In the smoke-darkened Zone, Doc’s other aides come to realize that Da’ud and the other followers of the Two Who Are One are not the bad guys but merely trying to survive in this insane war-torn world….
Ronan McKenna has Doc’s corpse placed in the missile with the dummy nuke and it is launched toward the west, to provoke a hellish retaliation. As the rocket clears the blackened sky over the Zone, US Army Major Walker orders a nuke of his own fired back. McKenna’s rocket suddenly changes course, flying low over the village, then it seems to find its way—directly toward the incoming missile: Doc Savage bursts out, and leaps to catch a ride on the American missile. Unaware of this, McKenna heads to the surface to see the outcome of his plans. Long Tom tells Arina and Wei that Doc was raised by a father who prepared him for any eventuality—even implanting a pacemaker into his chest when he was a child, to restart his heart should it ever stop beating, because he was trained never to fail. McKenna looks skyward to see Doc disable the bomb in the American rocket and send it into space. And it is the last thing Ronan McKenna ever sees: Da’ud comes up behind him and runs him through with a sword. Long Tom contacts Major Walker and reminds him of his promise to pardon Doc and his aides of all their "crimes" from the Lord of Lightning affair if they undertook this mission—and he adds a bit of blackmail to the mix.
The Two Who Are One announces to the world they are disarming and will now rebuild. The newly exonerated Doc tells his men, "It’s time to get back to work."