The black SUV took less than half a minute to whip around, drift, and start speeding in reverse. After all, any hesitation, any delayed maneuver, would have meant either crashing into the truck or plunging off the bridge.
Yet twenty seconds was enough for a lot to happen.
"Brother Chaisi," Tian Xi called out in a low voice.
From that moment on, it was as if time slowed, stretching into one long, continuous shot. The world fell silent, sinking all the way down to the bottom of the Black Sea beneath the bridge, leaving only the sound of his own breathing and heartbeat in his ears.
Smoothly, Chaisi leaned out the window and raised his submachine gun.
Ahead, the black SUV's rear wheels skidded and spun sideways, as if an invisible hand had wrenched it in a new direction. Its tires threw up a torrent of spray. White waves rose to meet the black rain, for a moment blurring the lines between sky, sea, and the Human World—a vast, watery expanse.
Chaisi narrowed his eyes.
