Page 216 of Silent Target

Shark helps Falcon, whose wounded arm has begun bleeding again.

Caleb catches my hand.

We run.

Behind us, Mac and Rook retreat from Victor as rocks crash across the clearing.

Victor keeps coming.

He has lost his rifle.

Lost the First Circle.

Lost the Chairman.

Still, he refuses to stop.

He slashes at Mac with the knife.

Mac blocks.

The impact sends the field knife spinning away.

Victor drives him backward toward the fractured edge.

Rook tackles Victor before he can strike again.

All three men hit the ground.

The crack beneath them widens.

Rock falls into the chasm.

“Rook!” Caleb races back.

I follow.

Victor throws Rook aside and strikes Mac across the face.

Mac drops to one knee.

“You still don’t understand,” Victor says. “The Chairman is inevitable.”

Mac wipes blood from his mouth.

“No. He’s a man who was so afraid of losing power that he buried an army beneath a mountain.”

“He changed the world.”

“He poisoned it.”

Victor lunges.

Mac steps aside.

Victor’s boot lands on fractured stone.

The ledge breaks.