Tarquin: "_"

    Lucian leaned forward, his voice gentle but serious. "Tarquin, do you know why your parents went to Karl Town all those years ago?"

    "...I don''t."

    "Your dad had a close friend from overseas. Very secretive guy. His name was Nice Eilman. He worked at a local newspaper in Karl Town. It was Nice who got your parents out there."

    Tarquin frowned slightly. "Nice..."

    "You recognize the name?"

    "It rings a bell."

    Lucian nodded. "You probably know his father. Nice himself wasn''t famous, but his dad-Eddie Eilman-was a world-renowned biologist from Alerasia."

    Tarquin''s eyes widened in realization. "Oh!"

    No wonder the name sounded familiar. Back when he was in the mountains, chatting with his grandma about viruses, she''d given him a list of the scientists behind the foreign virus research. Eddie Eilman was right at the top.

    His grandma had even singled Eddie out, saying he was the key member of his research team.

    Lucian continued, "I don''t know every detail, but I do know that Nice invited your parents to live in Karl Town. A few yearster, Nice handed over his father''s research to them. Not long after that, your parents had their ''ident.""

    "I''ve always suspected their deaths weren''t just some random car crash. But I never had proof, so I kept quiet."

    Tarquin was silent, taking it all in. Finally, after all these years, the pieces wereing together.

    No wonder his parents had ess to such a dangerous virus! They weren''t doctors or scientists-in Karl Town, they were nothing more than test subjects,b rats. Test subjects would never be allowed near such sensitive research.

    But now it all made sense. Their friend could get close-Nice, the peace-loving foreigner.

    Nice knew how dangerous the virus was. So he risked everything, using his father''s credentials to steal the research and hand it over to Tarquin''s parents.

    His parents tried to smuggle the virus and the data back home, risking their lives. Instead, they were killed, murdered on foreign soil.

    And the Eilmans-father and son-died because of it, too.

    That''s why the new virus the base was working on was only halfway between the fourth and fifth generations. They''d lost their core scientists and all the original data. Now, a new group of researchers was starting from scratch

    His grandma had warned him: this virus was engineered specifically for people like them. From the first generation to the eighth, it had been refined step by step.

    The real eighth-generation virus was the finished product-capable of one- hundred-percent targeted infection. If you caught it, and didn''t have the antidote, you were as good as dead.

    In other words, if someone released the eighth-generation virus on the world, foreigners wouldn''t even get sick. Only people like Tarquin and his family would be infected. No one would be spared—one hundred percent infection rate.

    It wasn''t an exaggeration. This was a biological weapon designed to wipe them

    out.

    If it was ever released, it would devastate their country.

    That''s why foreign powers were pouring so much effort into finding those missing samples and

    research data. That''s also why,- when Tarquin''s country got wind of the truth, they dropped

    everything-mobilizingnd, air, and sea-to bring people home.

    Walter had been right all along: there''s never been real peace in this world.

    There are always countries, organizations, and people scheming to start wars. They''re like rats hiding in the sewers-never fighting in the open, always plotting in the shadows.

    This is still a world where only the strong survive.

    If you don''t want to get pushed around or beaten down, you have to get stronger -no matter what.