# CHAPTER 24
The heavy, belt-fed machine gun roared to life, unleashing a devastating storm of heavy-caliber lead directly into the convertible's path.
Big Dogg's eyes bulged in shock as the front of his custom sports car was systematically torn to shreds. The windshield exploded into thousands of glass shrapnel shards, and the radiator buckled under the violent assault, and the hood shook violently under the barrage.
"HOLD ON!" Kane screamed, yanking the wheel hard to the left.
The convertible swerved violently, its tires shrieking against the asphalt as it fishtailed across three lanes, fighting to maintain control on the heat-slick highway.
Before the machine gun could chew through the convertible's engine block, the trailing armored SUV surged forward. The heavy vehicle slammed into the space between the sedan and the convertible, placing its thick ballistic steel plating directly into the line of fire.
Across the highway, civilian drivers panicked. Cars swerved off the road, Some ducked behind their dashboards while others abandoned the lane altogether. mounting curbs or slamming their brakes to avoid the stray military-grade rounds tearing through the air. A wide, empty corridor opened up ahead of the fleeing sedan.
Scott glared at his driver through the swirling gunsmoke. "DRIVE! NOW!"
*SCREEECH!*
The sedan's tires burned rubber against the pavement, zooming down the one-way stretch. Oncoming traffic had already scattered to the shoulders, while vehicles farther down the highway executed desperate U-turns to flee the war zone.
In the wake of the sedan, the second armored SUV accelerated into high-speed pursuit.
Behind the lead SUV, Big Dogg wiped glass dust off his face, staring at his vehicle's ruined hood in pure, mournful sorrow. "Shit... That bastard ruined my baby!"
His grief vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by a dark, murderous glare. "Well... I was planning on blowing his car to high hell anyway. Now I'm not going to feel a damn bit of guilt about it."
Big Dogg reached down and hit a mechanical release on the center console. The ruined frame of the convertible's roof retracted with a heavy hydraulic hiss, sliding back into the trunk to convert the car into a roofless platform leaving the passengers exposed to the open air.
He unlatched the Stark Mini-RPG tube from the rear compartment, loaded one of the miniature anti-armor warheads into the breach with a heavy mechanical click, He stood.
The wind immediately slammed into him.
"yeah not gonna work."
He dropped back into his seat and rested the launch tube over the front dashboard. Finding the steady firing angle he needed, he looked up through the shattered windshield frame.
With its raw engine power, the convertible surged forward, pulling up right behind the lead armored SUV in pursuit of the sedan.
Big Dogg grabbed the tactical walkie-talkie from his inside the arm rests of the car, pressed the side button, and barked into the mic: "Lead unit—veer left and open up a clean line of sight!"
Inside both armored SUVs, the walkie-talkie between the front seats crackled to life with Big Dogg's voice. The passenger picked up the receiver, the once in the front sedan glanced into his side mirror, and saw Big Dogg grinning maniacally behind the rocket launcher, his gold tooth glinting in the harsh sunlight.
"Got it." The SUV driver let out a rough laugh, cranked the wheel slightly to the left, and exposed the fleeing sedan thirty yards ahead.
Big Dogg licked his dry lips, closing one eye as he adjusted the crosshairs of the optical sight directly onto the sedan's rear trunk.
Inside the sedan, the driver glanced at his rearview mirror and went pale. "HOLY SHIT! IS THIS GUY CRAZY?!"
He slammed the steering wheel hard to the left, darting back directly in front of the armored SUV to block Big Dogg's trajectory.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Scott roared from the back floorboards. He was in the middle of re-mounting the heavy machine gun toward the broken rear window when the violent turn threw him off-balance, slamming him shoulder-first into the door panel.
The SUV driver noticed the maneuver and swerved right again to clear the firing line. The sedan driver immediately mirrored the move, darting right to keep the SUV's heavy body armor between themselves and Big Dogg's launcher.
Beside Scott, the wounded operative's eyes rolled back, his head dropping as massive blood loss pulled him toward unconsciousness.
"Hey! Stay with me!" Scott growled, slapping the man across the face with a loud *CLACK!*
The operative gasped, his eyes snapping open as he fought to stay awake. "Come on, hold on!" Scott commanded. "We're almost at the extraction point!"
Ahead, the sedan and the lead SUV continued their deadly game of high-speed slalom, swerving back and forth across the lanes to deny Big Dogg a clean lock.
Big Dogg looked up, his eyes catching an overhead highway sign towering a quarter-mile ahead:
**[ JOHNSON'S PARK — NEXT RIGHT ]**
*Dammit,* Big Dogg cursed internally. *If they reach the park grounds, they'll slip into the civilian crowds or reach their corporate extraction team.*
He lifted the walkie-talkie again. "Lead unit—stop swerving! Hold a straight line and accelerate! Move on my mark!"
"Copy that," the SUV driver replied. He leveled the wheel, holding a straight line down the center lane while his passenger leaned out the window, firing suppressive bursts at the sedan ahead.
Seeing the SUV stabilize, the sedan driver took a ragged breath, cold sweat dripping down his neck. "We're almost there..." he muttered, keeping his eyes glued to the park off-ramp ahead.
Behind them, Big Dogg took a breath, leveled the Stark Mini-RPG directly at the rear tailgate of his own lead SUV, and squeezed the trigger.
*FWOOSH!*
The miniature anti-armor warhead launched from the tube in a blinding flash of light and smoke, screaming directly toward the rear bumper of the lead SUV.
"NOW!" Big Dogg roared into the radio.
At the exact moment the warhead cleared the launcher, the SUV driver yanked his wheel hard to the left. The heavy SUV darted out of the lane just as the rocket tore through the open space it had occupied a split-second prior.
The sedan driver looked into his mirror—and his eyes dilated in sheer terror as a streak of white smoke and fiery propulsion locked onto his rear window.
"LOOK OUT!" Scott screamed.
The driver yanked the wheel to the right in a desperate, blind reflex.
*BOOM!*
The warhead missed the sedan's bumper by inches, detonating violently against the massive concrete base of the steel park sign. The high-explosive impact shattered the structural support, sending the multi-ton highway sign collapsing downward into a shower of sparks, concrete dust, and twisted iron.
The heavy sign slammed onto the asphalt, completely sealing off the main off-ramp and blocking Big Dogg's direct chase route.
"SHIT!" Kane yelled, slamming on the brakes. He threw the convertible into reverse, executing a sharp bootlegger turn into an adjacent side street. "We'll cut them off through the residential grid!"
The two armored SUVs banked hard behind the convertible. The three-vehicle convoy roared down the narrow side street, horns blaring as civilian vehicles scattered onto the sidewalk. Kane slammed the wheel left at the intersection, bursting back onto the park perimeter road—just as the battered black sedan cleared the turn up ahead.
Big Dogg raised the RPG, lined up the crosshairs on the sedan's side panel, and pulled the trigger.
*FWOOSH—BOOM!*
The warhead struck the rear axle of the sedan.
The explosive force lifted the heavy sedan clean off the pavement. The vehicle flipped mid-air in a chaotic arc of fire and tearing metal, crashing violently onto its roof and sliding fifty yards across the asphalt before grinding to a halt in front of the park entrance gates.
Big Dogg's convertible and the two armored SUVs screeched to a halt, forming a tight tactical semicircle around the burning, inverted wreckage.
Big Dogg stepped out of the car, raising his weapon as his operatives hopped out with their assault rifles raised, slowly tightening the perimeter around the upside-down sedan.
Smoke poured from the crushed frame. Gasoline dripped onto the hot road.
Big Dogg stepped up to the shattered driver's side window, kicking the door off its twisted hinges with his heavy boot. He leaned down, aiming his gun inside—and froze.
The interior was empty.
Blood smeared the ceiling fabric, and shattered glass covered the floorboards, but there was no sign of Scott or his men. A severed emergency seatbelt hung loosely from the frame, swinging gently in the hot afternoon breeze.