“Not if we find it first,” Desmond said. “We find the cure, we stop them.”

He walked to the corkboard. “Rapture Therapeutics. Rook Quantum Sciences. Rendition Games. Phaethon Genetics. Labyrinth Reality. CityForge. Charter Antarctica. Those are my companies. They were Citium projects for sure. The cure could be housed at one of these locations or at another Citium company.”

“It’s possible,” William said, “but unlikely. I think the cure will have been developed and manufactured somewhere way off the beaten path. Outside an urban area, probably in the third world, where satellite coverage is minimal.”

“The Isle of Citium,” Peyton said. “In your journal, you said the Beagle stopped there periodically. It fits.”

William nodded. “It’s certainly a candidate, but not my first choice, for several reasons. One: whoever controls the Citium knows I’m still alive—and that I know about the Isle. Two: I’ve been monitoring it via publicly available satellite imagery. I haven’t seen any activity.”

Avery spoke up. “For locations that are considered uninhabited, those satellite images might only be updated every two or three years. Annually at best. The chance of spotting a supply ship arriving or leaving would be low.”

“True,” William said. “That’s a reason to suspect the Isle. My final reason is more practical. The Isle is exceedingly hard for us to investigate. It’s halfway around the world. Getting there will take us a long time, and will probably require refueling—and that’s the easiest issue. If, in fact, the Isle is where the cure was developed and manufactured, it will be extremely well guarded.” He motioned to the group. “We are four people. They’d know the moment we landed on the Isle, and we’d likely be facing a very large defensive contingent.”

“We could make contact with the UK government,” Peyton said.

“True,” her father replied. “But convincing them to believe what we’re saying might be a challenge—if they listen to us at all. They’re likely struggling to survive. We need to act. We need proof before we go to any government for help.”

“Let’s back up,” Desmond said. “Are there any Citium projects or companies that deal with infectious diseases or could be related to starting an outbreak?”

“Not during my time within the organization. If I had known any Citium members were doing anything even remotely like that, I would have turned them over to the authorities, and I’m not the only one. In fact, some of us were working specifically to prevent an outbreak or act of bioterror.”

“How?” Peyton asked.

“It was Yuri Pachenko’s project. I wasn’t privy to the details, but I know he was designing what he called an adaptive antivirus: an agent that could be trained to recognize a virus and bind it, neutralizing it in the body. That might be the Citium cure.”

“Yuri Pachenko,” Desmond said. “He recruited me to the Citium.”