Chapter 257: Cold Chain (9)

“It’s not that difficult,” Young-Joon said into the phone. “I just have something I want to ask you, Mr. Asham. I will ask for your cooperation later.”

—... Alright...

Abdul Asham sounded confused.

After ending the call, Young-Joon checked an email on his phone. It was some information that Director Kim Young-Hoon sent from A-GenBio headquarters.

Kim Young-Hoon was in charge of the deal with Philistines. He shared with them the efficiency of their solar cells, the expected mobile power generation system, and the strategy of securing a cold chain distribution network through Karpu.

In return, Philistines sent him a description of its research facilities, a portion of the

botulism

strain’s genomic data, and data on its production line.

This was what Young-Joon was reading. As he was poring over the data, Rosaline suddenly appeared at his side. She burrowed into his arms and started looking at the cell phone together.

—Why is there a polyomavirus among the DNA inserted into the strain’s genome?

Rosaline interrupted from inside his arms.

“Polyomavirus?” Young-Joon asked.

—Here.

Rosaline pointed to a part of the DNA data.

[ATTGTGGCGAATT......]

It was a piece of DNA that was hard to interpret in any meaningful way for the human eye.

‘This isn’t a gene that encodes some biomolecule.’

Young-Joon spoke to Rosaline in his head.

‘This looks like some junk DNA.’

[1]

—No. This is the transcription factor for the gene used to recombine the polyomavirus’ shell. It’s a type of ribosome.

‘Hm...’

Young-Joon thought for a moment.

—The insertion of this piece of DNA is meaningful: it will help the bacteria grow.

‘But the question is how Philistines, which researches botulinum toxin, could have this virus, know about this piece of DNA and use it accordingly.’

Polyomavirus was not dangerous. It was common and easily infected people, but it didn’t cause a disease in healthy adults.

‘It shouldn’t be a big deal since it’s a relatively safe virus...’

—If you’re immunocompromised, it could infect the central nervous system and lead to major illnesses.

Rosaline corrected Young-Joon.

“Oh!”

Suddenly, Young-Joon raised his head.

—What’s wrong?

“You startled me. What’s the matter?”

Rosaline and the medical team stared at Young-Joon.

Young-Joon asked Prime Minister Felus, “You said your son had progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, right?”

“Oh? Um, yes... That’s why he has become brain-dead.”

“Did you say the reason for that was polyomavirus?”

“Yes,” Felus replied.

“Normally, polyomavirus doesn’t cause infections in healthy people. Did your son have an immunocompromising disease, like AIDS?” Young-Joon asked.

“No, but...”

Felus hesitated to answer.

“But?”

“That is...”

Felus became somber.

“That child survived the bombing of Gaza by the Israeli army. And... that bombing was...” Felus said. “It was white phosphorus.”

“He was hit by white phosphorus munitions?” Young-Joon asked.

“... Yes...”

Felus covered his face with his hands.

“We... the Israeli army used white phosphorus on that region with civilians...”

That bombing felt like the Devil’s fireworks. Felus could still clearly see the shrapnel from the white phosphorus bombs, which looked like bright orange balls of flame, raining down on the city like a net.

An infernal flame that had a very low burning point, about sixty degrees Celsius, and could not be extinguished easily, even with tons of water. The bombing produced massive amounts of poisonous gas, which burned everything it touched into a sea of flames.

It was the worst possible weapon, where the phosphorus caused chemical burns on the body even when the fire was extinguished. It was so brutal that its use against civilians was strictly banned by the Geneva Conventions.

—Doctor Ref said she was bombed by that.

Rosaline pointed out.

“Could the damage from that bombing have caused a disturbance in his immune system?” Young-Joon asked.

The doctors from the Next Generation Hospital thought hard with their hands on their chin.

“There are no reported effects of white phosphorus on the immune system. I don’t know, it could have caused damage.”

“Phosphorus is also used by the immune system, so if the polyomavirus, unfortunately, invaded the central nervous system while the inhalation of toxic gas disrupted the immune system...”

All the doctors began to give their own opinions.

“At first, I thought he wouldn’t live long,” Felus intervened. “He was only a five-year-old child—a civilian from an enemy state—but he was severely burned, and he lost his parents and family.”

Felus went on.

“To him, I was a politician from an enemy state, a pretty good prime ministerial candidate at that. I was a politician who looked the other way and failed to stop the white phosphorus bombing of Gaza.”

“...”

“I may have just brought him back to lessen my guilt. I didn’t think he would live long, so I thought I would take care of him just until he died, or something like that. I don’t really know what I was thinking, why I brought him back, but...” Felus said. “That little guy, he hung in there with amazing perseverance. He recovered so much that he was able to walk, even run... He still hasn’t forgiven me, but my son even knows how to laugh like a teenage boy now and then.”

Felus let out a deep sigh as he wiped his tears.

“I can’t explain in detail, but I feel like my son is the hope of this land, that he survived even after being hit with that hot white phosphorus and being burned...”

“...”

“But everything doesn’t work out that easily. It’s probably the after-effects of the white phosphorus. The doctors at my hospital told me that his white blood cell count is low... But they don’t know the exact cause.”

“Alright,” Young-Joon said.

“Doctor Ryu, if he dies, I think I will lose all hope that I can make peace in this country. I will do whatever you ask, even Philistines. Just please...”

“Let’s go and see,” Young-Joon said.

He looked calm, but his mind was complicated.

*

After another twenty minutes on the road, the vehicle arrived at the Hamak General Hospital in Afula.

“Afula has a lot of hospitals for its size and number of residents. A lot of medical centers sprung up in the area as Hamak acted as a landmark.”

With about one thousand nine hundred medical staff and some of the best facilities in Israel, the hospital served about five hundred thousand people in the surrounding area.

As they entered the hospital, they were greeted by a doctor who had been contacted in advance.

“This way.”

He led Young-Joon, the medical staff from Next Generation Hospital, and Felus to the intensive care unit on the fifth floor. Felus’ security team and the K-Cops team were on guard with tense looks on their faces.

Once they arrived, Young-Joon found the skinny body of a teenage boy.

[????]

Young-Joon glanced at the name written on the bed.

“Lagba!”

Felus ran towards the bed, but the child was unresponsive. Young-Joon, too, stood still, like a stone statue. It was because he was in Synchronization Mode.

The boy was connected to a pacemaker, but it was almost a miracle that his heart was still beating. Diphosphorus pentoxide, a gas produced by the oxidation of white phosphorus, had entered his lungs, striking a fatal blow to his alveoli and reacting with water molecules in his blood to set off a further chain reaction.

White phosphorus directly hit his back, causing severe burns, and he most likely collapsed from shock.

The boy quickly recovered after Felus brought him in, but he was left with the side effects. The hematopoietic stem cells did not function normally in the boy’s bone marrow. His lymphocyte levels were low, making him vulnerable to infection.

The hospital prescribed gamma globulin to treat him. However, unless a bone marrow transplant was possible, there was no cure. All they could do was watch out for infections.

And that’s when the polyomavirus invaded.

—The invasion path was respiratory.

A message popped up as Young-Joon was in Synchronization Mode.

‘Does this virus usually enter through the respiratory tract?’

Young-Joon asked

—It can, but it’s rare because the virus itself doesn’t have the ability to travel. Most of the time, it’s through contaminated food.

‘But this boy had a respiratory infection, right?’

—Yes. And genetically, it’s slightly different from the polyomavirus. This virus in this boy’s body is much more infectious than the original virus.

‘Can you use Simulation Mode by chance?’

—Eek. That costs a lot of fitness.

‘Can you just look around this hospital?’

—Fine, but you can’t use Synchronization Mode for two days.

‘Okay.’

Rosaline activated Simulation Mode. It was similar to the time she searched for the anthrax weapon at A-Gen, only this time she was searching for the polyomavirus.

Rosaline scanned a one-kilometer radius around the hospital, and what Young-Joon found was shocking.

‘They’re all infected...’

The virus hadn’t caused any accidents as it wasn’t very virulent, but its infectivity was beyond imagination.

‘The polyomavirus DNA that Philistines had earlier is the same as the one that infected the area, right?’

Young-Joon sent Rosaline a message.

—That’s right.

“...”

Young-Joon only had circumstantial evidence, but it felt so strange. This virus was wild. It was possible that Philistines developed it and released it into the region to test its ability to infect.

But why? What was the point of releasing a barely aggressive virus? All it did was knock out a poor immunocompromised Palestinian boy; all the Israeli soldiers and police protecting this place were fine...

“Oh.”

Young-Joon froze as he remembered something. The polyomavirus was highly infectious and rarely caused disease in healthy adults. That’s why the medical community had ignored it for so long. But Philistines had botulinum toxin. What if they put it in this virus and spread it?

“Doctor Ryu?” Felus called.

“Yes?”

Young-Joon looked up at the sound of his voice. All the medical staff were staring at him.

“Um... How will we do the treatment...”

“We’ll proceed with the brainstem regeneration as planned, and we’ll need to remove the polyomavirus from his body. It also looks like he’ll need a bone marrow transplant,” Young-Joon said. “I think Conson & Colson made an inhibitor for polyomavirus back in the day. I don’t know if they still make it since there’s very little demand for it...”

“Are you talking about Antipolyma?” Felus asked.

“Yes.”

“They don’t produce it anymore. They do have it in stock at Conson & Colson, though it is a very small amount. I was going to purchase that, but I couldn’t because of transportation issues,” Felus said.

Young-Joon looked back at the boy’s doctor.

“Please purchase that drug as soon as possible and as much of it as possible.”

“But that drug needs to be kept at minus seventy degrees Celsius...”

“I will take care of the transportation,” Young-Joon said. “It will be different now because we have a cold chain.”

Felus opened his mouth to say something but stopped.

‘We have a cold chain.’

That sentence felt strange. This was a hot country. The guns were hot, and so was the history. It was a place where people withered away in the scorching heat, with burns on their bodies and minds. Even the medicine to heal those burns couldn’t enter this land because it was too hot. For the first time, they were laying down a path to cool off the heat.

“... Thank you,” Felus said.

The cold chain wasn’t just a low-temperature transportation method. It was the way of life...

“And I’m sorry, but there’s somewhere I have to go right now,” Young-Joon said.

“What?”

Felus, who had snapped out of his reverie, was startled. The doctors from the Next Generation Hospital and Hamak Hospital looked at Young-Joon in confusion.

“It will take a while to make a hundred thousand induced pluripotent stem cells anyway. I’ll be back before we administer them.”

Young-Joon began walking quickly.

“Wait, Doctor Ryu! Where are you going?” Felus asked, running after him.

“I’m going to Saudi Arabia to see Asham.”

“Oh, for the cold chain development?”

“No?”

Young-Joon looked at Felus like he didn’t know what he was talking about.

“T-Then...”

“I’ll see you in about a week.”

Young-Joon walked out with Kim Chul-Kwon, the head of his security team.

1. Junk DNA refers to a sequence that has no relevant biological function. ☜