Greed is the main reason that the narrative plays out the way that is does. When Z-Biotech is taken over by Kirk Nowell, the company isn’t doing well. Nowell comes up with a plan to use new research regarding a hantavirus to make money. Although the Scotts don’t want to have anything to do with making a bioweapon, Nowell and a handful of others, including Elizabeth Tanzir and Michael Brenner, realize they can make a fortune by weaponizing a disease and then having a vaccine for it. They plan to sell the material to the highest bidder, and then flee to a country that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. Nowell is so driven by greed that he will stop at nothing to get the formula for the vaccine once the Scotts flee, including kidnapping, torture, murder, and sabotage. Nowell is complicit in kidnaping and torturing Cady, ordering her murder, breaking and entering, the murder of Officer Dillow, and other crimes. The company is also responsible for the deaths of other employees who raised concerns in the past.

The end of the narrative indicates that the government is working with the Scotts and now has the vaccine and is preparing to give it to farmers so that they can fight against the hantavirus when needed.