Chapter 200: The First Trail

The silence inside the briefing room lingered for several moments after Doctor Lin’s statement.

The tactical display continued projecting infected activity across the world while dozens of officers studied the map carefully.

Nobody liked what they were seeing.

The infected weren’t wandering anymore.

They were moving.

Concentrating.

Responding.

Like an army.

Ryan finally broke the silence.

"Okay."

He leaned back slightly in his chair.

"We know he’s alive."

He pointed toward the screen.

"We know he’s controlling the infected."

Another point.

"We know he’s basically the biggest asshole in human history."

A few officers almost smiled.

Almost.

Ryan folded his arms.

"So where the hell is he?"

That was the question everyone wanted answered.

Every eye slowly turned toward Doctor Lin.

The scientist remained silent briefly.

Then she slowly walked toward the tactical display.

"I don’t know exactly where he is."

Several officers looked disappointed.

"But..."

That immediately regained everyone’s attention.

Doctor Lin pointed toward China.

Specifically eastern China.

The map zoomed inward.

Major cities appeared.

Beijing.

Shanghai.

Guangzhou.

Shenzhen.

Tianjin.

Wuhan.

Millions upon millions of people once lived there.

Doctor Lin studied the display for several moments.

"Akira was many things."

Her voice remained calm.

"Arrogant. Obsessed. Dangerous."

She looked toward Adrian.

"But he was not stupid."

The room remained silent.

"He understood population density."

Her finger tapped Beijing.

"If you wanted to spread an infection rapidly across a country..."

Then Shanghai.

"...you start where people are concentrated."

Then Guangzhou.

"...where transportation networks connect entire regions."

Ryan slowly nodded.

That actually made sense.

Doctor Lin continued.

"The outbreak did not begin everywhere at once."

She pulled another file from the archive container.

Several intelligence officers immediately projected it onto the main display.

Old maps appeared.

Pre-collapse maps.

Red markers slowly appeared across China.

One after another.

The room became noticeably quieter.

Because the locations followed a pattern.

Major population centers.

Transportation hubs.

Industrial zones.

Airports.

Ports.

Rail terminals.

Places where millions of people passed through every day.

Doctor Lin pointed toward the map.

"These were among the earliest confirmed outbreaks."

Captain Liu’s expression hardened slightly.

"The largest cities."

"Exactly."

Doctor Lin nodded.

"He wanted maximum spread."

Ryan frowned.

"That’s obvious though."

"No."

Doctor Lin shook her head.

"Think about it."

She looked around the room.

"If Akira simply wanted to kill humanity, there were easier methods."

That caught everyone’s attention.

The scientist continued.

"He didn’t release the colony into remote villages."

"No."

"He released it into places that guaranteed global transmission."

The room slowly understood.

Airports.

Shipping ports.

Trade routes.

Population centers.

Everything connected.

Everything moved.

Everything spread.

Adrian leaned forward slightly.

"So he was planning globally from the start."

"Yes."

Doctor Lin nodded immediately.

"There was never a Chinese outbreak."

The room became quiet again.

"It was always a global outbreak."

The intelligence officers immediately began taking notes.

Captain Liu crossed his arms.

"Meaning the spread beyond China wasn’t accidental."

"No."

Doctor Lin’s expression darkened.

"It was the objective."

Ryan slowly rubbed his face.

"Great."

He looked toward Adrian.

"The guy wasn’t trying to infect a country."

He pointed toward the world map.

"He was trying to infect the planet."

"Correct."

Doctor Lin’s answer came immediately.

Then she hesitated briefly.

That hesitation did not go unnoticed.

Adrian immediately caught it.

"What?"

Doctor Lin looked uncomfortable.

For the first time since entering the briefing room.

"What aren’t you telling us?"

The scientist slowly exhaled.

"There was a meeting."

The room focused on her immediately.

"A week before the outbreak."

Ryan frowned.

"What kind of meeting?"

Doctor Lin lowered her eyes briefly.

"Senior researchers."

"Project directors."

"Military representatives."

The room remained silent.

"Akira attended."

Captain Liu narrowed his eyes.

"And?"

Doctor Lin looked toward the tactical display.

"He spoke about the future."

Nobody interrupted.

"He said humanity had reached the end of its evolutionary path."

Ryan quietly muttered—

"Of course he did."

Doctor Lin ignored him.

"He believed civilization would eventually destroy itself through war, politics, and competition."

She paused.

Then continued.

"He said the colony would solve that problem."

Several officers exchanged uneasy looks.

The scientist’s voice lowered.

"He told us something that I never forgot."

The room listened carefully.

Doctor Lin stared toward the map.

Then quietly spoke.

"He said..."

Her voice became almost distant.

"’When the world wakes up, there will no longer be nations.’"

Silence.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody moved.

Even Ryan stopped joking.

Because suddenly—

The nuclear strikes.

The collapse of governments.

The coordinated infected.

Everything fit together.

Akira hadn’t wanted to destroy civilization.

He wanted to replace it.

Doctor Lin continued.

"He wasn’t talking about China."

"He wasn’t talking about Asia."

"He meant the entire world."

Captain Liu slowly nodded.

"He intended this from the beginning."

"Yes."

The scientist looked exhausted.

"He planned everything."

One intelligence officer suddenly spoke.

"If that’s true..."

Everyone looked toward him.

The analyst zoomed the world map outward.

"If Akira planned global spread..."

His finger moved across the display.

"...then he also needed somewhere to observe it."

The room immediately became interested.

The analyst continued.

"Nobody launches a project like this without a command center."

Ryan blinked.

"Huh."

Actually—

That made sense.

Adrian’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"A headquarters."

"Exactly."

The analyst nodded.

"A place where he could monitor development."

"Research evolution."

"Coordinate activity."

Doctor Lin slowly looked toward the map.

Then toward one of the archive drives sitting on the table.

And suddenly—

Her eyes widened slightly.

Everyone noticed.

Adrian immediately focused.

"What?"

The scientist looked toward him.

"There was another facility."

The room froze.

Captain Liu immediately spoke.

"What facility?"

Doctor Lin slowly moved toward the archive case.

Her hands searched through several documents before pulling out a sealed file.

The title alone immediately caught everyone’s attention.

PROJECT EDEN

The briefing room became completely silent.

Ryan stared.

"...That sounds bad."

Doctor Lin looked toward the file.

Then toward Adrian.

"I thought it was abandoned."

Nobody interrupted.

"I thought it was cancelled years before the outbreak."

Her voice had become noticeably more tense.

"But if Akira needed a command center..."

She slowly looked up.

"...then Eden would be the perfect location."

Adrian’s expression hardened.

"Where is it?"

Doctor Lin looked toward him.

Then toward the world map.

Finally—

She pointed.

Not toward Beijing.

Not toward Shanghai.

Not toward any major city.

Instead—

Toward a remote region far from population centers.

A place almost nobody would think to look.

And for the first time since the briefing started—

Adrian felt like they finally had a trail.

A real trail.

Perhaps not directly to Akira.

But close enough to begin hunting him.

The room remained silent while everyone stared at the location displayed on the screen.

Because after surviving for over a year without answers—

Humanity finally had something it had lacked since the first day of the apocalypse.

A lead.