The Leader landed a devastating blow on Black's midsection. Black staggered back, his face contorted in pain, coughing up blood. The Leader lunged, raising the knife high for the killing strike.
"NO!" Jack roared, rushing in and using the heavy wrench he had brought from the roof. He swung it with all his might, hitting the Leader's temple. The Leader barely flinched, recovering instantly to thrust the knife forward. Jack dodged, but the knife found its mark, plunging deep into Jack's left leg.
Jack cried out in agony, collapsing against the wall. But Black, with a final surge of strength, lunged from behind, wrapping a length of heavy wiring around the Leader's neck. They struggled until, with a heavy, wet sigh, the Leader slumped against the wall, motionless.
Jack, trembling, ripped the ski mask from the Leader's face. The face revealed was not Volkov's. It was Marcus. The man who had set them on this path was the one who tried to end it.
"Marcus..." Jack whispered, his voice thick with shock.
Before they could even process the betrayal, a rhythmic, deafening thud-thud-thud vibrated through the tunnel walls. A searchlight, blinding and cold, swept into the tunnel mouth. A military helicopter crested the ridge, hovering like a predatory insect. Without warning, its nose-mounted chain gun spun up, and a hail of high-caliber rounds tore into the tunnel, shredding the stone and the metal walls of the carriage.
"Move! Now!" Black roared, grabbing Jack by the collar of his jacket.
With the helicopter raining lead upon them, they had nowhere to go but back. They scrambled into the nearest ruined train car—a luxury sleeper—just as a missile from the chopper struck the tunnel's arched entrance. The explosion was cataclysmic. The tunnel mouth collapsed in a roar of granite and fire, the force of the blast kicking the train car backward out of the tunnel and over the edge of the precipice.
The world turned into a screaming kaleidoscope of twisting steel and breaking glass. The car tumbled, rolling violently down the sheer, icy mountain face. Jack and Black were tossed like ragdolls inside the metallic drum as it gathered speed, shedding sparks and debris against the rocks.
With a final, sickening jolt, the car reached the edge of a massive, hidden cliff. It didn't stop. It launched into the void, plummeting through the mist until it slammed into a protruding spur of rock, impaling itself.
The car groaned, swaying precariously over a thousand-foot drop. Silence fell, broken only by the whistling wind and the drip of fuel. Jack groaned, his vision blurring. They had fallen into the abyss—exactly where their nightmare began in Chapter 1.