Mutagen

The violent commotion ended peacefully with the words of that young scientist.

In this military base, there were three heads. First was Major Samuel McGuire, the officer in charge of the military and the soldiers. The second was Captain Sherry Yorks.h.i.+re, the leader of the elite forces and the a.s.sault squad.

And lastly, Professor Alphfa Alston. The young scientist with a mysterious background. 

Whether the soldiers or the scientists in this military base, none of them knew where Alphfa came from. Even the first meeting they had was when the young scientist was personally endorsed by the government to be the research leader of this base.

As Professor Alston had direct connections to the government, even Major McGuire could not do anything about his decisions.

In a sense, that mysterious young scientist was the real leader of this military base.

Right now, Captain Sherry and Major Samuel walked together with their subordinates towards the prepared conference room. Of course, rather than a conference, what would happen was nothing but an information exchange.

The Major brought two of his young subordinates to gain more experience. Well, he just wanted to bring one, but the other pestered him to come along. He might have ignored the young soldier if not for the fact that the hard-headed young soldier was his youngest son.

In fact, this son of Major McGuire was far from being a real soldier. However, as undergraduate cadets were drafted because of the outbreak, it led to the current situation.

"Dad, we have more soldiers and the enemy is just one person, why are you afraid?" 

The son, Maurice, gabbed. 

And to answer that, Major Samuel turned to the other soldier accompanying him. It was no one else but Private James Andrews.

"Andrews, answer him."

The Major said.

Complying with the order, James turned to Maurice.

"First, because the aggression started with us. That man might have trespa.s.sed our base and are supposed to be shot on sight, but since Major already proposed a deal they agreed upon, we are at fault at what happened earlier. Second, what are we here for? We are tasked to gather information because we know nothing much about the infected. Just like that man, we know nothing about him. Unnecessary aggression will lead to unforeseen circ.u.mstances since we lacked intel."

James returned to look at the front.

"Just like what happened earlier. Both Major and Captain got trapped in a sticky situation. Though we don"t know whether it was intentional or not."

Hearing those words, Maurice frowned. He did not like that he was being lectured by a soldier just two years older than him. Nevertheless, Maurice could not refute the things said to him. All he could do was maintain silence.

"Major, are you sure of bringing your son? This meeting can become dangerous."

Captain Sherry asked.

"You don"t have to worry. Maurice might still be green, but he"s special."

The Major replied in a way that was quite hard to understand. It made the Captain and the other soldiers with them confused.

On the other hand, Maurice looked at them with a smug expression. Nevertheless, before the others could even discipline him for his arrogance, the Major beat them up to it.

It did not take long, and they arrived in the conference room.

The conference room was unnecessarily large, with just a few people inside. Furthermore, the only people that were going to sit around the twenty-four seater table was just four people.

In the conference room, Mark was already waiting. 

In fact, he almost fell asleep as he waited. Nevertheless, it was not surprising that it would take time since everyone, aside from him, needed to prepare their pieces.

The Major and the Captain already arrived, but the head scientist was still not here. And looking at the seating arrangement, even without using his Emphatic abilities, Mark knew that the soldiers were wary of him. 

Mark was seated at the furthest end of the table. On the other hand, the two soldiers were sat close to the other end.

Finally, the young scientist arrived with a briefcase. Surprisingly, he only had two escorts, and both were not soldiers.

Without hesitation, the scientist sat close to Mark in front of the shocked Major and Captain.

Then, in front of everyone, the young scientist pushed the briefcase he had towards Mark.

Mark looked at the scientist with a frown, and the latter just returned it with a smile.

"That is the summary of all our research. I hope that will satisfy you."

The scientist said with a smile.

Surprisingly, Mark could not detect any odd fluctuation from the scientist, indicating that he was not lying.

Mark opened the briefcase that was not locked at all. Inside the case was a stack of papers. It made him turn towards the scientist once more. He said that it was a summary. Yet, it was as thick as a grade schooler"s textbook.

"Giving me all these without hesitation, what is your intention?"

Mark asked, immediately, as he browsed over some of the papers.

"Nothing much, I just hope that you will answer some of my questions later."

"Then, ask."

Mark said.

"Later." The young scientist waved his index finger. "They will ask first. My questions will come later."

With the urging of the young scientist, the exchange of information between Mark and the two high ranked soldiers started. All that while, the young scientist kept silent.

Of course, the first step was introductions. Mark learned the names of the two officers and the scientist without problems. 

And sure enough, Mark left them his usual introduction.

The questions of the two officers were not too farfetched and were just for information gathering. Questions like where Mark came from and why he was in this place was included in the questions.

Mark had no problems answering those questions. Nevertheless, while he did not lie, he left out some of the details.

The American soldiers were surprised to hear that Mark came from the Philippines, which was basically on the other side of the globe. As for the question of why he was in this place, Mark answered that he fought with an enemy and got lost. That was why he was here.

Of course, they asked who his enemy was.

And to test these people, Mark answered without hesitation.

"The people of Auraboros."

Sure enough, the atmosphere in the room froze. Even the young scientist looked strange.

Nevertheless, that answer gave Mark one confirmation. There were no members of Auraboros in this room.

Still, looking at their expressions, it seemed that their government also had clashes with this underground group ran mostly by non-humans.

Then, the question about why Mark was fighting that group came. He answered with the truth. It was because the Auraboros tried to meddle with his country, but he got on the way.

More questions seem trivial but had goals of trying to reveal the meaning of Mark"s obscure words. Nevertheless, they were careful enough not to blatantly ask for more details from his answers.

On the other hand, Mark asked about the goal of the military and why they seemed to have abandoned the survivors in Atlantic City.

Sure enough, that question gave a bad taste in these honest soldiers.

It was not like they did not want to, but they could only follow the orders of their superiors.

Then, an unsightly wave of anxiety coming from these soldiers swept towards Mark. This made him speechless.

No wonder now. Mark noticed since he came here, but he did not see any non-combatant in this place aside from the scientists. With this feeling, it was very likely that they were sent here for the mission while their families were held somewhere else. 

As long as they were alive, and they fulfill their missions, their families would be kept safely by the government. If not, who knew what would happen.

It was a cruel world, after all.

Aside from that question, Mark learned about the differences of terminologies from the Philippines and here. Mutagen here was called Gene Virus, and Mutators were simply Mutants. The Evolvers were called Enhanced Humans as the people call them that.

Fortunately, the infected remained infected.

Mark"s second set of questions, however, surprised everyone else in the room. It was because he started asking about the survivors in Bally"s Hotel Casino. Considering that they were surveying the whole city as per their mission, it was very likely that they were also observing the survivors remaining in the Atlantic City.

Sure enough, Mark got some answers he wanted, especially about the man called Morgan. 

He was Louie Morgan as per the database of the military. Apparently, he was among the persons of interest remaining in Atlantic City. It was because he was not only a Mutant, but he also displayed supernatural abilities.

The Major sent his subordinate to fetch the profile of the man, and Mark received it after a few minutes.

Learning about the person made Mark"s eyes lit up, but he also sighed.

This Louie Morgan was the inheritor of the man called Gordilius Efleria. The trusted general of Freed"s father, the former king. 

Gordilius was bitten by the infected during the disaster at the castle, where most of the royals were killed. The general almost died, protecting the former king. Unfortunately, the king died, and he lived.

He gained the ability to manipulate rocks. Shaping rocks into bladed swords or hurling the rocks as projectiles.

After Freed took the throne, Gordilius followed Freed, promising himself that what happened to the previous king would not happen to Freed. Unfortunately, the monster that destroyed Eriellis came, making him unable to fulfill his oath.

It was quite a powerful ability if used and was trained properly. Unfortunately, reading the records, Mark found out that Morgan more than pa.s.sed Freed"s criterion.

Louie Morgan was an honest office worker that was brought to Atlantic City because of a business trip led by his Boss. It seemed that it was not of goodwill, however. Even though he was a proper employee, that Boss of his treated him as an errand boy. Furthermore, bringing him to gatherings only to be subjected to racism because of his color.

Nevertheless, Louie Morgan never gave up and remained lowly even though he was not just a regular human. 

Furthermore, when the outbreak came, the first thing that Morgan did was save some people. In fact, more than half of the current survivors there in that casino-hotel was saved by him.

It was a b.u.mmer for Mark. He thought that he could get it back.

Still, it was surprising that these soldiers had this much information, even the background and what Louie Morgan did before the outbreak was included.

Sure enough, the information gathering of a larger country was top notch. It could not be compared to Mark"s 3rd world country and its military force.

The exchange of questions continued. It included the diversity of infected in the area of Atlantic City and the kinds of infected found in the Philippines.

The Major and Captain were conscious enough to not ask about more private questions towards Mark, like asking about his skills or if he was a Mutant or someone with a supernatural ability.

Finally, the Major and the Captain exhausted their list of questions that they gained quite an amount of information and things about the current state of the Philippines. After all, it was crucial information as communication across countries was already cut off.

Mark asked about that since he remembered that before he lost consciousness before becoming a mutator, the satellite phones were still working.

And there, Mark learned the strange answer.

Apparently, another meteoroid closed near the Earth approximately at the time that Mark was unconcious. 

Even the US military did not know whether it was among the meteoroids that caused the outbreak but just arrived late. It ended up cras.h.i.+ng into the main communication relay satellite that was...o...b..ting Earth.

No wonder now. Still, that meteoroid was suspicious.

Finally, the turn for the young scientist came. However, he had a strange request.

It was for everyone aside Mark and his two escorts to leave the room.