The harbor was swallowed by smoke.
Gunfire echoed across the Brooklyn docks as FBI agents and armed men scattered for cover. Containers exploded under a relentless hail of bullets, while sirens wailed in the distance.
Emily Carter's heart pounded against her chest.
She had trained for moments like this.
But nothing at Quantico had prepared her for standing shoulder to shoulder with the very woman she had sworn to arrest.
Victoria Moretti calmly reloaded her pistol.
"They're surrounding us," she said, her voice steady despite the chaos.
Emily peeked around the container.
At least fifteen masked men were advancing through the fog.
"They're not interested in taking prisoners."
Victoria nodded.
"No."
"They're here to erase everyone."
A grenade landed less than twenty feet away.
"Down!" Emily shouted.
The explosion shook the ground, sending metal fragments flying through the air.
Both women were thrown against the concrete.
Emily struggled to catch her breath.
Victoria reached out instinctively and pulled her behind another stack of containers before another burst of gunfire ripped through the smoke.
"You should be thanking me," Victoria said.
Emily smirked despite herself.
"I'll think about it."
Walker barked orders through the radio.
"Carter! Can you hear me?"
Emily pressed the earpiece.
"Barely."
"We've lost two teams. SWAT is ten minutes out."
"Ten minutes?"
Walker hesitated.
"You'll have to survive until then."
The signal disappeared again.
Emily sighed.
"I really hate hearing that."
Victoria almost smiled.
"I've heard worse."
Emily glanced at her.
"You don't seem surprised."
Victoria's expression darkened.
"I'm not."
"The Black Vipers don't attack unless they're certain they'll win."
Emily frowned.
"Who exactly are they?"
Victoria looked out toward the fog.
"My father's greatest enemy."
Years earlier...
Victoria was only sixteen when she overheard her father speaking to his closest advisers.
"Never underestimate the Black Vipers," Alessandro Moretti had warned.
"They don't fight for territory."
"They fight for extinction."
Victoria had never forgotten those words.
Now they had returned.
Stronger than ever.
Back at the docks...
A bullet ricocheted off the concrete beside Emily.
She fired twice in return.
One masked attacker collapsed.
The others kept advancing.
"They're disciplined," Emily observed.
"Military training," Victoria replied.
"They recruit former soldiers."
Emily looked at her.
"You know a lot about them."
"I've spent years making sure they stayed away from New York."
"And now?"
"They're here."
Luca appeared from behind another container, blood running down one side of his face.
"Boss!"
Victoria immediately moved toward him.
"You've been hit."
"It's only a scratch."
Luca handed her a folded piece of paper he had taken from one of the dead attackers.
Victoria opened it.
Inside was a single sentence.
Queens always fall.
No signature.
No explanation.
Only a black snake drawn beneath the words.
Victoria quietly folded the paper.
Emily noticed.
"What is it?"
"Nothing."
Emily didn't believe her.
Another explosion rocked the harbor.
This one much closer.
The ground trembled beneath their feet as a nearby warehouse erupted into flames.
Heat washed over them.
Burning debris rained from the sky.
"We have to move!" Emily shouted.
Victoria nodded.
"The tunnels."
Emily blinked.
"What tunnels?"
Victoria pointed toward an old maintenance building.
"The harbor was built over abandoned service tunnels decades ago."
"You know them?"
"I own the land."
Emily laughed nervously.
"Of course you do."
They sprinted through the smoke.
Bullets chased them across the dock.
A masked gunman stepped into their path.
Emily reacted first.
She knocked his rifle aside while Victoria disarmed him with astonishing speed.
Within seconds the man lay unconscious on the ground.
Emily stared.
"You've had military training."
Victoria looked at her.
"No."
"My father trained me."
Somehow...
That answer felt even more frightening.
Inside the maintenance building, darkness surrounded them.
Old pipes lined the walls.
Water dripped steadily from the ceiling.
Victoria found a hidden metal hatch beneath years of dust.
She pulled it open.
A narrow staircase disappeared underground.
Emily hesitated.
"You trust these tunnels?"
"I trust them more than the people chasing us."
They climbed down.
Victoria closed the hatch above them.
Instant silence.
Only the distant echo of gunfire remained.
The underground tunnels stretched endlessly beneath Brooklyn.
Concrete walls were stained with age.
Rusted pipes crossed overhead.
Emergency lights flickered every few yards.
Emily walked carefully.
"How do you know this place so well?"
Victoria didn't slow down.
"My father showed me when I was a child."
"Why?"
"He believed every ruler needed an escape route."
Emily lowered her voice.
"Did you ever have a normal childhood?"
Victoria didn't answer immediately.
Finally, she spoke.
"I don't remember one."
Emily felt something tighten inside her chest.
For a moment...
Victoria wasn't the feared Mafia Queen.
She was simply a woman who had grown up surrounded by fear.
Suddenly...
A loud metallic clang echoed through the tunnel.
Both women froze.
Victoria slowly raised her pistol.
Emily did the same.
Footsteps.
Someone else was down there.
The sound grew louder.
Closer.
Closer still.
A flashlight beam appeared around the corner.
Victoria whispered,
"We're not alone."
The figure stepped into view...
And smiled.
"Miss Moretti."
"I've been looking for you."
Emily tightened her grip on her weapon.
She had never seen the man before.
But the look on Victoria's face told her everything.
She knew exactly who he was.
And for the first time that night...
Victoria looked genuinely afraid.