Logan drives into rain-soaked Silverton, Colorado, and climbs through a burned forest to a secluded mountain lodge tied to an anonymous LLC. He slips in through an unlocked solarium, finding family photos and evidence this was Miriam’s hideaway. Moving through the house, he locates Kara cooking in the kitchen and confronts her at gunpoint.

Kara invites a ceasefire over dinner. She discloses that 2,016 people have been upgraded, with 274 prion-like failures (13.6%). She is using modified HEK293 cells to grow a virus that will soon be transmissible, projecting an R0 of 8.7 with shedding in fifteen days. Logan challenges the ethics and risks, demanding the purification site; Kara deflects as they argue over whether intelligence equals better judgment.

When Logan moves to draw on her, Kara flips the heavy table onto him and anticipates his shots, shifting at the instant of his intent so the bullets miss. She pins him with a knife, revealing she has outpaced him—apparently further enhanced—and accuses him of being unable to make the hard choice.

Logan triggers a concealed aerosol disperser and threatens to release ricin if Kara kills him. The demonstration forces her to back off while he retreats and bolts into the storm under gunfire. Kara opts to leave by car, abandoning the immediate fight.

After she departs, Logan reenters the empty lodge. In Kara’s room, he finds a hairbrush and secures a strand with an attached follicle, grasping a narrow hope to analyze how she upgraded herself beyond him.