The briefing room was dim, lit only by the blue glow of the video wall. Mariel sat at the edge of her seat, while Yun paced behind her, reviewing the last-minute summary of their field data. They'd been compiling incidents for weeks documenting patterns, tracking mutations, and assembling what little clarity they could from the chaos.
A beep sounded as the encrypted global video call began to connect.
One by one, screens lit up. On the main panel: Director Elaine Brohm, calm but clearly under strain. To her right, feeds from regional disease control units, military observers, and one empty screen marked "Corporate Bio-Advisor – Pending Connection."
"Let's begin," Director Brohm said, her tone firm. "Doctors Mariel Kessler and Yun Kim, you've been embedded in active hot zones. Give us your summary."
Mariel tapped the screen, bringing up a global map covered in red, pulsing markers. "CRV-3 exposure has now been confirmed in at least 44 countries. Our findings continue to point toward an airborne vector, likely spread through micro-residues left by animal carriers."
"We believe it begins as a neurological disruptor," Yun added. "Disorientation, altered behavior, then tissue instability. But in advanced stages... it rewrites the host entirely."
He changed the slide. Photos and videos filled the screen twisted, misshapen animals: a horse with bone-like ridges along its back, a deer with additional leg-like appendages protruding from its torso, a crocodile with glowing ulcers where eyes should have been.
"These aren't evolutionary adaptations," Yun continued. "They're systemic. Organized in structure, but not consistent. They appear to follow the same sequence initial infection, instability, then extreme transformation."
Brohm leaned forward. "And in humans?"
Mariel paused. "Neurological effects first seizures, memory gaps, hallucinations. Then physical symptoms. Muscle spasms. Bone pain. We've had three confirmed cases where patients showed early dermal hardening. In all cases, their immune systems collapsed within a week but ultimately the patient dies."
"Progression isn't linear," Yun added. "Some survive for days. Others change in hours."
Another feed flickered to life: the previously empty screen now displayed a composed man in a white coat. His ID tag read Dr. Leon Riedel – Novagenic Biotech, Lead Geneticist.
"This is Dr. Riedel," Brohm announced. "He's the original lead on the Mirror-Life Cell Project the regenerative biotech that helped wipe out Stage IV cancer worldwide."
Mariel and Yun exchanged a glance.
Riedel nodded to the group. "I understand your suspicion. I'm not here to defend the company. I'm here because Mirror-Life was built to heal. To restore damaged tissue and reboot decaying systems. If CRV-3 is a parasite as currently believed then a modified Mirror-Life scaffold might help counteract the cellular collapse."
"You want to inject people with a synthetic regenerative cell line to fight an unknown infection?" Mariel asked sharply.
"We're beyond traditional antivirals," Riedel replied. "You're documenting full-scale biological mutations. If this parasite is hijacking the body's blueprint, we need something capable of rewriting it back."
Director Brohm turned to the screen. "Dr. Riedel has authorization to prepare an adaptive response using an experimental variant of Mirror-Life. It won't be immediate, but we may begin preliminary trials under emergency guidelines."
Mariel's fingers hovered over her datapad. She wasn't convinced but there was no time to argue when people were dying daily.
Then a sharp ping interrupted the meeting an incoming field report marked URGENT. Yun opened it immediately.
"Report just in from Lab Node 9," he said. "Specimens 042-A and 042-B codename Elias and Rosa. They were recovered from an early outbreak zone two weeks ago."
A file attached itself to the main screen.
042-A (Elias): Deceased. Cause of death: cardiac arrest during neurological seizure. Full autopsy performed. Results include: – Internal organ scarring consistent with immune rejection.
– Presence of unknown cell clusters in the brainstem and spinal column.
– Rapid degradation of internal soft tissue.
042-B (Rosa): Subject alive. No longer exhibiting baseline canine behavior. – New limbs emerged along shoulder axis.
– Vocalizations have become distorted,
inconsistent with mammalian patterns.
– Hostile, partially conscious.
Shared anomaly:
Non-parasitic cell structures detected in both hosts.
Tissue samples bear structural similarity to unknown Mirror-Life cells.
Everyone went still.
Mariel stared at the screen. "That can't be right. Mirror-Life was never administered to either of them."
"Unless it wasn't administered," Yun said quietly.
Riedel leaned in, studying the scan. His expression turned pale. "That's... impossible."
Brohm spoke last. "You said Mirror-Life could heal. But what if something took that code and turned it inside out?"
The room went cold.
What they once called a parasite might not be foreign at all.
It might be something they created.