The vast underground space held nothing but the occasional clatter of loose stone.
Dead silence.
Miranda's clouded eyes locked onto Ryan, unblinking. Her sanity, already teetering on the edge of total collapse, had been dragged back by that offer, whispered like a devil's bargain. A hundred years of obsession, confronted with overwhelming force on one side and a sliver of genuine hope on the other, began to crack.
"You... actually have a way." Miranda's voice was still raw, but the hysterical madness had drained out of it, replaced by something close to humility. A plea for confirmation.
"I've got no interest in writing empty checks to someone I've already beaten." Ryan pulled a relatively flat rock over and sat down.
"Your Mold network is basically a massive biological hard drive. It does have your daughter's consciousness data stored inside it. But for the last century, you've been trying to brute-force overwrite living people with raw infection. That's insane."
Ryan scoffed and kept going. "What do you think living humans are? Flash drives? Even the cheapest flash drive will fry the motherboard if you force-write incompatible data onto it. All those failed experiments you turned into Lycans and monsters? That was genetic chain collapse from rejection."
Miranda ground her teeth. "They weren't perfect enough. If I find the right vessel, Eva will wake."
"And then what? Say you actually luck into the right vessel. How are you planning to extract the data intact? Willpower?" Ryan tore her fantasy apart without an ounce of mercy. "I personally don't care much about your experimental data, but we have the best technology on the planet. Way more reliable than your backwoods voodoo and blind luck."
Miranda went silent. The mass of black flesh barely holding a human shape heaved violently, as if she were fighting the hardest battle of her life inside her own mind.
"Lady Miranda, if this humble merchant may interject." The Duke, standing at the periphery, chose his moment perfectly. He removed his top hat and gave a slight bow. "This gentleman's power and resources far exceed anything this valley has ever known. Rather than clinging to a myth that has failed for a century, perhaps it is wiser to bet on the man standing before you who has already broken the rules. After all, you have nothing left to lose."
The Duke's words were the straw that broke the camel's back.
Miranda slowly closed her eyes. As her will loosened its grip, the violent underground nest fell silent in an instant. The Mold tendrils that had been writhing around them receded into the earth like a tide pulling out.
On the surface above, the Lycans and Ghouls that had been locked in a death struggle with Heisenberg's mechanical army stopped dead, as if someone had yanked their power cord. They dropped to the ground in unison, whimpering in submission.
"Mia!" Ethan's shout broke the stillness.
In the massive Megamycete core ahead, a thick fungal tendril slowly split open and expelled a sphere coated in mucus. Mia lay quietly inside, her face pale but her chest rising and falling steadily.
Ethan threw down the weapon in his hands, useless now, and stumbled forward. He ripped away the remaining strands of mycelium and pulled his wife tight against his chest. The man who had fought so hard to find her finally let his eyes go red.
Heisenberg glanced at the Lycans lying docile as dogs, then at Ethan sobbing into Mia's hair, and finally let his gaze settle on Ryan. He tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Buddy, I'm starting to wonder. Was all that smashing back there actually to help me fight the boss, or was it just to beat the old witch into submission so you could recruit her?"
"The adult world isn't all about fighting and killing. Relax." Ryan stood up and pressed his earpiece. "Alright, everyone. Time to come in and clean house."
The words had barely left his mouth when a deep, dense roar of engines rolled in from beyond the shattered ceiling above them.
Ethan looked up. Heisenberg pulled off his sunglasses. Even The Duke squinted instinctively.
Through the massive hole that had been punched through the rock, dozens of heavy tiltrotors in jet-black livery, sleek and almost sci-fi in design, descended vertically from the sky like a swarm of steel wasps blotting out the sun.
The combined downdraft from dozens of high-powered rotors hit like a hurricane, shredding the cold, stagnant cloud cover that had hung over the village for a century. Sunlight poured through the gaps for the first time in ages, flooding the ruins below.
The aircraft hovered in midair and their bay doors opened in unison.
The first ones down weren't soldiers. Two agile figures rappelled to the ground almost instantly. Sherry and Becky hit the dirt with compact, cutting-edge submachine guns already trained on Lady Dimitrescu, who was still frozen in shutdown. Behind them, fully armed Shadow Force operators fast-roped down in a steady stream, seizing every elevated position in the underground space within seconds.
Then a noticeably larger command aircraft descended.
The bay door opened. Jill stepped down the ramp in a sharp navy-blue tactical suit. She swept the scene with her eyes, let her gaze linger on Miranda for a moment, then walked to Ryan's side. Her tone was even.
"Perimeter's locked down. Looks like your little trip paid off, Ry..."
Behind Jill, Luis Sera hopped down in a full hazmat suit. "Boss, your demolition game is getting smoother every time."
He hit the ground, flipped his visor up with practiced ease, and stuck an unlit cigarette between his lips, eyes locked on the Megamycete core.
"Good lord. This fungal activity, this neural network distribution. If Dr. Annette saw this, she wouldn't sleep for three days straight."
Over a hundred Starfire Pharma researchers in white containment suits filed in after him, pushing heavy sealing equipment, and began methodically cutting samples from the site.
Ethan held Mia and stared blankly at the disciplined soldiers and scientists swarming the cavern.
"Ryan... what are you, exactly? This army, these scientists, they're all yours..."
Ryan turned around and looked at the battered man. He walked up to Ethan and extended his right hand.
"Let me reintroduce myself, Ethan. Founder of Starfire Pharma, behind the scenes. Ryan Cole."
Ethan froze. He stared at the outstretched hand, his brain locking up, then realized he was being rude and grabbed it.
"So... all those impossible things you did along the way, that was all Star Fire tech?" Ethan's voice still sounded like it was floating somewhere above his body.
"Not exactly, but sure, you can think of it that way." Ryan clapped Ethan on the shoulder. "Bring Mia and join Star Fire. The benefits are solid, and I guarantee no dumbass bioterrorist will ever touch either of you again."
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