Inside the car, aside from the driver and the subordinate manning the Gatling gun, the back seat was stacked full of ammunition. Even so, the pile was shrinking at a visible, alarming speed.
This level of consumption wasn't pointless. The effect was immediate and overwhelming.
A Gatling gun meant only one thing.
A storm of metal.
A storm of lethal metal.
Under that kind of threat, the police who had just rushed in retreated without hesitation. Who could possibly withstand this?
They might as well have brought a tank.
Everyone here was just trying to make a living. No one wanted to die.
The officers weren't ignorant of what this station was guarding. That money belonged to Reyes, the drug lord.
It wasn't theirs.
Charging forward in this situation was suicide.
So would they still go?
Of course not.
They retreated almost twice as fast as they had arrived.
Some of the smarter ones even stripped off their police uniforms and bolted.
No one was willing to die for a drug lord's money. This job wasn't worth it.
On the other side, Reyes had already noticed the commotion. Guided by a police officer, he hurried toward the records room.
That money was his lifeline. He had to make sure nothing happened to it.
Inside, Toretto and O'Conner had already secured the steel cables to the safe. They jumped back into their cars, shut the doors, buckled their seat belts, and started the engines.
Horsepower climbed.
Gas pedals hit the floor.
The tires screamed against the ground as white smoke spread outward.
People often fell into strange misconceptions.
For example, believing that if a door was impossible to open, everything behind it was safe.
But a door was never the weakest point.
The most embarrassing thing was building the world's strongest door and installing it into a mud wall.
That was exactly the situation here.
The safe was sturdy, heat-resistant, and nearly impossible to crack.
But it was only fixed into a concrete wall.
And then-
Toretto's and O'Conner's cars ripped it straight out.
Morin's subordinate, driving the armored vehicle, surged forward, and the convoy burst out together.
Reyes arrived just in time to see it.
His money.
The massive safe containing one hundred million dollars.
Being dragged away in one piece.
Reyes froze.
That was his life.
"Chase them! Call everyone! Chase them!" he screamed, jumping in place.
"Move! Chase them!" the police chief shouted, issuing the order.
Very few responded.
Those who hadn't faced that weapon couldn't imagine the fear it inspired. The instinctive terror of death.
They would rather be fired.
Rather face retaliation.
Anything but die.
The only ones who actually pursued were a handful of Reyes's men and a few police officers halfheartedly pretending to try. Even then, the distance between them and Toretto's crew kept growing.
That, too, took skill.
It was called acting.
A Gatling gun and an armored vehicle in a city like this, against officers armed with pistols and the occasional shotgun-
The threat level was absurd.
"Looks like my job is pretty easy," Morin said calmly, tapping a few keys.
In an instant, traffic lights across the city shifted according to his preloaded plan-and stayed that way.
"Everyone, stick to the original route and plan," Morin said. "If anything unexpected happens, report it immediately."
"The whole city is cooperating with you," he added with a laugh. "Is there a better racetrack than this?"
"I don't think so," Toretto replied, grinning. "Thanks, Morin."
Traffic control couldn't stop Reyes's men or the police.
But it could stop civilians.
And that meant Morin controlled the flow.
He could open paths.
Clear intersections.
Or seal roads completely.
Every time Toretto and O'Conner dragged the safe through an intersection, the lights shifted.
When the pursuers followed, civilian traffic surged in from every direction.
The chasers didn't care about crashing into other cars-but their vehicles weren't modified.
At this speed, in this density, they had only two options.
Stop.
Or detour.
And for Morin, who controlled the entire traffic network, rerouting and sealing paths was trivial.
Other police units and Reyes's men scattered around the city tried to box them in.
Most were intercepted by traffic alone.
As for the few who slipped through-
If the so-called car gods could be stopped by a few nobodies, they wouldn't be called car gods.
Along the way, Toretto and O'Conner barely encountered any pursuers.
The few they did meet were dealt with effortlessly.
O'Conner found it almost surreal.
This wasn't a death race.
It really was, just as Morin had said, a race where the entire city was on their side.
"This is insane," Roman said, covering his face. "Is this really a robbery? Feels like a road trip."
"This is what he can do," Gisele said with a smile. "He's a fascinating man."
"Thanks for the compliment," Morin replied, tapping the desk. "I heard that."
"Traffic control like this is unbeatable," Toretto said, shaking his head.
And so, something bizarre happened.
On Toretto's route, the city turned into a ghost town.
After dealing with the last of the minor pursuers, they reached a dark underpass beneath a planned overpass.
There, they made the switch.
Toretto and O'Conner drove on opposite sides. The safe, guided by a slanted iron plate, slid cleanly into the back of a truck.
The Spanish duo moved quickly, unhooking the steel cables from the real safe and attaching them to the fake one mounted at the front.
The decoy was dragged away by Toretto and O'Conner.
The truck doors slammed shut.
They climbed into the cabin.
Gisele, at the wheel, drove toward a second prearranged location.
At the same time, Morin lifted all traffic controls and erased every trace he had left behind.
Reyes, who had finally chased out himself, arrived just in time to see his safe plunge into the river.
"Get people down there! Fish it out!" he roared.
"Hurry!"
~~~~~
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