Chapter 181: Bacterial War (3)

It was a chilly evening. After finishing their meals, people on Myeongdong Street stopped in their tracks and watched the large screen. There was breaking news. This news would become another variable in the many allegations surrounding Young-Joon.

—This is breaking news. The WHO and the CIA are claiming that the anthrax epidemic in Africa did originate from a biological weapon.

—According to the letter the United States Department of State sent to the South Korean and African governments, they have confirmed that the anthrax epidemic in Africa was a terrorist weapon that was used by rebels in South Sudan and had nothing to do with the anthracis fence.

Some of the people who were watching the screen let out a sigh of relief, while others nodded in agreement.

Another news item followed.

—The prosecution investigating Ryu Young-Joon, the CEO of A-Bio, has requested the National Forensic Service to test the body of Kim Hyun-Taek for anthrax.

* * *

“I got it!”

Yoon Bo-Hyun, who was watching the news, clenched his fists. The news that the anthrax bioweapon being used in Africa has nothing to do with the anthracis fence would shift the public in Young-Joon’s favor, but Yoon Bo-Hyun had one more card up his sleeve.

News broke that the National Forensic Service was going to test Kim Hyun-Taek’s body for anthrax, and it was time to reveal that card.

Doctors had already announced that Kim Hyun-Taek didn’t have anthrax in his body, but it didn’t matter; an investigation by the forensic service conveyed a different image to the public as it was more focused on being a criminal investigation.

If their investigation found the anthrax bioweapon, there would likely be claims that Young-Joon actually bribed Yeonyee Hospital.

Yoon Bo-Hyun was waiting for the National Forensic Service all this time, and now it was time.

“Ryu Young-Joon, now is not the time for you to be cleaning up the leaked radioactive material at the GSC.”

Yoon Bo-Hyun was digging a grave for Young-Joon, and it was time to bury him.

“Director Kim, I’m sorry.” Yoon Bo-Hyun took out a small syringe from his bag. He still had a trace amount of A-Gen’s developmental anthrax weapon that was sent to South Sudan in the syringe. It was safe to keep it like this as all the bacteria had died; it wasn’t infectious at all. Of course, it felt a little gross, but it was worth it.

Yoon Bo-Hyun got in his car and drove to Yeonyee Hospital. He was going to inject it into Kim Hyun-Taek’s IV. Adding five hundred microliters of bacteria carcasses wasn’t going to be noticeable. No nurse would be able to notice a tiny needle hole in the holder of a used IV fluid bag.

However, the forensic service would do an investigation and find anthrax in Kim Hyun-Taek’s blood.

‘It’s not infectious, but they will be analyzing the DNA anyway.’

Yoon Bo-Hyun assumed that there would still be DNA in the dead bacteria, and that DNA would match the biological weapons the South Sudan rebels were using. Then, Young-Joon would be arrested. This was the moment for the final blow in this flight.

* * *

People thought that the best scientists in the world were gathered in the GSC conference room at the Grand Hyatt and brainstorming ideas to remove the radioactive material, but not really. The scientists were fiddling around out of boredom, watching the news, or reading papers.

“The GSC conference is almost over. They should be here soon,” said Doctor Dylan. “Doctor Ryu, did Messelson contact you?”

“Not yet, but I heard they found a lot of information. They will find their hideout soon,” Young-Joon said.

“We have been patrolling plain clothes officers and spraying Thermoplasma gas for the past few days,” Doctor Lily said. “Was the intelligence wrong?”

“The CIA is brilliant, but unless those terrorists are idiots, would they have exposed their plan to attack the GSC this easily?”

The scientists murmured, but Young-Joon was quiet. It was because he was extremely focused, as billions of Rosaline’s cells, which he shared his sense with, were examining Seoul.

—Ah, these damn Thermoplasma!

Rosaline shouted irritatedly.

‘Why?’

—They keep rubbing up against me. These little things.

‘I guess they like you.’

—I’m not kidding. They’re making the search a lot less efficient.

‘But have you found the anthrax yet?’

—Do you think it’s easy to search all of Seoul?

Rosaline said grumpily.

—But I distributed my cells heavily in the hotel you’re in, Lab Six, and Yeonyee Hospital, and I’m monitoring it carefully. I won’t miss it if they come in.

‘Good.’

—But can I destroy some of these Thermoplasma? They’re getting in my way.

‘No, they’re the safety mechanism that’s going to stop the anthracis.’

—I can catch the anthracis as well. I can just poke a small hole in their cell wall with perforin and...

‘But you said you have to use a lot of fitness for that, right?’

—I can get rid of them within my fitness if there isn’t a lot of th... No, wait. I take that back.

‘What?’

—The anthracis is here.

‘The location?’

—It’s the hotel.

Young-Joon shot up from his seat.

—They were here yesterday. Seven people of Arab descent.

Rosaline said.

The terrorists rehearsed it once yesterday. They had entered the ground floor of the hotel with empty bags late in the afternoon and left. They wanted to see how sensitive the hotel was to outsiders coming in and out and how secure it was. There were no problems, and it seemed like the easiest operation they had ever done.

—They brought the anthracis gas cylinder this time. And there’s quite a lot more anthracis than I thought. I can’t deal with all of them, so I’ll leave it to Thermoplasma.

Rosaline said, looking at the men approaching from the direction of the hotel lobby.

‘Alright. Come back now.’

Young-Joon walked slowly through the scientists.

“Let’s go out, shall we?”

“Where are you going?” Doctor Comat asked.

“To meet the terrorists.”

Young-Joon opened the conference door and walked to the front entrance of the hotel. The scientists followed him out even though they were confused. Then, they were all shocked, as there was already commotion in the distance.

“

Ayreh feek!

”

The soldiers of the Palestinian Liberation Front cursed in Arabic as they ran away.[1] Five of them had already been captured by the police. The situation was so different from the day before. All the hotel employees on the first floor who were smiling at them were all plainclothes officers. The terrorists had no idea that under those smiles, they had been scanning their bags with a shear wave gun. And today, the gun had discovered gas cylinders.

They couldn’t even reach the hotel entrance; as soon as they got out of their taxi at the parking lot behind the hotel, they were swarmed by the police. It was because a police officer who was undercover as a parking attendant saw the results of the gun and immediately radioed the other officers.

“... Damn.”

Al-Asad, a soldier of the Palestinian Liberation Front, stopped walking. He had given up on bringing the cylinder into the hotel. He opened his bag about ten meters away from the front door. Just opening the lock on the cylinder could make the compressed gas explode and flood the area. It wasn’t the plan, but if they were lucky, they would be able to get the GSC inside the hotel.

“Hey, get that bastard!” the police shouted as they ran towards him.

The taser gun they fired hit Al-Asad’s bag.

Creak!

Al-Asad froze as soon as he opened the lid. The gas that was rushing out of the cylinder didn’t spread. Then, dust-like particles began to gather rapidly from thin air, like dew.

“Uh...”

Neither Aziz nor Doctor Ref had warned him about this phenomenon. Something was wrong.

Anthracis was a tiny bacillus, about four micrometers long. It wasn’t visible to the human eye, but hundreds and thousands of them swarmed and fused together as they were captured by Thermoplasma. Now, they had become particles that were visible to the naked eye. The air near the gas cylinders became cloudy, as if a dusty blanket had been shaken off.

“What... This...”

Thud!

The police grabbed Al-Asad, who was confused, by the neck.

“Don’t move!” the police shouted as they tackled Al-Asad to the ground.

“...”

As Al-Asad lay on the ground, he saw a group of scientists walking out of the hotel.

“Is the situation over?”

He Jiankui looked around.

“But what about Doctor Ryu?”

Young-Joon, who walked out with them, had disappeared.

* * *

A car was traveling at a frightening speed along Sowol-ro. Young-Joon was pushing on the accelerator himself as he had heard the news about Yeonyee Hospital from Rosaline as he left the hotel. A similar situation to the hotel had occurred at Yeonyee Hospital. Bahadul, who opened the gas cylinder, froze in shock. It was because the anthracis aggregated in the air like dust and fell to the ground instead of exploding out of the cylinder.

“S-Sir...”

The soldiers looked at Bahadul in confusion.

“This is different from what we heard.”

“...”

Bahadul thought for a moment. They couldn’t enter the ICU here unless they made an appointment for visitation, and they also had to enter information like their relationship to the patient. They would be stopped by security if they tried to force their way in, and the police would arrive right away as well.

“This operation... failed...” said one of the soldiers.

“No.”

They couldn’t give up like this. Their comrades were already distracting the police at the hotel, and they would most likely be arrested. If they came this far at that cost, they had to do something.

“We break through,” Bahadul said. “We cannot afford to fail. Let’s go in. Follow me.”

He stepped into the elevator with the other soldiers. They went up to the fourteenth floor and ran for room 1407. As they ran, Bahadul said to Nassir, “Call the emergency contact.”

“Doctor Ref?”

“Yeah.”

Corporal Nassir pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and punched in the emergency contact.

“W-Who are you people!”

An intern doctor stepped in front of the room before they could enter. The doctor instinctively sensed danger. Even though they weren’t in uniform, Bahadul and his men, who ran all the way here, looked incredibly hostile. They didn’t look like the average visitor.

“Y-You have to have an appointment to visit the ICU. Did you make...”

“Get out of my way!”

Bahadul violently pushed the doctor out of the way.

“Hey!”

Two security guards who saw him from the end of the hallway began running towards them with hostile looks on their faces.

“Deal with them,” Bahadul ordered his men.

Security guards were no big deal; they weren’t the police or soldiers. But Bahadul’s men were elite soldiers who had fought for their lives in Africa amongst flying bullets.

“Yes, sir,” Nassir and the other men replied as they pulled out knives from their pockets.

Thud!

Bahadul kicked the door to room 1407 in and walked inside.

“What?”

Bahadul tilted his head in confusion. It was because a young man was standing beside the middle-aged man who was on the bed.

“Uh...”

Flustered, Yoon Bo-Hyun pulled away from Kim Hyun-Taek’s side. He quickly hid the syringe behind his back.

“I-I made... an appointment for visitation... Who are y...” Yoon Bo-Hyun asked in a frightened voice. But his voice grew smaller.

Bang! Slap! Thud!

It was because terrifying noises were coming from beyond the door.

—Request for assistance! Violent men have broken into the fourteenth floor...!

Yoon Bo-Hyun could hear the security guard shout into his walkie-talkie, but that sound also ended with the sound of something cracking and breaking.

“...”

Click

.

Soon, two more men entered the room. They were two Arab men with blood all over their faces. The terrifying atmosphere surrounded Yoon Bo-Hyun like knives.

—This is Doctor Ref.

A female voice came from the phone that was in Nassir’s chest pocket.

“We may fail at this operation,” said Bahadul. “But we are trying to finish it. We are in room 1407.”

—Alright, please do the best you can.

“There’s a man I’ve never seen before standing in front of the target. What should we do with him?” Bahadul asked as he began walking towards Kim Hyun-Taek.

—Do as you please.

Yoon Bo-Hyun could hear Doctor Ref’s voice from the phone. He didn’t know any Arabic, so he couldn’t understand what they were saying. However, he knew that he was in danger. He instinctively backed away in fear, but the wall was behind him.

Thud.

Yoon Bo-Hyun, who was backed up against the wall, stared at Bahadul, trembling.

𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

“P-Pleas...”

As soon as he opened his mouth...

Crack!

A crushing blow flew to the center of Yoon Bo-Hyun’s face. Bahadul’s fist had shattered his nose and cheekbones.

1.

Ayreh feek

is Arabic for “fuck you.” ☜