Petra Knox rushed towards the sky bridge from her home. Her children had been seen off to school and now her duties to her father began. It had been a trying time ever since the boy escaped. She cursed him and his mother for causing her so much stress, how could two unimportant members of the society be so troublesome? 

She stepped into a lift and scanned her biometrics as the lift shot in the air before propelling over Sector Zero. It flew high above the bridges and building, giving Petra a perfect view of the world’s center. She had lived in Sector Zero her entire life, she had never been out of the sector, no child of Knox ever had. Petra just turned twenty-one, soon she would take over leadership of the world as her father’s first born child. Cillian Knox was now thirty seven, the decay had already begun to take him, although they had been good at hiding it from the public for as long as they had. He was still only in the beginning stages, the brain fog and the dizziness had started happening more and more frequently. But this time with her grandmother, she had already given up her post as leader and stepped down, but Cillian was a very prideful man. He wouldn’t step down until he could no longer make decisions at all, especially now with everything happening. 

The lift began to slowly descend, finding it’s spot amongst others at the head home. Her fathers home, soon it would be hers. She would be changing many things once she took over leadership of the country, starting with the the bleakness of her fathers home. She climbed the steps and was let in by a guard who walked her to the main office. 

“How can you not have found him!?” Her father was already yelling. The stress of this entire ordeal with the Lennox boy would only cause her father’s decay to worsen she was sure. 

Petra opened the door, slipping in without a sound and finding her place at the seat next to her fathers. He was standing, pacing the room, screaming at his general. 

“Sir.” Fox said, keeping himself calm and collected. Fox had fathered all five of her children, but she barely knew the man beyond his title of military general he had received two years prior. “As I’ve said, he fell over the wall. He is dead.” 

“And do you know that for certain, general?” Cillian said, spit flying across the desk. “Did you extract his lifeless corpse? Did I not specifically order he be returned so tests could be ran?” 

“There was no getting him back after he fell over the wall, sir. Our authorities did all they could to retrieve him, but I would not have asked them to go over the wall themselves, that would have been their own death sentence and we both know it.” Fox said. 

Petra watched the back and forth, taking in the conversation. Her father had been going mad with searching for the Lennox boy, still not letting up after almost one month since the incident. 

“Send a reconnaissance team over the wall to find his body.” Cillian said. 

“Sir, I have already sent three reconnaissance teams over the wall since this began. I have lost many good men to this fruitless manhunt. There is no body to be retrieved. The boy was probably already quickly consumed by a miom, they roam the walls waiting for humans. It is done. He is dead, I promise.” 

“You promise?” Cillian scoffed. “You promise? You are a boy, Fox. A child of good breeding, your father was the best military leader this world has ever seen. How far his seed has failed.” 

Petra cleared her throat, the two men acknowledging her for the first time since she sat down. “If I may, father.” She stood. “We’ve already searched their home, searching everything the woman carried on her person, and searched the dark side. If Fox can assure he has found no trace of the boy, perhaps the matter really is finished. Our military is good and our sniffers did their job at the apartment.” 

Cillian glared at his daughter before grumbling and flopping into his massive leather chair. “Fine. Fine. Fox you may go. Send in the lead inseminator.” 

Fox took a breath, glancing towards Petra before nodding his gratitude and leaving out the same door he came through. Moments later a small elderly man walked in, glancing this way and that with a pad in his hands. 

“What have you found?” Cillian said from his seat. 

“We found the father of the boy, he died to decay last year. We’ve also autopsied and tested Raiza Lennox’s blood. She was showing the first signs of decay, sir.” The scientist sat the pad on the desk. “As you’ve requested I looked through her charts, she had four still births before producing her son. Their bodies had all been burned and disposed of, but I was able to pull up blood tests of all four, they did have the extra dna in their blood.” 

“And the boy?” Cillian asked.

The scientist hesitated before clearing his throat. “No extra dna was found in his blood, sir. What you suspected is true, Raiza Lennox did tamper with the sample before inseminating herself.” 

Cillian roared in anger and slammed his fists on the large steel desk. “How was this allowed? How did your department miss this?” 

“Sir, with the utmost respect, I do not know. I’ve only been head of the department for five years, since the last head passed on.” The scientist looked at the ground, never meeting her fathers eyes. 

“I want every person Raiza inseminated and their children tested, we must ensure that she had not been conspiring against us from the beginning.” Cillian rubbed at his temples. 

“Of course sir,” the scientist scurried out the door, leaving the pad on her fathers desk. 

He slid it over to her and she grabbed it, putting it in her case with the other files. “This is a nightmare.” He groaned.

“Father, do you really think this goes further than just the pair of them?” Petra asked. 

“How can we know? She could have been tampering with the samples the entire time. She was one of the top genetic biologists, she had access to the samples and to tests. Perhaps she learned more than she should have and decided to begin a coup.” Cillian took a deep breath, holding his head tightly in his hands. 

Petra watched, silent as he grappled with the pain of the mind decay. “It’s getting worse.” She finally said. 

Cillian turned, glaring at her. “You see what I have to deal with and yet you still try to force me out? You are not ready to take this on, Petra. It is too disastrous for you inexperience.” 

Petra lowered her gaze. “I am sorry. But perhaps you could give me some task to help move things along? I just want to be of service to you father.” 

“Fine. You want some responsibility in this matter. Take it. Oversee the scientists findings. But know, when you become responsible for something, you reap the consequences as well.” 

Petra nodded and stood. “I understand. I’ll leave now for the insemination division and begin my own hunt into just how deep this goes.” 

Cillian nodded and pulling out a packet of pill tabs. He popped two into his mouth, swallowing them dry. “We can only pray that this died with Raiza Lennox and her son.” 

“Yes father.” Petra left the office and walked back out to the lifts, pulling her cloak tight around her. She typed in the location grid and the lift began flying off into the sky once again. Petra rarely wondered of things so deeply, but she couldn’t help but wonder exactly what conspiracy they were trying to hide, perhaps if she looked into it, she could figure out why her father was so worried in the first place. If she was the one to figure everything out and put an end to his worries, he would certainly see she was ready to rule and step down. Petra would become the leader of this world soon, it was only a matter of time. This conspiracy theory may be her ticket to the large leather seat. The first thing she would do with her power would be to send her father to a home. They wouldn’t try preserving his life like they did her grandmother’s. He didn’t deserve that.