After giving those instructions, Solomon turned to leave. Halfway out, he stopped again:
"Notify Charles, Erik, Raven, and Emma Frost. Meet me in the top-floor conference room in half an hour."
Before leaving, Solomon walked over to the lab bench and gave Trask a heavy pat on the shoulder.
"Excellent work, Doctor. The strategic value of this suppression collar is immeasurable. I was right about you. Keep that madness going. Once you have fully implemented the recessive X-Gene detection technology, I will officially approve your entry into the core Compound V research and development team."
At the words "Compound V," Trask looked as though he had been struck by high-voltage electricity. His eyes suddenly blazed with the light of a ravenous wolf, and his entire body shook violently with overwhelming joy.
That was a godlike drug capable of fundamentally enhancing the X-Gene!
To a geneticist, it was a hundred times more irresistible than all the wealth and power in the world combined!
"Thank you, Boss! I'll wring out every last scrap of wisdom in my brain for you!"
Trask was so excited that he could barely speak coherently. As though given a shot of adrenaline, he turned and lunged at the workstation, launching into another round of frenzied calculations.
Half an hour later, in the conference room on the ninety-ninth floor of Vought Tower.
Solomon sat squarely at the head of the enormous ring-shaped conference table.
Charles, Erik, Raven, and Emma Frost took their seats on either side of the long table.
Solomon's deep gaze slowly swept over the four of them. Without any preamble, he dropped a bombshell:
"I'll be leaving here in a while. You'll need to put more effort into keeping Vought running from here on."
The moment he said that, the vast conference room fell