"Yes."
The answer lingered heavily inside the Osprey compartnt while the aircraft continued flying over the dark Pacific waters.
Nobody spoke for several seconds afterward.
Because everybody onboard understood the implication.
Akira Tomoyasu was alive.
And if Doctor Lin was right, Then the apocalypse itself still had a mind guiding it.
Ryan slowly leaned back against the aircraft wall.
"...That’s bad."
One operator quietly answered.
"That might be the understatent of the year."
The aircraft continued descending afterward as the Atlas Naval Group grew larger beneath them.
Floodlights illuminated the ocean while destroyers maintained tight escort formations around the LHD Aegis.
The massive amphibious assault ship dominated the sea like a floating city.
Several helicopters were already repositioning across the flight deck while deck crews prepared recovery operations for the incoming Ospreys.
Doctor Lin stared silently through the side window.
Even now, she still looked stunned by the existence of the fleet itself.
The pilot’s voice finally echoed through the compartnt.
"Final approach."
The Osprey tilted slowly into vertical landing mode afterward.
Its massive rotors rotated upward while the aircraft descended carefully toward the illuminated landing deck.
Wind hamred against the hull.
The flight deck crews below imdiately began signaling with illuminated wands while nearby Marines secured the landing lanes.
Then finally.
THUD.
The aircraft landed aboard the LHD.
The rear ramp slowly lowered afterward.
Cold ocean air rushed inside imdiately.
And for the first ti since entering Beijing—
The operators no longer felt like they were trapped.
"Move it!" the crew chief shouted.
The team imdiately disembarked from the aircraft.
Boots slamd against the steel flight deck while deck personnel rushed around them conducting refueling and rearming procedures on the returning Ospreys.
Further across the deck, several Marines stared briefly toward Doctor Lin before looking back toward Adrian.
Word had already spread.
The Beijing extraction succeeded.
Ryan removed his helt while walking across the flight deck beside Adrian.
"...I’m taking the longest shower in human history after this."
One operator behind him answered imdiately.
"You were literally underground inside a zombie hive. You probably need bleach."
"Honestly fair."
Doctor Lin quietly followed beside Adrian while tightly carrying the secured archive case.
The scientist looked exhausted.
Completely exhausted.
Months underground.
Then Beijing.
Then the extraction.
And now—
A fully operational carrier group in the middle of the Pacific.
It probably felt unreal to her.
Adrian led the group toward one of the aircraft elevators near the island structure afterward.
Two ard Marines imdiately saluted upon seeing him.
"Sir."
"At ease," Adrian answered calmly.
The elevator platform slowly descended afterward, carrying the team beneath the flight deck into the internal sections of the LHD.
The atmosphere changed imdiately the deeper they went.
The roar of aircraft and wind disappeared behind layers of steel bulkheads.
Instead—
The interior of the ship felt alive.
Crew personnel moved through the corridors carrying equipnt cases, ammunition crates, and maintenance tools while overhead announcents echoed softly through the intercom systems.
Doctor Lin quietly looked around while the operators escorted her deeper inside the vessel.
Everything remained organized.
Disciplined.
Operational.
A functioning military structure.
Probably the most functional thing she had seen since before the outbreak.
Eventually the group reached one of the secured briefing rooms deep inside the ship.
Two Marines standing outside the compartnt imdiately opened the reinforced door upon seeing Adrian.
Inside—
Several officers were already waiting.
Naval commanders.
Intelligence analysts.
Communications officers.
And Captain Liu himself displayed remotely through a secured digital screen from aboard the Changzheng-418.
The room imdiately beca quiet once Adrian entered.
One intelligence officer spoke first.
"Mission success confird?"
Adrian nodded once.
"Doctor Lin extracted successfully."
Several officers visibly relaxed slightly afterward.
Then Adrian placed the secured archive case directly onto the briefing table.
"And we now know how this apocalypse started."
That imdiately changed the room.
The atmosphere hardened instantly.
Captain Liu’s voice echoed calmly through the screen.
"Doctor Lin."
The scientist nodded slightly toward the screen.
"Captain."
Liu looked relieved seeing her alive.
Briefly.
Then his expression returned to professional focus.
"What did you recover?"
Doctor Lin slowly opened the archive case afterward.
Inside were hardened storage drives, sealed laboratory reports, encrypted data modules, and printed personnel files sealed in waterproof containers.
The intelligence officers imdiately began carefully removing the materials for analysis.
Adrian leaned both hands against the briefing table afterward.
"Here’s what we know so far."
The room focused entirely on him.
"The outbreak was man-made."
Nobody interrupted.
"It originated from a synthetic biological colony developed through classified Chinese research programs."
One naval officer frowned slightly.
"A bioweapon?"
Doctor Lin answered imdiately.
"No."
Then quietly—
"At least not originally."
She slowly explained everything afterward.
The neural adaptation research.
The regenerative dicine program.
The collective biological intelligence.
The synchronization experints.
And finally—
Akira Tomoyasu.
The room beca quieter with every explanation.
Several intelligence analysts were already taking notes rapidly while others cross-referenced information across digital systems.
Then Doctor Lin finally reached the most important part.
"He intentionally released the colony."
Silence followed imdiately afterward.
Captain Liu’s expression hardened visibly through the monitor.
One naval officer slowly processed it.
"So the apocalypse itself was deliberate."
"Yes."
Doctor Lin nodded once.
"And Akira connected himself directly into the infected network before the outbreak began."
Another officer frowned.
"What exactly does that an?"
Ryan answered before Doctor Lin could.
"It ans we’re fighting a psychopath controlling zombies with his brain."
"...That is an oversimplification," Doctor Lin admitted.
Ryan shrugged.
"Still accurate though."
Honestly—
It was.
Adrian looked toward the tactical map projected across the center display afterward.
The map showed infected concentrations worldwide.
China.
Europe.
The Middle East.
The Aricas.
And the Philippines.
The infected movent patterns across several regions already displayed unnatural clustering behavior.
Strategic behavior.
Coordinated behavior.
Adrian pointed directly toward the screen.
"He’s adapting."
One intelligence analyst nodded grimly.
"The infected concentrations around resistance zones have increased significantly during the last several months."
Captain Liu crossed his arms.
"If Akira truly exists at the center of the network, then eventually every surviving military force becos a threat he will prioritize."
Ryan slowly looked around the room.
"...aning us."
"Yes," Adrian answered calmly.
The room remained silent again.
Because everybody there already understood the reality now.
This was no longer simply survival against infected hordes.
There was an enemy behind them.
Thinking.
Planning.
Learning.
Doctor Lin slowly looked toward Adrian afterward.
"There’s only one priority now."
Adrian already knew the answer before she even said it.
But he still asked.
"What?"
Doctor Lin’s eyes hardened slightly.
"We find Akira Tomoyasu."
Captain Liu nodded slowly through the monitor.
"Before he evolves further."
The tactical screen continued displaying infected movent across the world while the room remained silent beneath the dim briefing lights.
And sowhere out there—
Akira was still alive.
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