The voice slithered through the air, wrapping around Emily's spine like ice.It was impossible, yet there it was — warm, taunting, laced with the same arrogance she'd buried alongside a coffin she never saw opened.
She turned toward the sound. The darkness ahead shifted, thick as oil. A figure emerged from the tunnel's mouth, boots splashing deliberately in the shallow water. The yellow glow of a half-broken lamp somewhere behind him caught the side of his face — sharp cheekbones, a scar curling from his jaw to the corner of his mouth.
It was him.
"Michael," Emily breathed, her voice somewhere between disbelief and rage.
"Hello, Em," he said, as if they'd parted yesterday, as if he hadn't been declared dead in Istanbul with half a building collapsing on him. "You look... older."
She swallowed the bitter taste rising in her throat. "I watched them pull the rubble off your body."
Michael's grin widened, though it didn't touch his eyes. "No, you watched them pull a body. Big difference."
Daniel stepped forward, gun already drawn. "Move," he said. "Now."
Michael's gaze flicked to him with lazy interest. "Ah, the loyal shadow. You're exactly as boring as she made you sound."
Emily's chest tightened. He's trying to get in your head. Stay cold.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"Because Kane has something I want. And because I knew you'd eventually crawl into his playground." He stepped closer, the water swirling around his boots. "But mostly... because you still owe me."
Emily let out a sharp laugh. "I owe you nothing. You burned every bridge when you sold out Berlin."
"That was survival," Michael said, voice low and dangerous now. "You think you're different? You think you wouldn't cut a deal if the right knife was at your throat?"
Daniel's gun didn't waver. "Emily, he's stalling."
But Michael was watching her, not him. "You came down here thinking you're chasing Kane. But you're chasing ghosts, Em. You've been chasing me since the day I 'died.'"
The sound of boots on wet stone echoed from behind them. Marcus hissed, "We've got company."
Emily didn't turn. "How many?"
"Four. Maybe five. Coming fast."
Michael smiled again, that same infuriating calmness in his stance. "See, that's the problem with you — always looking at the enemy you can see. You never ask yourself who's standing right next to you."
Emily's jaw clenched. "Meaning?"
He tilted his head toward Daniel. "Ask him who told me you'd be here tonight."
The words hit like a steel blade sliding between her ribs. She glanced at Daniel — searching for denial, for anything.
Daniel's eyes hardened. "Don't listen to him."
"Too late," Michael said.
The footsteps behind them grew louder, boots splashing into the canal water now. The air thickened with the stench of wet gunpowder — Kane's men were close.
Ana's voice was tense. "Emily, we have to move!"
But Emily couldn't — not yet. "Daniel. Tell me you didn't."
"I didn't," Daniel said instantly.
Michael gave a soft, mocking chuckle. "You're a better liar than you used to be."
And then the first muzzle flash exploded behind them. The tunnel roared with gunfire, echoing off stone. Bullets sparked against the concrete walls, shards of rock spraying into the air.
Emily shoved Daniel hard toward the side wall. "Cover!" she barked.
Marcus and Ana dragged the hostages down behind a low ledge, keeping them out of sight. Daniel fired two shots toward the oncoming men, the reports deafening in the enclosed space.
Michael didn't flinch — he stood almost casually in the shallow water, watching her like he had all the time in the world. "You're wasting bullets," he said.
Another burst of fire rattled the walls. Emily's ears rang. "Then tell me why you're here before I put one between your eyes."
Michael's smirk faded just enough to show there was something heavier underneath. "Because Kane has the ledger. And if he decodes it, every safehouse, every identity, every buried operation you've got left is gone. That's your clock ticking right now, Em."
She stared at him, heart pounding. The ledger was a myth — a whispered relic of the old network. If Kane really had it…
"We can't hold here," Marcus yelled over the gunfire. "They'll pin us in!"
Emily's decision hit like the snap of a trigger. "Move toward the west spillway!" she shouted. "Go!"
Daniel grabbed her arm as she passed. "You're bringing him?"
She looked at Michael — that same dangerous glint in his eyes, the one that used to thrill her before it ruined everything.
"Yes," she said. "For now."
They ran. The narrow walkway slicked under their boots, water spraying with every step. Bullets followed, chewing chunks from the stone at their backs. Michael moved with them like he belonged there, ducking low under the occasional flash from Daniel's gun.
The spillway loomed ahead — a yawning archway that opened into blackness. The roar of rushing water grew louder, vibrating through the concrete beneath their feet.
Ana went first, leading the hostages down the incline into the shadows. Marcus followed, firing a blind shot over his shoulder.
Emily reached the mouth of the spillway and glanced back — and froze.
Daniel wasn't behind her.
He stood halfway back in the tunnel, body turned toward Michael, gun raised.
Michael stood still, his own weapon dangling loosely at his side. His grin was gone now, replaced with something sharper.
Emily's chest constricted. "Daniel!"
Michael's voice carried over the water's roar. "You're not going to shoot me."
Daniel's jaw tightened. "Try me."
"Because if you do," Michael continued, "she'll never know which one of us told the truth."
Emily's hand itched toward her weapon, but she knew the danger — one wrong move and either man could be dead before she crossed the distance.
The shouting of Kane's men was getting closer again.
Daniel's arm trembled — not from weakness, but from the strain of holding a decision too long.
And then, in one fluid motion, he lowered the gun. "This isn't over," he said.
Michael's smirk returned, but it didn't reach his eyes. "It never is."
They moved into the spillway together, the roar swallowing their footsteps. The darkness closed in around them, broken only by the faint glint of water racing through the channel.
Emily kept her pace steady, but inside her mind was chaos. Michael alive. Kane with the ledger. Daniel's silence when she needed the truth most.
And somewhere beneath all of it — a sliver of something she hated herself for feeling. Hope.
Because if Michael was telling the truth about the ledger… then maybe he was still the only one who could help her burn Kane's empire to the ground.