Chapter 1

I didn't start out rich. My whole family started out solidly middle class. However, when I was 14 and in eighth grade, my parents made a few fascinating discoveries, or so the scientific world claimed.

My parents were both high school science teachers when they met 23 years ago. My dad, Steven, taught all the AP science courses when my mum, Stephanie, started teaching freshmen biology. They were married within two years of meeting. and I was born a year after they married. My dad loved teaching at the high school, but my mother grew tired of teenagers and worked her way up until she was able to get a job teaching microbiology at a fairly prestigious university when I was around five years old.

By the time I was 10, my family had our mortgage paid off on a fairly nice house, my parents each had a car, and we owned lakeside property, though the house that stood on it was rather old and in poor condition. I was normal enough, though you can imagine my parents' disappointment when they realized their only child hated science. Other than science, I was considered a bit more intelligent than the average person, but my parents didn't really care about anything else. Why would it matter if I could spell really well, if I wasn't writing any new theories on the evolution of some kind of bacteria with that spelling?

Fortunately for my parents, though unfortunately for the world, they met a prodigy. Joseph P. Kaltrack was 14 when he took all of the AP courses my father taught, and he was still the top of the class. The next year, he did individual study with my dad during his prep hours, and the year after that, he applied for dual enrollment and started taking all the courses my mum taught. Again, he passed with flying colors and started doing research with graduate students by the time he was 18. My parents both adored him, and my dad began spending all his time at the college with my mum and Joseph.

When Joseph began a new biotechnology company, GenBio. less than six months later, my parents were his first hired researchers. GenBio discovered previously unimaginable ways to fight bacteria using viruses, and they even managed to find ways to kill viruses, which was previously believed to be impossible. Joseph P. Kaltrack and Steven and Stephanie Fanton were all anyone who knew science could think about. People began investing millions into GenBio, and the results were, according to everyone who knew what all this crap meant, astonishing.

My family was now rich, and decided to demolish the rickety old house on the lake. They built a new mansion where the old patch of woods had been, and we moved out there. I finished high school with an incredibly mediocre record, with no sports or clubs to my name, and started out at college. After two months of people being shocked by my name and expecting great things from me, I dropped out and moved back home. My parents were disappointed yet again, but they were too distracted with a new parasite GenBio was studying to really do anything.

Everything seemed perfectly normal when I woke up a little before noon one day almost two years later and discovered the house empty and a note. I read out loud, "Dear Jason, Mum and I are at a critical stage in research. We're going to be staying on site for a few days, or possibly a few weeks. Call the housekeeper if you need anything. Otherwise, don't go out and don't invite anyone over. Love, Dad and Mum."  I scoffed, then crumpled the paper up and tossed it in the trash. After grabbing a can of Mountain Dew and a bag of chips, I headed back to my wing of the house and began playing Resident Evil.

I probably would have just kept playing all day, but Magdalena, my family's ancient housekeeper, came in and started to clean my entertainment area. I couldn't hear anything over the vacuum cleaner, so I decided to get out. After putting on deodorant instead of taking the time to shower, I grabbed my car keys and headed over the Man Cave.