​     Trevor yelled from his cart to Niki in hers. "Go for the tower! I'll be your back up!"

​     That sounded great to Niki. They went with the flow of traffic. Niki stomped on the accelerator, then swerved around the carts in front of her. Then, three cars rolled along slowly, side by side, completely blocking her way. Niki  took a left into the lane of traffic headed away from the tower towards the exit. She all but slammed head first into another cart.

     Beep!

​     The driver of the other cart hit his horn as he swerved to avoid getting smashed into. Once past the three carts, Niki again joined the flow of traffic headed for the tower.

​     Huh, Niki thought. These cars have horns. Of course they do.

     Cool.

​     Beep! Beep! Beep!

     Then,

     PING!

​     A bullet bounced off one of the cart's poles just to the left of Niki's face. Too close. A cart pulled up alongside hers. There were two guards in the cart, one driving and one wielding a rifle. The guy with the rifle aimed it at Niki's ribcage.

     Niki thought, oh no, can't have that. She slammed on the brake so that the other cart zoomed ahead of her. Bumper car time. The car behind hers slammed into Niki when she decelerated so suddenly. It sent her spinning so that she slammed into another passing cart.

​     Dang! Niki got control of the cart again, but this time she didn't head directly for the tower but instead cut across the lanes of traffic, creating chaos. 

     They'll have a hard time getting a bead on me now, Niki thought.

​     But, she was wrong because...

     Dang!

​     Another cart pulled up alongside hers. The guard in this one had a gun in one hand and the steering wheel in the other.

     Ooo, I sure could use that gun, Niki thought.

​     She took a sharp left right into him. She dove from her cart into his on impact. She hit his upper torso, and they, together, fell wrestling into the back of the cart.

​     The cart spun, then stopped. The guard fought to raise his gun enough to blow off Niki's face, but she wasn't about to let it happen. She grabbed tight the wrist of the hand that held the gun. She got a quick look around while they struggled. Another cart converged on their position. This cart had two guards in it, one with a rifle, one with a handgun. Within seconds, they'd be joining in on the fight.

     Now what? she asked herself.

     Think, Niki, think!

     Then,

     BAM!

     Trevor to the rescue.

     He slammed his cart into the one with the two guards in it. Both carts skidded, then stopped. The two guards visually scanned their surroundings in search of something to shoot at. Trevor planted a haymaker on one of them that snapped his head back and knocked him ​out. Trevor grabbed his rifle and used it as a club on the other guard's skull. These guards weren't replacers, and Trevor didn't want to kill anybody unless he absolutely had to. He just wanted them out of the way.

     Plus, he wanted their weapons.   

​     The guard Niki fought turned to look at the other cart, a mistake. Niki brought her arm up under his chin, making his teeth clack as they all but bit through his tongue. Niki broke free from him, then elbowed him in the eye. She twisted the wrist that held the rifle until he let it go. She grabbed it, then used it to club him right out of the cart.

​     Trevor leaped into the back seat with his newly acquired rifle and handgun.

     "Go!"

     That's an instruction Niki didn't have to hear twice. She stomped on the accelerator, and they took off.

​      Now a bunch of carts filled with guards were after them.

​      As Niki drove, Trevor dropped to his knees in the back seat, facing backwards, a weapon in each hand. During his year with the Azure, he'd been trained to became a crack shot. Each bullet he fired took out a guard that chased them. He got one guard in the shoulder, another one in the elbow, while Niki steered the cart closer, ever closer, to the tower.

     Beep! Beep! Beep! Niki loved hitting that horn.

     BAM! BAM! Two more shots from Trevor. Two more guards reaching for wounds.

     Niki weaved around one last cart...

     then there they were, at the entrance leading into the Diamond Tower itself...

     an entrance now packed with armed guards.

     Dang!

     No time to turn.

     "Hit the deck!" Niki yelled. A volley of bullets zinged over their heads and slapped into the front of the cart. She never took her foot off the accelerator. Niki slammed into the double doors that was one of the tower's three entrances. The doors were nothing but glass and metal frame, so they shattered as Niki plowed the cart through them, and now there were glass shards and flailing guards everywhere, as well as a cart now smashed into immobility.

     "Try not to kill anybody," Trevor said.

     "Them first," Niki replied.

     The lobby was as big and expansive as an auditorium and filled with employees as Niki and Trevor made their loud and bloody appearance, employees now all screaming and running either for the other exits or the elevators.

     A guard lunged at Niki. She got him through the heart with a single blast from her rifle. She dropped to the floor and rolled to her right as a hail of bullets whizzed over her head. On her back, she watched a guard take aim at her. She blew his balls off before he got the chance. The recoil sent Niki sliding back on the polished cement floor. As she did, she twisted to rise back to her feet. Two more guards took aim. Niki thought, okay, that's it, then. Life over. There are too many guards, and I'm just too obvious a target.

     She waited for a bullet to slam into her.

     It never happened.

     She'd forgotten about Trevor.

     Great shot.

     Invisible.

     Both his rifle and handgun popped.

     One guard went down with every pop until his weapons emptied. He dropped them to snatch up two more rifles.

     "Let's go," he yelled to Niki, then took off in the direction of the elevators.

     Follow the floating rifles, Niki thought, and she took off after him.

     "I asked you not to kill anybody," Trevor said as he ran.

     "And what did you just do?"

     "Couldn't be helped."

     "Oh, I see, so when I..."

     "Shut up!" That came out of Trevor with such force and emotion that Niki, indeed, stopped talking. He'd really been affected by what he'd just had to do. Having to kill somebody was absolutely no joke for him. 

     Someone shot at Niki from somewhere inside the lobby.

     In one motion, Trevor turned and fired on the guy.

     One shot.  

     The guard went down.

     And then they were at the elevators.

​     But no way were they going to be able to get in any of them, not with all the fleeing employees packing them the second the elevator doors opened.

​     "The stairs it is," Trevor said.

​                                          CONTINUE