Finka is the only one capable of tailoring the nanites to specific operators, and her full name is Lera Melnikova. Born 3 years after the Chernobyl disaster in Gomel, Belarus, Finka was diagnosed with a neuropathy: slow muscle degeneration and loss of sensation in the limbs and extremities. Lera moved to Novosibirsk to study at Novosibirsk State University and graduated with a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology.
Russian Spetsnaz operators and special agents faced the ever-growing danger of exposure to hazardous materials including organophosphorus agents like VX gas. Lera began thinking outside of her own concerns. Her research had saved the lives of perfect strangers. Lera jumped at the chance to work with Spetsnaz volunteers. Quickly, she came to enjoy the sense of competition, camaraderie, and the mental toughness of the Russian Special Forces members. She joined the Army with an eye on becoming a Red Beret herself, on the front lines of saving lives as a Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear specialist.
Serving in the Russian Army, Lera rapidly proved herself physically and mentally tough enough to try out for the Spetsnaz. It was a brutal course, culminating in Close Quarter Battle knife training with Kapkan. A misstep and a flourish from Kapkan, however, opened her face from brow to cheek, but Lera went for a series of bone-breaking punches to his nose and ribs before the pain overwhelmed her. They spent the night in the med tent, neither of them speaking, but enjoying a new, unspoken respect between them. From that day forward, she’d earned her moniker, Finka or Knife.
Lera became the Spetsnaz CBRN Specialist, joining the Vympel Unit under the FSB and using her nanobots to help her unit survive hot zones; she was one of the only people capable of tailoring the nanobots to specific operators. Her work in restructuring Russian battlefield protocols in the handling and neutralization of dangerous payloads earned her notice, and she became the go-to expert when it came to joint exercises with other CTUs. Six invited Lera to help Rainbow Six put together a CRBN unit of their own with Olivier Lion Flament as her first pick.
Lera discovered that her neuropathy was slowly growing resistant to treatment. The old fears returned, every ache and pain analyzed and scrutinized as she pushed herself even harder to peak performance.
Now, she constantly tweaks and modifies her formula to stave off twinges and numbness that she imagines might be the onset of decline. She pushes herself to the point of throwing up after workouts with IQ and Valkyrie, though only Valkyrie understands that punishing limit of physical fitness. Lera unable to distinguish between the disease and normal fatigue and is driven by her fears and made excellent by them in the same maddening moment.
Finka delivers a nanobot shot to each operator before an operation. The nanites are made of zinc with the pharmacological cocktail laced into the nanobot’s construction. When she activates her signal, the nanobots disintegrate with the zinc being treated as a nutrient by the body and facilitating the absorption of the drugs.