The red emergency lights pulsed across the walls.
Every few seconds, the room was bathed in crimson before fading back into darkness. A mechanical voice echoed overhead.
Vault Lockdown: Nineteen minutes remaining.
Emily kept her pistol trained on Adrian Volkov.
"So this was your plan all along."
Volkov smiled.
"It took years to create."
Walker glanced toward the sealed vault door.
"My team will find us."
Volkov chuckled.
"They're already gone."
Emily frowned.
"What did you do?"
"I gave them something more urgent to worry about."
The words sent a chill through the room.
Victoria never took her eyes off Volkov.
"You burned my home."
"You murdered my father."
"You stole my brother."
Volkov tilted his head.
"I didn't steal him."
"I saved him."
Victoria's expression hardened.
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I expect nothing."
He took another slow step forward.
"Your father made enemies everywhere."
"The night your mother died, I had a choice."
"Leave Gabriel to burn..."
"...or take him."
Emily looked at Victoria.
She could see the conflict in her eyes.
Hatred.
Hope.
Fear.
Volkov noticed it too.
"The truth is always more painful than a lie."
Walker discreetly signaled one of his agents.
The agent quietly moved toward the control panel near the wall.
Volkov didn't even turn around.
"I wouldn't do that."
The agent ignored him.
The moment he touched the panel—
An electric surge shot through the console.
He was thrown backward, crashing into a shelf.
Emily rushed over.
"He's breathing!"
Walker helped the injured agent sit up.
"The system is still active."
Victoria looked around the vault.
"There has to be another way out."
She remembered something from her childhood.
Her father had never trusted a room with only one exit.
"There."
She pointed toward a faded mural on the far wall.
It showed the Greek titan Atlas holding the world on his shoulders.
Something about it felt... wrong.
Emily walked over.
"The globe."
Victoria nodded.
"My father loved puzzles."
Emily examined the mural carefully.
One continent was carved deeper than the others.
She pressed it.
Nothing.
Victoria stepped beside her.
"He always said..."
"...the weight of the world rests on truth."
Emily looked at the globe again.
Then she realized.
"It's not the continents."
"It's the world."
Together, they pushed against the stone globe.
With a loud grinding sound, part of the wall slid open.
Behind it was a narrow passage.
Luca smiled.
"I knew I liked your father."
Volkov's calm expression disappeared for the first time.
"No."
He lunged toward the hidden passage.
Victoria intercepted him.
The two collided, sending Volkov's cane skidding across the floor.
The concealed blade slid free.
Emily kicked it out of his reach.
Walker shouted,
"Go!"
"You two, move!"
Luca and the injured agent disappeared into the passage first.
Emily hesitated.
She looked back.
Victoria was locked in a brutal struggle with Volkov.
He was older.
But faster than she expected.
He drove Victoria into a stone pillar.
She gasped as the impact knocked the air from her lungs.
Emily raised her weapon.
"Get away from her!"
She couldn't get a clear shot.
They were too close together.
Volkov laughed.
"That's your weakness, Agent."
"You care."
With a sudden movement, Victoria elbowed him in the ribs.
He stumbled just enough.
Emily seized the chance.
She fired.
The bullet struck the floor inches from Volkov's foot.
He instinctively jumped back.
Victoria broke free.
Without thinking, Emily grabbed her hand.
"This way!"
They ran into the hidden passage just as Walker slammed the stone door behind them.
The mechanism locked with a heavy click.
Volkov's furious shouts echoed from the other side.
The passage was narrow and cold.
Only dim emergency lights illuminated the path ahead.
For several minutes, no one spoke.
Finally, Walker broke the silence.
"We've got Atlas."
Victoria looked down at the leather folder she was still carrying.
"Yes."
"But so does Volkov."
Emily frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Victoria opened the folder again.
Several pages were missing.
"They were removed before we arrived."
Walker stopped walking.
"Which pages?"
Victoria swallowed.
"The ones identifying Volkov's highest-ranking allies."
Emily's heart sank.
"So someone warned them."
Victoria nodded.
"Or someone inside the FBI."
Walker remained silent.
Emily noticed.
"So the letter was right."
'Trust no one wearing a badge.'
Walker met her eyes.
"Be careful with accusations."
"I'm being careful."
"But someone betrayed us."
The tunnel eventually opened into an abandoned subway platform beneath Lower Manhattan.
Dust covered the tracks.
Old advertising posters peeled from the walls.
Luca checked the exits.
"We're clear."
Emily finally allowed herself to breathe.
"We made it."
Victoria wasn't convinced.
"No."
She looked at the Atlas folder.
"This was only the first battle."
Her phone suddenly vibrated.
An unknown number.
She answered cautiously.
A familiar voice spoke.
"Hello, little sister."
Victoria froze.
Emily immediately noticed the change in her expression.
The voice continued.
"You've been looking for me."
Victoria whispered,
"...Gabriel?"
A quiet laugh came from the other end.
"You still remember my voice."
The call ended.
Victoria stood completely still, the phone slipping from her hand.
Emily picked it up from the platform floor.
"What did he say?"
Victoria stared into the darkness of the abandoned station.
Tears filled her eyes for the first time in years.
"He's alive."
"And Volkov has him."
Somewhere above them, the lights of New York continued to shine.
But beneath the city...
The war had just become deeply personal.