The Berlin facility was a fortress. Concrete walls, energy barriers, automated defenses. Alex's team hit it like a hurricane.
Heinrich led the charge, his strength system overloaded with fury. These monsters had his wife and daughter. Nothing would stop him.
"Thermal scans show fifty hostages in the basement," Maya reported. "But Alex, something's wrong. The facility layout doesn't match our intelligence."
Alex paused mid-fight with an enhanced guard. "What do you mean?"
"It's bigger. Much bigger. There are sections that don't exist on any blueprint."
Dr. Frost froze a group of guards solid. "They've been building underground. For years."
*REVELATION: FACILITY SCALE UNDERESTIMATED*
*ACTUAL SIZE: 10X LARGER THAN PREDICTED*
*HOSTAGE COUNT: UNKNOWN*
"Maya, are the other teams seeing this too?"
"Affirmative. Every facility is bigger than expected. Alex, we're not just looking at rescue operations anymore. These sites are production centers. They're making enhanced humans by the hundreds."
The weight of the revelation hit Alex like a physical blow. Project Olympus wasn't just experimenting on innocents. They were building an army.
"All teams, priority shift. We're not just rescuing hostages. We're stopping mass production of enhanced soldiers."
Heinrich's voice crackled over the comm. "Found them. Main laboratory, sub-basement three. But Alex... there are so many tanks."
Alex fought his way deeper into the facility. Each level revealed more horrors. Assembly line enhancement procedures. Automated systems that could modify dozens of subjects simultaneously.
And at the center, a massive computer core broadcasting signals to similar facilities worldwide.
*OLYMPUS NETWORK DISCOVERED*
*ALL FACILITIES LINKED*
*SHARED CONSCIOUSNESS PROTOCOL ACTIVE*
"Maya, they're not just making enhanced humans. They're networking them together. Creating a hive mind."
"That explains the coordination we've been seeing. But Alex, if that's true..."
"Then every person they've enhanced is potentially under their control."
The realization was terrifying. How many enhanced individuals were secretly connected to the Olympus network? How many had been turned into sleeper agents?
*PARANOIA PROTOCOL ACTIVATED*
*TRUST NO ONE OUTSIDE CORE TEAM*
Heinrich's voice came through strained. "Alex, I've got a problem. My wife... she's been enhanced. And she's not responding to me."
"Enhanced how?"
"Neural implants. Like the kids in Mumbai, but more sophisticated. She's looking at me like I'm a stranger."
Alex's blood went cold. "Heinrich, get away from her now."
"What? No, she's my wife!"
"Heinrich, it's a trap! They enhanced the hostages to use against us!"
But it was too late. Through Heinrich's comm link, Alex heard the sound of combat. Then screaming. Then silence.
*TEAM MEMBER DOWN: HEINRICH MUELLER*
*STATUS: UNKNOWN*
*HOSTAGES COMPROMISED*
"All teams, abort hostage rescue! The captives have been turned! They're weapons now!"
The responses came in quickly. Every team was encountering the same thing. Loved ones turned into attackers. Family members with dead eyes and neural implants.
"Elena here. The London hostages just activated. They're stronger than the guards were. We're taking heavy casualties."
"Moscow team reporting. We're surrounded by enhanced civilians. They're using the hostages as an army."
*GLOBAL OPERATION FAILING*
*CASUALTY REPORTS INCOMING*
*OLYMPUS STRATEGY: PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE*
Alex felt his system struggling to process the situation. Save the hostages or protect his teams? Fight the enhanced civilians or try to disable their implants?
The choice was taken away from him.
A voice echoed through every facility simultaneously. Calm, familiar, and terrifyingly wrong.
"Hello, Alex Chen."
Alex's blood went cold. He knew that voice.
"Impossible. You're dead. I killed you myself."
Dr. Marcus Sterling's laughter filled the comm channels. "Death is just another form of enhancement when you understand the true nature of systems."