"Shoot under the pier! He fell in the water, don't let the bastard get back up!" a hoarse voice shouted from right above Raka, followed by the whiz of bullets slicing through the water near him.The freezing, stinging saltwater immediately jolted Raka's survival instincts back to life, instincts that had momentarily faded after the heavy impact of the collapsing containers. He was forced to let himself sink a few yards below the surface of the wet pier to dodge the hail of live ammunition fired by Darma's men. With his chest tightening as he held his breath, his hand kept a vice-like grip on the wet iron handle of Haris's revolver beneath his black coat."I can't die like a dog in this filthy water before I rescue Elena," Raka thought, pulling himself up along the slick wooden pilings of the pier."Check the cargo barge area now! The woman has to be hiding behind that stack of containers!" one of the hitmen shouted from above."Hold on, I need to clear the saltwater out of this barrel

"You two are seriously out of your minds! Every cop in Jakarta has shoot-on-sight orders for Raka, and you guys just walk right back into the lion's den!" Sena shrieked in a panic inside Leo's dimly lit garage.Sneaking back onto the Jakarta mainland was an exhausting ordeal, navigating the motorboat through muddy mangrove swamps on the north coast before being picked up by Leo's gray van, which had fake license plates. Leo's dusty, run-down garage was once again their makeshift safehouse, smelling of gasoline and dry disinfectant. Raka sat slumped against a stack of old tires, fighting the agonizing pain in his left abdomen from the gunshot wound."Take it easy, Sena. That high-pitched voice of yours is honestly way more terrifying than the barrels of the corrupt cops' guns out there," Raka joked, trying to lighten the mood."He's joking just so he doesn't pass out, Sena. His stitches are in bad shape, but his stubborn head is still holding up," replied Leo, who stood there leaning o

"That silk carpet is worth hundreds of millions, Raka, but I think your vomit just drove its value way down," Bianca's cold voice cut through the silence from behind a black velvet curtain.Raka wiped his mouth roughly with the back of his wet hand, fighting the intense nausea churning in his stomach after seeing the detective's severed head inside the glass jar. His unsteady legs tried to quickly back away toward the wooden double doors of the study, but all he heard was the heavy clank of iron as Darma's guards bolted the door shut from the outside. Around him, the sweet scent of jasmine perfume that had filled the room now seemed to morph into the sickening smell of a corpse, suffocating him."You're a psychopath, Bianca. Keeping a severed human head inside your own master bedroom," Raka hissed, his jaw clenching with anger."It's just a little trophy, Honey. Darma kept it there as leverage so I wouldn't betray him," Bianca said, taking a graceful step forward."And now you're trap

"Let go of me, Leo! I have to get out right now! She is being tortured because of me!" Raka shrieked hysterically among the piles of foul-smelling garbage, struggling to break free from Leo's rough grip.The city trash truck kept speeding through the light drizzle of the Jakarta night, shaking violently as it hit potholes in the dark. Inside the metal cargo bed, which was stifling with a wet, nauseating stench of rot, Leo held Raka tight with all his remaining strength, fighting to contain his friend's blind panic. Raka thrashed wildly, ignoring the searing pain from his left shoulder where a live round had torn through, as well as the warm blood seeping from his ruptured abdominal stitches."Calm down, Raka! You are bleeding way too much! If you jump right now, you will die like an idiot under the back tires!" Leo barked, slapping Raka's cheek hard."I don't care, Leo! Elena's screams on the phone are torturing my soul!" Raka yelled, his eyes bloodshot as he fought back an explosion

"Raka! Let go of me! My hands are slippery with blood, we're both going to fall into the acid!" Elena shrieked, her voice high-pitched and terrified in the middle of her plunge. Raka leaped without a second thought through the dark air of the factory, ignoring the excruciating pain of the gunshot and stab wounds on his battered body. His right hand snatched the rapidly slipping iron chain, instantly wrapping the thick metal around his arm and wrist over and over with the last of his strength. The brutal friction of the steel chain immediately shredded the skin off his palm, peeling it away completely, but the tight wrap managed to lock the chain in place, stopping it from sliding further in the cold draft. "I'm not letting you go, Elena! We have to stay together until the end," Raka replied, wincing through the agonizing sting. "What a pathetic, cheap drama, Raka. Now, let go of that chain, or this bullet goes straight through your brain," Darma threatened from the top of the stairs