Chapter 79 Shattered Signal
(Amani POV)
The tunnel smells like rust and betrayal.
Smoke rides the ceiling, curling in the dim beam of my headlamp. Every echo sounds like a footstep that doesn’t belong. The walls drip condensation, black with years of neglect. Somewhere above, Ember Pass burns—our ghosts lighting the night for men who still think they can cage us.
My comm crackles with static. Then—her voice, ragged, half-swallowed by interference.
“Amani—can you hear me—?”
The sound hits like oxygen. “Zuri, talk to me. Where are you?”
“Lower chamber. There’s… there’s something down here. Files, drives—he built this place on Syndicate tech. I think it’s a vault.”
A vault. Of course it is. Moretti never built anything without a secret beneath it.
“Stay put,” I tell her, knowing she won’t. “I’m coming.”
The path ahead narrows into a jagged crawl space. I squeeze through, shoulder tearing against stone. My flashlight catches twisted metal—servers, still humming, half-buried under debris. Power’s bleeding through emergency conduits. It shouldn’t still be alive, but then, neither should we.
Something moves behind the hum.
Footsteps. Three, maybe four.
I drop low. Shadows flicker against the light—Moretti’s men sweeping the corridor. I hold my breath, count their rhythm. They move like machines. The leader raises a scanner, sweeping left. A ping lights the screen red.
“Signal found,” he says.
Mine.
Damn it. The comm. I rip the transmitter out, crush it under my boot just as the first light beam cuts across the hall. Gunfire explodes in the confined space—sharp, deafening. I return fire, each shot finding armor and echo. One falls. Two scatter. The third charges.
Close-quarters. Too close.
He slams me into the wall. Pain spikes through my ribs. I twist, grab his wrist, break the line, and jam his own knife up beneath the helmet seal. The body drops without ceremony.
The corridor goes quiet again.
Zuri’s voice bursts through the ruined comm, faint but urgent.
“Amani! There’s someone down here!”
“Who?” I snap.
“I think it’s Ghost.”
For a second, everything stops.
Ghost. The brother I buried, the man I bled beside, the one who vanished when Moretti’s reach started tightening.
I move faster, ignoring the ache. The lower tunnels open into a wide chamber lit by blue backup lights. Zuri stands near the center, mud and ash streaked across her face, gun raised at a man kneeling by a console.
He turns at the sound of my steps.
And the past comes back to life.
Ghost—older, scarred, but alive. His eyes meet mine with something like regret and resolve. “Kane.”
“Tell me you’re not working for him,” I growl.
“I was working through him.” His voice is hoarse, heavy. “He thinks he owns this network, but I’ve been pulling strings under his nose for months. Every shipment, every code—gone because of me.”
Zuri doesn’t lower the gun. “Then why didn’t you warn us?”
“I did.” He gestures toward the beacon crate beside him—the same carved words gleaming faintly: Keep breathing.
Her jaw tightens. “That was you?”
He nods. “The only way I could reach you without blowing my cover.”
The ground trembles before I can respond. A deep, rolling quake that knocks dust from the ceiling. Ghost glances at the console. “He’s venting the lower levels. He’d rather bury this place—and us—than let it leak.”
I grab Zuri’s arm. “We move now.”
Ghost slams a drive into her hand. “That’s everything—proof, recordings, his network. Get it to Rex. Don’t stop.”
The ceiling groans again. Pipes burst. Steam floods the chamber. Ghost grabs a rifle and covers our retreat.
“Go!” he shouts.
I pull Zuri through the collapsing corridor, heart hammering as the roar builds behind us. A blast wave hits—hot air and debris slamming through the tunnel. We dive behind a bulkhead as fire devours what’s left.
When the echo dies, the silence that follows feels final.
Zuri’s shaking, drive clutched tight in her hand. “He stayed behind.”
“Yeah,” I say, staring into the smoke. “Because someone has to make sure Moretti’s empire burns from the inside.”
The last light flickers out, leaving us in the dark.
“Come on,” I whisper. “Let’s finish this.”