault on the Maze. Sonny steps outside and Castillo follows. They confer over their next move and agree that as long as the situation stays calm, they negotiate.

Raul, the oldest of the Escobars, demand a helicopter ride to the Bahamas and $100,000 in the next four hours or a hostage will be killed. Despite Davis’s efforts at making a deal, the Raul refuses to release anyone. Inside, Tubbs watches as Elio Escobar members begins hitting on a young girl, and pulls his gun on her brother Georges when he warns him away. Later, Jaime, the youngest, starts making eyes at the girl and his brother decides to stake his claim on her. Elio attempts to ‘pass time’ with her, and Georges charges in to stop him. Georges is shot, and dragged outside (It’s not shown whether or not he survives). Now tied up, Tubbs tries to convince Jaime that he’s already in over his head. He gets through to him a little because the next time Davis attempts to negotiate, Jaime convinces Raul to release the children, Despite Elio’s arguments. Tubbs continues talking to Jaime, slowly breaking down his resolve.

With only minutes before the chopper arrives, Sonny slips into the Maze and locates the gang’s position. He radios in to Davis, who sends in his division. Meanwhile, Raul and his two older brothers start moving the captives upstairs, leaving Jaime to cover Tubbs. When they’re gone, Tubbs feigns an itch and asks Jaime for help. A moment later, Jaime is staring down Tubbs’s gun. Hearing the chopper, Raul starts moving all to the roof, sending his brother Xavier to get Jaime. But Tubbs is untied when he arrives, and Xavier finds out he’s not as fast a draw as he thought. Upstairs, the sound of gunfire scatters the squatters, but Raul grabs Elio’s girl and uses her as a shield. As the second wave moves in, Durier goes wild again and almost shoots the now-unarmed Jaime, but Tubbs keeps control of the situation, berating Durier as the others cuff Jaime and tend to Xavier. Sonny moves upstairs behind the platoon, encountering a trigger-happy Elio near the top floor. At his first opening, Sonny fires and Elio is blown out a window. Raul and the girl reach the roof, but only to find they’re surrounded by cops, and the chopper is leaving without him. With no way out, Raul breaks down, releases the girl and surrenders.

Sonny and Rico are left standing on the roof, the last two to come out of ‘The Maze’.

Many thanks to C.T. Warren, the fellow Vice fan that wrote this synopsis.

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