Heist Online

by Victor Deckard

  There was no way of knowing if I killed the player because this game didn’t give one experience points for killing or wounding other players. Neither did it inform one if one’s shot hit another player.

  Allison released a long stream of rounds on the store where another cop was hiding. Her heavy-caliber slugs obliterated the storefront and demolished the inside of the store. She didn’t stop firing until she dumped the whole mag into the building.

  “Did you get him?” I asked.

  She cast a glance at me and said, “Well, I don’t think anyone could survive this.”

  She was right to some extent. Through the destroyed storefront, the main room could be seen. The furniture was reduced to debris. All the walls were riddled with bullet holes. But there was no dead body to be seen. If the player had been hiding somewhere in the back of the store, he might’ve survived the onslaught Allison had just unleashed on the store.

  The pounding of running feet came from behind. I thought that it might be one of the cops who had managed to come around us somehow. I whirled around, bringing the SCAR up, slid my finger onto the trigger, and put a person running toward us in my iron sights. Only then did I recognize him.

  “Guys, don’t shoot,” Flynn yelled.

  “Dammit, Flynn,” Allison said lowering her weapon. “I almost shot you. You shoulda warned us beforehand. We’re really on edge here, y’know.”

  “Sorry.”

  Flynn reached the first truck and squatted on his haunches, his back to one of the front wheels of the vehicle.

  “I’ve just carried the bag with the money over to my car,” he said looking at us.

  “Good,” I said. “Get in that truck. We’ve already opened some of the deposit boxes. Open the rest of them. We’ll cover you.”

  “Okay.”

  We provided covering fire as Flynn climbed in the back of the truck.

  For the next few minutes, nothing changed dramatically. The cops and our team exchanged fire without killing anyone.

  Eventually, Flynn had all the money from the deposit boxes stowed away in the bag. He climbed out of the truck and took cover behind the big vehicle. Allison and I started to fire at the cops while he ran toward his car.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flash of light coming from the roof of one building.

  “What the heck,” I muttered as I looked at the roof.

  I made out a figure standing on the roof, holding a sniper rifle in his hands and peering through the telescopic sight.

  Before I could do anything, I caught the glimpse of the muzzle flash and felt something strike me in the chest. A second later the report of the sniper rifle rolled like thunder across the street. The force of the impact threw me onto the asphalt. I rolled to the left and took cover behind the rear wheel of the truck.

  “Are you okay?” Allison said.

  I glanced at my user interface and saw that I had only about twenty-five HP left. Allison looked around the front of the truck and let loose with the SAW.

  “Be careful, there’s a sniper on the roof,” I shouted over the roar of her weapon.

  Allison fired another burst at someone and took cover behind the vehicle.

  “I know,” she said. “I’ve just spotted him. He shot you before I could warn you. Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. It must be the third player.”

  “Yeah.”

  I deployed one first aid kit in front of myself. As I was about to use it, some suspicious noise came from the left. I glanced that way, bringing my weapon up, but didn’t immediately spot the source of the noise.

  Then there was the clatter of a machine gun firing and bullets bounced all around me. Only then did I notice a quadcopter hovering above the roof of the truck. The drone had a machine gun attached to the bottom of it, which was aimed at me.

  The drone had to be being controlled by a player. Since one player was crouching behind one of the cars parked along the curb and another one was standing on the roof, the drone had to be controlled by the player who had hidden themselves in the convenience store.

  I brought my assault rifle up and triggered a short burst at the drone. However, the quadcopter appeared to be more robust than it seemed. It continued to hover above the truck and firing at me.

  Before I could do use the first aid kit, some of the bullets hit me and I dropped on my back. I tried to get up but to no avail. I was downed and couldn’t get up on my own. There was a new icon in my HUD. I looked at it and a piece of information popped up before my eyes.

  > Type: Debuff

  > Name: Bleeding

  > Description: You’re downed. You’ll bleed out to death unless one of your teammates helps you get up before the time is up.

  > Remaining time: 00min59sec

  “I’m downed,” I yelled.

  Allison was just a few feet away, looking around the front of the truck and firing at the cops. She didn’t hear me because the clatter of her powerful weapon drowned out my voice.

  Allison continued to fire at someone, totally unaware of the impending danger that was about to happen to me. More bullets drilled through my body and everything went dark.

  After a second or two passed, I recovered my sight. However, I couldn’t do anything. Since my character had died, the Spectator mode kicked in. All I could do now was watch Allison and Flynn play. I couldn’t even communicate with them.

  At the left bottom corner was a timer counting backward to my revival: 00min59sec. I knew that if I were to get killed again after I revived, the time until I could respawn again would increase drastically.

  After killing me, the drone shifted his attention to Allison. Only when she destroyed the flying robot did she notice the dead body of my character.

  “Flynn, Striker got his ticket punched,” she said.

  “Dammit,” he replied. “Let’s get outta here then.”

  “How many boxes have you opened?”

  “About half of them.”

  “Open the rest of them then,” Allison ordered.

  “Are you sure you can keep the cops at bay on your own? We’ll have two bags in my car already, so we can get the heck outta here. Otherwise, we may end up being killed as well and the mission will be failed.”

  “No,” the girl shouted at him. “We need to get more money––”

  Her voice was drowned out by the clatter of the machine guns. All three cops simultaneously opened up on the truck Allison was hiding behind. The players knew that one of the heisters was dead and that the second one was inside the truck, so they started to converge on the vehicle, circling Allison in. And I could absolutely nothing to warn her about it.

  Out of the blue, I revived. However, contrary to my expectation, I found myself not in the middle of the intersection beside my teammates but in my safe house.

  There was a countdown in my HUD. I had about five minutes to get back to the intersection. If I failed to get back there in time, then I wouldn’t be able to finish the mission. If I made it over there after the time was up, I would be getting hurt and eventually die unless I drove away from the intersection.

  The same held true for other players. For instance, if some guy decided to come to our team’s aid, the game wouldn’t let him do it. His or her Health would begin to drain quickly and he or she would have to leave the intersection before they died.

  Over the past few days, I had spent lots of money to upgrade my safe house. I had purchased lots of different guns and ammunition.

  So I dashed toward one of the gun racks, grabbed a SCAR, a few extra magazines, and some other weapons and devices that might come in handy, and tossed it all in a duffel bag. I then raced toward the elevator, fitting an earbud in my right ear.

  Once upstairs, I entered my garage. I had upgraded it as well. It was more spacious now and it could accommodate three vehicles. I owned two cars. There was only one of them in the garage––an SUV––because the second one was left behind near
that intersection.

  I swung open one of the rear doors and threw the duffel bag onto the back seat. I jerked the driver’s-side door open and slid in behind the wheel. I remotely opened the door, pulled out of the garage, and set off with a screech of tires.

  As I barreled through the streets, violating every road law, I got in touch with my teammates.

  “How are you doing, guys?” I asked as I cut the wheel to the left to avoid collision with a sedan slowly driving in my lane.

  “Flynn got busted,” Allison yelled, her voice was barely audible over the roar of the cops’ machine guns being fired.

  “What? How the heck did that happen?”

  “Don’t know. I didn’t have time to babysit him. I saw one of the cops drag cuffed and disarmed Flynn out of the truck and walk him away. I couldn’t do shit to help him because the other two cops kept me pinned down. Plus, that freaking drone was constantly hovering above me.”

  “Thought you destroyed it.”

  “Yes, but then it was re-deployed.”

  “Where’s Flynn now?”

  “Dunno! The cop drove him away in a police car. Then the cop returned, but Flynn wasn’t in the car.”

  “Dang it,” I said. “What about you? How are you holding up?”

  “I managed to get to relative safety now. I’m in the alley where Flynn had his car parked. But I had nowhere to retreat. There’s a brick wall behind me.”

  “Okay. I’m coming. You just need to hold on a little longer.”

  I drove through the city like crazy. To get to that intersection in time, I had to not let up on the gas pedal at all. Luckily, as I had noticed before, traffic was very light in this game and players could break every road rule without facing any consequences. Unless they ran over some NPC, of course.

  Finally, I saw the intersection up ahead. Nothing seemed to have changed there in my absence. I saw the two armored cash trucks in the middle of the intersection. There were two police cruisers that Allison and I had totally destroyed by unleashing devastating fire on them some time earlier.

  As I entered the intersection, I slowed down so that to drive around the two trucks. Up ahead, I saw the mouth of the alley Allison had told me about. In front of it was parked a police cruiser. The three cops were standing behind it and firing into the alley. I couldn’t see Allison yet, but I clearly saw her green tracer fire arc from the alley. Despite the heavy fire she was taking, the girl managed to return fire somehow. Only that kept cops from entering the alley and finishing her.

  “Allison, I’m almost there,” I said.

  “Good,” she replied. “I’m down to one mag. Once I ran out of ammo, I’m in trouble.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m gonna smash their car right now. Be ready.”

  I floored the gas pedal and the SUV lurched forward, driving as fast as it could. The three cops noticed the big vehicle bearing down on them. Once they realized it was going to crash into their car, they scrambled out of the way.

  A moment later, there was a horrendous screech of metal chewing metal as the front of my SUV smashed into the rear of the police car. The force of the impact propelled the car a few yards forward. I slammed on the brake pedal, bringing the SUV to an abrupt stop.

  “Allison, it’s me,” I yelled. “Get over here, now!”

  I saw her emerged around a Dumpster she was taking cover behind. She ran down the alley, carrying her SAW in her hands. Across her shoulders was one of the bags with the money that she must have retrieved from Flynn’s car. Her body armor was battered, riddled with bullet holes, and splattered with blood. I wondered how many HP she had left.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spied movement on my left. Two of the cops had taken cover behind a white sedan parked along the curb on the opposite side of the street. I twisted in my seat, snatched the SCAR from the duffel bag, and got out of the vehicle.

  Bringing my assault rifle up, I opened up, sweeping the weapon back and forth. I wasn’t aiming at someone in particular. Instead, I was trying just to keep the two cops pinned down. However, the third player was nowhere to be seen and it worried me.

  The SUV swayed gently once as Allison climbed in the back. I dumped the remaining rounds into the white sedan and slid in behind the wheel.

  “Let’s go,” she screamed from the back seat.

  But I didn’t put the car in gear. Instead, I looked over my shoulder at the girl. I saw her thrust the barrel of her weapon out the side window and target the white sedan on the opposite side of the street.

  “Where’s Flynn?” I asked.

  “I have no idea,” she replied. “I already told you that, didn’t I?”

  “We have to find him. We’re not leaving him behind.”

  “Are you crazy? We don’t even know where he is. Probably it’s too late to save him. Besides, I’m barely alive. I have less than ten HP left.”

  One of the cops popped his head above the roof of the white sedan. Allison instantly opened up, the heavy-caliber bullets chewing up the metal body of the vehicle. After a second or two, her weapon went dry. She was out of ammo. Only then did she notice a duffel bag on the back seat. When she looked inside it, she smiled and went, “Get a load of these beauties!”

  Suddenly the clatter of machine fire came from behind and I heard the bullets thud into our vehicle. Had to be the third player.

  “Let’s get the heck outta here,” Allison screamed keeping low on the back seat.

  I didn’t like the idea of leaving Flynn behind, but it seemed like we had no choice. Grating my teeth, I slammed the car into gear and tore away from the curb. In the rearview mirror, I saw the two cops pop up from behind the white sedan and open up at our escaping vehicle, spraying the interior of the SUV with bullets.

  Allison started to take one grenade from the duffel bag after another, yanking out the pins, and toss the grenades out the right window.

  In the rearview window, I saw a bright orange fireball engulf the police car. All the windows exploded in a spray of sparkling shards. The gasoline tank caught a moment later and the second explosion closely followed the first one.

  The grenades exploded one after another. Luckily, there were no NPCs nearby. They all had gotten away from this street when the gunfight erupted.

  I continued to race through the streets and soon the intersection disappeared from sight. The cops didn’t give chase to us since all their cars were destroyed. Probably they had even been killed by the explosions Allison caused.

  Ten minutes later, we reached the van and put the bag with the money in the vehicle. When it drove away, a message popped up in my HUD.

  > Mission Accomplished

  > Money stolen: $10,000,000

  > Money laundered: $5,000,000

  > Penalty: none

  > Gang members survived: 2

  > Money earned: $2,500,000

  Immediately afterward, another one emerged.

  > +5000 exp

  > Congrats! You have just leveled up to level 13! You have got 1 skill points to assign.

  “Well, at least Flynn being apprehended benefitted us,” Allison joked grimly. “We’ve received a little more money than we would’ve if he hadn’t been arrested.”

  I decided to assign the skill point right away. I brought up the character menu and examined the last branch of the skill tree.

  > Level 11 Branch

  > Name: Relentless

  > Description: When downed, you can use your pistol and revive yourself if you manage to kill an enemy.

  > Cost: 3 skill points

  > Name: Interrogation

  > Description: You can integrate a downed enemy so that you and your teammates acquire an ability to temporarily see all enemy players’ whereabouts for 60 seconds.

  > Cost: 3 skill points

  > Name: Rise and shine

  > Description: You can revive gang members at a distance by shouting to them. It works even if a downed gang member is be
hind an obstacle such as a wall.

  > Cost: 3 skill points

  > Name: All for one

  > Description: If one of the gang members gets apprehended, you or the other member of your crew can trade one of the hostages for his or her safe return.

  > Cost: 3 skill points

  > Name: Converted

  > Description: You can intimidate a hostage into fighting on your side for 60 seconds. It only works with one hostage at a time.

  > Cost: 3 skill points

  All the five skills from the eleventh branch of the skill tree seemed extremely useful to me. However, each of these skills required three skill points to be learned. So I decided to wait until I leveled up two more times before deciding which skill to learn.

  “What do we do now?” Allison asked.

  “Let’s find out if we can help Flynn out of prison somehow,” I replied.

  “You mean, we can actually get him out of prison?” Allison asked excitedly. “Like a prison break?”

  “Actually, I meant if we could bail him out, but a prison break would work too, I guess.”

  We returned to my safe house and I took a couple of minutes to read the FAQ. As it turned out, players couldn’t bail out their teammate in this game. The only way to get their teammate out of prison ahead of time was to orchestrate a prison break for him or her. But there were some consequences of such unlawful actions.

  I also learned that a prisoner could answer their cell phone if someone called them, but they couldn’t talk on the phone for more than two minutes. Also, a prisoner could talk on the phone only once a day.

  So I took my cell phone from the pocket and dialed the number of Flynn’s cell phone. He answered on the second ring.

  “Hey Flynn. How ya doin’?”