HIDDEN ─ marvel

XXVI. White Wolf

Chapter Twenty-Six
Soroya

I had never flown faster in my whole life. Okoye was next to me when Shuri called and only said "Go." with a nod of her head.

I'm now standing in front of Shuri, feeling tired, worried, and excited all at once. "Did you really figure it out?"

She nods her head, taking a sip of something I'll bet money is coffee. I hear footsteps come from the stairs and I see T'Challa appear, who gives me a hopeful smile as he joins me. I haven't seen much of him the past few months. After he went to Vienna to announce Wakanda to the United Nations, he's dealing with those repercussions. He's also been assisting different world leaders with the help of Nakia, but trying not overwhelm them with the tech hidden in this small section of the world.

After a brief embrace, we both stand in front of Shuri as she explains to us what she's been doing the last few months in this lab.

"I told Soroya earlier that I can't do anything physical to remove the triggering passwords. The last thing we want to do is remove all of who he is while trying to remove what HYDRA made him to be. The hardest part is rooting out the extent of his memories that have the greatest amount of control over his physical actions; the ones that have been manipulated due to their emotional trauma," Shuri says, pacing and taking another sip of coffee. "Now, I started to think of something I could create to stop the activating of those manipulated memories and I've done it! I created an adaptive algorithm that will basically flush his mind of the trigger passwords."

I can feel tears prickle in my eyes, feeling overwhelmed by this news. T'Challa wraps an arm around my shoulders, squeezing me tightly.

Shuri isn't done talking though and she gets even more excited. "This algorithm will provide new possibilities for Wakanda's artificial intelligence in the near future. But for now, it will give your Sergeant Barnes the peace he deserves."

"You've outdone yourself." T'Challa says, with a look of pride on his face as he looks at his sleep deprived sister.

I rush over to her, wrapping my arms around her in a tight hug. I feel her hug me back just as tightly.

"Thank you." I whisper into her ear.

Shuri pulls back, smiling at me widely. "Of course. Now, in order to put the algorithm in his mind I will have to place it physically in his head. I created a chip with the algorithm in it that will do the trick, but surgery will be involved."

My worry increases and I start to find that breathing is difficult. "Will he be alright?"

Shuri nods reassuringly. "He'll be completely fine. The surgery won't take long. I need to get some sleep tonight, but me and my other scientists will do the surgery tomorrow morning. He'll probably need a day or two to recover from it and of course I need to test the theory."

Now fear rises in me. "Test the theory?"

"I have to use the passwords. Why do you think I had you tell me what they were?"

"But that could—"

"Soroya, trust me. This will work. And because it will work, the passwords will do nothing to him. They'll just be words."