Carrying a staggering Trent between them, Puller and Cole return through the ventilation shaft to the firehouse and outside with less than one minute to spare. If Robert Puller’s plan doesn’t work, they have only seconds to live.

The plan works; the dynamite throws off the timing of the bomb’s detonator and prevents the thermonuclear explosion. Even so, the detonation blows off the top of the dome and throws Puller, Cole, and Trent a hundred feet. Trent’s head is crushed against a tree. Cole starts to get up, but a chunk of falling concrete slams into her head and kills her. For the first time, Puller cries over a fallen comrade.

Puller attends Cole’s funeral. Jean stops him afterward. She tells him Randy has a brain tumor; it might kill him, or it might not. Puller advises her to take her brother with her and follow her dream to move to Italy and open a B&B.

Puller catches up to Bill Strauss in South America. He gives Strauss a choice: Testify against his co-conspirators and spend the rest of his life in prison or be executed for treason. Puller tells Strauss he has already figured out that Strauss was the brains behind Trent Exploration, and as the money guy, he had every opportunity to embezzle from the company.