From his awkward position on the ground, Jack glanced up at Rastor and saw the other Serbian commando—the one who had been hopping up and down behind the general—race out from behind Rastor and come running at full speed down the bridge toward Jack.

The man cried out as he ran, a yell of crazed fervour.

He held no weapon, yet when Jack saw what was attached to the crazed runner’s chest, he swallowed in terror.

A cluster of twelve red orbs.

Taped across the commando’s chest with duct tape.

The Vandal before had had only one orb attached to his body and that explosion had been huge.

This guy had twelve.

Jack’s eyes boggled.

This commando was a berserker, a kamikaze, a fanatical suicide bomber running unstoppably at Jack, coming to obliterate himself, Jack and the other commando.

Zoe, Lily and Alby watched the scene with horrified eyes.

They had seen Jack emerge on the other side of the cupola and exchange words with Rastor.

Then they saw the first commando surprise Jack, saw them both tumble out of view.

And then they saw the second one come running down the superhigh bridge, screaming like a maniac and wearing something on his chest.

There was nothing they could do.

They were two hundred metres away, way too far to help, and they could only watch in dismay as the second grey-clad commando arrived at the cupola.

The second Serbian commando arrived at the cupola at a full-tilt run, and with crazed eyes and a cry of victory, he drew a knife and began stabbing wildly at the orbs taped to his chest, puncturing them.

The result was instantaneous.

Three of the red orbs exploded, and their explosions set off all the others . . .

. . . causing a fireball of unimaginable ferocity—twelve times stronger than the previous one—to blast out from the cupola, shattering its four columns in an instant and cracking its domed roof.

Destroying the interior of the cupola completely, along with anyone inside it, including Jack.

Zoe’s jaw dropped.

Lily’s eyes filled with tears.

Alby gasped.

There was no way anyone could survive such a blast. Anybody made of flesh and blood would be melted in an instant, blasted apart, vaporised.

They stared in horror at the destroyed cupola.

Small fires licked out from its ruins. Smoke billowed from it. A flaming crimson liquid trickled down one wall of the pylon below it.

And as the echoes of the explosion receded away into the cavernous space, a new sound could be heard.

Rastor’s cackling laugh.

What happened next happened in a blur.

Rastor spun on his heel and dashed away, heading for the high central tower.

Lily raced down onto the first bridge, toward the destroyed cupola.

Zoe and Alby took off after her.

But as they came to the cupola, the extent of the damage became clear.

It had been completely shattered by the blast.