Leaving the silent bedroom where Malcolm Ford lay anchored to life by automated cooling patches and medical wires, Dahmer walked down the secure corridors of the building. His long, dark coat billowed behind him, while the tight, cold structure of his signature gray-charcoal mechanical mask was firmly in place, its dark visor gleaming under the harsh neon lights. The secret of his double identity as Luca Vane remained safely guarded, and to the vast majority of the facility, he was still the untouchable, terrifying Architect—a man most assumed to be an S-tier Alpha of unprecedented brutality.
He took the private elevator deep into the heart of the Genetic Evolution Matrix, descending into the high-security cathedral of cold, white light and pressurized glass where Project Z was developed. The heavy steel doors of the main laboratory bay slid open with a sharp hiss of pressurized air.
