Two weeks have passed since the Troubleshooters' confrontation with Steel Hawk. Eduardo Giotti confesses to Terry Roberts that when he found Bahkti at the health spa he lost control, nearly beating him to death with the Strong-Arms — and had to self-destruct the unit to stop himself. Eduardo is haunted by how close he came to murder. Terry, who was shot during the fight and survived only because the M.A.X. armor deflected most of the bullets, tries to offer comfort. Both agree that Jenny has been missing for two weeks and they hope she is safe, though neither wants to see the M.A.X. suits again.
In a clinic somewhere in western Scandinavia, the badly injured Steel Hawk recuperates, consumed by thoughts of revenge against the Troubleshooter who brutalized him.
Jenny Swenson is released from the government complex after two weeks of rest and recovery and escorted to a private jet by Edmund Roth. Before she boards, Roth plays her a video message — apparently from her dead father, Karl Swensen — urging her to cooperate with Roth's agency and continue the M.A.X. research. Jenny is shaken but suspicious. Roth admits the video was computer-generated: the real Karl Swensen left instructions for such a tape to be prepared and played only in the event of his death, but it is not an authentic recording. Jenny tells Roth she will think about his offer but makes no promises.
Aboard the jet, Jenny meets a fellow passenger who introduces himself as Jackson Travest, known as Jake. Using the plane's onboard library and the stars visible through the window, Jenny calculates that the jet is over the Eastern Hemisphere — the Balkans — and nowhere near Boston or Atlanta. Roth then appears on the plane's television, revealing their true destination: Afghanistan. He orders both Jenny and Jake to perform a HALO jump into a designated perimeter to avoid Soviet detection, where a contact will meet them on the ground.
Jake refuses and insists on sitting tight until the plane lands. Jenny, realizing Roth has manipulated the situation so she will have to follow Jake to prevent him from parachuting alone into a war zone, puts on a chute and jumps with him. They land and are met by a rebel contact named Danjit. A laser shot immediately kills one of the nearby Afghan rebels. The group flees on horseback, pursued by a Soviet M.A.X. suit — a bulky golden armored unit that Jenny recognizes as the same model her father originally designed for Fritz Krotze. Jake reveals he already knew the Soviets had acquired M.A.X. technology through Krotze's dealings; confirming this is the reason Roth sent them. The Soviet M.A.X. suit seizes Danjit, and as Jake and Jenny ride for their lives, the armored figure looms over them in the rocky mountain pass.
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