Driving west from Colorado, Logan reflects amid Monument Valley before pressing on to Las Vegas, now a neon core ringed by abandoned suburbs. Disguised as a drunk, he approaches an old Walmart serving as Ty Feld’s lab, confronts seven Russian guards, kills the most capable, spares two, and uses the compliant guard Alexei to gain entry.

Inside a “zoo” of engineered life-forms, Logan meets Dr. Ty Feld. When Feld orders Alexei to kill Logan, Logan executes Alexei and Feld’s two guards, forcing Feld to back down. Feld boasts about bespoke creatures, including a winged “Smaug,” and reveals his DARPA-adjacent status. Logan discloses Glasgow, Miriam’s upgrade, and Kara’s near-ready transmissible virus (R0 ~9). Feld, nihilistic about humanity’s trajectory, nevertheless grants full lab access.

Logan uploads Kara’s hair-follicle genome and confirms she has pushed cognitive and pattern-recognition edits beyond Miriam’s baseline. To match her quickly, he chooses a brute-force strategy: doubling gene dosage by activating silent copies to maximize expression. He forges DNA minicircles and assembles sequences, selecting hydrodynamic injection for rapid systemic delivery and nanoparticle inhalation to cross the blood-brain barrier.

After six days of nonstop preparation, Logan departs. Feld warns the procedure may be fatal, but Logan accepts the risk. He boards a high-altitude Boeing, streaks toward Washington, D.C., and resolves to find Kara and stop the release.