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Prologue

The shockwave from the explosion threw Otto tumbling out of control through the air. He could hear his own quick panicky breathing, suddenly loud within the confines of the helmet. The stars in the night sky spun past crazily, huge pieces of burning debris whistling past his falling body, close enough to touch. He thought back to his training and tried to control his plummeting body, attempting to break out of the chaotic spin that he found himself in as he fell. Slowly he brought the tumbling under control and now he was just falling, albeit in a slightly more controlled way. He glanced at the pale green figures flickering across the head-up display in his helmet. He was falling too fast; he needed to slow his descent or he’d never make it. He spread his arms and legs, his body acting as an airbrake, reducing his speed.

‘Twenty thousand feet,’ a soft electronic voice chimed in his ear. ‘Descent velocity beyond acceptable parameters.’

All that Otto could see below was blackness. He knew that the target was down there somewhere, but without any lights or visible landmarks by which to orientate himself he just had to hope that the GPS numbers on his visor display were correct and that he could use them to find the drop zone accurately.

‘Fifteen thousand feet,’ the voice said, just as calmly as before. Otto’s brain immediately translated the delay between the announcements into an accurate calculation of the speed at which he was falling. Still too fast.

He didn’t know if anyone else had survived the explosion. It was too dark to see if he was alone. It wasn’t just the frigid air temperature at this altitude that sent a shiver running down his spine. He could very well be on his own out here and he doubted that he could successfully complete the mission solo.

‘Ten thousand feet.’

As the voice calmly reported the shocking speed of his descent Otto started to feel a slight sense of panic. There was still no sign of the target, the numbers on the display all looked right but there was no visual reference to support them. Suddenly a green cross-hair popped up in the middle of Otto’s visor. The onboard navigation systems had determined that was the drop target – Otto just had to pray that they were right. If the instruments’ careful calibration had been at all affected by the chaotic events of the past few minutes, if the targeting was out by even a few feet, then he really was approaching a very, very terminal velocity.

‘Five thousand feet.’

The cross-hair was growing larger and larger. Otto made tiny corrections to his body’s position, trying to keep the cross-hair centred. He couldn’t afford to miss by even the tiniest degree. The wind continued to roar past his body, almost seeming to suck him towards the ground.

‘Four thousand feet.’

Otto was in the final stages of his descent now. All of his recently acquired knowledge about making a jump like this seemed very detached from the actual terrifying experience.

‘Three thousand feet.’

The target stayed centred in the head-up display, getting larger with every passing instant. The plan had to work, Otto thought to himself – there was no other option. What he was doing was insane, by any reasonable measure, but there was no way Otto was going to let whoever was responsible for the events of the past twenty-four hours get away with it.

‘Two thousand feet.’

Somewhere below him was the man responsible.

‘One thousand feet.’

Somewhere below was the man that Otto had to find.

‘Five hundred feet.’

Somewhere below was the man who had murdered Wing.

‘Four hundred, three hundred, two hundred, one hundred.’

Otto closed his eyes.

‘Zero.’