emergency brake cable snapped?

[Andrew Sitzer]

Hey all.. I leant my 86 5ks to a friend last week and sure enough he
managed to brake something the very first time he drove it ;-)

Anyways, he called me and told me that when he tried to set the parking
brake he felt a snap and now the handle has zero tension..

I am 300 miles away from the car so i cant take a look at it to figure out
what broke.. any ideas?  I think he got under the car but didn't see
anything obvious.. but that doesnt rule out the possibility :)