Heist Online

by Victor Deckard

  I racked the slide again. So far, I had fired two shots. As the shotgun magazine held only five, there were three rounds in the weapon. I took two shells from the pockets on my vest and topped off the shotgun.

  There was no noise above me now. The second NPC must have been dead. Probably, I had stiffed everyone who had been in the building. Still, I had to be careful until I made sure there was no one else inside.

  After going through the pockets of the two dead criminals and stripping them of ammo, I checked the second floor. All the doors were open, but it didn’t necessarily mean the rooms were empty. As it turned out, no enemy was hiding on the second floor. I checked each room and found an NPC lying prone on the floor in one room.

  His hands were behind his back, yet he wasn’t cuffed. Initially, I thought it was some kind of a trick, but then a message popped up in my HUD.

  > You have found a hostage!

  > Heister players don’t usually kill civilians because they get a penalty for every NPC they kill. The same holds true for cop players. If you kill an NPC, accidentally or intentionally, you’ll receive less money and experience points when you finish the mission.

  > On the other hand, you receive more money and experience points for every hostage you successfully extract during a mission.

  > So you can try to save the hostage in front of you. You need to keep him out of harm’s way. Walk him to a safe place away from danger or from the possibility of being damaged to get a bonus at the end of the mission.

  “Hey,” I called out to the NPC. “Come with me.”

  The hostage got to his feet. He looked at me but said nothing.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  I peeked into the corridor to make sure no criminal was there. Then I walked the NPC down the stairs. I had him stay on the landing, then descended another flight and checked the first floor. There were no criminals in sight.

  After we walked out of the building, I looked around, scanning the street for a place to hide the NPC. Yet he didn’t need my help anymore. Once in the street, the NPC turned and raced away from the boarded-up building. A few seconds later, he dived in a side street and disappeared from sight.

  A message popped up in my HUD.

  > You saved the hostage! Once you finish the mission, you’ll get a bonus.

  I waited for a few seconds, but no more messages appeared, which meant that the mission wasn’t over yet. There had to be more criminals somewhere in the boarded-up building. So I got back in, returned to the stairs, and started ascending them. Once on the third landing, I peeked around the corner. There were doors on either side of the corridor.

  I rose from my crouch, stepped around the corner, and started down the corridor. I tried to tread very slowly and carefully, but the aged wood creaked under my feet every now and then, warning whoever might be hiding on this floor about my approaching.

  I crept on, checking all the doors on my way down the corridor. So far, every room I had checked was empty. As I neared the end of the corridor, I slackened my pace, reducing it almost to a crawl.

  There was a door on either side. Those two doors were the two only ones in the building that I hadn’t checked yet. There might be an NPC in one of them. Had to be.

  I reached the end of the corridor, the shotgun at the ready. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement on my right. A quick glance into the room revealed an NPC. Surprise, surprise.

  He made no attempt to hide. He stood confidently, his back against the wall, his lips forming a smile. In front of him propped on a tripod was a belt-fed .50-caliber machine gun, the criminal’s hands resting on the grips of the weapon. I ID’ed the weapon as a Browning .50-caliber machine gun.

  I leaped to the side as the criminal opened up. The roar of the huge weapon was almost deafening. The .50-caliber bullets shot through the doorway and then shifted to the wall as I dropped on my right shoulder. I was more than sure that just one such bullet would be enough for me to kick the bucket.

  Dust and chunks of plaster showered me as the big slugs tore through the wall above me. The NPC inside the room kept a steady stream of fire, shooting blindly, apparently hoping that some of the stray bullets would hit me.

  I crawled on my belly along the corridor as the bullets continued punching holes in the wall. The criminal failed to realize that the huge holes he was making in the wall could work both ways. I rolled onto my back, put the shotgun on the floor next to me, and yanked the Sig Sauer from its holster.

  So far, the NPC had fired all his slugs at chest level or above. The AI wasn’t very smart in this game. He should’ve aimed lower. However, there was no telling whether the NPC would continue to stitch lines of bullet holes above me or lower his aim at some point. So I had to carry out my plan real fast.

  When the NPC directed his fire a couple of inches away from my position, I sat up and moved to the nearest hole. Peering through it, I saw the criminal inside the room.

  Unfortunately, the angle was wrong. I had to get to one of the holes that were closer to the door. I started crawling along the floor as the NPC kept on raking the wall with heavy gunfire.

  I spotted the line of the newly created holes advancing on me as the criminal started to sweep the machine gun from right to left, firing through the wall at waist height. I dropped flat on my back as bullets tore through the wall above me. I waited until the NPC directed the gunfire a few feet away from my position and sat up again.

  I peered through another hole. This opening offered a decent angle to return fire. But the hole wasn’t large enough to see through and shoot through simultaneously. I was about to move on to find another hole when the NPC seemed to notice me. His lips curved into an evil smile as he started to sweep the machine gun toward me.

  Keeping my cool, I committed his position to memory and then stuck the barrel of my pistol through the hole. I angled the handgun at where I assumed the NPC was standing and started pulling the trigger, sending shot after shot into the room.

  One of the .50-caliber slugs tore through the wall, missing my head by inches. A thought crossed my mind that one of the next bullets wouldn’t miss. I kept firing. When through half the magazine, I heard the NPC yell in a high-pitched voice and the roar of the machine gun ceased.

  I withdrew the Sig Sauer from the hole, holstered the pistol, picked up the shotgun, and leaped to my feet. I reached the door and looked around the frame. The NPC lay on his back. One of my bullets had taken him in the throat. He had clamped both his hands to the wound, trying to stem the bleeding.

  I looked into the room on the opposite side of the corridor just to make sure nobody was in there. Then I returned to the first room and walked up to the wounded NPC, still holding his throat with both hands.

  As I looked at him, a message appeared before my eyes.

  > The criminal is wounded and harmless for now. In the main game, when you fire at a player and reduce his or her Health to 0, he or she doesn’t die immediately. Instead, he or she falls to the ground. It is called “downed”. When a player is downed, he or she can neither use their weapons nor get up on their own. While a player is downed, you can arrest him or her. To do that, you need to put handcuffs on a downed player and ride him or her to a police station. You get more money and experience points for every player you arrest during a mission.

  > You can to arrest the wounded NPC in front of you.

  After I read the text, it disappeared. I looked at the NPC. I didn’t feel like bothering with arresting and riding him to the nearest police station.

  The NPC suddenly took his right hand off his wounded throat and reached inside his shirt. I instantly trained the Mossberg 500 on him. Totally ignoring the shotgun aimed at him, the NPC continued to pull something from beneath his shirt.

  It was a handgun. I instantly squeezed the trigger and the shotgun barked and bucked in my hands. The NPC’s head disappeared in an explosion of brain matter and bone. The headless body dropped to
the floor.

  A second later, another message popped up in my HUD.

  > Congratulations! You eliminated all the criminals.

  > Mission Accomplished

  > Criminals killed: 4

  > Criminals apprehended: 0 (+$0)

  > Hostages killed: 0 (–$0)

  > Hostages saved: 1 (+$25,000)

  > Money earned: $75,000

  As soon as I read the message, it disappeared to be replaced by another one.

  > Congratulations! You have completed the training mission.

  > A few final notes bear mentioning.

  > Being a cop gives you some perks. Heisters can hotwire cars. Since you are a cop, you cannot do it. However, being a cop, you have a badge. So while a heister hotwire a car, you can show your badge to a non-player driver and he or she will “borrow” their vehicle. However, you don’t have to return the vehicle to its owner. You can damage the car or even completely destroy it while chasing heisters and nobody going to complain about it. Isn’t being a cop great?

  > When chasing a heister who’s trying to get away from you, you can use a special application on your cell phone to watch the feed from the street surveillance cameras. You don’t need to learn some special skills for that. It is just another perk of being a cop.

  > Moreover, this application allows you to see the position of an escaping player on the map on your cell phone. But you can use this feature of the app only when a heister is within about five hundred yards of you. If he or she is beyond the range, you won’t be able to track him on the map, but you will still be able to watch the feed from the street surveillance cameras.

  > Also, being a cop lets you trace cell phones. Yet bear in mind that to trace some player’s cell phone, you need to know his or her nickname as well as the number of their cell phone.

  > To finish the training mission, return to your car.

  I read all the information very slowly and carefully to let it sink in. Now I started to realize how the British players were able to be aware of the whereabouts of heisters after they robbed some place and were escaping with the money in their vehicles.

  However, I still couldn’t find answers to some other questions. For instance, how had they been able to find my safe house? Sure, they might have tracked my cell phone, but to do that, they would have to know my nickname and the number of my phone. So how had they managed to learn my nickname if I had always worn a mask when on a heist? And how had they learned the number of my cell phone? Nobody knew it except for Flynn and Allison. And another question––what did the British players do with the money they stole from heisters if they couldn’t use them?

  I didn’t know the answers to these questions yet. But I was determined to find out. Sooner or later.

  I left the building and strode across the street to the police cruiser. Once I got in the car, everything went dark.

  Chapter Twelve

  A moment later, I was back in the small apartment. First of all, I decided to pick a class. I brought up the character menu and a piece of info appeared before my eyes.

  > Pick a class

  > Class: Doc

  > Description: The Doc is a medic class. He or she is able to revive and heal allies from afar. Moreover, the Doc can shout to his teammates to give them various buffs to temporarily increase their stats. The Doc cannot wear any type of body armor, but he or she can learn the skills that increase their movement speed or make them capable of dodging enemies’ bullets. This is a very important class because none of the other police classes can deploy medic bags or heal themselves or their teammates.

  > (Do you want to pick the Doc class: Yes/No)

  > Class: Technician

  > Description: The Technician is a computer wizard. He or she can use various electronic devices and deploy different drones to locate enemies’ positions or hostages. The Technician is a medium armored operator, so he or she can wear any type of body armor except for the heavy one. The Technician has a wide range of skills to learn. He or she can use a drone, which is a small twin-wheeled robot. It can be used to reconnoiter the location your team needs to strike or to gather intel, such as the whereabouts of heisters or hostages. Or the Technician can deploy jammers that can jam electronic devices, such as surveillance cameras or cell phones, causing them to malfunction for a short while. If you enjoy watching spy movies and always wanted to be a James Bond, this class is the perfect choice for you!

  > (Do you want to pick the Technician class: Yes/No)

  > Class: Enforcer

  > Description: The Enforcer is a heavy armored operator. It is the only police class that can wear heavy body armor and wield powerful weapons such as bazookas or light machine guns. If one of his or her teammates is low on bullets, the Enforcer can deploy ammo bags for them to use. Also, the Enforcer can mount a light machine gun on the roof of a vehicle. Also, the Enforcer is the only police class that can use explosives powerful enough to destroy tactical armored panels, which the Punisher uses to reinforce walls of buildings. Moreover, besides wearing heavy body armor, the Enforcer is equipped with an extendable bulletproof shield, which can fully cover him or her from head to toe, providing extra protection. This allows the Enforcer to be the ultimate point-man, blocking enemy bullets as allies attack from his or her protection. If you are not very good at dodging bullets like Neo, the Enforcer is what you need because this class is almost invincible!

  > (Do you want to pick the Enforcer class: Yes/No)

  Flynn had been right. The three cop classes were basically the analogs of the heister classes. A shot caller was a crowd manipulator and a medic. A doc was a medic class too.

  Just like a punisher, an enforcer was a heavily-armored class wearing heavy body armor. There was only one difference between them: while a punisher’s skills were designed to turn some building into an unbreakable stronghold and set various traps all over the place, an enforcer’s skills were intended for crashing into such a fortified place.

  The same held true for the engineer and technician classes. An engineer was a defensive class while a technician was an offensive one.

  Once I picked a technician, a message popped up in my HUD.

  > +100 exp

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

  I elected to spend the skill point right away. I brought up the skill tree, which appeared in my HUD, and examined it. Only the first branch––the top one––was unlocked at the moment. I examined all the five skills from the first branch.

  > Level 1 Branch

  > Name: Drone 1

  > Description: A drone is a small twin-wheeled robot controlled by you. Once deployed, the drone can be directed to move through a structure and transmit real-time video and audio to your cell phone. These reconnaissance features can locate and identify subjects, confirm the presence of hostages, and reveal a room layout. The drone is capable of entering buildings either through open doorways or small vents scattered around each building. The drone also has the ability to jump via a spring, which reloads after a few seconds. The drone’s ability to jump also allows it to dodge incoming fire by heisters and/or escape quickly. When not in use, the drone remains where it was last left. You can pick it up and redeploy it.

  > The drone’s stats:

  > Amor: 50

  > Jump reload: 3 seconds

  > Jump height: 1 foot

  > Movement speed: 1 m/sec

  > Cost: 1 skill point

  > Name: Jammer 1

  > Description: A jammer can be used to jam electronic devices, such as surveillance cameras or cell phones, causing them to malfunction temporarily. You don’t have to carry the jammer all the time. Instead, you can activate the device and attach it to a wall. While it’s working, all electronic devices in the area will be malfunctioning. For example, the surveillance cameras won’t be working, so you can wander around the area undetected while the jammer is active. Also, when the
jammer is active, heisters can’t communicate with each other by their cell phones. Once you activate the jammer, you can’t deactivate it. Also, the jammer is disposable, meaning you can’t re-use it after it finishes working.

  > The jammer’s stats:

  > Amount: 1

  > Duration: 10 seconds

  > Cost: 1 skill point

  > Name: Camera Deactivator 1

  > Description: You can disable a camera to prevent it from detecting you and your teammates. The effect lasts for several seconds. If a camera has a small green light, it means that a heister watches the feed from this camera right now. With the camera deactivator skill learned, you can deactivate a camera and a heister won’t be able to watch the feed from this particular camera for several seconds.

  > Camera Deactivator’s stats:

  > The number of cameras you can disable at the same time: 1

  > Duration: 30 seconds

  > Cost: 1 skill point

  > Name: Heartbeat Sensor 1

  > Description: The heartbeat sensor is an app that can be installed on your cell phone. The Heartbeat Sensor app detects the heartbeats of nearby enemies through obstacles such as walls. This heartbeat detector can read thermal signatures of your enemies within a few meters of your position. The beeping sound that the heartbeat sensor emits gets louder as you get closer to an enemy’s position. Be aware that your foes can hear the sound as well.