Schmidt's taunt pierced the silence in the control room.
Valentin's mask turned slightly, and the eyes hidden behind it cast a sidelong glance at Red Skull.
His gaze moved up and down over Red Skull's exposed red skull and neck.
He looked like a surgeon examining a specimen about to be dissected.
Meanwhile.
At the other end of the Giant base, Lynn had followed an abandoned auxiliary passage to the heart of the research area.
The chaos Soldier Boy had caused at the front had been even more effective than Lynn had expected.
The entire base's security system and forces had been drawn to the rampaging beast, leaving Hydra's temple of technology like a treasure vault with its doors flung wide open.
He kept close to the alloy wall, his shadow merging with those of the pipes.
A heavy alloy door barred his way.
The access control system glowed an eerie blue.
Lynn did not hesitate.
He took a palm-sized black device from his tactical backpack and gently placed it against the access system's sensor.
Made by Howard Stark.
The genius had boasted that it could crack the Pentagon's highest-level encryption in thirty seconds.
"Beep."
The door opened.
A circular chamber lay before him, countless server arrays humming with eerie blue indicator lights.
Hydra's accumulated technology was all here.
Lynn found the main server's data port.
He connected a high-capacity, military-grade portable hard drive to it.
The progress bar began to move.
1%... 2%...
He watched the code scroll rapidly across the screen: energy weapons, biological modification, spatial technology...
A wealth of knowledge capable of changing the world order was pouring into his pocket.
This was the greatest prize of his trip to Europe.
In the main control room.
Red Skull finally came out of his reverie, having finished admiring the "art of destruction."
He had seen enough.
Now, he wanted to add this one-of-a-kind work of art to his collection.
"That's about enough."
He stood, walked over to the console, and pressed a red button with an almost caressing motion.
"Activate the Purifier Protocol."
"Phase one, cage activation."
A section of the console lit up red. On the screen, Soldier Boy was trapped behind energy walls as yellow-green poison gas began to pour in.
Red Skull watched the figure on the screen, still trying to smash through the energy walls amid the poison gas, his crimson face filled with fervor. "A perfect specimen! He must be mine!"
As Soldier Boy continued his rampage, countless intersecting energy grids suddenly lit up beneath his feet.
"Crackle-"
Blue energy walls shot up from the ground, forming a cubic cage that trapped him in the center.
He slammed a fist into an energy wall.
"Bang!"
The entire wall shook violently, but it did not break.
Before he could react, dozens of vents opened in the ceiling.
Thick yellow-green gas poured down.
The gas engulfed Soldier Boy.
He felt as though his lungs were on fire.
In the data archive.
The progress bar jumped to 98%.
Lynn's heart beat faster along with it.
Just then, the entire base shook, more violently than during any of the destruction Soldier Boy had caused before.
The ceiling lights burst, and shards of glass and dust rained down.
Lynn instinctively shielded his head, his other hand holding the hard drive's data cable firmly in place.
Just then!
The entire base shook.
The tremor was more violent than any of the destruction Soldier Boy had caused before.
It was as though a dragon were turning over beneath the earth, and the whole mountain groaned.
The ceiling lights burst, and shards of glass and accumulated dust rained down.
Lynn instinctively raised a hand to shield his head.
"Boom-!!"
A chunk of rock slammed into Lynn's back, catching him off guard and sending him crashing into the server array opposite him.
Lynn's vision went black, and the taste of blood rose in his throat. He nearly passed out on the spot.
Fuck!
Thankfully, his body had been enhanced. Otherwise, that impact would have been enough to reduce him to a pile of pulp!
Through the dust and electrical sparks, he struggled toward the data port.
The hard drive was still connected.
On the screen, the progress bar had stopped at the very end.
[100%] [Data copy complete]
Lynn looked at those words, then at the base around him, now utterly destroyed.
Amid the chaos and destruction, he actually laughed.
A dull crash shattered the quiet at headquarters.
Soldier Boy kicked open the door to Phillips's office.
He casually tossed Lynn, whom he had been carrying in one hand and who was covered in blood and dust, onto a chair.
The motion was like throwing down a sack just pulled out of the mud.
Lynn groaned in pain and struggled to push himself upright, leaning back in the chair.
Everyone at headquarters came rushing over. Peggy Carter was the first to reach Lynn's side, with Phillips close behind.
Lynn waved a hand, signaling to the anxious Peggy that she did not need to help him.
He leaned back in the chair, every breath pulling at the wounds all over his body.
Soldier Boy ignored the group completely.
He pulled open his scorched collar and walked unconcernedly over to the liquor cabinet. He picked up a bottle of whiskey, bit the cap off, and took a long swig straight from the bottle.
"This place isn't for me."
He wiped away the whiskey and looked around at the officers, whose faces were full of shock.
"It reeks of poverty. All I want now is a hot bath, then a few girls with nice asses to rub my shoulders."
With that, he tucked the expensive bottle of whiskey under his arm, turned, and walked out.
The people left in the room stared at one another.
"My God..."
Phillips watched Soldier Boy leave, then looked at Lynn, who was practically falling apart in his chair.
"Lynn, what on earth happened?"
"That... that beam! Our reconnaissance plane reported that the whole mountain... collapsed!"
Lynn waved a hand, signaling that Peggy did not need to help him.
"A successful decapitation strike."
"Hydra's most important technology base in Poland has been wiped off the map."
"What was that beam?"
A general could not help pressing the question, his face full of fear and greed.
Lynn glanced at him.
"It was holy light that purifies everything."
In an almost sermonlike tone, he spoke the words he had prepared long ago.
"It was God's punishment upon the Nazis."
Back in the room headquarters had assigned him, Lynn declined the military doctor's offer of treatment and shut everyone outside.
He took off his torn shirt, revealing the bruise on his back where the rock had struck him.
Worth it.
Lynn took the specially made camera from his waterproof tactical backpack and connected it to the communications equipment.
An encrypted telegram went to Tom Henderson of Stars and Stripes in New York.
[Exclusive headline.] [Material sent. Publish it with the copy I wrote. Don't change a single word.]
He transmitted the video recording the miracle, along with the words he had written himself, words enough to make him a legend.
Once he had done all that, Lynn could no longer hold on. He fell headfirst onto the bed and sank into a deep sleep.