Broken hood latch cable

I have had a recent problem arise with my AC clutch not engaging, so I went to pop my hood yesterday only to not have it pop open after pulling the lever inside the car, now there is slack in the latch cable inside the car, and will not retract with the lever it is usually attached to.

I have tried unhooking the cable from the lever in my car, pulling on the cable with vice grips, only to pull the cable inside the car about 3 more inches with no luck getting the hood to release, now the cable will not move at all.

- Not able to remove the front grill on my vehicle without the hood open to remove top clips

- not able to get any kind of tool in from the bottom with the plastic shroud off underneath my bumper

- not able to locate or access the primary release from in between the grill louvers with long flat head.

Basically I am beginning to feel like I am at a complete loss unless I take it to the dealer which I really don’t want to do, they quoted around $250.00 plus the cable cost.

I know if I can get the hood released than I will have no problem running the wire myself.

Any help would be very appreciated and thanks in advance