Logan wakes in a glass-walled GPA vivarium, disoriented and imprisoned. Edwin Rogers details extensive genomic edits targeting cognition, memory, pain tolerance, disease resistance, and more—thousands of changes, even in noncoding regions. Logan demands contact with his family and denies self-editing. A polygraph by Hana Jalal records that Logan hasn’t altered himself and doesn’t know who did.

Edwin then reveals a video proving Miriam Ramsay is alive and threatening to release a human gene-drive “upgrade.” He admits months of covert surveillance on Logan. Shattered, Logan realizes he may be a demonstration of Miriam’s capabilities and fears the unintended consequences of wholesale genome rewriting.

Dr. Anthony Romero, a scientist Logan once arrested, forces compliance by briefly deoxygenating the cell, draws blood, and administers cognitive testing. Logan exhibits preternatural memory, fluency, and pattern recognition; Romero concludes Logan’s IQ exceeds 200. As days pass, Logan’s body strengthens dramatically—balance, speed, strength, and pain tolerance—and his sensory gating appears altered, heightening perception and enabling microexpression reading and password inference.

Edwin presses Logan for leads on Miriam. Logan outlines the scale of lab, AI, and team she’d need, offers to find her if released, and learns Soren is secretly held and virtually tortured. Reading Edwin’s tells, Logan deduces the GPA lied to his family, declaring him dead; Edwin apologizes. Logan recalls a past conversation where Miriam framed human irrationality as the species’ greatest threat and imagined reshaping how people think.

Gunfire erupts as attackers storm the facility. A masked figure destroys the vivarium glass with shotgun slugs and guides Logan out. Logan hacks a terminal using inferred credentials to unlock an exit hatch. They flee through a barn and sprint across moonlit pastures to a hidden car. Inside, the rescuer removes the mask—Logan’s sister, Kara.