Calista shook her head, forced herself to calm down, and began reading the summary at the start of the document in a low voice.
"...special experimental subjects unexpectedly produced after infection have provided an unprecedented 'blank substrate' for a new field of biological guidance..."
"'Black Fire' is a classified project jointly conducted by the U.S. military and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, intended to explore the possibility of implanting behavioral patterns into biological experimental subjects infected with 'Wildfire' through specific nerve agent combinations.
"The ultimate goal is to achieve command-based control over such organisms, for use in extreme environment operations, high-risk area exploration, and external combat..."
"...human substrate experiments have already begun at the dedicated facility of partner 'Singularity Polymers.' Initial data indicates..."
"Enough!"
A heart-wrenching howl cut off Calista's reading.
Honeywell shot up from the chair as if struck by a high-voltage current.
His eyes bulged as though they were about to split open, filled with absolute terror and madness.
Only one thought remained in his mind: stop that word from being read aloud, stop those cold words from dragging him back into those hellish memories.
"Shut up! Shut up! You can't say that name!"
Honeywell roared. With strength born from madness, he actually dragged the chair forward in a staggering rush, his bound hands twisting out in front of him as he tried to grab Calista across the table.
It happened too fast.
But Carver was faster.
The instant Honeywell's body left the chair, Carver moved.
His powerful figure brought a gust of air with it. In one stride, he stepped between Honeywell and Calista.
He did not block the hands reaching for Calista. Instead, his left hand seized Honeywell's collar with perfect precision and yanked him hard to one side. His right hand clenched into a fist.
A merciless straight punch slammed into Honeywell's stomach.
"Urgh!"
Every scream and every trace of madness was driven back into Honeywell's gut by that punch.
His eyes bulged. His body curled like a shrimp, all strength draining from him in an instant. If Carver had not been holding him by the collar, he would already have collapsed to the floor.
Carver hauled him up, roughly shoved him back into the chair, and pressed both hands down on his shoulders as he bent over him.
His face was almost pressed against Honeywell's pain-twisted expression, and his voice carried a chill that could seep into bone.
"Move again, and I'll break your neck. Do you understand?"
Honeywell could not answer. He could only convulse in pain, retching violently as tears and mucus streamed down his face.
Only then did Carver let go and take half a step back. But his body remained poised to strike, still standing between Honeywell and Calista.
He tilted his head slightly, quickly checking Calista from the corner of his eye.
Seeing that she was unharmed and that her gaze remained calm, the taut muscles across Carver's shoulders and back loosened slightly.
Calista looked at Honeywell, curled up in the chair and whimpering in pain. There was not much emotion in her heart.
But what happened next was somewhat unexpected.
The intense physical pain from that punch seemed to act as a kind of violent release. Or perhaps, after his extreme terror had been covered over by a more immediate pain, Honeywell slowly stopped convulsing.
He was still gasping, but the madness and aggression in his eyes had faded.
Instead, he seemed to calm down.
Honeywell raised his head and looked at Carver. Then his gaze moved past Carver's shoulder to Calista. The corner of his mouth even pulled into a twisted smile, uglier than crying.
"Heh... heh heh..."
His voice was hoarse, and blood-flecked foam clung to the corner of his mouth.
"Good hit. You should've hit me. I deserved that a long time ago...
"When that yellow smoke came out, I should've rushed in and smashed everything. Instead, I ran like a coward...
"Records. Backups. What good are they..."
Honeywell gasped a few times. His gaze fell on the still-glowing computer screen, where the title "Project Black Fire" remained painfully bright.
"You saw it? That wasn't any special pesticide, and it wasn't research to save anyone. It was a deal with the devil. They wanted to train the watchdogs of hell into their own hunting dogs..."
Calista sat upright again.
"So, Project Black Fire was a collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the military, attempting to use walkers infected with the Wildfire virus and control them through special nerve agents, turning them into biological weapons.
"And Singularity Polymers was their testing ground. When the virus fully broke out, the experiment was still ongoing, and a serious leak occurred.
"The agent mutated and contaminated the walkers and personnel at the site, causing them to undergo unplanned, more dangerous mutations.
"That is where the 'monsters that aren't ordinary walkers' in the chemical plant at the heart of Block D came from.
"Is that correct, Mr. Honeywell?"
Her summary was clear and calm, linking the fragmented notes in the notebook, Honeywell's disjointed accusations, and the opening information from the USB drive into a preliminary chain of logic.
Honeywell slowly nodded, his expression unbearably heavy.
"Yes... basically. I heard the Wildfire virus was developed in France.
"But Oak Ridge National Laboratory somehow got hold of it. Then, I guess the military found out, and the research began..."
He paused. That bone-deep fear surfaced in his eyes again.
"And when the accident happened, D-7 didn't only contain walkers used as 'substrates.'
"There were also more than a dozen living people in the central control room... They were the first living people exposed to the high-concentration mutated agent..."
Calista and Carver's hearts sank at the same time.
"What did they turn into? Did you see?" Calista's fingertips felt slightly cold.
"I don't know. The door was sealed shut. After that, there was only pounding, and... and different sounds..."
Honeywell clutched his head.
"But I once secretly looked at the earliest theoretical projection report. High doses, acting directly on the nervous system of a living body, could cause unimaginable pain and... mutation.
"They might, might have turned into something else. Or they might be dead..."
A brief silence fell over the room.
Calista quickly processed the information.
This was Pandora's box.
A mad biological weapons project with military backing. A catastrophic experimental accident. Unknown mutated beings trapped at the heart of Block D.
And the date in the notebook was January 2010, even earlier than the first half of the year she had originally assumed.
So even if these people were not among the first group to develop the Wildfire virus, they had known of its existence long ago.
But no one had tried to negotiate with the French side or shut it down. Instead, they had secretly begun researching how to turn walkers into biological weapons.
As for Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had they obtained the virus through some special channel, or had they been involved in the research from the very beginning?