The secret laboratory within the secret laboratory was Selene's sanctuary and prison. Hidden behind a misleading panel in the main genetics archive, it was a nonexistence. There, surrounded by whirring sequencers and antiseptic sheen of biocontainment fields, she conducted the research that could not be documented, the experiments that could not be talked about.
Her treachery was not in ill-will, but in cold rational judgment: the path of complete cover-up was a path to destruction. Kael's quiet stalking was a holding action, not the final blow. The advent of the immune man, Andrei, had sanctioned it. They were not exclusive movers on the board, and others were playing another, higher game. They needed an alliance to stay alive. And to get an ally, they needed an unbeatable bargaining chi
