You'll hand Dr. Bortnik over to Despedida

You told Despedida that her logic made sense. If Tschau just planned to kill Bortnik, you might as well let her get something useful out of the guy first. Plus, after what happened earlier, you didn't trust Russia with Bortnik in the least... they might let him out of his straight jacket and put him back into the laboratory, for all you knew. It was clear from the way he'd talked that he had worked much more closely with CEDIT Russia and Milaslava than she'd led you to believe earlier.

"Ooooh, hot dog, man! Good choice. Just think of this as feeding your capsule monster in Lufia 2 the best food that matches their preferences, alright? I'm useful now, but I could be even better!" Despedida grinned broadly and began to rub her hands together hungrily. Despite her fun and colorful reference, you wondered if you really were feeding a monster...

The next moments were like something out of sci-fi horror rather than just plain old science fiction. Despedida was a whirlwind of motion, sticking diagnostic tools into the sleeping doctor's robotic arms and shoulders, his mouth-piece, and even the parts he had covered up with clothing. The needles she used, hooked up to some monitor reading off diagnostics you couldn't read or interpret, looked pretty dangerous... you had to remind yourself that his whole body was robotic, so he wouldn't feel a thing from it all.

However, when Despedida set up shop behind his brain-plate and began unscrewing it, you had to protest. Messing around in there was going to fry something for sure, then he really would be dead.

"Look, Ciao, of all the people in the world, you think I'm gonna make a mistake in there? If anything, I'll find the wire he messed up that made him believe in that Machine Voice mumbo jumbo! Trust me, I've never heard a buzz during Operation," the hacker cackled, then finished removing the plate to begin poking around inside the machine that now composed most of the doctor's brain.

Watching it was making you feel a bit sick, but you persisted anyways. You asked Despedida if she was getting any good info.

"Oh, surely, my man. I mean, when your EXP is as high as mine, your next level up comes a lot more slowly, but this is still about the best a girl can get." She gave a long, impressed whistle as she continued digging around inside Bortnik's head.

You felt that you really were going to lose your lunch. The man's lips had suddenly curled into a wide smile around his mouth vent. Desperately, you told Despedida not to play around in there too much.

To your horror, the man's voice came next, revealing that he was actually awake at the moment, despite his head being opened up. "I hear it... The second voice... The Machine Voice... I hear its instructions..." What happened next was a true horror to watch, especially once you later understood the context. The man's white eyes curled into happy slits; a look of contentment, like that of an old man when he's accepted his mortality, surrounded by friends and family, froze upon his visage. "My, my... To think that this would be the final instruction. I guess I thought myself a more valuable machine than I really was. Perhaps... the answer to the Machine Voice's messages lies at the end of all of this?"

"Enough babbling, Doc. I've turned off all your hardware. There's no way you're hearing the Machine Voice right now. If you're awake at all, you've got the remaining human parts of your brain to thank for that," Despedida chuckled. That chuckle quickly left her as her eyes opened in shock; sparks and smoke had begun to come from the piece she was working with.

"I hear... the Machine Voice... I obey... Machine Voice... Amelia... Give my love to Amelia-!"

With that, a critical explosion shot from the back of the man's head, sending Despedida flying backwards and toppling the monitor she'd been working with. Bortnik's face froze in that senile smile and never moved again.

It was immediately apparent that Bortnik was toast. What wasn't so clear was whether your agent had been injured. Panicking, you ran over to where Despedida lay, shielding her face with her hands.

"D-Don't worry... I'm fine, Ciao, just embarrassed as heck. I thought for sure I'd disabled everything in that guy's brain. I guess Mister #2 Genius really did have a thing or two I didn't understand yet... Dammit. Well, I still managed to get what I got. It wasn't all bad. Nobody manages a perfect K/D/A every match," the hacker sighed, as she pushed herself back up to sitting position on the floor of the plane. She picked back up her cap and placed it upon her head, then smiled awkwardly in your direction. "Hey, uh... Tschau's gonna be pissed, but you made the right call, okay? Being a CEDIT agent means thinking about the world at large. Her pulling a blade on this guy wasn't as important as me getting the tech, so in the end, we did everybody a favor. Don't let it get you down."

It was surprising to see she was worried about you right now, given what had just happened. You told her that at least you still had the prosthetics she could examine.

"True, true. But I gotta fly the plane back, unless one of you bozos wants to. We aren't letting those Russian guys back on our plane now... obv."

Very true.

When Despedida managed to collect Tschau, you worried what the ninja's reaction would be, to see that her long-time tormentor already lay dead by his own actions. She glared down at him with frustration... then sat down in her seat and pulled out her phone. "All that matters is that he's dead. My justice is satisfied." Her voice was calm and even, almost eerily so.

"You aren't mad?" Despedida asked, pushing her fingers together sheepishly. It was odd to see her afraid of something, but she'd clearly been worried how Tschau would take it.

"No. If you didn't kill him, I would have. On the contrary, it's a load off my mind. Don't concern yourselves about it further."

You wondered about that... At any rate, what was done was done. You had an awful lot to think about on your way back to Washington...