July 16, 2026 – Manhattan Underpass 04:30 AM
As the tear gas burned my throat like sandpaper, I hoisted Natalia onto my shoulder. Ivy was firing blindly into the fog, trying to clear a path. The Reapers saw us as target practice through their thermal visors; we could only hear the sound of death in the pitch black.
"Through here!" Ivy shouted, pointing to the rusted door of a maintenance tunnel.
I burst through the door with my shoulder, bullets sparking against the concrete wall behind us. We moved through a narrow, damp, and moldy passage. Natalia's groans multiplied with the tunnel's echo.
"Michael, stop..." Natalia panted. "Leave me here. I'm only slowing you down with this leg."
"We aren't leaving anyone," I said, gritting my teeth. "If The Alchemist is dead, all we have left is each other."
Ivy stopped and turned to me. Her eyes were red from the gas. "Do you really believe The Alchemist is dead, Michael? That man had seven different shelters and twenty different names. Were the ones who kicked down Natalia's door really Reapers, or was it The Alchemist himself? Have you ever thought about that?"
Natalia raised the USB drive. "The Alchemist was dying when he gave this to me, Ivy! I saw Thomas execute him personally!"
The toxic suspicion between these two women was at least as dangerous as the killers behind us. When we reached the end of the passage, we came to a massive opening leading into Manhattan's sewer system. But someone was waiting for us at the exit.
A man holding a suppressed pistol, with no trace of emotion on his face. Thomas's head enforcer, the man who survived the highway raid: Agent Carter.
Carter aimed his weapon directly at Natalia's head. "Give me the drive, Julian. Or the detective goes into permanent retirement this time."