The SUV's rear window shattered into a million pieces upon a single brutal impact, showering the back cabin with jagged shards of glass that shimmered under the dim glow of streetlamps.

"Argh! They're right behind us, Jason!" Leo shrieked hysterically, shielding his head with both hands while glass fragments peppered the back of his jacket.

Jason didn't reply to the scream. His jaw locked, the muscles in his neck bulging with tension as he wrenched the steering wheel hard left to break away from the choked city streets below. Ahead of them, a highway overhead ramp curved upward into the night: the Elevated Expressway.

"Grab the armrest! Don't let go!" Jason commanded in a low baritone, radiating absolute authority amid a life-or-death situation.

Screeech!

The SUV's tires shrieked wildly as Jason tore into the uphill curve of the overpass at a hundred and ten kilometers per hour. The expressway opened up wide, suspended directly over a dizzying twenty-meter drop overlooking the cityscape. Yet, that sense of relief lasted only a heartbeat. In the side mirror, the three pitch-black sport bikes came hurtling up the ramp as well, tailgating tightly without leaving an inch of breathing room.

"They made it onto the overpass, Jason! They're still on us!" Leo whipped around to look backward, his chest heaving and his eyes blown wide with terror.

"Let them come. We've got plenty of room here for our game," Jason muttered coldly.

High above the overpass, slick and slicked with a light night drizzle, the chase devolved into a bloody gladiatorial race. The first assassin's sport bike surged forward, hugging the SUV's left flank, while the second bike took up a perilous position on the right, boxing the vehicle in like two sharks closing in on prey.

"Jason, watch your left!" Leo screamed a warning.

The rider on the left flipped open his visor, revealing a face twisted into a bloodthirsty grin. In his left hand, a long machete dragged noisily against the concrete median barrier, throwing off a bright trail of sparks into the dark night. Without warning, he swung the blade hard toward the driver's side window.

"Die with that ten million dollars!" the killer snarled.

Jason saw the flash of steel coming a split second before impact. With the honed reflexes of a veteran operative forged in combat, Jason dropped his body flat into Leo's lap, letting the machete's blade slice empty air right over his headrest, scraping the car door with a deafening screech of grinding metal.

"Your head was almost clean off, Jason!" Leo blared, his voice verging on a pitch of absolute panic.

"Not quite," Jason shot back quickly, hoisting his body back up and gripping the steering wheel with one hand. "Now it's my turn."

With his free right hand, Jason reached into the lower dashboard compartment, pulling out a pitch-black, fully suppressed semi-automatic pistol loaded with a fresh magazine. He hit the power button for the right passenger window, rolling it all the way down. A ferocious gust of night wind whipped into the cabin, carrying a chill spray of rain.

"Leo, take the wheel! Just hold the bottom of the steering wheel, don't jerk it!" Jason ordered without a shred of hesitation.

"What?! I can't drive at this speed!" Leo protested, shaking violently.

"Do it now or we both die here!" Jason snapped sharply.

Trembling uncontrollably, Leo stretched out both hands, clamping onto the lower rim of the SUV's steering wheel to keep the vehicle steady at high speeds, while Jason heaved half his torso out of the open side window.

The howling night wind battered Jason's hair, yet his eyes remained laser-sharp. On the right, the third sport bike rider was tearing along at full throttle, preparing to smash an iron pipe into the car's mirror.

Jason wasted no time. He raised his pistol, lining up his sights in a fraction of a second, and squeezed the trigger.

Cough! Cough!

Two suppressed rounds sliced smoothly through the air. The hot lead slammed squarely into the front tire of the right-hand sport bike.

Bang!

The tire exploded instantly at a hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. The rider lost control entirely; his machine fishtailed wildly across the wet asphalt, letting out an ear-splitting shriek of rubber before slamming violently into the expressway's concrete guardrail. The assassin's body vaulted over the barrier, hurtling free into the night air toward the dark abyss below.

"One down," Jason growled, hauling his upper body back inside the cabin.

"Great job, Jason! But the one on the left is still here!" Leo gasped out, chest heaving, pointing frantically through the side mirror.

The first sport bike rider, who had nearly decapitated Jason moments ago, grew even more feral. Seeing his comrade killed, he revved his engine harder, hugging the SUV's tight left flank and leveling the muzzle of a Glock directly at Jason's head through the open window.

"Die, you bastard agent!" the killer roared from behind his black helmet.

The killer's index finger began to curl around the trigger. Yet, before the bullet could be unleashed, fate intervened. Up ahead, a stalled tow truck parked haphazardly without emergency markers loomed abruptly in the left lane.

"Damn it!" Jason cursed, spotting the obstacle dead ahead.

Jason instantly yanked the steering wheel hard right to evade, while the biker—too fixated on his crosshairs—failed to spot the truck in time. In one horrifying second, the sport bike slammed straight into the tow truck's rear corner at full speed. A minor explosion flared, scattering twisted shards of metal into the night sky.

"We shook them," Leo breathed out in relief, swiping cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "We actually shook them off..."

Yet, that relief was painfully short-lived. A sharp, whistling hiss suddenly tore through the silence of the cabin.

Thwack!

It wasn't an explosion from behind, but the sound of a high-velocity projectile. A long-range sniper rifle round pierced the shattered remains of the rear window, streaking straight with lethal precision, and plunging a searing, burning agony straight into Jason's right shoulder.

"Argh!" Jason choked back a groan. A scorching wave of white-hot pain instantly radiated through his entire right arm. Fresh blood immediately seeped through, soaking his black shirt and tactical jacket.

"Jason! You're shot!" Leo screamed hysterically upon seeing blood beginning to pool rapidly from Jason's shoulder.

The sudden loss of blood and blinding pain caused Jason's grip on the steering wheel to slacken instantly. The SUV's steering snapped violently to the left out of control. The vehicle whipped around a hundred and eighty degrees, sliding wildly with shrieking tires across the wet asphalt.

Crash!

The front end of the SUV slammed hard into a massive concrete support pillar at the edge of the overpass. The brutal impact instantly deployed the airbags with a concussive blast, slamming into Jason's chest and plunging his vision straight into pitch-black oblivion in a single heartbeat.