On the Path of Eternal Strength.

Chapter 128: Chapter 126 When the Agreement Took Shape

Helena moved the suspended screens aside with a brief motion of her hand. The documents shifted toward the edges of the desk without turning off completely, leaving the space in front of her clear.

—Come closer.

Sebastián stepped forward accompanied by Virka. Both stopped in front of the desk, while Valentina remained between them, with the backpack on her back and Narka reduced inside it.

Helena rested her forearms on the glass and intertwined her hands. Her fingers retained a firmness that did not correspond to a resting posture. The gaze she directed toward Sebastián maintained its usual lucidity, although her voice dropped to a graver tone when she spoke.

—The time has come to fulfill the part of our agreement that remained pending.

Sebastián understood what she was referring to before she continued.

—The job as a bodyguard.

—Yes. Soon I will begin a series of trips across the continent. Negotiations, meetings, and visits to several divisions of the conglomerate. I need you to accompany me during some of those journeys.

Valentina turned her face toward Selena. The young woman remained in the light-colored armchair, with the tablet resting on her legs, but she had taken her eyes off the screen to follow the conversation.

The girl moved away from Virka’s side and walked toward her with the simple confidence of someone who still did not measure distances through hierarchies.

—Can I sit with you? —she asked in a low voice.

Selena looked at the backpack before moving the tablet to one side. With two taps, she closed the records she had been reviewing and left open an interface without confidential information. Then she shifted enough to offer Valentina part of the wide armchair.

—You can.

Valentina settled beside her and placed the backpack between her feet. Immediately, she tilted her face toward the tablet. Selena turned the device to make it easier for her to see and answered her first questions in murmurs, without ceasing to pay attention to what Helena was saying. The closeness did not alter the severity of her features, but she lowered the tablet to a more comfortable height for the girl.

Sebastián kept his eyes on Helena.

—Then the suspicions about your own safety were justified.

—More than I expected —Helena replied.

The pressure of her fingers increased slightly. The glass beneath her hands returned the reflection of that gesture as if another woman existed beneath the desk, trapped in the same stillness.

—That distrust stopped being a precaution. The internal reviews confirmed that there is a network of collaborators within the conglomerate. Some belong to different divisions; others are close to the structures that should protect me. Their movements were separated carefully enough to seem like isolated decisions, but they all lead toward the same result.

Virka slightly changed the way she supported her feet. She did not move her hands toward any weapon or interrupt, but her body lost the neutrality with which she had entered. Sebastián perceived the change without looking at her.

—They want to eliminate you —he said.

—How did you find the network?

Helena remained silent for a few seconds. To one side, Valentina slid a finger across the tablet under Selena’s guidance. The movement produced a change in light that passed through the young woman’s gray eyes before disappearing.

—Because of what you gave us —Helena replied.

She separated her hands and moved one of the screens to the center. She did not project images of the remains or open complete reports; she only left visible a sequence of structures and lines of analysis that Sebastián recognized as part of the studies begun after the attack.

—At first, we could not catalog any of those components. The fusion between tissue and metal, the bionic eye, the two spheres recovered from the first units, and the secondary core extracted from the specimen seemed like different problems. The study showed that they belonged to the same logic. We have not understood the complete system and still cannot reproduce it, but we learned to recognize the patterns that repeat within its architecture.

Sebastián ran his gaze over the lines without moving closer. Some were linked around incomplete forms; others pointed out matches whose meaning could only be interpreted by those who had spent all that time studying them.

—During a review of internal movements, one of those patterns appeared —Helena continued—. Then we found another. The technology was inferior to that of the samples and its capabilities were more limited, but the structure supporting them was the same. Before receiving what you gave us, those signals would have passed as independent anomalies. Now we had a reference with which to compare them.

Helena made the lines disappear with a movement of her fingers. The screen went dark between the two of them.

—We followed the matches and deepened the investigation. Each trace led to another until the network was revealed. That technology did not show us who created it or how it came into their hands. It showed us where we had to look. And when we looked, we found within my conglomerate those who have been preparing my death for some time.

Sebastián remained for a few moments in front of the dark screen before changing the direction of the conversation.

—How will the schedules work? The Institute takes up a large part of the day. Now there is the club, besides Valentina and the other projects. I need to know which nights they will be and how many hours.

Helena moved the dark screen to one side and drew another from the edge of the desk. A calendar divided into time slots appeared over the glass, accompanied by schedules for meetings, routes, and cities that still appeared as provisional destinations. With two fingers, she separated the hours of the day and left highlighted the space that began after six in the evening.

—The service will be at night. The ordinary routes will begin at six and end around one in the morning. Some meetings will extend until three or four, depending on the distance and circumstances, but those will be exceptions. I will not occupy all your nights or interfere with your studies. Each trip will be communicated far enough in advance for you to organize the Institute, the club, and your personal responsibilities.

Sebastián looked over the marked spaces. Between one time slot and another there were free nights, margins that could still be moved, and routes whose duration had not yet been finalized.

The structure by itself did not resolve the care of Valentina or the obligations that were beginning to accumulate around the club, but it prevented the agreement from becoming a permanent demand.

—I need to know before each trip —he said.

—That is how it will be. Unless an emergency arises, no departure will be scheduled without first informing you of the conditions. Virka’s participation also remains part of the agreement. She may accompany us when necessary or when you consider that you should not separate.

Virka observed the calendar without approaching the desk. Then she took her eyes off the time slots and fixed them on Helena.

—I’ll go with him. But there is something you should know.

Helena left the screen motionless.

—I’m listening.

—I don’t protect like your guards do. If someone threatens you, I kill them.

Virka raised one hand to chest height. Her fingers curved like claws and closed around an invisible throat. It was the only explanation she considered necessary.

—Will that be a problem?

Helena slowly let the air escape through her nose. Her eyes lowered for an instant toward Virka’s closed hand and then returned to her face. The question did not seem to surprise her; it merely forced her to measure how much she could ask without disregarding the nature of the person before her.

—I prefer them alive. Dead people don’t answer questions. I need to know how far this network extends, who finances it, and how many more people are involved. But I won’t put a capture above our safety. If you have to kill them, do it.

Virka kept her hand closed.

—Good.

—If you can, leave them alive —Helena continued—. They don’t have to come out unharmed. They only need to be able to be transported, interrogated, and judged afterward.

The request did not weaken her position or alter the tone of the negotiation. Helena was not asking for mercy for those preparing her death; she needed information that could disappear with them.

Virka slowly opened her fingers and let her hand fall beside her body.

—I don’t promise —she replied—. I’ll try.

Sebastián understood that answer was the closest thing to a promise Virka could offer. Helena also seemed to recognize it. She nodded once and moved the calendar aside to display a map of the continent. Dozens of luminous lines crossed cities, mountain ranges, and coasts, converging at stations marked with different levels of access.

—Transportation won’t be an obstacle either —Helena said—. While you work with me, you will have limited access to the continental bullet train network.

Sebastián observed one of the figures that appeared beside the map. It was an elongated vehicle, with a narrow front and continuous structure, designed to reduce air resistance as much as possible. Helena enlarged the image before continuing.

—These units travel great distances along exclusive tracks, and the service remains active twenty-four hours a day. On straight sections they reach and maintain seven hundred kilometers per hour. When the route enters a curve, they reduce their speed to approximately three hundred and accelerate again once they have passed it.

She moved two fingers over the map. A line lit up from the coastal city to a station located on the other side of a mountain range. The estimated time appeared beside it, reduced to only a few hours.

—The network connects the main centers of the continent. You won’t be authorized to use it without restrictions, but each mission will enable the necessary stations and routes. That way you’ll be able to leave after the Institute, complete the route, and return without losing entire days on conventional roads.

Time passed while Helena modified the calendar slots and linked them to the available routes. Sebastián pointed out the spaces he needed to reserve for the Institute and the club; Virka specified which ones she could accompany him on, and Helena left open the nights that depended on meetings that had not yet been confirmed.

They did not finalize every trip, but they did establish how they would be organized when the time came.

By the time the last light abandoned the windows, the agreement was no longer a promise kept from long ago. It had schedules, routes, and a minimal concession in the face of the violence that was approaching: Virka would try to ensure that the next threats retained enough life to answer.

Sebastián did not move away from the desk when Helena began closing the map. The routes went dark one after another beneath her fingers until only the nighttime calendar remained on the glass. Behind her, the city stretched out like an architecture of isolated lights, too distant for its movement to reach the stillness of the office.

—What protection will you have when we aren’t here?

Helena stopped her hand over the screen.

She did not answer immediately. A faint line appeared between her eyebrows as she observed Sebastián, not out of confusion at the question, but because she recognized in it an intention that had not yet been revealed.

To one side, Selena raised her eyes from the tablet. Her expression did not lose its usual coldness, although the attention she had until then divided between Valentina and the conversation became completely focused on him.

—I will keep escorts and security protocols during the hours you don’t cover —Helena replied—. I can gather enough guards. After what we found, claiming that all of them are trustworthy would be another matter.

Sebastián held her gaze.

—It won’t be enough.

Helena withdrew her hand from the screen and intertwined her fingers over the desk.

—You didn’t ask that question to hear what you already know. What do you propose?

—There are two women under my custody. They came out of the House of Chains.

The name brought into the office a darkness that did not belong to the night outside. Selena remained motionless for an instant. She knew the general reports about the fall of that organization, although not everything that had happened inside the room where Sebastián had found the two women.

—One lost her right arm and an eye —he continued—. The other was unconscious and had much of her body covered in burns.

He added nothing about the scars, the blood, or the way one had used the only arm she still had to cover the other. Helena did not need a meticulous reconstruction to understand that neither of them could yet fulfill a combat role.

—And you intend to use them as protection? —she asked.

—Not now. First they have to recover. You have technology to reconstruct what they lost. You can also modify them, if they agree. Afterward they can learn to fight. If they’re useful, they’ll cover part of the time when we aren’t there.

Helena observed him in silence.

The proposal was not intended to solve the immediate weeks or suddenly replace a trained team. It was a slower possibility: two broken lives, technology that was still incomplete, and a role that would only exist if both of them managed to make it through everything that came before.

Selena locked the other functions of the tablet with her thumb and left open only the simple figure Valentina had been entertaining herself with. Then she placed the device on the girl’s legs and stood up.

Valentina followed the movement with her face. Her lips pushed forward into a small pout when she discovered the empty place beside her, but she did not protest.

Virka saw it.

She moved away from the desk and crossed the office without interrupting the conversation. When she reached the armchair, she took the space Selena had left.

Valentina looked at her, still with that small displeasure lingering on her lips, and Virka pointed at the luminous image with one finger.

—Show me.

The girl took barely a second to forget the pout. She turned toward her, positioned the tablet between them, and began explaining in a low voice where the figures had to be placed.

Virka listened with the same rigid concentration she would have granted to a threat, moving each piece only when Valentina indicated it. She did not smile. She did not need to. Her body leaned toward the girl and one of her arms rested behind her, closing off the edge of the armchair like a silent barrier.

Selena stopped in front of the desk. Her back remained straight and her hands stayed free at her sides.

—What did you expect to obtain when you let them live?

—Nothing.

The answer produced no visible change in Selena, but the pause that followed revealed that she had not considered it.

—One was protecting the other with the only arm she had left —Sebastián continued—. I asked her what she wanted. She chose for both of them to live. That was enough.

—Then you didn’t choose them because of some ability you had already seen.

—No.

—Only because of their will to keep living.

—Yes.

Selena kept her gray eyes on him. The explanation contained no compassion, promises, or hidden intention to turn a past decision into a virtue. Sebastián had not saved the two women expecting that one day they would return the gesture. He had prevented their paths from ending in that room because one of them had still been capable of asking for both of them to remain alive when everything else had been torn away from her.

Selena nodded once. Her lips parted to add something, but Helena raised her hand. There was no abruptness in the movement and no spoken order. The firm palm between them was enough to stop the intervention.

Selena closed her mouth and waited.

—The proposal is viable —Helena said—. It may also prove useful for the development of our bionic systems and genetic modification. But we cannot reproduce the architecture of the samples you gave us. Having recognized their patterns does not mean we know how to reconstruct them.

—They don’t have to be the same.

—They won’t be. We can use what we learned to develop our own integration, more limited and controllable. A prosthesis for the arm, a replacement for the eye and, if their bodies allow it, later modifications. None of that guarantees they will be able to fight or that they will survive every procedure.

Sebastián did not look away.

—That’s why they have to choose.

Helena lowered her hand and rested it on the glass again.

—First I will review their reports and send a team to the medical center where they are staying. They will speak with the woman who is conscious. If she accepts the evaluation, we can transfer them together to a facility prepared to continue the treatment.

—And the other one? —Sebastián asked.

—She will continue receiving care. No modification will begin until she can answer for herself. The fact that one of them asked for both of them to be kept alive does not give her authority to decide over the other’s body.

The observation was not a reproach. Helena separated responsibilities with the same precision with which she had previously divided schedules and routes. The will that had justified allowing them to live had to retain its value when the time came to subject them to something capable of changing their bodies forever.

—Good —Sebastián replied.

—If the conscious woman rejects the evaluation, we will not transfer her. The project will remain halted until the other can answer.

—Then it stops.

There was no hesitation in his answer. Those women were under his custody, not his ownership. Offering them another path did not allow him to push them down it.

Helena turned her eyes toward Selena.

—Organize the review. I want the current condition of both of them, the treatments they have received, and the conditions necessary to move them without interrupting their recovery. The team will explain to them that the transfer only authorizes an evaluation. If there are viable procedures, each of them will have to accept them separately before we do anything else.

—I’ll prepare it tonight —Selena replied.

She returned to the armchair.

Valentina and Virka had placed almost all the figures in the corresponding spaces. Selena extended her hand toward the tablet and the girl handed it to her without recovering her earlier pout.

Virka remained beside her. Valentina then took two of her fingers and began bending them one by one, assigning them in a murmur names that only she understood.

Selena reopened the records with several precise taps. Within a few minutes, she linked the medical center with one of the conglomerate’s biotechnology divisions, separated the personnel responsible for examining the files from those who would carry out the transfer, and left any intervention pending until a direct response was obtained from each woman.

Helena added the access restrictions; Sebastián confirmed that he would authorize the team to enter the place where they were staying.

None of them turned the possibility into a finalized decision.

The project was reduced to its first legitimate form: an evaluation, a conversation, and two answers that did not yet exist.

Time began to move forward around them again. Night finished occupying the windows and erased any difference between the sky and the distant sea. Inside the office, the suspended screens maintained a cold clarity over the desk, Helena’s hands, and Selena’s motionless face as she closed the final access routes.

Valentina had leaned against Virka. She was still playing with her fingers, although the movements were becoming slower and slower.

Helena reviewed the travel calendar, access to the bullet trains, and the request intended for the medical center one last time. Then she closed the screens one after another.

—That’s enough for today. Tomorrow you will receive the first itinerary and confirmation regarding the evaluation of the two women.

—All right —Sebastián said.

Virka stood up. Valentina left the armchair behind her and took the hand she offered without needing to be called. Selena returned to her place with the tablet on her legs; Helena remained behind the desk, surrounded by the nighttime reflections of a city that contained too many windows to know from which one an enemy might be watching her.

Sebastián headed toward the exit. Virka walked beside him with Valentina holding her hand.

None of them looked back when the doors closed behind the three of them and left inside the office the schedules of an immediate protection and the uncertain beginning of another that, before acquiring flesh, metal, or strength, still had to be chosen.

________________________________________

END OF Chapter 126 The path continues...

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