It’s November of 2006. Emily enters a busy New York nightclub where Aiden is tending bar. The two of them meet here for the very first time. Emily is looking for someone named Sergei though she doesn’t approach the guy. Instead, she makes contact with a nervous Ashley Davenport. This is the first time Emily meets her as well. Ashley is there trying to make money by selling herself to Sergei’s flesh-peddling boss, Dmitri. A wad of cash from Emily convinces her to abandon her plan. All Ashley needs to do is reveal Dmitri’s time of arrival. As a reward for her assistance, Ashley later scores a plum job in the art world.

Takeda is in town orchestrating Emily’s current mission, which outwardly has nothing to do with his student’s own plans for revenge. A young girl named Colleen was kidnapped by Dmitri in 1993. She was never heard from again. Takeda wants access to her abductor. Emily says she’s at the club as a replacement for her sick roommate, Ashley. Aiden warns that she shouldn’t be there. That’s because he plans to kill the man who took his sister, Colleen. Emily tackles Aiden before he can shoot Dmitri. Takeda orders the mission to be aborted. That’s not gonna happen.