Fatal Strike: Paladins Mercenary Road

Chapter 616 Finding the Right Position
What Shanying hates most is this kind of situation that he can't control at all...

Facing Mori's somewhat nervous tone, he said helplessly: "No matter how complicated it is, tell me what's going on first."

Mori thought for a moment and said, "I don't know the details either. The people in the Losers Alliance have the authority to view some confidential information. They found in a report that in June this year, a laboratory in Sierra Leone accidentally leaked a virus.

Then in July, the Ebola virus began to spread in three West African countries.

The real situation is much more serious than what is reported by the media, because there are many people living in remote rural areas and jungles who are sick and are not included in the statistics.

At the end of September, a Liberian named Duncan came to Texas to visit relatives and soon fell ill.

In less than ten days, the guy died in the hospital.

The media reported that he was the only one who died, but in fact the community where he lived while visiting relatives was blocked, and 15 people died in the hospital while in quarantine.

This was a very serious safety accident, so the Department of Homeland Security and the CDC intervened in the investigation, traced the source of the virus, and quickly found the laboratory where the problem occurred.

What happened there was not an accident, but a man-made attack. Someone hired local anti-government forces to attack the laboratory, which then triggered the spread of the Ebola virus.

The laboratory that was attacked was sponsored by the British company Granstrecker. After the CDC intervened in the investigation, the fact that the laboratory stored and studied the virus was exposed...

And someone found out that Duncan, who went to Texas to visit relatives, was a member of a terrorist organization. Some people suspected that the terrorist organization was trying to release a virulent virus to the United States through human transmission. "

Shanying frowned and said, "It sounds to me like a show written and directed by a pharmaceutical company for profit...

If Ebola spreads in America, will they make a lot of money?"

"On the contrary..."

Mori decisively denied it: "After investigation, the Department of Homeland Security has ruled out the suspicion of the two companies."

Shanying heard this and shook his head and said, "Why do I feel that they are more suspicious after hearing what you said?
This makes it sound like the two companies are allowing so-called terrorists to steal the virus and vaccines and then using them to clear their names.

Their vaccine would be extremely valuable if the virus were to spread through the hands of thieves.”

Mori was stunned for a moment, then said helplessly: "Although I also feel it is a bit suspicious, but this is the information I got.

Because Merck completed the acquisition of the vaccine project of the Winnipeg Laboratory afterwards, they spent a lot of money to buy the subsequent development rights of the vaccine.

The situation is similar for Granstrike. They were implicated because the virus laboratory in Sierra Leone was exposed. After the incident, they also spent money to buy shares in the subsequent development rights of the vaccine from Merck.

According to my intelligence, neither company is participating voluntarily.

The Department of Homeland Security believes that a terrorist organization wanted to obtain the Ebola virus and vaccine technology, and then allowed the thieves to escape for some distance after they succeeded.

Shan, no one foresaw the thieves' actions, but the Department of Homeland Security responded promptly...

The escape route and identities of the thieves were soon discovered. The other party's plane crashed in Alaska not for no reason, but because of some technical means.

Merck consultants told the DHS that Ebola was inactive in sub-zero temperatures, so they chose to make the site a trap.

Now the thieves are trapped, and there are several elite troops around them monitoring them from a distance.

Once someone goes to meet them, they will be..."

After Shanying heard this, he said in disbelief, "That is to say, the people from the Department of Homeland Security knew that those people were carrying dangerous viruses, but they did not choose to intercept them as soon as possible after knowing their identities and escape routes, but instead set up a so-called trap?

What is this operation? "

After listening to this, Mori was silent for a while, then lowered his voice and said, "Shan, the Department of Homeland Security has a budget of 1030 billion US dollars every year, but they are also human beings, they are not omnipotent...

Things happen, and they always have to think of ways to make up for it!"

Shanying heard it and said suddenly, "Oh, I see, those so-called known identities and routes are just bragging, only making the plane crash in the end is their real ability.

These guys packaged their mistakes as traps because it made them look less stupid!"

Shanying suddenly said with some amusement: "Then can I assume that the so-called terrorist organization was also made up by them?"

Mori chuckled and said, "Then I don't know, I only know that this kind of thing will be very valuable on the black market.

And there must be many terrorist organizations interested in it!

I'm not particularly familiar with the underground world, but you can ask around, maybe you'll get some unexpected information."

Shanying decisively rejected Mori's proposal and hung up the phone...

He believed that Mori would not lie to him, and the process of the matter should not be a big problem. However, considering the practices of the two large companies, Shanying had his own guess...

The worst possible scenario is that the three West African countries are a testing ground, the best place for virus outbreaks and vaccine verification. The pharmaceutical company arranged for someone to attack the laboratory, causing the virus to leak, and then found someone with a terrorist background to go to the United States to attract attention, and then the virus and vaccine in the Winburne laboratory were lost.

What will happen if the virus and vaccine are really lost?
Even if the lost viruses and vaccines are recovered or destroyed, given the precedent in Texas, how will other countries react when they receive the news?
The panic among the people will trigger a vaccine arms race among countries, and then the vaccine information in the hands of the two companies will be worth a lot of money.

Not to mention the vaccine reserves needed by those major countries, just the technology transfer alone can make them a lot of money!
The better possibility is that there is indeed such a terrorist organization, or an underground organization that wants to make huge profits in the black market through viruses and vaccines.

Everything that happened before was led by this terrorist organization, but Merck and Grenstryk chose to add fuel to the flames after acquiring the rights to develop the vaccine.

Anyway, from their current actions, Shanying didn't see any determination from them to get back or destroy the virus at all costs.

In Shanying's eyes, no matter what the truth of the matter is, these two companies are definitely not clean.

Because the thieves only stole the virus and vaccine, they did not have the ability to destroy the research results of the Winborn laboratory.

In other words, this so-called terrorist organization cannot make a profit from the virus, but can only create a humanitarian crisis by releasing the virus.

Because once they have the idea of making a profit, they will be targeted immediately.

In fact, no matter what they choose in the end, the only two giant pharmaceutical companies will truly profit from the small-scale virus spread in Texas.

From a purely business perspective, these two companies would lose money if they invested a dollar in Alaska. They arranged a few executives to do the show, probably just to provide an explanation later.

Shanying had no way of judging whether it was the worst or best case scenario, but he did identify the positions of the two pharmaceutical companies.

The ultimate goal of capital pharmaceutical companies is always to make money!
Capital will not refuse the opportunity to turn a losing business into a profitable one.

Even if we can accumulate a lot of technology or other achievements in the process of developing vaccines through studying the Ebola virus, which can cover part of the R&D costs...

But capital doesn’t calculate that way!

Shanying guessed part of it correctly...

The virus leak in West Africa was actually an accident, but the guy who traveled all the way to Texas to visit his relatives was not an accident...

It was the behind-the-scenes sponsor of the Winnipeg Laboratory in Canada, and it sponsored that guy a flight to Texas.

The Winnipeg laboratory is not a Merck laboratory, but an independent laboratory in Canada.

They developed a vaccine that could generate Ebola antibodies and completed the first phase of technical validation during the West African outbreak, then proposed the idea of donating 1000 doses of the vaccine through the Canadian government.

This is when Merck and Glenn Stryker stepped in…

Giants like Merck sometimes need to assume some social responsibility. After the Texas incident, under certain pressure, they paid a large sum of money to purchase the subsequent development rights of the vaccine.

Because of the problems in the virus laboratory, the Granstryk company involved was forced to join in.

Now these two companies jointly control the rights to the subsequent development of the vaccine. Before the thief appeared, this might have been a losing deal, but it may not be the case after the thief appeared.

Most importantly, when Merck and Granstreck appeared, Winborn Laboratories and the shareholders behind it disappeared perfectly.

What people have not realized is that compared with the two large companies, Winnipeg Laboratory still retains the most complete vaccine technology data and has the right to conduct subsequent development on its own.

…………

Shanying didn't know the details, but after he found out the positions of the two companies, he suddenly realized that the positions of these two companies might be different from those of the Department of Homeland Security.

It may not be just that they are not working hard, they may even want the virus and vaccines to be taken away by thieves.

Once the matter is exposed on a large scale, or even the virus is released, it may be more in their interest to let the matter become completely out of hand.

The virus itself is very dangerous. After all, the virus in the laboratory is not the same as the virus sources that are circulating in West Africa, at least the concentration is different.

Once this thing flows into the underground black market, things will become a big deal, and there will definitely be crazy people who will become interested in it.

The subsequent development and production of vaccines is definitely not something that can be accomplished in a short period of time. Even if there is ready-made research data, there are countless technical bottlenecks in production and manufacturing.

But this is not a problem for the two big companies...

If vaccine development rights were originally just a mediocre stock, now Merck and Grunstrike have found the key to make the stock soar.

Shanying figured it out and no longer worried about his own safety!

But what he never expected was that the development of things soon deviated from the track he expected...

(End of this chapter)