"Want to see what the Veronica enhancement can really do?"
Under different circumstances, Horwyst might have accepted the offer out of pure curiosity.
With the enhanced subject sitting across the table from him, however, and with himself serving as the test target...
He decided he could live without the demonstration.
For the first time since negotiations had begun, Horwyst genuinely found himself at a loss.
The man he’d spent the last hour bargaining with had undergone enhancement as well. Not the mass-produced Tyrant treatment Evenson was selling, but something far rarer.
Veronica.
Horwyst had no idea how powerful it really was, but he was certain of one thing.
It had to be superior.
Why?
Because nobody sold their best weapon.
If Umbrella was willing to trade the Tyrant enhancement, then the company obviously had something better reserved for its own people. And Evenson claimed to be one of Umbrella’s executives. Whether that title placed him at the top or merely somewhere in the middle hardly mattered. If the company had entrusted him with negotiations over something as valuable as the Obelisk, his status couldn’t possibly be low.
Someone that important wouldn’t be injected with a second-rate serum.
Besides...
Limited editions were always better than mass production.
That was true for sports cars.
It was true for luxury watches.
Surely it was true for bio-engineered super soldiers.
Horwyst was utterly convinced.
While his imagination raced through increasingly alarming possibilities of what Evenson might actually be capable of, his remaining bodyguards had no intention of freezing alongside him.
They reacted almost instantly.
Four pistols appeared in practiced synchronization.
Two guards stepped behind Evenson.
The other two moved to Horwyst’s side.
One aimed his handgun at Evenson while placing his free hand firmly on Horwyst’s shoulder, leaning slightly forward. If anything happened, he would shove his employer backward and throw himself between the two men without hesitation.
Professional.
Disciplined.
Ready to die if necessary.
The only reason they hadn’t opened fire immediately was simple.
Evenson had just melted solid stainless steel as though it were butter.
None of them wanted to discover what that spell would do to a human body.
Medium rare?
Well done?
Charcoal?
Either way, the victim wouldn’t be complaining.
There was another reason as well.
These men had protected Horwyst long enough to recognize his habits. They’d witnessed tense negotiations before, though never with someone quite this terrifying.
Their boss liked to haggle.
He liked pushing people to see where they broke.
Actually pulling the trigger?
That ended negotiations forever.
If they ruined an agreement Horwyst still wanted, they’d be the ones paying the price.
"A very professional response," Evenson observed, casually glancing at the four pistols trained on him.
His voice remained perfectly calm.
"Do you really want to test this, Mr. Horwyst?"
He wasn’t bluffing.
The pistols meant nothing.
His Void Protection could shrug off far worse than handgun rounds.
And even if everything somehow went catastrophically wrong, Sarah and Taylor were waiting in the basement beneath his shop beside the Summoning Stone. The ritual could pull him home in seconds.
If he wanted, he could level the entire floor and still be back in time to finish his bargain-bin steak dinner.
Horwyst raised both hands.
"No, of course not. It was only a joke."
The guards slowly lowered their weapons.
Another chair was brought in for Evenson.
Horwyst had yielded.
In his life, only two things truly mattered.
His own survival...
...and the Obelisk.
Even if Evenson couldn’t kill him outright, there was nothing stopping him from destroying the Tyrant serum sitting on the table.
If that happened, the deal collapsed.
The Obelisk slipped through his fingers.
And Hydra would gain a dangerous new corporate enemy whose true strength remained completely unknown.
It wasn’t worth the gamble.
The immediate threat passed, but the room never truly relaxed.
Silence settled over the conference room as both men turned their attention back to the television.
Rom’s testing continued.
Only when the evaluation ended and a researcher hurried inside carrying the final report did the tension finally ease.
Horwyst flipped through the pages, eyebrows rising higher with each statistic.
"Incredible..."
His voice carried genuine admiration.
"The improvement is beyond expectations."
Strength.
Durability.
Endurance.
Recovery.
Every category bordered on absurd.
But eventually he frowned.
"Everything looks excellent... except agility."
On the monitor, Rom’s enormous frame had struggled through shuttle runs, obstacle courses, and evasive movement drills.
He wasn’t slow.
Just...
Not exactly graceful.
"Naturally," Evenson said with a shrug. "The Tyrant line was designed around overwhelming physical power."
He leaned back in his chair.
"And honestly, what do you need exceptional agility for?"
He paused.
Then his face brightened with exaggerated realization.
"Wait..."
"You aren’t planning to hand every one of them a shield, are you?"
He grinned.
"Actually... knowing Hydra, you’ll probably throw in a battle axe, too."
Horwyst’s expression froze.
Because...
That was almost exactly what he’d been planning.
Captain America had made a shield look pretty effective.
Evenson covered his face with one hand.
"My God."
"You do realize this operation isn’t a hit-and-run raid."
"It’s a holding action."
He leaned forward.
"Your strike team has one job. Hold off a reinforced U.S. Army battalion for an hour while the rest of your people secure the Obelisk."
He began counting on his fingers.
"Roughly four hundred fully equipped soldiers."
"They’ll advance in formation."
"They’ll have assault rifles."
"Machine guns."
"Grenade launchers."
"Rocket launchers."
"Artillery support."
"Tanks if necessary."
"And your enhanced soldiers will have limited cover while trying to stall them."
He looked directly into Horwyst’s eyes.
"So tell me..."
"Do you honestly think a steel shield and a battle axe are enough?"
Horwyst imagined the battlefield.
Captain America had looked unstoppable because he usually stormed enemy facilities, wrecked everything in sight, and left before anyone could organize.
He rarely fought more than a couple dozen enemies at once.
This was different.
This was standing toe-to-toe with an entire American battalion.
And unlike Steve Rogers, Hydra didn’t have access to vibranium.
Ordinary steel?
Under sustained machine-gun fire, those shields would be scrap metal in minutes.
Maybe less.
Horwyst slowly rubbed his temples.
"...Then what would you recommend?"
If anyone understood the Tyrants’ strengths and weaknesses...
It would be the man who had brought them to the table.
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