The short story is a template for an action thriller in the vein of Dog Day Afternoon and Speed. Frankie Ippolito is a hostage negotiator called into duty the night before his wedding in London. A man who has parked himself in a construction site in Piccadilly Circus is standing on a newly uncovered, unexploded bomb from WWII. He tells local law enforcement he will only speak with Frankie, and this sets off a chain of events in which Frankie is drawn into an overnight struggle to stop the bomber with whom he has a past.

In the long days of summer in a beach town on the New Jersey shore, high schooler Alan and his friends Red and Smitty break into vacation homes to steal valuables, funding dates at the boardwalk and lunches at the burger stand. When Alan and his younger brother Peter find a bag of gold coins, they try to hide them from the others — but Red, suspicious and violently unpredictable, seems willing to do anything to get the money.