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Time: 8:00 PM, November 1 (redacted)
Location: San Francisco (redacted)
Mission: Capture Genevieve Aristide (redacted)
Operatives: Delta Force Team 1, Team 7, Team 13 (redacted)
"Ms. Iris, all three teams are ready!"
Outside the Armacham headquarters, a fully armed Delta Force soldier saluted Iris. He was the captain of Team 1 and the commander overseeing all three Delta teams.
Though he didn't understand why his superiors had him taking orders from a blindfolded nun, he followed the chain of command.
"Good. Proceed with the capture of Genevieve Aristide. Make sure she's brought in!"
Iris had been planning this moment for a long time. Instead of using her own authority to force the issue, she'd lobbied the White House and the Pentagon, carefully separating Genevieve Aristide from Armacham Technology Corporation.
This approach made the operation more palatable to those involved.
Genevieve Aristide was the driving force behind Armacham's meteoric rise over the past decade. Her ruthless cunning had propelled the company to the global forefront.
But as long as Armacham itself remained intact, imprisoning Genevieve wouldn't cause too much of a stir.
After all, California didn't have the death penalty.
To prevent Genevieve from getting wind of the operation through FEA insiders, Iris had specifically requested Delta Force teams from the military to handle the capture. It should've been foolproof.
Yet, Iris felt a nagging unease. Ever since her human vessel lost its purity, her Eye of God had become unstable, often leaving her unable to see anything at all.
"Yes, ma'am!"
The commander saluted and gave the order for the three teams to move out.
Armacham's headquarters was an 80-story skyscraper. According to Iris's intel, Genevieve Aristide was still working late in the CEO's office.
Working past 8:00 PM? That woman was a true workaholic.
Then again, Iris was cut from the same cloth.
As they entered the Armacham headquarters, the commander noticed two of his team members freeze.
"Keegan, Beckett, what are you doing?"
Beckett quickly apologized.
"Sorry, Captain! I just saw a little girl in a red dress walk through the lobby!"
"I saw her too, Captain!" Keegan added.
(Little girl)
But the rest of Team 1 hadn't seen anything. The commander ordered a quick search, but they found nothing.
"What little girl? Did you two get high before the mission?"
The commander chewed out Keegan and Beckett.
Just then, another team checked in, and the voice of Team 7's captain came through the comms.
"Commander, we're in position!"
"Good. Team 7, rappel down from the roof. Teams 1 and 13, take the elevators to the CEO's office!"
"Roger that!"
"Roger that!"
After issuing the orders, the commander glared at Keegan and Beckett.
"You two, focus! No more talk about little girls!"
The two soldiers lowered their heads, staying silent.
The front desk on the first floor of Armacham's headquarters was empty. The commander led Team 1 to the security room, where they hacked into the building's security system, taking control of the cameras and access points. He then ordered Team 13 to head straight for the elevators.
Suddenly, Team 7's captain spoke through the comms.
"Commander, we're meeting resistance! The target has an elite mercenary team with her!"
The commander could hear intense gunfire through the comms.
"Hold your position! We'll take the elevators up and flank them!"
"Roger!"
As the elevator arrived, Team 13 was about to step inside when Beckett and Keegan, watching the security feed, spotted the little girl in the red dress again—standing inside the elevator.
"Commander, look! It's the girl!"
"Where?"
The commander leaned in and, sure enough, saw the little girl in the red dress on the elevator's camera feed. But Team 13's members seemed completely oblivious to her presence.
Something was wrong. The commander tried to contact Team 13's captain, but before he could, the upper bodies of Team 13's members exploded in a shower of blood and guts, splattering the elevator.
"No! How is this happening?!"
The scene was beyond anyone's expectations. The commander, Beckett, and Keegan were stunned.
The little girl looked up at the camera, her crimson eyes locking onto the three men watching the feed, sending a chill down their spines.
Then the monitor turned to static.
Realizing something was terribly wrong, the commander immediately contacted Iris.
"Ms. Iris, we've got a supernatural event inside Armacham's headquarters!"
"Oh? What's the situation?"
The commander described what they'd just witnessed.
"Sounds like a malevolent spirit lord. Stay in the lobby and wait for me—I'm on my way."
The commander left two soldiers in the security room and led the rest to the first-floor lobby to rendezvous with Iris.
Originally, Iris had planned to stay out of the capture operation to maintain her neutrality, but a supernatural event changed everything. She had no choice but to get involved.
When Iris joined Team 1, she first went to the elevator, only to find it had already gone up.
The half-torsos of the fallen soldiers at the elevator entrance were a horrifying sight.
Iris activated her Eye of God to figure out what had happened.
Her vision revealed a vast, open prairie bathed in dim, golden light, giving the scene a dreamlike quality.
In the distance, she saw a large tree with a swing hanging from it. A long-haired little girl in a red dress sat on the swing.
Suddenly, the girl looked up, her gaze meeting Iris's as if transcending time and space.
The next moment, Iris felt excruciating pain in her eyes, followed by darkness.
"This can't be!"
Iris clutched her eyes, feeling warm liquid.
Blood.
"Ms. Iris, are you okay?" the commander asked, alarmed. This woman was clearly someone important, and he'd be in deep trouble if anything happened to her.
Iris opened her eyes, but her vision was blurry, her eyesight significantly weakened.
"My eyes!"
She tried to activate the Eye of God again, but the pain was unbearable, and blood poured out.
Clearly, her human vessel could no longer sustain the Eye of God.
Iris bit her lip, her unease growing. Her powers were waning.
The issue stemmed from her human vessel no longer being pure, causing Uriel's strength to plummet rapidly. The Eye of God's malfunction was a symptom of this.
Michael had faced a similar issue before.
The solution was to find a new human vessel to possess, but that would take time.
The church had scoured all of Europe's nuns to find Iris as a suitable vessel. Finding another one on short notice was impossible, and settling for a less compatible vessel would be worse than staying as is—it'd take too long to adjust to a new body.
Iris pulled out her satellite phone, intending to call for backup. Her first thought was Roy, but she wasn't ready to face him yet.
After some hesitation, she called Adrian instead.
The phone rang for over ten seconds before Adrian's lazy voice came through.
"Hello? Iris?"
"It's me! Adrian, I need your help!"
"I'm out fishing in the Pacific right now. Where are you?"
"San Francisco. You'd better get here fast!"
"Alright, alright, I'll come as quick as I can."
The call ended abruptly. The Delta commander looked at Iris.
"Ms. Iris, what now?"
Team 13 had been wiped out before even entering the elevator—a devastating loss.
Team 7, meanwhile, had rappelled onto the roof and was engaged in a firefight with Black Mountain mercenaries. They couldn't be abandoned.
After a moment of thought, Iris made her decision.
"We keep going up. We have to capture Genevieve Aristide!"
"But what about that little girl in the red dress…?"
"I'll handle her."
Iris knew her powers were weakening, but she figured she could still take on a malevolent spirit lord.
The issue with her eyes earlier was likely just a fluke. When she'd seen the girl through the Eye of God, there was no sense of an attack—it was the Eye itself malfunctioning.
The commander frowned, tempted to abort the mission, but since Iris was insistent, he relented.
"All units, prepare to enter the other elevator!"
The previous elevator had gone up, likely activated by the little girl.
And with all the blood and guts inside, no one from Team 1 wanted to use it anyway.
The second elevator arrived quickly. Team 1's members approached cautiously as the doors opened.
The elevator was empty—no sign of anything, not even to Beckett and Keegan.
"All clear. Let's go!"
Iris stepped into the elevator first, followed by Team 1.
A standard Delta team consisted of 16 members. The commander had left two in the security room and five to guard the lobby, leaving ten, including Iris, to enter the elevator.
The elevator ascended quickly. In an 80-story skyscraper, elevators didn't go straight to the top for safety reasons, requiring a transfer mid-way.
The first 20 floors went smoothly, as did floors 21 to 40. But between floors 41 and 60, something went wrong.
The elevator jolted violently, and the lights went out.
Though the emergency lights kicked on quickly, everyone tensed up.
"What's going on? Hansen, check the elevator!"
The tech specialist opened the control panel and came to a conclusion.
"Captain, it's just an elevator malfunction!"
"That convenient, huh?"
After everything that had happened, the commander was skeptical.
Still, he'd already planned to walk the last 20 floors from the 60th floor to avoid getting ambushed at the elevator doors.
"Bruce, force the doors open!"
Bruce, the team's engineer, used hydraulic cutters to pry the elevator doors apart.
They were stuck on the 59th floor, halfway between levels, but they could climb out.
A soldier scouted ahead, confirmed it was safe, and everyone crawled out.
"Ms. Iris, we'll have to walk the rest of the way. You good with that?"
"I'm not so frail that I can't climb stairs. Let's move."
The final 20 floors were pitch black—someone had cut the power.
Fortunately, the Delta team had night-vision goggles, and Iris had her own night-vision ability, so the darkness wasn't a major issue.
But as they climbed, they found numerous mercenary bodies.
"Where did these come from? Did Team 7 fight their way down?"
Iris crouched to examine a body. The corpses looked like they'd been torn apart by immense force—definitely not something a human could do.
"Something's wrong. Contact Team 7. They might be in trouble!"
The commander opened his comms.
"Team 7, this is the commander. Respond if you hear me! Damn it!"
He tried three times with no response. Then, a little girl's laughter came through the comms.
"What's wrong? No response?" Iris asked, noticing the commander's stunned expression.
"Team 7 isn't answering, and I heard a little girl's laugh!"
"Trouble! Move faster!"
They picked up the pace. The number of mercenary bodies increased, all killed in similar ways—either exploded or torn apart by brute force, with no sign they'd been able to fight back.
Finally, Team 1 reached the floor housing the CEO's office—an entire level dedicated to an extravagant workspace.
There, they found Team 7's bodies, all 16 members dead in a neat row.
In the distance, by the floor-to-ceiling window behind the CEO's desk, stood a woman.
"Genevieve Aristide?" Iris asked.
She noticed the woman was shrouded in thick black energy—clearly possessed.
"Heehee! You're here! Perfect timing—a grand fireworks show is about to start!"
Genevieve Aristide's voice was youthful, completely at odds with her near-50 age.
"Whoever you are, why are you possessing Genevieve Aristide? You'd better leave her body now!"
Holy light glowed from Iris's hands.
Genevieve turned her head, her crimson eyes locking onto Iris.
"The fireworks show begins!"
A missile launched from the sea, streaking toward San Francisco's downtown.
The next second, a sun rose early over the Bay Area!