The penthouse apartment in the East Berlin residential building belonged to Dieter, an old comrade of Erik's from operations who had severed ties with intelligence years ago. The apartment was dark, lit only by the diffuse light from the streetlights filtering through the dusty curtains.
In the original series, Erik and Hanna arrived at this point exhausted, grappling with the overwhelming weight of the revelations about Hanna's past and the true nature of Project Utrax. But this time, the atmosphere in the room was one of cold, calculating preparation.
Erik opened a blackened metal briefcase on a coffee table, connecting an encrypted data terminal to a flash drive he had recovered from one of the CIA's advanced cells at Camp G.
On the matte screen of the old laptop, lines of code scrolled rapidly until declassified files, dossiers, and medical records came to the surface.
"Here it is," Erik said, his jaw clenched, pointing to the documents on the screen. — Utrax wasn't just an ordinary recruit training center. It was a clandestine behavioral and genetic engineering program. They selected newborn orphans and manipulated their psychological and physical profiles from early childhood to create assassins devoid of empathy, loyal only to the agency.
Hanna shifted from the desk. Her blue eyes scanned the images on the screen: photos of numbered babies, reports of endurance tests under extreme stress, and records of other girls who had gone through the same program as her. A subtle chill ran down her spine, not of fear, but of pure revulsion at the realization that her entire life had been engineered in a laboratory as a final product.
Feeling the pain in Hanna's shoulders, Arthur stepped forward. Without hesitation, he placed a firm hand on her shoulder, transmitting a solid, reassuring warmth. Hanna turned her face to him, finding stability in Arthur's calm gaze. She took a deep breath, the tension dissipating as she covered his hand with her own, in a silent gesture of unbreakable connection. Erik looked at the two for a moment, taking a deep breath before closing the data panel.
"Marissa Wiegler is personally coordinating the reactivation of support facilities in Central Europe," Erik warned. "If we want to take down Utrax once and for all, we need to hit their command center before we move the files to Berlin forums."
At that exact moment, a bluish, subtle flash flickered in Arthur's mind, accompanied by the familiar sound of the system.
[SYSTEM ALERT: NEW MAIN MISSION DETECTED]
Mission Title: Dismantling the Hydra (Infiltration of the Utrax Core)
Objective: Infiltrate Marissa Wiegler's main hidden operations center in Berlin, extract the remaining reserve records, and neutralize the operational field leadership of Project Utrax.
Restriction: Maintain the integrity of the group and ensure that Hanna confronts her past without succumbing to mental conditioning.
Reward for Completion:
Core Evolution: Definitive leap from Innate Talent Multiplier 100x to Multiplier 1000x.
Attributes: +1 Rank in Agility and Perception.
New Special Ability: Wolf Bond (Rank B+) — Refined tactical synchronization with partner (Hanna). Completely negates rear blind spots in joint combat, increases collective occurrence speed by 100%, and allows for automatic lethal precision cross-flank maneuvers in high-pressure scenarios.
Penalty for Failure: Relentless hunt by elite CIA squads on a continental level and permanent loss of refugee status.
Arthur read the lines of the system projected in his mind with absolute clarity. He discreetly clenched his fists, feeling the adrenaline and energy of the multiplier reacting to the new direction.
"The mission is given," Arthur said, looking firmly at Erik and Hanna, whose expressions now displayed a fierce and focused determination. "We will hunt the hunters."