Kurt holstered his Maxim 9 and shouldered his own cash bag, scooping up one of the leader’s automatic Glocks as he walked past. The dust had vanished, leaving a bundle of armor, weapons, clothing, and helmets. Kurt realized that must mean they had respawned as shouts from above them began moving down the stairs. The team wouldn’t be able to rejoin the action, having respawned far away, but they immediately radioed in to let their crew know what had happened.

  He scanned his new gun before pointing it down the hallway as they moved towards the open door near the end. A glance at the scan showed that he was now wielding a Glock Model 17 full auto. Before he could read any further, Gadot shouted a warning and opened fire.

  The GoonStorm top-side crew was charging down the stairs, shouting and waving their weapons wildly. They seemed eager as they approached, joking cheerfully to each other, excited for some action. Gadot moved to the side of the stairwell, hunkered down in the corner of the wall, and began firing careful bursts at them, dropping one after the other before they could get into position to return fire. She crouched against the wall opposite the basement door, out of line of sight for most of the stairwell and shouted for Kurt to get in the basement.

  He complied, hurriedly taking cover in the basement. He turned back and held his new gun out, blind-firing up the stairs. The gun bucked in his hand and clicked empty after barely a second of sustained fire. He stared in amazement as the magazine automatically dropped out after a short delay, turning to dust on its way to the floor.

  “She’s pinned down!” The shout came from the stairs and was, unfortunately for the Goons, premature. Gadot stopped firing long enough to throw her bag across the hallway to Kurt, dropping to one knee and hunching inward while choosing targets. While they could stop her from crossing the hallway, she prevented them from making any progress, draining their numbers as she did.

  Kurt grabbed the strap on the bag and hauled backwards, sliding deeper into the locker room. He grabbed a new magazine, noting the blue band around its base as it clicked into place. Leaning partially out of the doorway, his eyes went wide as he looked up the stairs. The staircase was littered with bodies turning to dust and GoonStorm members trying to move down the stairs amongst them, kicking and scattering gear and money piles as they went. Two riflemen were carefully bringing up the rear, AK 47s at the ready. Not waiting for them to notice him, Kurt sprayed a magazine of 9mm +P at the nearest, smiling in satisfaction as the man crumpled.

  Then Jimmy exited the vault, opening fire with his new M60 while walking forward. The rhythmic boom of his weapon coincided with the concrete stairwell erupting in stone chips and GoonStorm members retreating back to the safety of the upstairs hallway. Gadot slid under his line of fire, skidding to a seated stop against a nearby locker and reloading her SMG in one smooth motion. Kurt did the same with his Glock, deciding that he needed some extended magazine upgrades as soon as he could buy them.

  The LMG clicked empty, and the GoonStorm officer at the top of the stairs roared at his players to charge, after throwing down a trio of hand grenades. Kurt gasped as the small green devices tumbled to a stop in the hallway in front of him, but Jimmy calmly closed the door behind him. Not stopping to see if the door would help, Kurt scrambled towards the other end of the room as a trio of explosions rocked the hallway outside.

  Stopping to cover them with his shotgun, Jimmy waved Kurt through the back of the room. He ducked to avoid hitting his head against the concrete wall Gadot and Jimmy had cut through and moved out into an old, crumbling section of subway tunnel. Jimmy came through next, moving backwards while firing his shotgun in a series of echoing booms. Gadot stepped up to the hole in the wall, peeking around it and firing her UMP 45 in carefully controlled bursts. Jimmy leaned back against the wall beside a strange-looking machine. He tilted his shotgun so the butt was resting on his shoulder and shook his head at Kurt. The machine was a bulky blue box on a sled, thick black hoses leading out from either side.

  “What the hell is that thing?” Kurt glanced back nervously, dropping out his magazine to look at the number of rounds left before slipping it back into place.

  “A water cutter. We used it to drill through the wall.” He popped four shells from a rack on his belt, slipping them into his shotgun two at a time before going back for another handful. He raised the gun to his shoulder and nodded at Kurt. “You look like you’re having fun.”

  Gadot darted down the hallway and around a corner while Jimmy fired another eight shots down the way they had come, blocking GoonStorm from a viable approach

  “I admit, this is somewhat less stressful than when I was with the Goons.” Kurt stepped up to the hole to cover Jimmy’s reload, nervously gripping the Glock as he watched for Goons. Jimmy laughed at him while hurriedly slipping in new shells. He seemed to be covered with shell racks, four strapped across his belt with two large, sixteen-shell count racks on his chest and two smaller racks on the shotgun’s stock. As Kurt watched his clearly practiced quick reload, Jimmy jerked his head towards the hole.

  Kurt heard the unmistakable sound of a dirt bike revving its engine. He fired as soon as he saw the Goon driving across the locker room towards them, hitting them in the chest and knocking them off the dirt bike. It skidded across the room and smacked into the wall in front of them, bouncing to a stop as its front wheel snapped off. Jimmy gave a quick giggle and shoved Kurt’s shoulder, indicating they should retreat with a quick nod.

  Around the corner they found Gadot standing at the ready in front of a long-nosed dune buggy. Its frame was wrapped in a thin sheet of metal, and it housed a locker in its hollow front end. A large, rear-facing seat was perched at the back, situated centrally to the buggy’s body. Kurt dropped his duffle bag into the locker and crouched behind his open door to cover their exit. Gadot moved around the buggy and dropped into the driver’s seat, starting the engine with a high-pitched roar while Jimmy loaded his bags and slammed the compartment closed.

  Sitting in the rear-facing seat, Jimmy buckled into a harness and readied his shotgun. Kurt dropped into the passenger seat as the buzz of more dirt bikes came from the tunnel behind them. He hadn’t even closed the passenger door before Gadot gunned the engine and sent them hurtling down a small wooden ramp onto the tracks.

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  Jimmy immediately had his hands full as a group of dirt bikes bounced down onto the tracks behind them. He fired the Super 90, cursing as he missed and the Goons returned fire. The GoonStorm players were using SMGs and automatic pistols in single handed grips, so their aim was not exactly terrific as they attempted to drive along the tracks at the same time. They fell back as they reloaded, and then bullets quickly filled the air again, snapping past Kurt and Gadot. Many of them found a home smashed into Jimmy’s armor.

  Gadot was forced to keep their speed low, as the tunnels were dark, and curves came at them without warning. She leaned into the turns, skidding the buggy’s rear wheels in the gravel as she navigated the tunnels. Jimmy’s shotgun clicked empty and he flipped it over, holding it against his chest with his chin and pulling new buckshot rounds from a bandoleer across his chest. Kurt could hear him muttering in his ear as he reloaded, their coms channel still open. “Okay, slugs are worthless. C’mon triple aught buck.”

  Another series of rapid-fire shotgun blasts rang out, followed by more swearing from Jimmy and a cloud of bullets pinging against the buggy’s lightweight frame. Gadot spoke calmly into her coms while steering into a curve of the tunnel ahead of them. “Mr. James, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed this, as it’s a recent development, but they seem to be shooting at us.”

  “Workin’ on it,” Jimmy grunted, getting shot more than once while trying to reload his shotgun. This time he slipped in the light blue painted birdshot shells. Lifting the shotgun back to his shoulder, he aimed at an encroaching GoonStorm player and fired. The bike’s front tire blew out and flipped it, slamming the player into the tracks and ending the chase for him. His compatriots sped past, swerving to avoid the tumbling dirt bike and dust cloud.

  Jimmy smiled and chose his next victim, aiming for the front tire. The player opened fire first, hitting him in the chest and face mask, but Jimmy merely grunted and took his tire out, causing another opening in the swarm of Goons behind them. “Hey, Kurt, I figured out what the birdshot is for!”

  Kurt remained ducked down in his seat, trying not to get shot. “Super happy for you, buddy.”

  Gadot swerved up the curved wall of the tunnel, ramping up onto an abandoned subway platform with a jostling bump. She drove across it and dropped back down onto the tracks on the other side, racing away from the army of dirt bikes at their heels.

  After holding onto the door and earning another look of scorn from Gadot, Kurt drew his new Glock. He looked back to see the GoonStorm players bogged down trying to match Gadot’s tactic. Their bikes were not as stable as her buggy, and some of them fell upon landing. Dozens of them were still on the wrong tracks, but several had made the jump, keeping the chase going. Some of the smarter pursuers drove on ahead in their own tunnel with increased speed, hoping to cut them off when the tunnels rejoined.

  This happened quickly, as the dual tunnels joined into one large, box-shaped tunnel, with tracks on either side. Gadot seemed to be expecting the Goons to match them, and as the tunnel opened up she wrenched the wheel over, slamming into a group of them racing from the other side. One of them managed to cling to the buggy, shrieking in terror, until Kurt opened his door and kicked it wide, slamming the hapless player against a passing signal pole. His door and the GoonStorm player’s dust cloud-enshrouded gear tumbled away behind them.

  Turning his attention to the GoonStorm players in front of them, he opened fire with his new Glock, spraying rounds at the bikes while Jimmy fired his shotgun at those behind again. Gadot flinched as bullets from the Goons in front of them sparked off the buggy’s frame, before dodging in between the tracks and putting on a burst of speed to run down an offending player while he struggled to reload. Steadying his position and taking a deep breath, Kurt leaned out of his side of the buggy and took careful aim before shooting the Goons in front of them with controlled bursts. He sent the rest of the players in front of the buggy pinwheeling off the tracks one at a time.

  “Won’t we get hit by a train doing this?” Kurt shouted in spite of the coms link.

  Gadot winced. “No, this section is abandoned.” She drove straight at a plywood wall, smashing through it onto much cleaner looking tracks. They flew by a station filled with people waiting for their train. Kurt whipped his head around. Gadot grinned. “Okay, now we’re gonna get hit by a train!”

  She cut the wheel, dodging off the primary track as a subway train blared its horn and made its screaming approach to the station they had passed, brakes locked and spitting sparks into the dark of the tunnel. Most of the Goons behind them made it to the next track over before the train cut off their approach.

  Contentedly operating his shotgun, Jimmy paused to reload and looked over his shoulder. “Coming up on the driver’s side!”

  Gadot veered and took the buggy part-way up the wall again, attempting to cut off the GoonStorm player trying to pass them. He simply dropped back and cut behind them, darting out in front on Kurt’s side and ignoring the magazine of +P fired at him. He was in armor similar to Jimmy’s, with coverage on his neck and torso.

  “His tires are bulletproof. This must be an officer.” Jimmy said. His calm voice made Kurt scowl. How his friend kept his nerve in these situations was something Kurt made a mental note to speak with him about sometime.

  “Pour it on him!” Gadot ducked down in her seat as another burst of automatic fire erupted, bullets bouncing off the exposed engine block between them. Thick, black smoke began to pour from the engine as it stuttered before kicking back into gear. “We’re almost dead on the tracks, here. Somebody put this guy down!”

  Kurt slid out of his harness and stood, bracing his arms against the roll cage roof frame as he took aim. He fired short bursts into the Goon’s armored back, repeatedly dropping out his magazine and replacing it until he reached for a new one and came away empty handed. Switching to normal ammo, he started firing again.

  The GoonStorm officer in front of them swerved and ducked lower on his bike. Bright lights filled the tunnel ahead of them, and the officer drove his dirt bike up the wall in preparation.

  “Hang on!” Gadot’s voice in his ear sounded concerned rather than annoyed for the first time, causing Kurt’s blood to run cold for a second as he watched another subway train barreling down on them from the front. He dropped back into his seat and clung to the roof, his feet firmly planted on the floor, as Gadot drove them half-way up the wall and held that position at speed while the train roared past, barely inches away.

  Jimmy hooted his approval as the buggy dropped roughly back onto the tracks, picking up speed. Only the officer in front of them remained, but he was proving a far greater danger than his subordinates, as he flung a grenade back at them. Gadot swerved back up the wall part-way as the grenade went off just behind them. Jimmy grunted in surprise as the buggy flew up onto a platform, skidding through crowds of screaming civilians, its rear wheel broken at the axle.

  They slid to an abrupt stop, slamming sideways into an escalator. Gadot was already stepping out of the ruined buggy. Kurt tumbled out of his side, turning to help Jimmy as Gadot reached into the locker for the duffle bags. The frame at Jimmy’s side was warped and charred from the explosion, but he seemed to be Okay, aside from a smattering of bullets flattened against his armor. As Kurt hauled him from the wreckage of the buggy, Jimmy shoved him aside and leveled his shotgun at the GoonStorm officer behind them.

  They opened fire at the same time, Jimmy’s shotgun blasts finally taking the man down as his own SMG burst went wide and shattered an overhead television display. Sparks and glass rained down around them as Gadot threw a bag to Kurt, shouldering her own and raising her UMP 45. They hurriedly gathered the bags of cash and ran up the escalator.

  Gadot glanced over her shoulder. “There. Hard part’s over.”

  With a snort, Jimmy took up the rear. “Yeah, that sounds likely.”