Strongest Superhuman System

Martha knew that working in desperation is bound to lead to mistakes. If someone finds out that Fiona is missing before they can finish their research, then they could be in trouble.

Martha used her pen to raise Fiona's chin and hummed before she finally nodded.

"Well, if Salazar says that it is fine, then we don't have any right to question him. Shall we carry her to the holding room? We are expecting a new intake of samples, but there should be some space for her."

Uriel waved Martha's suggestion away.

"No need for that. I'll handle her personally. You may go back to your research."

Uriel beckoned the men carrying Fiona to follow her and Martha watched them go with a small frown of confusion on her face. Martha didn't fully understand what Salazar was trying to do, but she did not have any right to question Uriel's orders, so Martha just sighed and went back to her experiment.

Once they were inside Uriel's office, Fiona's eyes shot open and she took in a deep breath as she told the men to set her down. Fiona had been leveling out her breathing since they came into the lab to make it seem like she was knocked out, so she felt breathless. One of the men went to close the door behind them and once Fiona was calm, she heard Pat's voice come through the comms.

[You need to get the information quickly. Tell her to enter all the information available in the database into the drive that I gave you.]

Fiona brought out a small thumb drive that had a fingerprint scanner on one side. She put her finger on the scanner and the drive glowed a dull blue before exposing a USB stick from one side. Fiona handed the drive to Uriel and told her to put everything inside the database in there.

Uriel glanced at the drive.

"There are terabytes of data available on the database. I don't think all of it will fit inside such a small drive."

[It'll be fine, I'm collecting the data in real-time, so the size of the drive doesn't matter. It's only acting as a conduit for the transfer.]

Pat's answer assured Fiona and she told Uriel to just begin sending the data. Uriel nodded as she put the drive into a computer on her desk before she started to send the data that Fiona asked for. Time passed slowly as the transfer started and Fiona began to tap her feet against the ground in irritation as she became a bit restless.

"Can't this move any faster? It's been five minutes already."

Fiona frowned and asked Uriel to move faster, but Uriel shook her head with an apology as she told Fiona that the data was being transferred as quickly as possible.

"There are terabytes of data, madam. I can't transfer it any faster."

[We're almost done, Fiona. Just a few more minutes.]

Fiona frowned when Pat also tried to reassure her. Fiona knew that they were almost done, but she also knew that this was the most delicate moment. It's at times like these that shit usually hits the fan hard. Fiona was an avid movie watcher and in her free time, she would usually just relax in her home theater and watch movies from a few decades ago.

In all the movies that she watched, she knew that at the most critical moment, when no one believed anything could possibly go wrong, that was when things always ended up getting more complicated. Fiona knew that there was a large difference between real life and the movies. There is no way you can use movies to predict what would happen in the real world.

But that doesn't mean Fiona wasn't anxious. Fiona couldn't help but feel more agitated the longer this dragged on.

Fiona took in a deep breath and went to lean against the table in the office. She knew that she was just being paranoid right now, so she tried to calm herself down and take her mind off her agitation. I mean, I'm almost done with the mission already. What's the worst that—

[Fiona. I don't know if this is important right now, but I think you should know that one of the SOVEREIGN just entered the NSA building.]

"What?"

Fiona was immediately shocked as she stood from the table. A SOVEREIGN? What the hell is a SOVEREIGN doing in the NSA building? Fiona quickly asked Pat who it was and Pat's answer made Fiona's blood run cold.

[Gunter Jake.]

A shiver traveled from Fiona's head all the way down to her toes! No matter how much time passes, Fiona will never forget that indescribable feeling of fear that engulfed her during Mark's assessment in the Superhuman Alliance building a few days ago. When she and Gunter were in the same room, it almost felt like a physical weight was pressing down on her and she couldn't even breathe.

What in the world was Gunter Jake doing here!? Is it somehow related to this!?

No, let's be rational here. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation for this. Superhumans come to the NSA building all the time, so there is no reason why Gunter's presence here should be an issue at all. And besides, I don't think I've ever seen Gunter and Salazar being on good terms before. If Gunter was somehow related to this, then shouldn't he and Salazar at least be on talking terms?

Fiona tried to reassure herself like this, but somewhere in the back of her mind, Fiona also knew that she was just drawing at straws here. If Fiona was being realistic, Fiona knew that Salazar and Gunter being strangers was actually the best course of action that Salazar could have possibly taken.

Who would suspect that they are working together if they never spoke to each other? That would make it harder for anyone to trace anything Salazar does back to Gunter and vice versa.

Fiona felt her heart rate spike as a feeling of fear settled in her heart. She tightened her hands into fists and folded them across her chest to try and calm herself.

"How much longer before the transfer is done?"

[Two minutes.]

Pat's answer reassured Fiona that they were almost done and she quickly spoke up again while running a hand through her hair.

"Tell Tylor to get ready for my extraction in case things don't go as planned. I… I don't know if Gunter's presence here is an issue or not. But I just want to make sure nothing surprises us."

Pat grew worried when he heard the nervous way Fiona's voice broke in the middle of her sentence. Pat has only known Fioan to be confident and bold in her statements, so hearing her sound nervous was enough to make him worried. Pat did not think that Gunter's presence here would be an issue, but he decided to tell Fiona about it just in case she ran into him when she was leaving the building.

But from how Fiona was talking, it was obvious that Fiona thought differently.

[You think Gunter and Salazar are working together…?]

"It doesn't matter what I think. All that matters is that Gunter came here at the same moment when Salazar saw me roaming free inside the building. It's too much of a coincidence. If they are working together, then we will need an alternate escape—"

Ka-Cha!

"Madam Uriel, are you busy? I wanted to talk - Gasp!"

A gasp from the door alerted Fiona to someone standing there and she turned to the side in shock to see Martha, the scientist from before, staring into the room with wide, disbelieving eyes. Fiona cursed in anger once she saw Martha! Why didn't these fools lock the fucking door!?