At dawn, Logan returns to his Sprinter, loads DNA from Tiffany, Chris, and controls into a microfluidic prep and nanopore sequencer, then leaves Glasgow, aiming for Silverton, Colorado. He drives until exhaustion near the Wyoming border, doses morphine, and collapses into sleep while the sequencing runs.

Waking at night with the pain dulled, Logan checks progress and begins analysis in LifeCode. He starts with Tiffany’s sample (Sequence A), comparing it to his annotated genome. The same targeted pathways appear altered, delivered by multiple viral packages. The edits suggest gradual enhancement of cognition, longevity, and resilience, with proclivities amplified. Crucially, Tiffany’s packages were not being secreted for transmission; she was not contagious.

Logan considers how so many Glasgow residents were infected if person-to-person spread is unlikely, suspecting Kara seeded the city months earlier at key sites. When Chris’s sample (Sequence B) uploads, he steps out briefly, then returns to alarming results.

Chris’s genome shows only partial upgrades and scrambled vital genes—off-targeting triggered by a new fragment. Logan queries the novel sequences and sees high-overlap hits with prion diseases, indicating misfolded-protein cascades that devastate brain tissue.

He recognizes a terrifying divergence: the upgrade functions in some but catastrophically misfires in others, producing prion-like degeneration. Concluding the outbreak was seeded, not contagious, Logan powers down equipment, starts the van, and drives on toward Colorado, intent on stopping Kara.