The reconnaissance took a week where they captured transmission and wrote them down on their notes. But it was not definitive that the camps in Forbes Park are a type of rogue civilians. Though evidence and signs such as executing fellow survivors took place, it was still not enough to make a final call.

Ryan sat near the window, eyes on the tablet as another line of intercepted chatter was logged. The room had changed over the past week. What started as a temporary setup now looked like a proper observation post.

But while the ground team were making steady progress on the reconnaissance of Forbes Park, Dr. Seo-yeon found something that changed everything.

She didn’t call for him immediately.

At first, she stayed quiet, working through it on her own, going back and forth between the samples and the limited equipment laid out on the table. The setup wasn’t even close to a proper lab. No biosafety cabinet. No full sequencing machine. No sterile isolation environment.

Just a field-grade microscope, a compact centrifuge, a thermal cycler for DNA amplification, and a handful of reagent kits Adrian had pulled out from his system.

It shouldn’t have been enough.

But she made it enough.

By the time she finally spoke, she was sure.

"Adrian," she said.

Her voice wasn’t loud.

But it was enough to make him look up immediately.

He had been going through reports from Sentinel Eye, cross-checking the movement patterns around the city, but the tone in her voice made him set everything aside.

He walked over.

"What is it?"

Seo-yeon didn’t answer right away.

Instead, she turned the tablet toward him.

"Look at this," she said.

Adrian leaned in slightly.

On the screen were fragmented genetic sequences. Not full mapping, he could tell that much, but enough data visualized in strands and blocks that even someone without a background in biology could see patterns forming.

"This is from the infected samples?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Yes," she said. "Blood and tissue samples. The ones you brought in earlier."

Adrian crossed his arms slightly.

"And?"

Seo-yeon tapped the screen.

"This section here," she said. "It shouldn’t exist."

He frowned.

"Meaning?"

She zoomed in further, isolating a repeating segment.

"In a natural virus," she began, "you expect mutation. Random changes over time. Genetic drift. Errors during replication that create variation."

She paused.

"This isn’t that."

Adrian stayed quiet, letting her continue.

She highlighted multiple sections across the sequence.

"These patterns repeat," she said. "Exactly. Same structure. Same spacing. Same arrangement."

She looked up at him.

"That doesn’t happen naturally."

Adrian’s expression tightened slightly.

"...You’re saying it’s artificial."

"Yes," she said without hesitation.

No buildup.

No uncertainty.

Just a straight answer.

Adrian glanced at the equipment around her.

Then back at the screen.

"Hold on," he said. "You’re telling me you confirmed that with this?"

Seo-yeon followed his gaze.

"I confirmed enough to rule out natural evolution," she replied. "This setup isn’t ideal, but it’s enough to amplify fragments and compare structure."

She tapped the thermal cycler beside her.

"This lets me replicate small sections of genetic material," she explained. "Not full sequencing, but enough to analyze repeating patterns."

She gestured toward the centrifuge.

"And this isolates components from the samples. Separates viral particles from the rest."

Then the microscope.

"And this... lets me observe how it interacts with host cells."

Adrian processed that for a second.

"...So you built your own workflow," he said.

Seo-yeon gave a small nod.

"I had to," she said.

She turned back to the tablet.

"And that’s not the only problem."

Adrian looked at her again.

"What else?"

She shifted the display, pulling up another set of observations.

"This virus doesn’t just infect," she said. "It modifies."

Adrian frowned slightly.

"In what way?"

She pointed at another section of data.

"It alters host behavior at a neurological level," she said. "But beyond that, it enhances certain physical responses."

She paused, choosing her words carefully.

"Muscle contraction efficiency increases," she continued. "Pain response is suppressed. Reflex timing becomes more aggressive."

Adrian thought back.

To what they had seen.

The way some infected moved.

The ones that didn’t go down easily.

"...So that’s why some of them feel different," he said.

"Yes," Seo-yeon replied. "Those aren’t random mutations. They’re expressions."

"Expressions?"

She nodded.

"This virus carries multiple coded responses," she said. "Depending on conditions, environment, time, or even host condition, it activates different sequences."

Adrian’s eyes narrowed.

"Like... variants."

"Yes," she said. "But not evolved variants. Designed ones."

That landed heavier.

Adrian exhaled slowly.

"...That’s worse."

Seo-yeon didn’t argue.

Because it was.

She turned back to the screen again.

"There’s also this," she said.

She pulled up a comparison chart.

"These samples, different individuals, different locations," she explained. "But the genetic structure is nearly identical."

Adrian looked at it.

Even he could tell.

There was no variation.

Not the kind you’d expect. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Meaning?" he asked.

Seo-yeon met his gaze.

"They came from the same source," she said. "At the same time."

Adrian’s posture shifted slightly.

"...Global deployment."

"Yes."

Silence followed.

For a few seconds, neither of them spoke.

Then Adrian looked at her again.

"This doesn’t spread like a normal outbreak," he said.

"No," she replied. "It was released."

He ran a hand through his hair, thinking.

"Okay," he said. "Let’s say that’s true."

He looked back at the screen.

"Who makes something like this?"

Seo-yeon didn’t answer.

Because she couldn’t.

But she did say something else.

"This isn’t just a weapon," she said quietly.

Adrian glanced at her.

"What do you mean?"

She tapped the sequence again.

"The level of control built into this," she said, "it’s too precise for simple destruction."

She looked at him directly.

"This is designed to persist."

Adrian frowned.

"Persist how?"

She hesitated for a moment.

Then she spoke. "It could be for population control," she said. "Or long-term environmental dominance."

Adrian didn’t like the sound of that.

At all.

He looked at the equipment again.

Then back at her.

"You figured all this out with limited tools," he said.

Seo-yeon gave a small, tired exhale.

"Thanks to you for providing me with some basic kits," she admitted. "I couldn’t do this without it."

Adrian didn’t comment on that.

But he took note.

"Can you go further?" he asked.

Seo-yeon nodded slowly.

"Yes," she said. "But I need better samples."

Adrian already knew what that meant.

"Variants," he said.

She nodded.

"Yes."

"Okay, there are what we call Flyers, which is a huge mutated bird, the other one is a Supreme Hunter, which is a powerful variant of zombies that can tank multiple direct missile hits and guns. Another one is a hunter, which is basically like a weaker version of the Supreme Hunter but more agile, faster, and has thick armor with only weakness at its head. How would that help you understand the virus?"

She looked at him for a second, then back at the data on the tablet, her fingers hovering just above the screen as if she was aligning what he said with what she was seeing.

"...It helps a lot," she said finally.

Adrian frowned slightly.

"How?"

She tapped the screen again, pulling up another layer of the sequence.

"Because those aren’t random outcomes," she said. "What you just described, Flyers, Hunters, Supreme Hunters, that’s classification. That means design intent."

She turned the tablet slightly so he could see the highlighted segments.

"These sections here," she continued, "they’re not just modifying baseline human biology. They’re introducing entirely new expression paths."

Adrian crossed his arms.

"Expression paths?"

"Yes," she said. "Think of it like a branching system. The base virus infects the host, stabilizes, and then depending on certain triggers, genetic compatibility, environmental stress, maybe even exposure levels, it activates a different branch."

She paused.

"That’s how you get different variants without needing separate viruses."

Adrian processed that.

"...So one virus, multiple outcomes."

"Exactly."

She zoomed further into the sequence.

"And here’s the part that matters," she said.

She highlighted a specific segment.

"This is not crude editing," she continued. "This is precise."

Adrian raised an eyebrow.

"Meaning?"

Seo-yeon leaned back slightly.

"There’s a company," she said. "Or... there was."

Adrian’s attention sharpened.

"What company?"

She hesitated for a brief moment, and seconds later, she answered.

"A biotech firm that specialized in human augmentation," she said. "They were working on CRISPR-based modification, gene editing at a very controlled level."

"Augmentation," he repeated.

Seo-yeon nodded.

"Yes," she said. "Not just treating diseases. Enhancing physical and cognitive traits. Muscle density, neural response, even sensory improvements."

She gestured toward the screen.

"Their work was controversial because of how precise it was," she continued. "They didn’t just edit genes. They designed behavior pathways. Controlled activation sequences."

Adrian glanced at the data again.

"And this looks like that?"

Seo-yeon exhaled slowly.

"...It’s similar," she said.

She tapped one of the segments again.

"The way these sequences are structured," she added, "the spacing, the repetition, it’s not just artificial. It follows a design philosophy."

Adrian narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Design philosophy?"

"Yes," she said. "Every research group has one. A way they structure their edits. Some are messy. Some are efficient."

She looked at him directly.

"This one is clean."

That said a lot.

Adrian stayed quiet.

Letting her continue.

"If I can get samples from those variants you mentioned," she said, "especially the more advanced ones like the Supreme Hunter... I can compare their structure."

She tapped the tablet lightly.

"And if the deeper layers match the same pattern, same logic, same sequencing behavior..."

She didn’t finish the sentence immediately.

Then.

"I’ll know if it’s them," she said.