The last savior

After soaking in these laws, Lucas raised another question: "Hey, Gadget. Then what do they mean when they say 'dangerous zone'?"

"Huh… a dangerous zone?" Gadget mumbled through a drink Lucas had swiped. "See, in the later stages of the Fourth World War, some nations resorted to nukes, bio-weapons, electronic warfare—basically a total mess. You can guess the result: massive contamination in many areas… for instance, here."

"But isn't this just a bomb shelter?" Lucas glanced all around, still skeptical. "Could they really have hauled weapons in here to detonate them?"

"This place… ha!" Gadget suddenly got excited, leaping onto the stone platform and waving his arms around. "This place can't be compared to some random wasteland. This is a B-level danger zone! Know what that means? Er… five hundred years of scientific progress solved a ton of problems—now your everyday nuclear fallout is just F-level. Getting irradiated is basically like catching a cold back in your time!"

Gadget lowered his voice and leaned in, his big rat face inches from Lucas's. "You know, this shelter was once supposed to be a holy site for humans, protected at all costs…"

"Oh?" Lucas resisted the urge to sock him right between those beady eyes.

"Because it was here that the great 'Noah Six'—the founding pioneers of your new genetic tech—once worked and experimented and fought!" the old rat declared triumphantly. "Over fifty percent of all those fancy improved genes used by today's population were first researched and developed right here!"

"You mean that Adam guy who built the so-called 'Noah One'? Saw that in today's paper… but how'd this place end up rated B-level dangerous?"

"Well, you've gotta realize this," the white rat said, glaring at Lucas dramatically. "Every great person or high achiever, before they reach glory, usually has some secrets they don't want known. The famed Noah Six were no exception. In fact, early on, when they first set up their lab, they were strapped for funding, so their initial creations were… let's just say extremely messed up."

"You mean gene weapons?"

"Even scarier than weapons…" Gadget finished off the drink, flicked aside the empty bottle, and wobbled in circles on the platform, trying to gesture "scarier than weapons" with his little paws. Pitifully, rat paws were too short to do any decent pantomime.

"You okay there? Did I bring back some expired drink? Or maybe it's alcoholic?" Lucas quietly moved a few steps away. "So what exactly did they develop?"

"Nah… I'm, I'm good, great Gadget's feeling fine!" the rat insisted woozily, cracking his neck as he tried to count on his stubby fingers. "A lot of the big names made sure to downplay the Noah team's early feats, but folks in the know say those breakthroughs should've gone down in history, way more than that puny Noah One AI. Like, we're talking about Gene #4 that restores a man's… you know, performance issues… or Gene #6 that boosts breast growth in women… or Gene #27 for rapid hair removal…"

"Right… that stuff does sound a bit freaky… but if it's not popping up at some seedy auction, I'm guessing it's not the kind of 'dangerous' you're talking about?"

"No, no, no! The dangerous part isn't the products themselves, my poor little friend," scolded Gadget, wobbling a finger. "It's that these sales records exist!"

"You mean…?"

"You gotta realize—scientists generally suck at keeping finances under wraps. They never pay attention to whether they're making bank or losing it," Gadget said, giving a crafty look.

"So?"

"So they meticulously documented every single credit they earned in this lab."

"Right. So these idiots basically filed their own death warrants somewhere?"

"Yeah! All over the place!"

Following Gadget's pointing paw, Lucas looked over at a cluster of mathematical formulas and random scrawl on the wall. Sure enough, in thick, scrawled writing he saw lines like:

[August 5, 2595] The Lion Legion Commander from the Alliance Army's "Ferocious Empire" once again ordered 60 milliliters of Gene #4, paying 9 million credit diamonds upfront. Also requested changing the bust-scaling A2 gene to A3, ramping the maturity window to three months…

[February 3, 2596] Commander Anna of the Eagle Empire ordered Gene #6. Praised it to no end, said she's very satisfied, vows to be a loyal future client…

[May 6, 2596] Alliance Army…

Yeah… definitely dangerous intel.

The guy named Adam was apparently able to continue his research publicly—out in the open—without getting offed or silenced. Must've been seriously powerful and unbelievably lucky. Lucas's eyes lit up, and he called to Aurelia hanging nearby, "Quick! Note all this stuff down! Might be useful someday!"

Aurelia nodded stiffly, beams of black and white flickering in her eyes. "All data has been stored. But what's the point of it?"

Lucas flashed a sly grin at Aurelia's curious gaze. "Could be a lot of fun! Of course, these records might also be extremely dangerous!"

Meanwhile, old Gadget had curled up right there on the stone platform, letting out a steady snore. A little drool trickled from his mouth. Lucas tiptoed closer to pick up the empty drink bottle, sniffed it, and confirmed it was indeed booze—yep, the old rat was hammered.

With no choice, Lucas covered the rat with a worn blanket, then flopped down himself.

So this bomb shelter was actually the famed cradle of the Noah Six!

All signs pointed to the fact that this weirdo white rat had more secrets than it let on. He had to be hiding something. Lucas debated whether it'd be safer to tie the rat up and torture him for info, or maybe risk finding more bottles of booze and coax out a drunken confession.

Of course, big-league politicians were basically masters at flipping scripts, so a few behind-the-scenes tidbits about fancy scientists probably weren't important enough to overshadow the overall impact the Noah Six had made. Still, it apparently justified classifying this place as five times more dangerous than normal nuclear fallout.

Lucas had planned to sneak deeper into the shelter, back where Gadget usually refused to let him go, while the old rat was out cold. 

But now, he felt a little nervous… maybe only God knew if those scientists left any lethal surprises in there.

After a brief moment of awe at the lab team's fearless devotion to science, Lucas let out a sigh. 

Then a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes, and he turned to Aurelia with a grin. "Come here, sweet thing… let me give you a little 'body checkup'…"