"And your operating system?"
Instead of answering Ivan’s question, Sarah smoothly steered the conversation elsewhere.
"How do you actually control the armor?"
Ivan rolled his neck, visibly impatient.
"I wrote the software myself."
"It monitors my muscle movements, interprets my intended actions, and translates them into commands for the armor."
Sarah nodded thoughtfully.
"So it doesn’t read brain activity."
"It doesn’t track your eye movements."
"It can’t respond to changes in pupil dilation."
"...Correct."
Ivan admitted it through clenched teeth.
He was a scientist before he was a killer.
Hatred didn’t change that.
If his design had flaws, he acknowledged them.
Lying about technical shortcomings solved nothing.
Especially when he needed the woman sitting across from him to solve them.
"Then that’s another gap."
Sarah leaned forward, resting both hands on the table.
"Your system has to interpret physical movement before it can respond."
"The delay may only be a fraction of a second..."
"...but it’s still slower than Tony Stark’s."
She continued before Ivan could interrupt.
"From everything I’ve learned, Iron Man’s armor is supported by an extraordinarily advanced artificial intelligence."
"It doesn’t simply react."
"It predicts."
"It analyzes combat in real time."
"It evaluates the battlefield."
"And it constantly recommends the optimal response."
Tony Stark wasn’t merely gifted in one discipline.
He excelled in nearly all of them.
Artificial intelligence.
Power generation.
Miniaturized weapon systems.
Energy weapons.
Materials science.
Biomechanics.
Iron Man existed because Tony could combine all of those fields into a single machine.
Ivan’s expertise, impressive as it was, remained concentrated around energy technology.
Outside that specialty...
The gap became painfully obvious.
"Enough!"
Ivan slammed both fists onto the table.
"I don’t need another lecture about how superior Tony Stark is."
"I need the solution."
His frustration finally boiled over.
Hatred had long ago evolved into something uglier.
Envy.
The two emotions fed each other until neither could be separated from the other.
Was Tony actually smarter?
Ivan refused to believe it.
Tony had enjoyed elite schools...
Unlimited funding...
World-class laboratories...
While Ivan had grown up struggling to survive in frozen Siberia, building inventions from discarded scrap.
If their lives had been reversed...
He was convinced history would have crowned a different genius.
Now it was time for the Starks to repay forty years of suffering.
Preferably within forty minutes.
He stared at Sarah expectantly.
She simply smiled.
Silently.
Waiting.
The seconds stretched.
Then realization dawned.
Ivan chuckled and stroked his beard.
"I understand."
"My mistake."
He looked up.
"Let’s discuss your price."
Sarah almost sighed in relief.
Finally.
It only took him half an hour to remember that revolutionary technology usually isn’t handed out for free.
"Three conditions."
She raised three fingers.
"The first two are easy."
She pointed toward the shattered remains of the plasma whip.
"I want its design schematics."
The request wasn’t hers.
It had come directly from Evenson.
He wasn’t particularly interested in the whip itself.
What fascinated him was the way Ivan channeled energy through a physical weapon.
If Arc Reactor energy could be directed into a whip...
Could fel energy be infused into weapons the same way?
Or shadow magic.
Or fire.
A technological shortcut to magical weapon enhancement.
Enchanting equipment remained one of Evenson’s greatest headaches.
Not because the technique itself was impossible...
But because authentic enchanting required rare magical materials he had absolutely no way of obtaining.
His own equipment merely looked magical.
He certainly wasn’t going to dismantle priceless artifacts for crafting components.
If Ivan’s technology worked...
Perhaps he could imitate enchantments instead.
Imagine Taylor’s battle axe fitted with such a device.
Feed it with a charged fel crystal...
And the weapon would erupt into blazing green fire worthy of a Fel Lord.
The same principle could even be applied to robes, allowing temporary surges of magical power normally seen only among elite Eredar warlocks.
It wouldn’t be true enchantment.
But as a temporary combat enhancement...
It would be more than enough.
"I accept."
Ivan answered immediately.
Ordinarily, the Vanko family guarded their technology jealously.
Not this time.
Only one invention remained untouchable.
The Arc Reactor.
Everything else was expendable.
If revenge failed...
Nothing mattered.
If revenge succeeded...
S.H.I.E.L.D. would hunt him until the day he died.
Either way...
There was little value in taking his knowledge to the grave.
"Excellent."
Sarah nodded.
"The second condition."
"I want you to secretly transfer every dollar Hammer Industries possesses."
She said it as casually as if ordering coffee.
Evenson desperately needed capital.
Building Umbrella into a genuine organization required enormous funding.
His own finances...
Well...
If the project cost four hundred million dollars...
He could probably contribute the loose change.
Ivan gave a cold laugh.
"So you aren’t saints after all."
"Mr. Hammer promised unlimited support for Umbrella’s biological research."
Sarah’s expression remained perfectly composed.
"Unfortunately, circumstances suggest he may be unable to fulfill that promise."
"So I’ll help him keep it."
Her gaze sharpened.
"No one defaults on Umbrella’s contracts."
"No one."
She looked directly into Ivan’s eyes.
"That includes you."
Ivan leaned back comfortably.
"And what if I refuse?"
His tone was almost amused.
He had already accepted death.
Threatening a man who no longer feared dying was difficult.
Sarah lazily examined one of her fingernails.
"We also have someone close to Tony Stark."
She spoke as though discussing the weather.
"When the decisive moment arrives..."
"...that person might save Tony."
"Or perhaps kill him before you can."
She finally looked at Ivan.
"Either way..."
"...you’ll die knowing someone else finished your revenge."
Ivan’s expression twitched.
That...
He couldn’t accept.
Whether Tony escaped...
Or died by another hand...
His revenge would remain unfinished forever.
"I agree."
He shrugged.
"The money isn’t mine anyway."
He wasn’t planning to survive long enough to spend it.
"So what’s the third condition?"
Sarah smiled.
"That one may actually challenge you."
Ivan frowned.
"And if I genuinely can’t do it?"
"I’m not talking about refusing."
"I’m talking about reaching the limits of my ability."
"What then?"
Sarah answered almost apologetically.
"Then your revenge fails."
"You really don’t negotiate, do you?"
She shook her head.
"Because the third condition..."
She placed a sealed document envelope onto the table.
"...is the solution you’re asking for."
"Complete it..."
"...and you’ll be capable of killing Tony Stark."
Ivan stared at the envelope.
His face twisted into a complicated expression.
So that was the game.
She had lured him step by step into accepting the first two demands.
And now...
The actual payment sat inside the envelope.
He reached for it.
Sarah placed her hand over his.
"Have you agreed?"
Ivan tugged once.
Twice.
She didn’t move.
"...At least let me see what I’m buying."
After a brief pause, Sarah lifted her hand.
Ivan immediately opened the envelope.
He adjusted his glasses and began reading.
At first he expected engineering blueprints.
A new alloy.
An energy weapon.
Perhaps even an artificial intelligence architecture.
Instead...
His eyebrows climbed higher with every page.
"What..."
"...the hell..."
He frowned at the formatting.
"The notation is awful."
"Half these explanations should have been mathematical symbols."
"Who wrote this?"
"Someone who barely finished high school?"
He almost wanted to throw it away.
Then...
He actually started reading.
His expression slowly changed.
"No..."
He turned another page.
"Impossible."
He shook his head.
"The nervous system couldn’t tolerate this level of stimulation."
"Keep reading."
Sarah folded her arms.
Ivan continued.
His breathing gradually became heavier.
Page after page disappeared beneath his trembling hands.
"...Proust was wrong..."
"...Martin Charcot was wrong..."
He flipped another page.
"...Gazzaniga came close..."
"...but even he chose the wrong direction..."
His hands began shaking.
He looked up.
"Is this real?"
His voice was barely more than a whisper.
"It’s all real."
Sarah answered calmly.
"With this..."
"...your primitive control software becomes obsolete."
"So does Tony Stark’s artificial intelligence."
She tapped the document.
"Because the armor..."
"...becomes part of you."
Ivan stared at the manuscript in reverent silence.
"Exactly."
"One body."
"One machine."
He almost laughed.
"Only a genius bordering on insanity could have designed something like this."
Sarah smiled faintly.
"One step ahead of the world makes you a genius."
"Two steps ahead makes people call you insane."
Ivan slowly nodded.
"This isn’t two steps."
He looked down at the pages again.
"Mechanical integration..."
"Direct neural interfacing..."
"And it actually works..."
He swallowed.
"Who created this?"
"How did Umbrella obtain these notes?"
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