Steven retaliated by thrusting a fireplace poker hrough Josh""s back, impaling his heart on itand he crashed through a glass window to the ground below - but soon melted into the grass lawn and disappeared (was he alive or dead?) - presumably alive (as later events unfolded).There was an envelope under the rim of the fountain, suggesting a trip and this complexing question: "What is 21 out of 42?" They were instructed to go to the home team dugout at Yankee Stadium, as McClane deduced: "It""s a wild goose chase is what it is" and realized that they (and all the city""s police) had been deliberately sent away from downtown""s Wall Street area.The killer also slit the throat of one of Verger""s men with a scalpel.Frustrated by how Lecter escaped, Verger contacted Justice Department official Paul Krendler and bribed him, for $500,000, to falsely accuse agent Starling of receiving and withholding a postcard written to her by Lecter.Too much pain.But I have an honorable compromise.Just walk away.Give me the pump, the oil, the gasoline and the whole compound, and I""ll spare your lives.Just walk away.I will give you safe passage in the Wasteland.Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror.I await your answer.You have one full day to decide."[Note: This was the age-old story of the seige of a circled, westward-bound wagon-train, or the assault on the Alamo.The trio crashed through the ceiling of the White House, where they overcame Marine soldiers and Secret Service agents whose bullets bounced harmlessly off them.