After Councilman Eli left, Schroeder drank alone for a while, stood up to check his surroundings, and then headed for another hidden passage.
This passage did not lead to the secret laboratory; his recent experiments there had not yielded satisfactory results. This was a fact.
He was on his way to a place only he knew about, a place that was even more secretive and central.
It was also where he hid his greatest secret.
These collaborators and allies of Councilman Eli knew only of his hidden laboratory, but not of the more precious thing that he had been concealing, behind the "eye" logo of the pharmaceutical factory.
Decades ago, when he was a young apprentice, his teacher dispatched him to serve as an assistant elsewhere, to learn knowledge and skills while also collecting some precious materials and information.
One day, his teacher excitedly declared that he had obtained a very precious "gift from God," which could make people stronger!
