07:56 AM – N.P.U. Headquarters, North Metro
Adrian switched off the engine but didn't move. The black sedan from earlier sat in his chest like a stone the kind you can't cough up, can't swallow, can't do anything with except let it sit there and calcify. Had he lost it in traffic, or had it decided he wasn't worth the fuel? Both options felt wrong in ways that made his teeth ache.
He slid his access card through the reader. The security gate groaned open with all the enthusiasm of a man being asked to work on his day off, metal scraping against metal like it knew exactly what kind of morning this was shaping up to be and wanted absolutely no part of it.
Inside, headquarters hummed with the particular energy of controlled panic boots on linoleum, radios spitting static like angry cats, and the smell of coffee that had been burned sometime during the previous administration. The air tasted like tension and poor life choices.
Adrian moved through it with his shoulders loose and his eyes hard, scanning the room in slow sweeps. He needed that file. He needed names. He needed to look the monsters in the eye, even if it was just through a photograph and a bureaucratically worded psychological assessment.
08:10 AM – Captain Elias's Office
Elias was already behind his desk, which was never a good sign. No greeting. No comment about the weather or whether Garrick had finally found a joke that landed. Just the captain looking like he'd aged a decade overnight, wearing exhaustion the way other men wore cologne.
He slid a thick black folder across the desk without preamble. His eyes held Adrian's, unblinking, the way a doctor looks at you before delivering bad news. "You asked for this," he said, voice low. "Read it."
Adrian opened the folder. The bold red header didn't just sit on the page it practically vibrated with malevolent intent, like it wanted to brand itself directly onto his retinas.
FILE: SUBJECT OF INTEREST // FOUNDER
⚠ WARNING: CONTENT ADVISORY
This file contains evidence of psychological manipulation, biohazard origins, corporate corruption, and profound moral collapse. Proceed with appropriate caution. Or don't. We're not your mother.
[SC] - DR. SERENA KOVACS
Origin: Toronto, Canada
Current Location: Metro City (Nexo Pharmaceutical HQ)
Role: Founder, Nexo Pharmaceutical Corporation
Age: 38
Appearance: Brown hair, typically worn in a practical ponytail that says "I'm too busy playing God to care about aesthetics." Blue eyes sharp, analytical, unyielding, and about as warm as a surgical tray. Wears a single silver ring on her right hand (suspected to contain embedded surveillance technology, because of course it does). Prefers muted professional attire: clean lines, clinical precision, nothing that suggests she has a personality outside of quarterly earnings reports.
[BACKGROUND]
Her mother was one of the early casualties of the Hailstorm Virus outbreak in 2015. That loss, by all accounts, fundamentally altered her trajectory in the way grief tends to, like a train switching tracks at full speed. Dr. Kovacs founded Nexo with what appeared to be genuinely good intentions: research, treatment, prevention. A world where another Hailstorm would be impossible.
Somewhere between "saving humanity" and "becoming obscenely wealthy," the needle moved. What began as hope evolved or perhaps devolved, depending on whether you're an optimist or someone with functioning pattern recognition into an empire. Her initial breakthroughs were, admittedly, revolutionary. They were hailed as miracles by the medical community, which is what happens when you cure diseases instead of, you know, weaponizing them.
But pressure from investors, the seductive pull of rapid expansion, and the lucrative market for weaponized medicine pushed her steadily past any remaining ethical boundaries. These days, those boundaries are a dot in her rearview mirror.
[PROFILE]
Psychological Assessment: Cold. Calculating. Emotional detachment appears to have intensified significantly after 2020, possibly when she realized empathy was bad for profit margins. Displays multiple indicators of high-functioning psychopathy: notable lack of empathy, absence of guilt or remorse, views interpersonal relationships purely through the lens of utility. She sees control not as a goal but as oxygen something required for survival.
Morality threshold: Effectively nonexistent at this stage. If it ever existed, it's been surgically removed and disposed of in accordance with biohazard protocols.
Strengths: Exceptional charismatic manipulator when it suits her. Scientific genius with legitimate breakthrough credentials (the kind you can't fake, unfortunately). Long-term strategic thinker who plans operations the way chess grandmasters plan games years in advance, with contingencies for your contingencies.
Weaknesses: Profound arrogance. She genuinely believes she's untouchable, which makes her predictable in certain high-pressure scenarios. Pride, it turns out, is still a serviceable handle even on a monster.
[DYNAMICS]
Family: Technically alive, but all contact ceased years ago. She appears to have surgically excised them from her life with the same efficiency she applies to failed experiments.
Co-Founder Relationship: Dr. James Vale (see attached file, bring antacids). Their partnership is purely strategic. Vale brings ambition and external connections; Kovacs provides vision and scientific credibility. Mutual distrust runs deep enough to drill for oil, but they remain allied out of practical necessity and shared profit margins.
Corporate Hierarchy: She wields absolute authority within Nexo. Her word is organizational law. No decision of consequence happens without her explicit approval, which is exactly how she likes it.
[NOTES]
Ongoing surveillance strongly suggests that silver ring contains nanotech-linked recording and tracking devices. Further field testing required for confirmation, assuming you enjoy being recorded.
All field operatives have been explicitly warned: underestimating Dr. Kovacs is not a mistake you get to make twice. Mostly because you don't survive the first time.
STATUS: ACTIVE
Threat Level: EXTREME
Adrian stared at the photo. The face was handsome in a severe, clean-lined way the kind of face that looked like it had been designed by a committee focused on "intimidating competence." The eyes were the worst part. They looked like they'd already calculated his worth down to the penny and found the results disappointing.
He looked up at Elias, his voice flat. "She wanted to save the world. Now she just wants to own it."
Elias's expression hardened into something you could break tools on. "Don't underestimate her, Adrian."
Adrian let out a laugh short, ugly, like a bone snapping. "Nobody does. That's the whole problem, isn't it?"
He turned the page.
FILE: SUBJECT OF INTEREST // CO-FOUNDER
⚠ WARNING: CONTENT ADVISORY
This file contains evidence of corporate corruption, systematic scientific malpractice, and deliberate strategic exploitation. Also, a frankly staggering amount of expensive suits.
[SC] - DR. JAMES VALE
Origin: South Ridge, Australia
Current Location: Metro City (Nexo HQ)
Role: Co-Founder, Nexo Pharmaceutical Corporation
Age: 39
Appearance: Tanned complexion suggesting significant outdoor exposure in his youth, before he discovered air conditioning and moral bankruptcy. Black hair, black eyes perpetually sharp and assessing, like a shark that learned to wear Armani. Always impeccably dressed in tailored suits. His appearance is meticulously maintained down to the smallest detail, because if you're going to sell your soul, you might as well look good doing it.
[BACKGROUND]
South Ridge took devastating losses during the Hailstorm Virus outbreak. However, unlike his partner, Dr. Vale didn't enter this project out of grief. He entered it out of ambition—pure, uncomplicated, refreshingly honest ambition.
He joined Kovacs during Nexo's earliest developmental years, bringing crucial funding networks, extensive biotech industry connections, and what can only be described as a ruthlessly pragmatic edge sharp enough to cut diamonds. In those early days, he served as Nexo's public face to investors and regulatory bodies. That charm? Always been a mask. A very expensive, very effective mask that probably cost more than your car.
[PROFILE]
Psychological Assessment: Charismatic. Ambitious. Pragmatic to the point of sociopathy. Completely, unapologetically corrupt in a way that's almost admirable if you have no functioning moral compass. He views science not as a tool for human advancement but as a mechanism for domination and profit maximization.
Morality threshold: Absent. His survival instinct has fused seamlessly with an insatiable hunger for power and influence. It's very efficient, really.
Strengths: Master public manipulator. Could sell ice to penguins, then convince them they're getting a bargain. Exceptionally sharp intellect. Makes ruthless decisions without hesitation or second-guessing, which is either impressive or terrifying depending on whether you're on his payroll.
Weaknesses: Chronic underestimation of others, particularly those he considers beneath his status (which is basically everyone who doesn't summer in Monaco). His pride creates predictable blind spots you could drive a truck through.
[DYNAMICS]
Partnership Dynamic: Kovacs provides the vision and scientific innovation; Vale executes and monetizes it. Publicly they present a united front. Privately, the relationship is contentious and brittle, held together by greed and the mutual understanding that betrayal is inevitable they're simply waiting for the optimal moment.
Family Connections: None confirmed. Personal ties appear to have been either systematically erased or deliberately buried, probably in the same place he buried his conscience.
Corporate Function: Handles all external growth initiatives, investor relations, and high-level political connections. He leaves the "messy science" to others but personally authorizes all high-stakes experimental projects, usually while sipping something that costs more per glass than most people's rent.
[NOTES]
"If Kovacs built the machine, Vale is the one selling it to the highest bidder." —Analyst note, remarkably succinct.
Unconfirmed intelligence suggests he's been funneling experimental data to private military contractors for personal profit outside official Nexo channels. Because apparently, regular moral bankruptcy wasn't quite enough.
Field agents warned: his charm is a weapon system. Do not let charisma obscure capability. He will smile at you while signing your death warrant.
STATUS: ACTIVE
Threat Level: HIGH
Adrian's lip curled. "The salesman," he muttered, the word tasting sour. "All charm, zero soul. Bet he could sell you the bullet he's about to fire and make you feel grateful for the opportunity."
Elias drummed his fingers on the desk, a slow, grim metronome. "Just remember that charm is the weapon. He's selling death wrapped in a promise, tied with a bow. And people line up to buy."
Adrian turned the page. He wasn't here for the polished brochure. He was here for the blueprints to the hell they'd built.
FILE: SUBJECT OF INTEREST // EXECUTIVE HEAD
⚠ WARNING: CONTENT ADVISORY
This file contains information regarding loyalty manipulation, internal enforcement protocols, and classified chain-of-command structures. Handle responsibly, or don't. See if we care.
[SC] - DAMIEN D'ARAMOND
Origin: Cindrov, Canada
Current Location: Metro City (Nexo HQ)
Role: Executive Head, Nexo Pharmaceutical Corporation
Age: 44
Appearance: Tall, broad-shouldered build suggesting either military background or a really serious gym addiction. Black hair with distinguished grey streaks at the temples that somehow make him look more dangerous rather than distinguished. Dark onyx eyes that rarely blink, which is unsettling in exactly the way you'd expect. Always dressed in regulation corporate suits, but he carries himself like a career military officer who's still not entirely sure why he's wearing a tie instead of tactical gear.
[BACKGROUND]
Raised in Cindrov, a mid-sized industrial town in Canada that specialized in steel manufacturing and, apparently, producing people with intimidating bone structure.
His military career ended abruptly under circumstances that remain frustratingly unclear in official records. Multiple inquiries have hit bureaucratic dead ends, which is either conspiracy or incompetence. Possibly both.
He transitioned to corporate security work shortly after his military discharge, which is what happens when you're very good at following orders and very bad at questioning them. Kovacs and Vale personally recruited him for his demonstrated ability to enforce order without question or hesitation or, let's be honest, thought.
His ascent through Nexo's hierarchy was remarkably swift: Head of Security to Executive Head in under five years. He's been granted unprecedented trust to maintain operational efficiency through any means necessary, which is corporate speak for "do whatever it takes, we don't want details."
[PROFILE]
Psychological Assessment: Loyal. Efficient. Cold. He functions more as an extension of received orders than as an independent decision-maker. This is not a criticism of his intelligence he's highly capable but rather an observation of his operational philosophy, which can be summarized as "just following orders" (a phrase with no unfortunate historical precedent whatsoever).
Scientific Input: Minimal to nonexistent. His focus centers entirely on administration, enforcement, and maintaining strict operational protocols. He knows how to keep researchers productive, compliant, and silent. Usually in that order.
Strengths: Unwavering obedience to superiors. Exceptional tactical planning. Strict adherence to chain of command. The human embodiment of "yes, ma'am."
Weaknesses: Limited independent critical thinking. Rarely questions orders, even obviously questionable ones. His loyalty makes him dangerously predictable wind him up, point him in a direction, watch him go.
[DYNAMICS]
Relationship with Founder (Kovacs): Treats her directives as absolute law. Completely, almost religiously devoted to her authority. If she told him to walk into traffic, he'd check which lane first.
Relationship with Co-Founder (Vale): Wary mutual respect mixed with underlying tension. Vale is manipulative and unpredictable; Damien is a blunt instrument with a very specific purpose. They tolerate each other the way hammers tolerate screwdrivers.
Corporate Culture Impact: Maintains internal order through carefully calibrated fear, rigid structural hierarchy, and uncompromising discipline. Employees view him simultaneously as protector and potential executioner, which is exactly the vibe Nexo was going for.
Family Ties: Estranged by deliberate choice. By his own account, his family considers him "dead." He appears comfortable with this arrangement, which tells you everything you need to know.
[NOTES]
"He doesn't require belief. He requires orders." Personnel file note, disturbingly accurate.
Known to personally handle sensitive corporate "clean-up" operations both bureaucratic and, when necessary, physical. Define "physical" however your nightmares prefer.
In over twenty years of documented service across military and corporate sectors, he has never disobeyed a single direct order. Not once. That's not dedication that's pathology.
STATUS: ACTIVE
Threat Level: MEDIUM-HIGH (predictable behavioral patterns, but utterly uncompromising when engaged)
Adrian's jaw clenched. His teeth ached with the pressure. "Officer or executioner," he said, the words quiet in the stale office air. "Doesn't matter. The man doesn't miss."
Elias didn't argue. There was no argument to make.
Adrian took a drag from his cigarette when had he lit it? Again? and turned to the final file with a feeling like cold fingers walking down his spine.
FILE: SUBJECT OF INTEREST // DEPUTY EXECUTIVE HEAD
⚠ WARNING: CONTENT ADVISORY
This file contains details regarding severe psychological instability, unverified human experimentation, and patterns of unpredictable violence. Proceed only if operationally necessary, or if you enjoy nightmares.
[SC] - DR. CASSIAN RHEIN
Origin: Dresden, Germany
Current Location: Metro City (Nexo HQ)
Role: Deputy Executive Head, Nexo Pharmaceutical Corporation
Age: 38
Appearance: Lean, almost gaunt build, like someone who forgets to eat when they're busy doing unspeakable things to science. Black hair cut short and uneven appears self-administered with scissors and zero regard for aesthetics or basic mirror usage. Grey-green eyes that never quite stop moving, always restless, always calculating, always wrong in a way that makes your hindbrain scream.
His laboratory coat is perpetually stained with substances best left identified and un-googled. Always wears latex gloves, even in non-laboratory settings, which is either germophobia or guilt. Possibly both.
[BACKGROUND]
A documented child prodigy who entered medical school at fifteen years old, because apparently being a normal teenager wasn't traumatizing enough. Expelled at nineteen for conducting unauthorized experiments on human cadavers obtained through questionable means and when a medical school calls your means "questionable," you've really achieved something special.
Disappeared completely into underground biotech research circles for several years. Resurfaced when Dr. Kovacs personally recruited him for what she termed his "unconventional genius," which is corporate speak for "completely fucking unhinged but useful."
He secured the Deputy Executive position due to his ruthlessly effective experimental approach and his complete absence of ethical limitations. Too unstable for full operational command but far too valuable and dangerous to release back into the wild.
[PROFILE]
Psychological Assessment: Severely unstable. Displays textbook narcissistic personality disorder with sadistic tendencies, which is exactly who you want handling your viral research. Oscillates unpredictably between manic brilliance and chilling emotional flatness, sometimes mid-sentence.
Scientific Specialty: Viral recombination. Hybrid serum development. Accelerated mutation protocols. He specializes in things that shouldn't exist and makes them exist anyway, out of spite.
Strengths: Genuine scientific innovator who achieves breakthroughs others consider theoretically impossible. Utterly unencumbered by conscience, fear, human empathy, or basic sanity.
Weaknesses: Erratic behavior patterns. Prone to dangerous obsession with specific research directions. Easily provoked by perceived disrespect or intellectual challenges. Will absolutely start an argument about methodology while the building is on fire.
[DYNAMICS]
Relationship with Founder (Kovacs): Views her as the "mother of opportunity," which is either touching or disturbing depending on your tolerance for Freudian implications. Displays cult-like devotion. His loyalty to her appears genuine, if deeply, deeply disturbing.
Relationship with Co-Founder (Vale): Frequent antagonistic clashes that occasionally require physical separation. Vale despises Rhein's chaotic methodology. Rhein openly mocks Vale's "hollow ambition" and "pedestrian thinking," usually while doing something that violates at least three international treaties.
Relationship with Executive Head (D'Aramond): D'Aramond tolerates Rhein out of organizational necessity and probably a healthy sense of self-preservation. He's spent years cleaning up Rhein's various "experimental complications," which is a nice way of saying "corpses and abominations." Their relationship is purely functional and held together by mutual professional exhaustion.
General Staff Relations: Most personnel give him extremely wide berth. Fear runs considerably deeper than professional respect. Some researchers have requested office relocations specifically to avoid sharing a floor with him.
[NOTES]
Unconfirmed but persistent rumors suggest Dr. Rhein has injected himself with early-stage serum prototypes, which would explain recent observed behavioral changes and physical anomalies. Either that or he's just getting weirder with age. Hard to tell.
He maintains an active obsession with fusing human DNA with animal-borne viral strains. Direct quote from intercepted communications: "True evolution requires monstrosity. Humanity's next step is beyond humanity." Which is either philosophy or a manifesto. Again, hard to tell.
STATUS: ACTIVE
Threat Level: EXTREME (unpredictable, brilliant, and potentially biologically enhanced, which is the worst possible combination)
Adrian let the final line hang in the silence of his own head for a long moment. He snapped the folder shut with a sound like a gunshot in the quiet room and shoved it back across the desk.
"So we've got a mad scientist using himself as a pincushion," Adrian said, his tone almost conversational. "That's either dedication or a really creative way to commit suicide. Maybe both. Honestly, I'm impressed by the commitment to the bit."
Elias's face was a mask of professional concern. "You really want to walk into that building?" His voice was careful the voice of a man talking to someone standing on a ledge.
Adrian's grin felt like a crack in dry clay. "Want? No. Need? Absolutely. I need the files. I need answers. I'll go in, get what we need, and come back out. Simple infiltration job."
"Simple," Elias repeated, flat.
"Comparatively."
Before Elias could form a reply something sensible and utterly useless about risk assessments and backup protocols the office door creaked open.
Marcus stepped through. He looked like a man carrying a live grenade with the pin halfway out. He set a sealed folder on the desk between them with exaggerated care, then hovered near the door, his hands trembling just enough to be noticeable.
"Sorry," Marcus said, his voice tight with apology and fear. "I probably shouldn't be bringing this in here. But you need to see it. You both need to see it."
He glanced from Elias to Adrian, then back at the folder, which now sat between them like an unexploded bomb. He turned and slipped back out, leaving the silence heavier than before.
Adrian opened it. The header didn't just inform him it reached out and punched him in the throat.
EVIDENCE FILE — PROVIDED BY MARCUS VARIAS
⚠ CLASSIFIED — NEXO INTERNAL DOCUMENTATION
Distribution of this information outside this room constitutes immediate execution risk for all involved parties. We're not being dramatic. We're being literal.
[SECTION: TEST SUBJECT ACQUISITION PROTOCOLS]
Public-Facing Label: "CarePlus Employee Stipend Program"
Actual Function: Systematic targeting of janitorial staff and low-tier maintenance employees as involuntary test subjects, disguised as voluntary participation through the magic of predatory contract language and desperation.
Recruitment Methodology:
Bonus compensation packages
Complete debt forgiveness
Lifetime comprehensive medical coverage (ironic, given outcomes)
Actual Reality: Subjects receive injections of prototype viral agents and experimental enhancement serums. They are told it's "routine health screening." It is not routine. It is not health. It is barely screening.
Documented Outcomes: Test subjects rarely survive beyond 48 hours. Typical results include systemic collapse, catastrophic mutation, or immediate death. Sometimes all three, in sequence.
Casualty Rate: 100% (confirmed across all available data)
Post-Failure Protocol: La Sangre Nera (organized crime syndicate, because of course) handles body disposal and elimination of mutated survivors who inconveniently refuse to die on schedule.
Translation: Janitors sign employment contracts offering hazard bonuses. They might walk into the facility. They almost never walk out. If they do, it's not as anything you'd recognize.
Adrian's hands went perfectly still on the paper. The words seemed to bleed into his skin. His voice, when it came, was flat. Empty. The kind of empty that comes right before the world turns red.
"They're paying people to die."
He looked up, not at Elias, but at the space where Marcus had been. Something raw and human flickered behind his eyes, there and gone in a second. "Paying janitors to be test subjects. People with families. With debt they're desperate to clear. With hope."
Elias's hands were fists on the desk, knuckles bone-white. "And they've got a mafia on retainer to collect the bodies."
Marcus cleared his throat from the doorway. The sound was sandpaper on rust. "Most of them don't make it past the second day. The ones who do…"
He didn't finish. He didn't need to. The sentence hung in the air, more terrifying for what it left unsaid.
The ones who do become something else.
The ones who do become the monsters screaming in the dark.
Adrian slowly closed the folder. The weight of it in his hands was no longer just paper and ink. It was the weight of the dead. It was the weight of the city, pressing down, asking him what he was going to do about it.
The answer, it turned out, was simple.
He was going to go to work.