Chapter 18: up

The concrete floor in the basement of Dr. Hans's secret medical facility felt colder than the Moscow snow they had just left behind. The hydraulic hiss of Felicia’s exoskeleton echoed through the narrow corridor, illuminated only by flickering neon lights. Every step Felicia took was a statement of power—a heavy, rhythmic, and merciless metallic cadence. Behind her, Andre walked with clenched fists, his eyes never straying from his wife’s back, which now appeared straighter, stiffer, and far more dangerous.

At the end of the hallway, a heavy steel door slid open automatically. Inside, Viktor Volkov lay on a modified medical bed. His once imposing frame appeared withered, encased in a neck brace and various neural sensors. He could move nothing below his chin. The paralysis he had intended for Felicia had turned back to imprison him in a silent cage of flesh.

Felicia stopped right beside Volkov’s bed. She looked down at him without a shred of pity. The servo motors in her legs whirred softly as she adjusted her stance.

"Good morning, Viktor," Felicia’s voice was cold, almost mechanical. "How does it feel to be a silent witness to your own destruction?"

Volkov could only move his eyes. There was a fire of hatred in them, but also a creeping fear. Dr. Hans stepped forward, injecting something into Volkov’s neck to stimulate his vocal cords so he could speak, though it came out as a raspy whisper.

"You... you are a monster..." Volkov hissed, his voice sounding like sandpaper on stone.

"I am your creation, Viktor," Felicia countered. She leaned in, letting her shadow drape over his face. "You killed my child. You destroyed my nerves. You thought you could paralyze me and I would give up? You were wrong. You only gave me a reason to stop being a forgiving human being."

Andre stepped forward, placing a tablet in front of Volkov’s eyes. The screen displayed a global food distribution map spanning from Africa to Southeast Asia. "We found this on your private server in Moscow. The Winter Palace wasn't just a party venue. It was the command center for 'Operation Famine.' What is the Obsidian Circle planning?"

Volkov let out a weak laugh that ended in a bloody cough. "You... you think this is just about money? Money is for low-lifes like Thomas Mahendra. Obsidian wants control. Whoever controls the seeds and the water controls the breath of every human on this planet."

Elena, entering the room with a tense expression, joined the conversation. "We found evidence that Volkov has injected an artificial pathogen into global wheat and rice reserves. This pathogen can only be neutralized by a specific pesticide produced by Obsidian’s shell companies. If you don't stop this protocol's activation within forty-eight hours, the world will face a food crisis unseen since the Second World War."

Felicia gripped the edge of Volkov’s bed until the metal groaned and buckled. "Give me the code, Viktor. Give me the code to deactivate the pathogen."

"Or what?" Volkov challenged with the last remnants of his arrogance. "You’ll kill me? I’m already dead in this body. Go ahead, do your worst."

Felicia fell silent for a moment. She looked at Andre, then back at Volkov. A terrifying, thin smile appeared on her lips. "Killing you would be too beautiful a gift, Viktor. No. I will let you live. But I will shut off your pain sensors through the neural implants Hans installed. You will remain fully conscious as I order this machine to dismantle every asset you love. I’ll start with your family in St. Petersburg."

Volkov’s eyes widened. "Don’t... they know nothing!"

"Isn't that what you said when you poisoned my coffee?" Felicia hissed. "My child knew nothing either. He didn't even get to see the light of day. But you took him."

Volkov’s psychological wall finally shattered. The fear of losing the only thing he cared about overcame his loyalty to the Obsidian Circle. Gasping for air, he whispered a series of alphanumeric characters that Elena immediately recorded.

"Protocol 'Ceres'... the code is in a digital vault beneath Lake Zurich," Volkov whispered. "But beware... the guardian of that vault is not human. He is the Council’s number one executioner. A man known only as The Alchemist."

The Journey to Zurich

After securing the information, Felicia wasted no time. Even though her body was still adapting to the exoskeleton, she pushed herself to depart for Switzerland immediately. This time, they didn't use luxury jets. They moved via hidden land routes, using military cargo trucks to evade Obsidian’s satellites, which were surely hunting them now.

Inside the dark truck, Felicia sat leaning against a stack of ammunition. Andre sat across from her, cleaning his sniper rifle in silence.

"Felicia," Andre called out softly.

"Yes?"

"Are you really going to hurt Volkov’s family?"

Felicia looked at her hands, encased in black tactical gloves. "I don't know, Andre. A part of me wants to burn everything associated with him. But another part... the part that still remembers the pain of losing the orphanage... she can't bring herself to do it."

Andre moved closer, sitting beside her and putting an arm around her shoulders, which now felt rigid due to the metal frame. "Don't let them win by turning you into one of them. We’ll take the code, save the world's food supply, and bring Volkov to international justice. That is how we win."

Felicia rested her head on Andre’s shoulder. "I’m afraid, Andre. I’m afraid that if this machine can never be removed from my body, my soul will freeze along with it."

"I won't let that happen," Andre promised.

The truck stopped on the outskirts of Zurich as the night reached its peak. The city appeared peaceful, shimmering under lights reflected on the lake's surface. But beneath that calm water lay a facility that could determine the life or death of millions.

Elena distributed new communication devices. "The digital vault is thirty meters underwater. There’s a maintenance tunnel connected to an old villa by the lake. That villa belongs to The Alchemist. He is an expert in chemical weapons and neural traps. Felicia, your exoskeleton is waterproof, but the pressure down there will be heavy on your nerves."

"I’ve been through worse," Felicia replied shortly.

They began to move. The infiltration of the old villa was executed with high precision. The Shadow Unit neutralized the outer guards silently, while Felicia, Andre, and Elena entered through a wine cellar leading to the underground passage.

As they reached the vault gate, the atmosphere suddenly shifted. The air turned sweet, almost like the overpowering scent of jasmine.

"Don't breathe it in!" Elena shouted, but it was too late.

A thin purple mist began to seep from the walls. Andre and Elena quickly donned gas masks, but Felicia felt the sensors on her exoskeleton start to malfunction. The signals from her brain to the machine were being hindered.

"This is a neuro-paralysis gas," a soft, calm voice echoed from the darkness ahead.

A thin man in a pristine white suit emerged. His face was smooth, almost wrinkle-free, but his eyes radiated a quiet madness. In his hand, he held a glowing test tube.

"Welcome, Mrs. Mahendra," said The Alchemist. "Viktor said you’ve become a machine. I’ve always wondered how artificial nerves react to my organic toxins."

"Give me the code, or I’ll bring this place down with you in it!" Felicia threatened, her voice sounding distorted due to signal interference.

The Alchemist smiled. "You can’t move your legs now, can you? Your machine is trying to process the toxin entering through your pores. In five minutes, your heart will stop, while your machine will remain standing tall like a beautiful metal statue."

Felicia felt her legs stiffen. The servo motors in her knees began to creak loudly. She fell to her knees, her breath hitching. Andre tried to shoot the man, but The Alchemist moved with unnatural speed, vanishing behind the concrete pillars.

"Andre... run..." Felicia whispered.

"Not a chance!" Andre tried to lift her, but Felicia’s body, heavy with the metal frame, made her difficult to move.

In the midst of the poisonous gas, Felicia remembered the platinum crest her mother had given her, kept behind her chest plate. She felt for it, sensing its cold surface. Memories of the orphanage, her father’s struggle, and the baby she had mourned flooded her mind.

The pain triggered an extraordinary surge of adrenaline. Felicia let out a scream—a primal cry that shook the room. She forced her brain to ignore the toxin's interference. She commanded the machine to move, not through subtle signals, but through pure, burning will.

BZZZZZT!

The lights on Felicia’s exoskeleton turned from blue to bright red. The machine groaned as Felicia forced herself to stand upright. She lunged forward, tearing through the purple mist like a storm.

The startled Alchemist tried to release another gas canister, but Felicia was far faster. With one metallic hand, she gripped the man’s throat and slammed him against the steel vault door.

"Your poison is nothing compared to the poison already in my heart!" Felicia roared.

With full force, Felicia used her mechanical arms to wrench the digital vault door open until the hinges shattered. She grabbed the central data unit and immediately entered the encryption key provided by Volkov.

The screen before her flashed: CERES PROTOCOL - DEACTIVATED.

Instantly, the purple gas stopped hissing. Elena rushed to Felicia and injected an antidote into her arm. Felicia collapsed onto the floor, the motors in her legs whirring weakly from the excessive strain.

"You did it, Felicia. You saved them," Elena whispered while checking the data. "The pathogen is dead in every storage facility worldwide."

Andre hugged Felicia tightly. "It’s over, darling. We did it."

Felicia looked at The Alchemist, now unconscious on the floor. She looked at her own hands, still trembling. This victory felt sweet, but she knew it was just another chapter in her long war.

Nine names remained. The Obsidian Circle was no longer an untouchable secret organization; they were terrified prey. And Felicia Suryo, the Steel Queen, would not stop until every one of them felt the cold justice she carried.

"Take the data unit," Felicia commanded as she struggled to stand again. "We must disappear before the Council’s cleanup unit arrives. Zurich has just witnessed history, and I don't intend to stay long enough to see our headstones here."