Living in North America, working from 9 to 5

Chapter 168 Boom! The building exploded! The sky fell!

After hanging up the phone, Roy lowered his head and tore off Taylor's mask, breathing freely. He didn't expect Irina to be so quick.

It seems that the actions on both sides are carried out simultaneously.

Just then, Roy's cell phone rang.

I opened the cover of V998 and saw Irina's number.

The call was connected, and Irina's queenly voice came out of the receiver:
"How's it going? Did you get the message?"

Roy rips off the vocal cord resonance sheet:
"Got it, let me go back there."

"I'll meet you at the Central Park bus stop."

"OK!"

Roy drove Taylor's BMW 7 Series, turned around at the next traffic light and drove straight to Central Park in Manhattan.

About fifteen minutes later, the BMW stopped at the bus stop.

Irina, who was wearing a professional suit, sunglasses and had also disguised her face, opened the back door and got in the car.

After Irina closed the car door, Roy stepped on the accelerator and drove slowly towards 81 Maiden Lane in the Wall Street district of Manhattan.

Taking off her sunglasses, Irina said, "It takes about 81 minutes to get from here to 20 Maiden Lane, Wall Street. The emergency board meeting is expected to be held in 30 minutes. At that time, board members in the building and nearby board members will attend. Board members in other places will use video to participate in the meeting. How many people can attend depends on luck."

Roy slowed down the car and said, "I didn't expect your speed and efficiency to be so high. I thought it would take at least tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow..."

Irina smiled slightly: "The organization's people are all over the world, and the field staff are engaged in various industries. Some things are prepared in advance, and it's just a matter of when to notify them to execute them."

Roy asked, "If Susan's case is successful and the IRS issues a huge tax fine, will you still use the field agents stationed there to carry out this mission?"

Irina smiled and said, "No, the organization wants a complete pharmaceutical company that can generate huge economic benefits. Losing a pharmaceutical factory is a bit too much. I just want to make a business fuss. What I need is their stock price to plummet. The organization does not want to see their actual assets shrink."

Roy looked at Irina's flawless face in the rearview mirror: "Is it worth it for you to do this for my revenge?"

Irina looked at Roy's profile and smiled, "It's worth it. You don't have to worry about the organization. If the Supreme Committee asks me, I will tell them that Plan A is canceled after Susan's death and Plan B will be implemented. Taking down their board of directors is Plan B."

Roy stopped the car at the traffic light ahead and looked back at Irina: "Am I really that important to you? Or, am I really that important to the organization?"

Irina smiled slightly: "You are unique."

From Irina's words, Roy once again confirmed a problem, that is, he is very important to the organization, and his importance is even far greater than the value of Huirui.

The Irina sisters were very good to me, but that didn't mean they could do whatever they wanted. Taking down the board of directors of Phinox Corporation would be a shocking thing. It would not just be murder, it would definitely be classified as a terrorist attack.

Irina can support him unreservedly, which is obviously not normal. Her feelings may be revealed through sleeping with him, but as a senior agent of the organization and number 17, there is no way she will lose her mind because of emotional problems.

If the top brass of the organization does not pursue this matter, it means that Irina's status in the organization is far higher than her code name.

Roy thought of number 89 again...

Also, on the CIA side, Augustus Walker's mission was surveillance, just surveillance, and there was no secret arrest.

Walker also revealed his father's true identity, an intelligence technician in the CIA Intelligence Department. But was he just an ordinary intelligence technician? Was it necessary for them to go to so much trouble to set up control over him?

At this moment, Roy realized that his father's identity was definitely not as simple as Walker said. Perhaps he had another identity. Could he also be an agent of the organization?

Also, what did my father leave behind?

Roy decided that after this matter was over, he would thoroughly investigate the complicated relationship involved. Maybe Vanessa would know something, or maybe...

Driving slowly past two traffic lights, Roy saw the Huirui headquarters building in the distance.

In the sky, two helicopters flew almost close to the tops of tall buildings in Manhattan. The direction in which the helicopters were flying was exactly the direction of the Huirui headquarters building.

Five minutes later, the first helicopter landed on the helipad on the rooftop. The cabin door opened and a middle-aged white man in a gray suit and sunglasses jumped off the helicopter and walked to the safe area under the escort of bodyguards.

The helicopter quickly flew away and cleared the helipad.

Immediately afterwards, the second helicopter slowly landed.

The cabin door was opened by the bodyguards outside the cabin, and an old white man with gray hair and wrinkles on both sides of his cheeks appeared in everyone's sight.

The bodyguard rushed forward to help.

The middle-aged white man who was waiting not far away hurried forward. The huge downward pressure blew his hair into a mess. The middle-aged white man shouted loudly:

"Chairman, something has happened in India. The news will be on the headlines of all major media within an hour. The source of the leak will become the main point of attack for our competitors. An emergency board meeting will be held within ten minutes."

The second helicopter flew away and the noise at the scene slowly faded away.

The gray-haired chairman walked into the building and said, "Bayer, immediately allocate $300 million for public relations and notify all mainstream media that they can report on the incident, but do not mention the pollution source leak. Tell them that if any reporter dares to report on the pollution source leak, his entire family will commit suicide."

"Yes, Chairman!" Bayer, the company's executive vice president, bowed slightly. "I have already sent an investigation team to the pharmaceutical factory to investigate the cause of the explosion. The video footage sent back from there shows that it was most likely man-made."

"Let's talk about it at the board meeting..."

After saying this, the chairman entered the building.

ten minutes later.

Boardroom on the 10th floor of the company's headquarters.

The two bodyguards bowed slightly and opened the door to the conference room.

The chairman walked into the meeting room.

The directors in the conference room stood up and looked at the chairman collectively.

Arriving at his seat, the chairman sat down first, glanced at the rectangular desk, and said, "Sit down!"

The directors attending the emergency board meeting took their seats one after another.

Many of the seats surrounding the rectangular desk were empty, with only about two-thirds of them occupied. The remaining one-third were out of state or abroad and could not make it to the meeting in person, so they could only connect via video.

On the wall directly opposite the chairman is a whole series of display screens. Directors who are unable to return to attend the board meetings can access the screen via video link.

"Dear directors..."

The chairman just started to speak, then suddenly stopped. He scanned the meeting room again, hooked his finger at his assistant, and asked, "Why didn't Raymond Taylor come?"

The assistant shook his head slightly: "I'll go give him a call!"

Vice President Holmes Miller, who was sitting to the right of the chairman, said respectfully, "Chairman, Taylor went out earlier, but I have called him and he should be here soon."

The chairman nodded slightly and said to everyone, "Okay, let's not wait for him. Everyone, just now, the company had the biggest safety accident since its establishment. This time, we have called you to an emergency board meeting. We need to discuss how to deal with the damn news media from various countries. The death of a few Indians is not a big deal. The company's reputation cannot be damaged."

After saying that, the chairman turned his head and looked at Holmes Miller: "Holmes, tell me about the situation over there first."

Holmes took a deep breath, looked at the directors attending the meeting, and said, "According to the report sent back by the company over there, the explosion of the chemical agent in the storage room caused at least 100 tons of chemical agents to leak. We can no longer stop the leak. The concentration of toxic gases produced on site has long exceeded the critical value. The high temperature makes it impossible for anyone to get close. Now it is drizzling over there. The rain will wash the leaked chemicals into the river and eventually flow into the Ganges..."

A director asked: "Holmes, how much impact will this incident have on the local ecology?"

Holmes said: "Now is not the time to talk about the impact. Even if we invest $100 billion, we can't completely remove the chemicals that have penetrated into the soil. Now we have to consider how to do public relations and minimize the company's losses. We are responsible to our shareholders, not those damn Indians!"

The chairman said: "Holmes is right. Things have happened and the situation has gotten out of control. Our first priority is the interests of shareholders."

Executive Vice President Bayer said: "Everyone, I just received the latest news from there. This is not an accident, it was caused intentionally..." As soon as Bayer said this, the directors attending the meeting were suddenly in an uproar. The directors who were not present and the ones on the display screen all had shocked expressions on their faces.

Taking a deep breath, Bayer continued, "This was a premeditated attack specifically targeting our company. The surveillance footage at the time recorded the entire process of the explosion. Through frame-by-frame analysis, it was found that C4 explosives were installed at the explosion point."

There were sounds of people gasping for air everywhere at the scene.

The Huirui executives looked at each other with astonishment on their faces. If they were attacked, it would be too terrible.

One director asked, “Bail, as you said, this was an attack on the company, so what was the attacker’s purpose?”

Bayer turned and looked at the chairman.

The chairman nodded to Bayer, indicating that he could speak.

Bayer said: "I think this attack is intended to stir up a storm of public opinion around the world. Ladies and gentlemen, the UN recently passed an environmental bill, and the EU is also holding a global environmental conference. Although the conference discusses carbon neutrality and aims to hinder the development of developing countries, our pharmaceutical factory will instantly become the focus of public opinion if an accident occurs at this time."

The directors nodded in unison.

Baier continued: "There will be endless criticism and our stock price will plummet. Who wants our stock price to plummet the most?"

The directors on site looked at each other.

Bayer's voice reached everyone's ears again: "The last time we held a board meeting, we discussed the IRS's appointment of Pricewaterhouse to audit us. This matter is obviously also aimed at our stock price. Now, the woman in charge of the audit has completely disappeared. I think these two things should be related, and it is very likely that they were done by the same group of people."

Holmes looked at Bayer and said, "Are you talking about the mysterious organization behind Qiangsheng Pharmaceuticals?"

Bayer nodded: "Yes!"

The chairman said, "They have crossed the line, everyone. Someone has declared war on us. The first shot the company has to fire is to protect the stock price. We must not allow panic to occur at this time, otherwise it will cause a catastrophic sell-off. If the company's current liquidity is all invested in the stock market to stabilize the stock price, the loss to us will be too great. Our secret laboratories in various countries still need a large amount of capital injection, so public relations must be put first. Any reporter who dares to report this matter truthfully must commit suicide!"

The directors present nodded collectively to show their support for the chairman.

Through a remote connection, Dr. Isaac said on the screen: "We must use strong actions to tell those news organizations and reporters what 'truthful' reporting means!"

The chairman looked at Bayer and asked, "What do you think their next move will be?"

at the same time……

A director at the end of the table received a silent message. He looked down at his phone screen and saw the following message:

"Leave the meeting room within five seconds!"

The director pushed his chair back twenty centimeters, stood up, and walked out the door calmly.

When the chairman saw it, he asked, “Philip, what’s wrong?”

The director, named Philip, walked away and said, "I'm going to the bathroom and will be back soon!"

The chairman turned around and continued the discussion.

300 meters away from the company's headquarters building.

A BMW 7 Series was parked in a roadside parking space.

Irina, who had just sent the message, took out a spare cell phone and dialed a number. A long beep sounded.

Under the hidden conference room, the screen of a mobile phone in the detonator attached to the floor lit up...

Irina looked at Roy: "It's your turn."

Roy took out his spare phone, looked down at the number he had entered in advance, moved his finger to the dial button, took a deep breath, and pressed it:

"Goodbye!"

A long reminder sounded...

At the same time, the screen of another mobile phone on the detonator lights up, and a 6-volt voltage is transmitted instantly, integrating with the 6-volt voltage of the other mobile phone, and the 12-volt voltage is connected.

The repeater is activated, sending out a diffusion signal.

The 25 pieces of C4 explosives stuck to the ceiling were detonated at the same time!
With a loud bang, the floor was shattered, the steel bars were broken, and the shock wave mixed with countless concrete fragments spread around at a speed of several thousand meters per second. At this speed, any substance, even chewing gum, can penetrate the fragile human skin.

The shock wave from the explosion shattered all the glass on the 9th and 10th floors facing the street, and huge amounts of glass fragments fell to the ground below.

A huge fireball erupted from the room, and even the glass on the building across the street was not spared. With the explosion as the center point, all the glass within a radius of 500 meters was shattered.

After hearing the loud explosion, pedestrians on both sides of the road stopped and looked upward. When they saw all kinds of debris falling towards them, they screamed and ran around like headless flies.

The crackling pieces fell to the ground, including a lot of human tissue, palms, arms, thighs, feet, heart, liver, lungs, etc.

Philip, a member of the board of directors, was blown away by a huge shock wave from behind him five meters after he walked out of the meeting room. He broke through another door and fell heavily to the ground, his life or death unknown.

Selena, who was sitting in the cafe, quickly stood up and stepped back just before the explosion. The floor-to-ceiling window in front of her was shattered by the shock wave.

Roy, Irina and Isabella, who were sitting in the BMW, looked at the fireball rising in the distance at the same time, with smiles on their faces.

Ten seconds after the explosion, the scene became extremely chaotic, with pedestrians running everywhere. The various falling debris hit nearby cars, making banging noises.

Isabella quickly took out the vacuum device and put it against Roy's neck, pressed the button, the vacuum pump started, and the microwave locator was sucked out.

The locator becomes ineffective within 0.1 seconds after being sucked out.

Opening the car window, Isabella threw the locator into the sewer under the car.

A van appeared at the scene and stopped right next to the BMW. After the van left, the BMW was empty.

Ten seconds after the truck left, the BMW exploded dramatically.

At the scene, police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks continued to arrive. Patrolmen from the Manhattan Police Department began to maintain order at the scene. Emergency doctors in the ambulances quickly got out, took out stretchers, walked past the civilian casualties, and ran straight to the building where the explosion occurred.

Injured civilians: “???”

After the fire truck was parked, the firefighters jumped out, looked up at the explosion points on the 9th and 10th floors, and ran towards the building carrying oxygen tanks.

Injured Civilian: "Hey! I'm injured!"

Watching all the firefighters and paramedics run into the building, countless question marks appeared above the heads of several injured civilians.

Jonathan, with his face disguised, drove a truck on the streets of Manhattan, going in the opposite direction of the oncoming police car.

The truck returned to Brooklyn via Brooklyn Avenue, and half an hour later, everyone returned to the villa safely.

Inside the villa, in front of the TV.

Roy, Irina, Jonathan, Selina, and Isabella all looked at the TV screen.

On the screen was a news report from CNN.

"Dear audience, I am currently at 81 Maiden Lane in the Wall Street district of Manhattan. The building behind me is the headquarters of Huirui Pharmaceuticals. Just now, violent explosions occurred simultaneously on the 9th and 10th floors of the building!"

"Since the building security and police have blocked the scene, we are unable to enter the building for an interview. However, judging from the situation at the scene, the casualties should be very large. I have reason to suspect that this is a terrorist attack against Huirui Company."

Screen jump...

(End of this chapter)