Strongest Superhuman System

[Wait. I just caught something in your peripheral. You're being followed.]

Fiona's eyes narrowed in annoyance once she heard Pat say this. Since Pat had cameras in both of her earrings, his field of view was a lot wider than Fiona's, so she wasn't even able to catch the person with her eyes. She knew that Salazar wouldn't just let things rest like that! So he sent someone to tail her?

"How far are they?"

[They'll turn the corner in three… two… one…]

Fiona lashed out and grabbed the man who turned the corner. Her eyes gazed into his surprised ones and she grinned.

"Send a message back to Salazar. You found nothing unusual, and I went to Jeanne's office to wait for her."

The man's eyes glazed over as Fiona's blessing immediately took control

of him and he nodded in acceptance of her command. He clicked his comms and spoke into it.

"Sir, Madam Fiona has entered Madam Jeanne's office. She did not make any detours."

[… Very well. You may return to your post.]

The man looked to Fiona for more instructions. Fiona nodded her chin towards the corridor to tell the man to leave and he finally accepted the command and left. Once he was gone, Fiona turned back to the guards that were under her control.

"Take me to the lowest floor."

The man on the right nodded before taking a keycard out of his pocket and slotting it into an almost invisible slot in the wall. The elevator light glowed a dim red before finally opening and allowing Fiona to step inside.

"Return to your posts and act like the last three minutes never happened."

Fiona spoke up just as the elevator door closed and the two men under her control suddenly returned to normal and went back to their positions as if nothing had happened.

…

Ding!

The sound of the elevator door opening made Fiona narrow her eyes seriously as she gazed into the narrow hallway in front of her. Fiona looked towards the dial on the side of the elevator and noticed that none of the lights were lit up. That meant this floor wasn't even available as a button on the elevator. What the hell is going on in this building?

[Try to find another elevator that can take you further down. It should be somewhere close by. What do you see?]

"Not much. It's dark. There's a corridor and a few fluorescent lights. I think the elevator might be somewhere else."

Fiona started going through the corridor and she turned the corner before she noticed an elevator on the other end of the hallway. Pat was right.

She moved down to the elevator but frowned once she noticed that there were no buttons or levers to make the elevator move. There was only a strange square embedded into the wall that looked like a scanner.

Ding!

The sound of the elevator door opening made Fiona smile as she put her hands on her hips and waited patiently.

"Salazar wants the samples disposed of to make space for the new intakes. He says there's a new sample coming tomorrow, so we should prepare for it."

"There hasn't been a breakthrough with any sample for a while now. What will new samples do for us? The last major breakthrough we had was the one that GHOST killed the other day. If Salazar is just going to keep killing the samples, then what's the point of even doing this?"

"Just do as you're told. Salazar has a plan, we just have to follow it – Eh?"

The men who had been talking in the elevator suddenly paused as they saw Fiona standing in front of them. Both of them were wearing doctor's lab coats and they had an ID card hanging on their neck with a small stack of papers in their hands.

They seemed shell-shocked to see her there and their eyes widened in surprise as they immediately noticed who she was!

"Fiona –"

"Shut up."

Their eyes suddenly glazed over as Fiona commanded them and their hands dropped to their sides and scattered the papers to the floor as they fell under her blessing. Fiona entered the elevator with them and commanded them to take her to wherever they were coming from. The man on the left took his ID card and scanned it on the blue box inside the elevator.

Ding!

…

"Please, take a seat. Do you wish to have something to drink? Juice? Water?"

Salazar spoke up as he and Jeanne entered his office. Salazar moved towards his seat behind his desk while gesturing to the seat in front of him, and Jeanne went to sit down calmly. Jeanne tried to make sure her expression was as blank and stoic as usual, but on the inside, she still felt the tension building because of the mission that they were carrying out.

She could hear everything that Pat and Fiona were saying over the comms, so she knew that Fiona was only just entering the main part of the underground floor.

Jeanne was about to refuse Salazar's offer for a drink, but she remembered that she was meant to waste as much time as possible, so she accepted the offer and asked for some water. Salazar's brow raised in surprise as he sat down slowly.

"Oh? I didn't think you would accept. That is a pleasant surprise. Millicent, go bring us some water. Oh, and, please tell him to ensure everything is progressing nicely."

Salazar didn't specify who this 'him' was, but from Millicent's reaction, Jeanne could tell that she got the message. Millicent nodded and left the office, and Salazar leaned forward and stapled his hands under his chin while smiling at Jeanne.

Jeanne frowned.

"Is there something happening in the building I should know about?"

Salazar waved away her concerns.

"Oh no, nothing like that. I was on my way somewhere before I ran into you and your… patient. It's nothing to worry about. So, shall we get down to business?"

Jeanne was still worried about what exactly Salazar was planning right now, but she decided that it would be better for her to just stick to the plan and keep stalling here. If there is an issue, then Fiona can take care of it.

"Shouldn't we wait for the water? It wouldn't be good to stop in the middle because of some interruptions."

[Don't lay it on too thick. He'll suspect something.]

Pat's voice came through the comms, telling Jeanne not to be so obvious. Anyone would think she was trying to waste time if she kept acting like this. Jeanne told Pat to shut up in her head. She wasn't a freaking spy, so how the hell is she supposed to know that she was overdoing it or not. He told her to buy them some time and that is what she was doing!

Salazar's smile widened.

"True, very true indeed. Then let us wait. In the meantime, shall we talk about more mundane things? I hear you have a brother, was his name Patrick?"