He just stood in front of the second cupola, his feet planted wide, blocking the way.

‘Captain West!’ his deep voice boomed. ‘It is time we settled our differences.’

Jack swallowed.

‘I have to stop you, Rastor.’

‘I know you do. It is in your nature. Just as it is in mine to destroy everything in existence.’

Jack took a step forward, out of the first cupola and onto the soaring bridge, never taking his eyes off Rastor.

He’d forgotten how big he was. The man was huge, at least a foot taller than Jack.

Rastor called again, ‘Do you know why the four kingdoms feared me, Captain?’

Jack said nothing.

‘Because I can happily kill anyone without hesitation. Men, women, children, I care not. And I can do this for a simple reason: I enjoy it, take pleasure in it. Screams of agony do not stir me. In fact, I delight in them.’

So it had come to this, Jack thought. A fight between Rastor and him.

Then Jack glimpsed a grey-clad commando lurking behind Rastor, half-hidden behind the big general. The man was hopping quickly on the spot, like a boxer warming up for a fight.

Rastor said, ‘They also feared me because I was smarter than they were, more adept at strategy and tactics. And finally, it was because I inspired loyalty in my troops. The men who joined me here in the Labyrinth are commandos from Serbia who are total in their devotion to me. They will do whatever I ask of them. Such a combination proved too frightening for the four kings, so they had me drugged and taken away to a special cell in Erebus.’

As Rastor spoke, Zoe, Lily and Alby emerged from the entry archway and saw the standoff going on far below them.

Rastor grinned again at Jack.

‘I left you a gift before, a Vandal with a special something taped to his back. Consider this another gift, only bigger.’

Jack never saw him coming.

A second grey-clad commando—who had been hiding on the domed roof of Jack’s cupola and who, as Rastor had been speaking, had snuck up on Jack from above and behind.

The commando leapt down onto Jack’s back, knocking his fire helmet off his head and hurling Jack to the ground.

Jack’s helmet went tumbling a short distance along the bridge while Jack landed heavily on his chest.

He rolled immediately, turning face-up just as the commando slashed at him with a KA-BAR knife.

Jack caught the killer’s wrist and was holding the knife at bay when he heard Rastor call, ‘Run, my loyal soldier! Finish him! Have faith that all life in the universe will be joining you in the hereafter very, very soon!’