[Jake's POV]
The edge of Lake Zurich was a frozen nightmare. The wind howled off the dark water, carrying shards of ice that bit into exposed skin. The moon was hidden behind heavy clouds, plunging the shoreline into absolute darkness.
I stood on the rocky embankment, staring at the churning water. Two miles across the lake, rising out of the pine trees, was Isabella Vane's mountain fortress. It looked like a military installation. Faint beams of thermal optics cut through the tree line, and anti-aircraft batteries sat silhouetted against the snow-capped peaks.
"The water temperature is currently hovering just above freezing," Katarina Volkov said, stepping up beside me. She was wearing a pristine white thermal combat suit, her breath pluming in the freezing air. "You have approximately four minutes of exposure before hypothermia begins to shut down your major organs. At six minutes, your muscles will lock. At eight minutes, you drown."
