"Yah!" Lorkis flailed his arms and then clamped both upper hands over his mouth. Both of Nishara's hearts pounded and she almost dropped her controller. She glanced at him and back to her screen in time to find a new notification pop up above the mini-map: Grishnag obliterated Lorkis.

Everyone else laughed or snickered. Lorkis's face turned a few shades darker.

"Sorry. That startled me."

"I wasn't close enough to see it," Kolya said. "What happened?"

"Grishnag drove head-on into my car. My body torpedoed through the windshield, flew over her car, and hit the ground head-first."

"Ouch." Kolya chuckled.

"They're heading for a warehouse a bit north of you," Donovan said.

"Thanks."

Nishara's spectator view switched to Kolya's screen as she headed north. A moment later the opposing team's vehicles came into visual range with each player's name hovering above them.

"They're almost at the drop." Donovan rubbed his hands together.

Kolya plowed through the wire fence around the warehouse, stopped, jumped out, and selected her sniper rifle from the weapons menu. She zoomed in on the three remaining women running toward the warehouse's huge open door.

A scruffy man carrying a knife bolted around the building's corner, knocked Cora's avatar off her feet, and ran toward the vehicles they'd parked nearby.

"What?" Cora stared at her screen. "I just got mugged!"

Everyone laughed.

"He stole nine thousand dollars!" Cora gaped at her screen and finally burst out laughing. "The mugger just drove off in my car!"

"Don't worry about it." Kolya centered her scope on Cora's head. A quick tap on the mouse button blew the character's head off. Cora twitched.

"Gah!"

Kolya smirked and shifted her aim to a pallet of red metal barrels directly behind Grishnag and Zilaka. Both of them turned to run into the warehouse, but Kolya popped a round into one of the barrels. The explosion cooked off the rest and the resulting flames engulfed both characters.

"Uh-oh!" Grishnag staggered away from the flames, but her health dropped to zero and her avatar collapsed into a charred heap. Grish snorted, shrugged, and placed her controller on the table.

Zilaka began firing wildly. Syala gasped and slumped forward, bracing her arms on the table.

"Well, I'm dead." She chuckled and then made a farting sound with her lips. "Guess it's all up to you, Kolya."

"I'll see what I can do, then." Kolya lined up another shot and punched a round through Zilaka's receding back.

"Eep!" Zilaka blinked a few times, shook her head, and laughed. "Well, it's all over."

Kolya grinned and ran toward the warehouse.

"Yep, not bad at all." Dylan laughed softly. "You pick things up fast."

Kolya grinned as she reached the mission objective and ran back to her car.

"So, what're we doing for round two?"