Upon arriving in Hong Kong, the group is met by an armed escort and taken to a high-rise building. They are led to a penthouse apartment, where Nash and Temple are searched. The guards confiscate Nash’s two guns and both men’s phones. Inside, Ryder sits down while Nash and Temple are directed to chairs opposite her. Soon after, Steers enters. Tall and dressed in dark clothing, she possesses an intimidating aura that immediately puts Nash on high alert. Steers thanks Ryder and then coldly questions Temple about why he insisted on bringing his “personal bodyguard.” She then raises a pistol and shoots Ryder in the head, has the scene cleaned up, and informs Nash and Temple that the gun is registered to Nash, making them both implicated in the murder. She threatens that, unless they agree to work for her, she will frame them for Ryder’s murder and hand them over to Chinese authorities, who will likely execute Temple and imprison Nash for life. The chapter ends with Steers revealing their task is to free her mother from a prison in another country.

In an apartment two floors below Steers’s penthouse, Nash contemplates his dangerous situation and considers killing Steers if the opportunity arises. He and Temple discuss their predicament, and Temple admits he has no way out of his arrangement with Steers. Temple tells Nash that Steers’s mother, Masuyo, was a criminal mastermind with the connections and cunning to push the empire she created to a global level and that Steers killed all her siblings in a survivor’s contest to take control of her mother’s criminal organization. Nash writes a note to Temple warning him that their room might be bugged, which Temple quickly destroys.

Nash and Temple are again brought before Steers in her penthouse. Steers her mother is being held in a private prison in an isolated part of Myanmar near the Chinese border. She has devised a plan for Nash and Temple to rescue her.

Steers dismisses the men’s questions about her mother’s crimes, calling her a “political prisoner.” She explains that the private prison is not controlled by the Myanmar government or rebel factions. Temple argues that they have little chance of success, but Steers insists her plan is sound. She explains that Nash and Temple are valuable precisely because they are unknown to her enemies. Temple’s familiarity with Myanmar and its language is an asset, while Nash’s security skills will be necessary. Steers says the reward for successfully freeing her mother is simple: They will be allowed to live.

Steers leaves books and maps on Myanmar for Nash and Temple to study in their apartment. On the balcony, where they believe they can speak freely, Temple expresses his deep mistrust of Steers and questions the entire mission. Nash begins studying the materials while Temple retreats to his room. As he prepares for bed, Nash resolves to act and seize control of the situation rather than wait for Steers to make the next move.

Nash attempts to leave the floor but is stopped by two guards. He demands to see Steers, claiming the matter is urgent. He is taken to her meditation room, where he sits with her. Nash states that Steers has no incentive to let them live even if they succeed. He bluffs, telling her there is a flaw in her plan that gives him and Temple leverage, but he refuses to elaborate. He recognizes an opportunity to kill her but decides to play a longer, smarter game to bring down her entire empire. He leaves Steers to contemplate his veiled threat, hoping he has secured their survival.

Steers summons Nash and Temple and details the rescue mission. They will fly from India into a remote part of Myanmar and be met by guides named Thura, Zeya, and Amrita. Posing as a businessman and his bodyguard, they will travel overland via dirt bike, horseback, and on foot to the city of Myitkyina. After holding sham business meetings to establish their cover, they will fly to the town of Bhamo. The plan is to intercept an ambulance transporting a supposedly ill Masuyo from the prison. After neutralizing the guards, they will take Masuyo to a helicopter and fly to Lashio, then drive to a secret airstrip near Mandalay for their escape.

That night, Nash is abducted from his bed, drugged, and awakens bound to the floor in a dark room. Steers appears and shows him the severe burn scars covering her arms and back, explaining she keeps them as a permanent reminder of a past defeat. He asks about the significance of his tattoos, particularly the chain on his head. The tattoo secretly represents himself, his wife, and his daughter, but he answers, “Honor, devotion, and sacrifice” (33).



She then uses a knife to carve a long gash into Nash’s arm, mirroring a scar she previously gave Temple, as a mark of ownership. Nash barely flinches because he uses a mental technique his friend Shock taught him and focuses on a painting of a young girl and a dog from Temple’s home to manage the pain. Impressed and unsettled by his resilience, Steers unexpectedly kisses him before leaving. Nash is drugged again and wakes up back in his bed, his arm bandaged.

The perspective shifts to Steers. She reflects in front of a mirror, thinking about the plane crash that killed her father and left much of her body scarred. Her nanny, Hiroko, saved her life. The mission to rescue her mother is a desperate attempt to free herself from the control of a more powerful criminal mastermind, the man who runs the prison and who previously ordered her to destroy Walter Nash. He allowed Steers a visit with her mother solely to demonstrate his complete control over her and use Masuyo as leverage. Steers finds Dillon Hope intriguing because he is an enigma she cannot understand or control, unlike the transparently greedy Temple.

Nash and Temple are flown from India to a remote airstrip in Myanmar. Two local men drive them to a crude hut, share a simple meal with them, and sleep on mats overnight. The next morning the men drive Nash and Temple to a drop-off point, turn the Jeep around, and speed away. Temple and Nash compare scars that night at the hut table, confirming that Steers has marked them both as her property.

A truck arrives with their new guides: Thura, Zeya, and a woman from India named Amrita. They set off on a grueling, multi-day journey into the mountains on dirt bikes. That night at their camp, Amrita privately tells Nash that she is in Myanmar to escape trouble back home and desperately wants to get to America. She questions the true purpose of their “business” in the region.

On the third day, the group switches to horses to navigate the increasingly rugged terrain. They camp for the night on a mountain plain. A lone soldier from the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) approaches their camp near the horses. A firefight erupts; the soldier shoots and kills Zeya before Nash returns fire and kills the soldier. Realizing the danger they are in, a panicked Thura orders them to flee immediately, leaving the two bodies behind.

After fleeing the camp, the group continues the rest of the way to Myitkyina on foot. Amrita privately warns Nash that the killing of a KIA soldier has made their situation far more dangerous. She tearfully renews her plea for help to get to America, believing she will be killed if she stays. Nash promises to speak with Temple on her behalf.

The group arrives in the city of Myitkyina. Thura is tense and evasive. Amrita tells Nash she suspects Thura plans to betray them to the KIA. Based on this warning, Nash tells both Thura and Amrita their services are no longer needed. Thura hands Nash and Temple their plane tickets and leaves with Amrita. Nash winks at Amrita so she understands the dismissal is a ruse.

For two days, Temple convincingly plays the part of an American businessman, meeting with local merchants to maintain their cover. Afterward, Nash explains his new plan to Temple. Convinced that Steers is setting them up to be scapegoats for the prison break, Nash proposes they deviate from her plan. Instead of relying on Steers’s team, they will rescue Masuyo themselves and use her as a bargaining chip to secure their freedom.

Nash, Temple, and Amrita have dinner at a local restaurant. Amrita produces a newspaper showing a picture of the dead KIA soldier and Zeya. The article offers a reward of one hundred million kyats (about $50,000) for information leading to the killers. Amrita reveals that Thura is still in town, is angry about his friend Zeya’s death, and blames Nash.

As they walk back to their hotel through a dark alley, Amrita pretends to fall. When Nash bends to help her, she steals his gun. She reveals her plan was to kill them both and turn in Nash’s gun to collect the reward money. Before she can fire, Thura appears and stabs her, killing her. He explains that he suspected her intentions and that it was not right for her to try to shoot someone unarmed. He then warns Nash and Temple that taking the flight to Bhamo is a trap and offers to get them passage on a slow ferry instead.

Aboard a slow ferry to Bhamo, Temple confides in Nash. He reveals that his father, Barton, was abusive and drove his mother to suicide. However, he also explains that his father may have saved his life by convincing Steers to only scar him instead of killing him for a past mistake, though Temple doubts his father’s motive was love. Temple also shares a critical piece of intelligence: He once overheard that Masuyo Steers is not Japanese but Chinese, and that her real name is Dai Lu.

In Bhamo, Thura procures a durable Jeep and a new phone for Nash. They drive to the local airport and park where they can observe the arrival of the flight from Myitkyina that they were supposed to be on. They watch as two of Steers’s armed operatives get out of a Toyota 4Runner, wait for the passengers to deplane, and become agitated when they realize Nash and Temple are not among them. As the operatives speed away from the airport, Thura begins to follow them.