The political and administrative machinery of the world was caught in a suffocating vice grip.
Across every major capital, intelligence agencies, state research laboratories, and defense ministries were staring at the exact same problem.
The eighteen returned volunteers and the remaining volunteers represented the greatest technological leap in human history, walking directly through their customs gates.
Inside their bodies were active collections of medical nanites—microscopic, programmable structures capable of rewriting genetic errors and regenerating limbs from a cellular template.
To the world's standard institutions, the immediate objective was painfully clear. They didn't need to kidnap the volunteers or subject them to aggressive interrogations.
