Mellie felt somewhat relieved when the other person messaged her back right away, which she assumed to be a woman by the way that they personalized their reply. The police would maybe take a minute or two to come up with the right message to keep Mellie engaged, avoiding spooking her away so they could get information out of her. But that wasn't the case here, not from what she could tell.

>No, don't do the sprinklers. It can anger him and I know someone inside.

As she went from camera to camera, Mellie saw a large group of people gathered upstairs. She did her best to try to identify the perpetrator, but then something else caught her attention.

>That's him in the lobby, right? With the little girl?

Mellie had been quiet for a minute, and Alison wasn't too patient.

"[i]Mel, what's going on? Please tell me[/i]..."

"They're safe from what I can see. The guy is away from the all the hostages except for a little girl. I think he'll use her to negotiate." 

"[i]Oh my god. I hope she's okay--[/i]

"She seems fine, for now. Let me call you back, I need to figure something out." 

Without giving her a chance to reply, Mellie hung up the phone and returned her attention to the screen. She was biting one of her fingernails at that point, nervously waiting for a reply from the mysterious user before making her next move. 

[@Ciphra]