The outskirts of Harvardville. A black armored sedan tore down the flat highway at speed. As the trees outside the windows thinned, a massive complex of buildings came into view against the night.
It was a colossal hemispherical structure set aboveground, WilPharma's core R&D center.
Downing sat in the front passenger seat, reaching up to adjust his gold-rimmed glasses, the look in his eyes flickering behind the lenses. Claire leaned against the rear window, gazing at the translucent, glowing sphere in the distance, her expression clouded with worry.
The carnage at the airport and the explosion at the camp hung over her like a shadow. As a TerraSave member, she'd seen too many displaced refugees in her time, and right now all she wanted was to confirm the truth, and to know just how deep Angela's brother Curtis had sunk into this.
Ryan, seated across from her, looked completely at ease. He paged through files on his tablet, his eyes drifting now and then to the enormous dome outside, a faint, amused smile at the corner of his mouth. The car passed through the tight security checkpoint and rolled slowly into the dome's interior.
When Claire stepped out, what she saw made her pause. The inside of the dome was a vast atrium biodome. Tall trees and lush ferns grew wild in the climate-controlled environment, and nestled among the greenery stood transparent circular laboratories where researchers moved about their work.
"My three distinguished guests, welcome to the heart of WilPharma." Downing spread his arms, his voice proud. "This is where we develop the vaccines that will save humanity, where we devote ourselves to turning dangerous viruses into the miracles of life. This is our contribution to the age."
Claire took in the cold glass walls and the precision instruments, drew a deep breath, and kept her tone polite but firm. "Mr. Downing, this is impressive. But you promised to show us the clinical data that would prove your innocence."
Something cold flashed in the depths of Downing's gaze, but his smile only grew more cordial. He gave a slight bow, gentlemanly. "I fully understand your good intentions, Miss Claire. All core data is preserved in the BSL-4 isolation tower at the center of the dome. Opening it requires my biometrics. If the three of you will wait in the lounge area, I'll personally retrieve the documents you need."
With that, he turned and strode briskly down the pebbled walkway into the depths of the facility. Claire watched him disappear, shifting her feet uneasily, and asked in a low voice, "Ryan, do you think he'll actually bring back proof?"
"Of course he won't." Ryan walked to a long bench and sat down, crossing his legs, his eyes drifting up toward the top of the dome. "What he's going to get isn't documents. It's a bargaining chip to save his own life. And as for us, in his eyes we're already as good as dead."
Not long after Downing left, Ryan's X-ray vision had already spread silently across the entire building. In his sight, the reinforced concrete and bulletproof glass were no obstacle at all. He watched Downing turn into an extremely discreet staff access corridor and slip a vial of raw virus serum, glowing a dark green, into a briefcase. That was high-purity G-virus raw serum, enough to wipe out another city.
His gaze kept going, down further. In the maintenance grating at the dome's lowest level, a figure was moving fast.
"Showtime," Ryan said, turning to Jill beside him. "Go. Strip this place's servers clean. I want all the underlying code, the research logs, and every filthy secret they've been hiding with those people."
Jill nodded, no wasted words, and moved quickly to the data interface. She plugged in a custom decoder bearing the Star Fire insignia, and lines of green code came spilling down the screen like a waterfall.
Claire watched in astonishment. She was used to Ryan doing the unexpected, but blatantly looting someone's headquarters in broad daylight still made her heart pound. "Ryan, isn't this... making too much noise?"
"When you're dealing with villains at this level, playing by the rules just turns you into a line item in their loss column." Ryan picked up a glass of water from the table and gave it a casual swirl. "Have a seat and rest for a minute. Might get a little bumpy in a second. Open your mouth when it does, protect your eardrums."
Meanwhile, on the perimeter road outside the dome facility.
A black armored SUV was barreling toward WilPharma's main gate at violent speed. It smashed through a barrier arm that hadn't finished rising and skidded straight into the facility plaza. Leon leapt out with an assault rifle, movements crisp and clean, Angela right behind him, her face stricken and her eyes red-rimmed. They'd tracked the trail all the way here.
"Hurry! He's here! I can feel it!" Angela's voice cracked slightly with fear and fury. The two of them rushed through the dome's main entrance and onto the stone-paved path of the atrium.
"Claire! Ryan!" Leon caught sight of the group in the lounge area and shouted.
Claire was just opening her mouth to answer when Ryan suddenly stood up and said, "Get down."
BOOM.
A terrifying force erupted from beneath the earth, something that felt like it could tear the ground apart, and a deafening blast ripped through the dome's calm. The floor heaved like a wave, and shrill red warning lights flooded the entire space.
Leon threw Angela behind cover on instinct. Claire dropped into a crouch the moment the blast hit, but the violent shaking gave her no footing, and the pressure wave shoved her forward onto her face.
Overhead, one of the dome's alloy support struts, hundreds of pounds of it, had been blown loose, and it came screaming down with a sharp whistle, aimed straight at her head.
Nowhere to dodge.
A hand shot in from the side and caught the steel beam.
A muffled thud. The strut hummed and shuddered in Ryan's grip. One hand still in his pocket, he tightened the other just slightly, and the rigid alloy tubing deformed badly under his fingertips, leaving five deep impressions.
Then, as if discarding trash, he tossed the strut more than ten meters off into the rubble, where it crushed a patch of ornamental shrubs.
"You okay?" Ryan looked down at Claire, sprawled on the ground.
"I'm... fine." Claire was gulping air. She knew Ryan was a monster, but no matter how many times she saw it, this kind of strength, the kind that dragged the laws of physics across the floor and had its way with them, still sent a tremor through the depths of her soul.
"Warning. Catastrophic damage detected. Biohazard lockdown protocol initiated." The system's electronic voice echoed through the smoke, announcing the cage closing around them.
Heavy, ragged footsteps came from deep in the rubble. A man in a tattered trench coat emerged slowly, half his face burned, the flesh curled outward, horrific to look at. In his hand he gripped a syringe filled with blue liquid, his eyes burning with insane hatred. Curtis.
"Curtis!" Angela broke free of Leon's grip and ran forward. When she saw the state of her brother, tears burst from her eyes. "Stop, please! Look at me, it's Angela!"
Curtis's steps halted. He looked at his weeping sister, and something flickered in those eyes, a tortured struggle. "Angela, you shouldn't have come. If this world is going to remember the lesson, someone has to become the devil."
"This isn't a lesson, it's murder, it's suicide!" Claire couldn't hold back either. "Curtis, if you have evidence, we can expose them! You don't have to throw yourself away too!"
"Evidence? In a world where money is everything, the law only protects the devils with deep pockets." Curtis let out a bitter laugh, hollow with despair. "The only thing that can destroy a devil is a worse one."
He raised the syringe, the dark green G-virus raw serum looking lethal and uncanny under the alarm lights. Leon had his gun on him, but his finger locked dead on the trigger. He couldn't shoot Angela's own brother in front of her.
"No! Curtis, don't!" Angela screamed in despair.
Curtis took a long last look at his sister, as if burning her image into his mind to carry down into hell. Then he squeezed his eyes shut, and his wrist drove down hard.
A wet punch.
The thick needle went straight into his carotid artery, and the entire vial of raw serum was forced savagely into his vein.
"No!!!" Angela let out a keening wail and collapsed to her knees, shaking hands clamped over her face.
The rampaging G-Virus was ripping Curtis's cells apart from within. He dropped to his knees, roaring in agony, his body convulsing and swelling, his bones cracking with a sound that set your teeth on edge. The muscle in his right arm exploded into grotesque growth, and a massive, hideous dark-red eyeball tore its way out through the skin at his shoulder, rolling wildly as it took in the world.
The evolution of a devil, here among the ruins, was officially complete.
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