The moment was coming. He saw lights in the tower’s base – something more than the seething flames. The earth’s power was rising again. More flashes, lightning bolts snaking into the air – and the whole ruin shuddered.

The toppled section sagged, every surviving window shattering in a dazzling mirrored cascade. Dust erupted from within as concrete crumbled.

The lights grew brighter – then another explosion blasted the lower floors apart.

With a fearsome roar, the entire structure started to fall.

The Chinese soldier watched his comrade descend the hose – then jumped in shock as strange lightning lanced from the bottom of the broken tower—

All the windows above burst apart. Tons of broken glass fell in a great wave towards the plaza below – sweeping the other soldier away with it.

The smaller tower lurched, earthquake-force tremors shaking it. He ran for the exit, barely able to keep his balance. Tiles and light fittings fell from the suspended ceiling, dust dropping from widening cracks in the concrete slabs above.

He swerved as a section of floor fell away, then sprinted for the door—

The ceiling pounded down on him like a sledgehammer.

Eddie was still nine storeys up when the tower shook. The wrecked skyscraper was about to come down – and take his building with it.

There was no way he would reach the ground floor in time. Instead he barged through the stairwell exit. He had only one chance of survival – and even that was slim.

He charged across empty offices. Wind blew in through broken windows ahead. Beyond them he saw the fortress settling over the park like a great dark bird. He had sent Macy towards it. The grim thought spurred him on. He had to save her, no matter what.

The car park came into view as he neared the windows. It was unfinished, a couple of large trucks, including a cement mixer, parked near a partially skimmed swathe of concrete surface at the far end. The workers had long since fled. The upper level was two storeys below him, a gap of fifteen feet separating it from the tower. The nearer end was strewn with fallen debris.

Eddie knew he could make the jump – but he would be falling nearly thirty feet onto a hard surface. However good his landing, he would almost certainly break bones.

But it was that or death. He looked for the clearest landing spot and ran at the window—

The floor dropped out from under him.

He stumbled to a stop just before the edge. Broken concrete and steel whooshed past the windows as debris shook loose from the upper floors.

Another lurch almost knocked him down. A huge, explosive crack of disintegrating concrete rolled up from below. The whole building dropped by a foot, the central core crumbling under the sheer weight of the toppled skyscraper. It was about to fall—

Eddie scrambled back across the room, then ran again.