جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 110

"The Valkyrie Protocol."These five words triggered a silent earthquake in Catherine's mind. It wasn't a business plan; it was a will. A darkest legacy left to her by her father, old Mr. Sterling, on his deathbed. A dormant war machine buried deep beneath the surface of Sterling Industries.She had always thought it was just the fantasy of a paranoid old man, a crazy Plan B for the apocalypse. But now, this Plan B had awakened through an encrypted channel she thought had long since failed."Catherine?" Jack's voice pulled her back from her shock. He noticed the subtle change in her breathing, a mixture of shock, fear, and a hint of…cold resolve.She didn't answer. Her fingers flew across the holographic keyboard, executing a series of complex verification commands long forgotten in her memory. The code to her retina, her voiceprint, and a childhood memory known only to her and her father—"The Robin and the Ivy."The system accepted.

Hailey Sterling was at the lowest point in her life.It was a social death she had never experienced before, one that was utterly terrifying. Ever since Catherine and Jack's dramatic "board coup," the name "Sterling" had become the hottest potato in New York's high society. On one side was the unfathomable, terrifying newcomer (Jack), and on the other, the utterly collapsed, laughingstock-like old guard (David). Hailey found herself caught in the middle.Her platonic girlfriends no longer invited her to parties. Her "Global Brother-in-Law Fans Post-GPL China Club" (that's what she preferred to call it now) was also filled with resentment because of Jack's elusive, unpredictable (and never-to-be-repeated) "oracles" in the financial markets. Her influencer career, the very meaning of her existence, was crumbling."I need a big story! An exclusive scoop that can get me back to the top!" she practiced her "sad but strong" expression in front of the mirror for the nt

Catherine's lie, though subtle, pierced Jack's heart like the finest ice spike.He didn't press her. In the cold blue light of the command center, while the rest of the team analyzed the new threat posed by Vance, he simply gave her a deep look. In that look, there was no accusation, only a profound, wounded confusion. And Catherine, for the first time, couldn't meet his gaze. She abruptly turned away, feigning intense focus on the data stream on the screen, but Jack could smell the suddenly intensified chemical pheromones emanating from her, a mixture of guilt and fear.This was the second, and more lethal, psychological attack launched by Preston Vance after Lorian's report. He didn't even need to be present; he had successfully breached their strongest fortress—their mutual trust."He wants to see you, alone with you," Jack said calmly, refocusing his attention on the immediate crisis, forcibly suppressing the personal pain. “He knows you won&rsqu

The museum lobby, a stage not long ago a tapestry of extravagance and power struggles, had now become an arena where modern technology clashed violently with primal rage.Preston Vance, the monster utterly consumed by the "Corrupted Bloodline," let out a deafening roar. His massive body, composed of black carapace and twisted flesh, slammed into Catherine like a runaway battering ram. The Italian marble floor beneath his feet cracked inch by inch; the pure power, derived from the Council's dark alchemy, was enough to level a wall.Catherine stood motionless, unmoved. Her silver-white "Ice Queen" armor gleamed like liquid metal in the dim light of the chandelier. Just as Vance's barbed claws were about to touch her visor, she moved.Her movement was faster than any human could imagine.She did not retreat. She merely shifted her body slightly, at an incredible, gravity-defying angle, letting the fatal blow graz the edge of her armor. The gust of wind made

“Olivia…” Catherine whispered the name, her voice trembling with shock. On the screen, the girl, a mirror image of herself, was moving with inhuman, mechanical precision toward her parents’ hibernation pods. Her movements were fluid and deadly, radiating a cold, vessel-like aura similar to Finch and Ivan's.“She’s not imprisoned…” Jack’s heart sank to the bottom as a more terrifying truth surfaced, “She… is the Warden.” Elder Theron revealed a cruel, triumphant smile on the holographic screen. “You only realize this now? It’s too late. Olivia…she is my most perfect creation. She is the ‘caretaker’ and the ‘executor’ of the ‘Lullaby’ project. Her sole purpose was to wait for someone with the blood of the Progenitor—you, Jack—to become powerful enough to activate the ‘Heart of the Progenitor.’”“And you, my