Yasmin knew she was going to die. Either she’d jump to her death or Jackal would shoot her.

‘This could’ve been easy,’ Jackal growled, pistol aimed right at her heart. If he was afraid of falling, he didn’t show it as he staggered towards her. ‘You could’ve lived. Things didn’t have to be this way.’

Jackal seethed, touching his fingers to his face. ‘Look at what you did to me. Just look!’

By the moonlight, Yasmin saw where the skin around his eyes was red and puffy. As wrong as it was to hurt anyone, she silently wished he’d suffered more chemical damage. If she had really blinded him, he wouldn’t be about to kill her.

Mouth dry, heart hammering, Yasmin glanced away from Jackal to the dark countryside blurring by on either side of the speeding train. If she jumped, her body would be broken beyond belief. It was horrible, but it would deny the man the satisfaction of killing her.

As if reading her mind, he stepped closer. ‘There’s nowhere to hide this time.’ Squinting through burning eyes, Jackal chuckled humourlessly. ‘You’re going to die.’

Anger surged through Yasmin. This was so unfair. In just hours, she’d gone from being a DARE Award winner, whose life was to be filled with adventure and opportunity, to a desperate fugitive, with her life being measured in seconds. Only one word echoed in her mind: Why? Why had Jackal really been sent at the same time she and her friends had received the mysterious symbols? Why had Egypt been attacked? There had to be a connection. She had to know the truth. Why did she have to die? But when Yasmin opened her mouth to demand an answer, the only sound was the loud ringtone of her phone bleating at top volume in her pocket.

‘Ha!’ Jackal said. ‘Yasmin can’t answer the phone right now because—’

But she didn’t need to. Her phone had accepted the call and switched to speaker.

‘Get down and hold on!’ a computerised voice commanded loudly. ‘Now!’

Yasmin didn’t stop to think.

She dropped to the roof, hands grabbing the pipes on either side of her.

‘Hey, what—’ Jackal said.

Whatever he said after that was lost in the screech of brakes as the train shuddered beneath them.

Jackal screamed as he shot forwards, crunching into the carriage roof before being flung away into the darkness.

For a moment, Yasmin wondered if he’d survived.

Then all she knew was she was losing her grip on the pipes as the train began to buck off the tracks beneath her.