Sloane and Preston meet Zack Smith, an IT admin for an on-site bioinformatics startup, in the CIT's Globe Garden. Zack explains the complex's "split brain" architecture and Conrad's application of Punctuated Equilibrium to social systems — agent-based models and genetic algorithms simulating societal collapse. The meeting culminates when Sloane notices something Zack considers routine: Conrad is running his massive simulations as the root superuser. Zack casually terminates the process. Across the garden, Conrad visibly flinches. He knows what just happened. The chain of retaliation begins.

Conrad delivers a presentation to defense contractors and venture capitalists on Punctuated Equilibrium applied to social systems. He argues that periods of social stasis are traps awaiting a critical stressor — that true evolution requires a system crash where underperforming nodes are deleted as mathematical garbage collection. Sloane interrupts the Q&A. She turns his own theory against him, publicly challenging whether his algorithm justifies fratricide to reach a Global Optimum. She corners him with his own logic in front of the room. She paints a target on herself.

Sloane and Austin infiltrate the CIT complex disguised as a Y2K remediation team. Austin launches a Smurf attack — a massive bandwidth flood that crashes the facility's network and causes the HVAC system to fail, venting steam over the patio and creating a thermal smokescreen. Moving through darkened corridors with pocket litter as cover, they bluff past a security guard and reach the Biosafety Level 3 lab. The fail-secure lock won't yield to any code. Sloane uses a fire extinguisher to shatter the door handle. They enter the subzero contamination zone.

Inside the freezing lab, Sloane and Austin find what they came for: a blood-stained swatch of the horse blanket used to smother Portia, archived alongside vials of Protocol 9. Before they can escape, Conrad arrives with a handgun. Charlotte is with him — cold, calculating, in complete control. The standoff ends when Detective Miller and his deputies arrive — summoned in advance by Sloane. Austin uses the lab's own digital logs to prove Charlotte archived the blanket the morning of the murder. Confronted with the evidence, Charlotte turns on Conrad. She kept it as insurance against him. The confession brings the conspiracy down.