The gate was the key.

“Hunter, come here, you varmint!”

I froze.

That voice didn’t belong to the gauntlet.

I had heard that voice before.

Hope Town.

Leander.

Gunfire cracked somewhere above me.

Three shots.

Then something heavier answered.

The sound rolled down the shaft and filled the chamber.

I looked up.

Muzzle flashes strobed across the opening above the ladder.

Great.

Whatever Leander was doing up there, he had company.

The floor kept turning.

So did the gate.

I grabbed the steel bars and started climbing.

The whole damn chamber rotated beneath me.

Every few seconds the ladder swept past on the other side of the gate, close enough to touch and then gone again.

Another burst of gunfire.

Sparks showered down through the opening.

I ducked my head and kept climbing.

“Hunter!”

Leander’s voice again.

Closer this time.

“Stand down, Leander!”

Another voice cut through the gunfire.

That was when I realized what was happening.

The Pipe Rats were protecting their turf.

They were also losing it.

Gunfire hammered across the chamber above me.

Not a few shots.

A war.

Something heavy crashed into the railing overhead.

A Pipe Rat went over it a second later.

He hit the rotating floor hard and disappeared from sight.

Then came Leander.

Not running.

Advancing.

Bullets sparked off the steel around him.

One caught him in the shoulder and spun him halfway around.

He corrected.

Kept coming.

Another Pipe Rat opened up from behind a support beam.

Leander raised one arm.

A flash.

The support beam exploded apart.

“Hunter!”

His voice cut through all of it.

“Quit making me chase you, varmint!”

A bullet smacked into the gate six inches from my hand.

I moved faster.