Part 10 picks up with Ben already in the van. He has been strip searched and is terrified. Miro is fascinated by Ben’s fear. Artkin questions Ben, telling Miro to keep a watch for anything telling, but all Miro sees when he looks at Ben is a “trembling, timid teen-ager” (202).

Artkin questions Ben, employing painful torture. Ben reveals there will be an attack at 9:30 and that he doesn’t know anything else. To be sure, Artkin employs the torture again, and Miro listens to the screams “loud and long and lingering” (207). Ben looks at Miro with a doomed shame in his eyes. Though he’s seen many people be tortured, Miro has to look away.

The attack comes at 8:35, not 9:30. In a haze of chemical fog, helicopters and soldiers on foot storm the bridge. Miro grabs Kate as a hostage and leaves the bus. Outside, gunfire erupts. In the following commotion, Artkin is shot, but he manages to shoot Ben before he dies. Miro can’t believe Artkin is dead. He expected to die himself, but “He had never counted on Artkin dying” (213).

The helicopter crashes into the van, sending Miro and Kate flying. When they get to their feet, Miro notices the end of the bridge is unguarded. Wounded, he hurries Kate toward the woods, where they take shelter in a tiny enclosure, the gun pressed against Kate’s chest.

In a final, desperate attempt to save herself, Kate asks Miro how he possibly thinks he can make a difference while he’s alone in a foreign country and with his team dead. Kate remembers Miro’s stories about how he and his brother were alone on the streets and how Artkin rescued them. There is a resemblance between Miro and Artkin, and Kate tries to convince Miro that Artkin is his father. Miro can’t cope with the idea and dissolves into tears. Amidst his grief, he pulls the trigger, and Kate is “dead within seconds” (220).