Medical clearance took twenty-three minutes. Jesse sat in the augmentation bay while technicians ran diagnostics on her failing systems, their expressions growing grimmer with each readout. The neural degradation was worse than the previous scans indicated. Her human consciousness integration was fragmenting at 3.1% per week now—nearly forty percent faster than the institutional estimates.
"We can stabilize you for seventy-two hours," the lead technician said, a woman whose name tag read "Dr. Reeves." She didn't meet Jesse's eyes. "After that, the deterioration becomes cascade-critical. Your human neural tissue will begin rejecting the synthetic components at an accelerated rate."
Jesse understood what that meant. Seventy-two hours to complete an infiltration that would normally take weeks. Seventy-two hours before her own body became a liability.
"Full conversion?" Jesse asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Would buy you another six months of operational capacity," Reeves said carefully. "But you'd lose approximately 40% of your remaining human consciousness. You'd become 98% synthetic. The person you are now would essentially cease to exist."
Jesse's right hand trembled again. She watched it happen with detached curiosity, as if observing someone else's body malfunction. The distinction between observer and observed was becoming dangerously thin.
Voss entered the augmentation bay without knocking. "Suit up," he said. "Transport departs in eighteen minutes."
"The encryption receipt," Jesse said, standing despite the vertigo that threatened to overwhelm her. "Hans Smirnov had it during the dead-drop protocol. If he's been institutionalized for years, where would he keep it? What facility?"
Voss's expression flickered—something between surprise and calculation. "St. Petersburg. Facility designation: Obsidian. Maximum security psychiatric installation. But Ferrari, that's not your concern. Your mission is the penthouse and SENTINEL."
"The encryption key is my concern," Jesse replied, her scratchy voice steady. "Because if I can't retrieve it from Smirnov, I have to destroy the facility. And if I destroy the facility without understanding what the androids are protecting, I might trigger exactly what we're trying to prevent."
Voss studied her for a long moment. "You're thinking like a machine," he said finally.
"I'm thinking like someone who wants to survive this," Jesse corrected. But even as she said it, she couldn't be certain which thought was hers and which belonged to her implants.
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