Chapter 273: FRB (1)

—The Federal Reserve Bank is the actual ruler of the United States.

That’s what Prime Minister Felus told Young-Joon over the phone.

—The United States is the symbol of capitalism, and it’s the heart of finance. The Federal Reserve is the one that prints the dollar.

The dollar is a key currency, meaning that the dollar was the basis for payments and financial transactions between countries. This was possible because the U.S. had the largest gold reserves in the world, overwhelmingly developed and sophisticated financial markets, and very stable credit and prices. The power to print money was truly the royal seal of the capitalist era, capable of dictating markets.

But what most people, including Americans, didn’t realize is that the U.S. government doesn’t have the power to print money. The U.S. government doesn’t own a single share of stock in the Federal Reserve—it was one hundred percent a private bank.

And the majority of that private ownership was held by the big Wall Street banks, which were effectively controlled by the Lofair family. In other words, when the U.S. government needed dollars, it borrowed them by selling bonds to the Federal Reserve and paying interest, rather than producing them directly.

Of course, since the bonds were issued by the government, the debt and interest were paid off by the taxes of the people. This meant in order for the government to produce dollars, it had to collect taxes and pay them back to the Lofair family.

“What kind of system is that?” Young-Joon asked in disbelief.

In Korea, this would mean that the ‘S’ conglomerate owned the central bank, and the Korean government had to request and borrow from the ‘S’ conglomerate whenever it wanted to issue the won.

—And the Federal Reserve has been very unproductive for a long time. The most obvious example is the Great Depression. The Federal Reserve already anticipated the probability of a Great Depression as early as 1928. Any expert could see that the stock market was overly inflated.

Felus went on.

—If the Federal Reserve had manipulated the open market and bought government bonds at that time, interest rates would have fallen naturally, and the Great Depression could have been averted. If we abandoned the gold standard later, the vicious cycle of the depression wouldn’t have become so severe.

“...”

—It was more like the Federal Reserve abandoned its role as the lender of last resort. It took on no responsibility.

“Is this how non-majors feel when I talk about biology?”

“No, I’m sure you’re busy, but I’ll look it up on Wikipedia or listen to a lecture.”

—Anyway, to summarize, the Federal Reserve hasn’t been doing its job as a central bank since the Great Depression.

Felus went on.

—And the profits that the Federal Reserve was making went to the Lofair family and the Jewish community. I was fed up with that, and that’s why I left the financial sector.

“Then you went to Israel?” Young-Joon asked.

—Yes. The founding of Israel itself is the power of the Jewish community. They controlled all the world’s finances, and that’s why they were able to get the British to do things like the Balfour Declaration.

—I always felt like a sinner when I was in finance, but I thought it would be a penance to work here to build peace.

“... Thank you.”

—Doctor Ryu.

“Yes?”

—Don’t fight the Lofairs. You’d be better off getting rid of the Chinese president two times. The Lofair family are the oldest guards of power.

Felus warned Young-Joon.

—They’ve colluded with the media, corporations, and politics and built a very solid fortress around money. Their hands extend into the CIA, which is directly under the president, and they’re very good at assassinations, manipulating public opinion, economic pressure, and all kinds of sabotage. Multiple American presidents have fallen because they couldn’t overcome that family.

“Thank you for your advice,” Young-Joon said.

—Then...

“But I have a bigger power behind me. Don’t worry.”

*

After much consideration, Alphonse Lofair came to a conclusion.

‘The medical project in Nicaragua isn’t about the humanitarian act of treating patients or research, it’s about pressuring me.’

Alphonse thought about the evidence that Young-Joon could possibly find there. There was no pattern to the genetic mutations, and even if he could find one, there was no way to link it to the Lofair family as all the evidence was destroyed.

It was thirty years ago. Most of the people who weren’t necessary at the time were killed, and many of the remaining people involved aged and passed away naturally. The people who were still alive were either silenced or from orphanages, completely unaware that they were genetically modified.

The Groom Lake Air Force Base in Nicaragua didn’t exist anymore, and other buildings were standing on its site. There was no way to dig down and find any remains.

The Somoza government of Nicaragua didn’t even know there was a genomics lab in the first place; they just thought it was a U.S. air base called Groom Lake. When they left, they even wiped out all records of the base.

Even after the Sandinista government was established, all information about the base was kept secret, and they never obtained any information about it. There was some information left in the CIA’s database, but it required authorization at the director or the presidential level to access it.

‘There’s no evidence left.’

But Alphonse was someone who didn’t tolerate enemies who challenged him.

“Alphonse?”

Tate Lofair knocked on the door.

“Yes.”

“Everyone is waiting for you. Can you come down?”

“Sure, let’s go.”

Alphonse opened the door and went down the stairs.

A small party was being held on the first floor of the Lofair mansion. Not a lot of people were invited, but their collective power could change the course of the United States presidential race. Key executives from the New York Times, USA Today, the New York Post, The Onion, and countless other media organizations were in attendance.

“I invited you all because it’s been so long since I’ve seen the speakers of America,” Alphonse said.

Everyone here was on edge, all of them aware of the extent of Lofair’s power. Getting on Lofair’s bad side right now could result in a tax investigation by the government, or investors could start pressuring them to return their money. But if they get on Lofair’s good side, some of the biggest companies could come to them for advertising, or the biggest Wall Street banks could offer their investment.

Journalists could work with a sense of duty, but the press needed money to work, whether it was a left-wing or right-wing media outlet.

“I’m going to give you a big news story,” Alphonse said. “It’s that Doctor Ryu Young-Joon has gone to Nicaragua to do a big medical project.”

“...”

The hall was filled with silence.

It was public knowledge that Young-Joon went to Nicaragua and opened a medical center to treat patients. As such, Alphonse’s statement had an ulterior motive.

“Why did he go to Nicaragua, of all countries? As you know, the Sandinista government has been very anti-American and left-wing since the Cold War,” Alphonse said. “The markets are always driven by the principle of efficiency, but governments are not. Governments can be corrupt, and often are when too much power is concentrated in the hands of a few people.”

Alphonse raised his wine glass, and all the journalists in the room followed.

“I’m glad that’s not the case in the United States. If there was too much power concentrated in the government, they could have secretly paid Doctor Ryu some kind of compensation to get the medical project—especially the first target of the project that no one knew about,” Alphonse said. “Here’s to free markets and a free America.”

Then, he drank his wine.

Young-Joon was not going to be able to find any evidence. And even if he did find something, he couldn’t connect it to Lofair.

But in Lofair’s perspective, Young-Joon had too many weaknesses—a prophet with a powerful reputation could be destroyed with a single streak. The truth was irrelevant.

They needed a rumor that Young-Joon, the head of A-GenBio, was taking a bribe and carrying out his company project in Nicaragua.

‘And one more thing.’

Alphonse checked his email on his phone. It was from the chief operations officer at the CIA.

[Instructions confirmed.]

Alphonse was told that Isaiah Franklin, the most important witness, had a serious medical condition and didn’t have much time left. It wouldn’t be strange if she passed a few days earlier.

*

Ring!

As Young-Joon was gathering his thoughts while watching the festivities at the Nicaraguan medical center, an email popped up on his phone. It was from the secretary’s office at A-GenBio, who forwarded him a document from Harvard Medical School.

[Plasmid transport records from Professor George Thompson’s lab at Harvard Medical School.]

Young-Joon opened the file.

[1967: Three kinds of plasmids were donated for research purposes to Groom Lake Air Force Base located northeast of Siuna, Nicaragua.]

A plasmid was a circular piece of DNA with a specific gene inserted into it.

Young-Joon opened the data on the plasmid.

“This is a pretty big jackpot.”

Then, he smiled with satisfaction.

The plasmids were named “Helper DNA” and “pGT0818”, which were for virus production. A search for “pGT0818” on the Addgene website showed George Thompson’s lab as the creator, and this plasmid contained TALEN DNA.

The Lofair family was meticulous in erasing their records. They even removed any trace of transactions or royalty payments from Harvard’s administrative offices. It was a pretty complete destruction of evidence, but they didn’t take into account the handwritten notes in George Thompson’s private lab.

The Lofair family probably didn’t consider this, but professors often left notes. They did this because they could potentially plan collaborative research or take credit if someone used their DNA and obtained valuable data.

Normally, human experimentation at an air base would lead to an investigation of the victims and suspects, but Young-Joon was tracking them at the DNA level to begin with.

[Professor George Thompson has asked you to give a lecture at Harvard in exchange for the above material.]

Young-Joon chuckled after reading the entire email.

[Please tell him that I will schedule one later. Thank you.]

Young-Joon stood up after replying to the email. He had most of the cards now.

*

Robert was injecting something into Isaiah Franklin’s arm with a needle. It had to be done quickly, out of the sight of other agents.

“What is this?” Isaiah Franklin asked.

She was bruised and battered from a pretty grueling interrogation, but her eyes still had the fierceness of a wild dog.

“Doctor Ryu made this. He said it won’t cure you, but it’s a lot better than what you’ve been taking. It hasn’t gone through clinical trials or anything, but it’s not like you have another choice.”

“Hmph.”

“He went to Nicaragua, but he said he’ll cure you when he gets back.”

“What?”

Isaiah Franklin’s eyes widened.

“Doctor Ryu went to Nicaragua?”