Taxes are only within machine gun range!

Chapter 203 Primitive Voodoo Cult

Upon seeing the densely packed list of radioactive elements on the panel, Milton felt a chill run down his spine.

The locals were largely uneducated and had no idea what radioactive elements were. They thought that nuclear weapons and power plants were things that only superpowers could afford, and that these things were very far removed from their own lives.

The lack of education they received from a young age has left them completely unable to understand certain things.

Digging up some seemingly rare metals caused a perfectly healthy adult to suddenly develop festering sores all over their body, bleeding gums, systemic infection, and massive internal bleeding. Within days, they died despite all efforts to save them. To many locals, this was likely due to some kind of curse.

It's exactly the same as the legend of dying from a curse.

The soldier who reported was so terrified for this reason.

"So this is what that beast Lopez betrayed!" Milton sighed. "Now I understand why Lopez was able to get so much Russian equipment and why he was able to get a sum of money that could support him for another ten days or so of fighting."

In 1993, just one year earlier, the Tomsk-7 nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in Russia exploded, causing a serious leak.

With the Soviet Union having just collapsed, this event was like adding insult to injury for fragile Russia.

Lopez probably chose to be Russia's scapegoat, and with the CIA turning a blind eye, he managed to get some funding and weapons in return.

Everything makes sense now...

In fact, nuclear waste, especially spent fuel with high levels of radioactivity and highly radioactive liquid waste, generally needs to be compacted and solidified (vitrified) before being buried in very deep underground facilities and completely sealed with concrete.

This way, there will basically be no excessive radiation.

The problem is, Milton is really unsure whether Russia and Lopez have the time or the ability to be so responsible.

However, the fact that it was dug up by a few "gold prospectors" means that it must have been buried only in the shallow surface.

Milton took two deep breaths, waved his hand, and explained to the soldier, "This is not a curse, but a carefully planned attack and contamination by the enemy."

"The person behind me came in and put the interrogation report on the lobbying group on my desk."

"Get Brandon, Flora, and Lutz here right now! If this isn't resolved, it'll cause a huge problem."

In a small place like Guatemala in the 1994s, people generally had little understanding of radioactive materials. What if a gold prospector took radioactive elements to a village, or a hospital unknowingly brought the injured person and the radioactive metal to the hospital...

A similar incident occurred in China in 1992. A man found a beautiful piece of metal at a construction site and simply put it in his pocket and took it home. Three hours later, he developed a very serious reaction!

Ultimately, the radiation contamination affected hundreds of people.

That's practically a walking nuclear bomb!

A true dirty bomb!

The spread of this pollution is exponential over time, so we must act quickly and address it immediately, sealing off the source!

The panicked soldier relaxed slightly upon hearing that it was an enemy weapon and quickly went to call for help as Milton had instructed.

While he was at it, Milton quickly glanced at the interrogation report of the lobbying group members.

The contents recorded above were exactly as he had guessed.

Lopez hopes to reach a deal with Russia on the disposal of high-radiation nuclear waste, but such a deal cannot be completed by a warlord alone; it requires the cooperation of a head of state who can represent the entire country.

After ceding some of the profits to Arsu of Guatemala City, López finally got his wish and received the transport ship carrying tanks and funds...

Perhaps out of unwillingness to deal with it, or perhaps to spite Milton, whom they might defeat in the future, Lopez simply had a few cannon fodder find a spot and bury a shallow layer of the nuclear waste after it arrived.

As for those few unlucky soldiers, they had already died from the severely excessive radiation levels.

That's a damn comprador!
This is treason!
Lopez rolled his eyes and died, his body parts flying into some unknown house, leaving Milton to clean up the mess he left behind.

Three minutes later, the group arrived at Milton's office.

"Boss, what's wrong?"

"What kind of tricks is Arsu up to?"

Flora sighed: "Lopez's scheme has been exposed?"

Milton said coldly, "We have been hit by a nuclear attack."

"???"

Flora nearly jumped up: "What the hell? A nuclear strike? Surely your pathetic little place isn't serious enough to warrant a nuclear attack?"

“It’s not a nuclear bomb.” Milton shook his head. “That bastard Lopez helped Russia dispose of some highly radioactive nuclear waste, and now many people have been seriously injured or even killed—the father of the girl we met before boarding the plane is among the dead.”

"Huh?!" Flora was taken aback, then suddenly realized, "Oh... I've heard that many third-world countries do this kind of business, helping big countries dispose of nuclear waste and receiving a modest fee in return. To be honest, I really can't understand why anyone would take on this kind of job."

Yes, helping to dispose of nuclear waste may seem extremely polluting and costly, but it's actually not a particularly lucrative job.

That's enough to support Lopez to fight for another 10 days or so.

However, the impact it brings cannot be offset by this small amount of compensation.

“Development and peace are luxuries,” Milton said calmly. “Making money is hard, earning foreign exchange is even harder, but if you don’t do it, plenty of others will… Poverty is the only reason.”

"What should we do then?" Flora was also a bit troubled. "If this thing is not handled properly, it can easily cause a disaster."

“Only a makeshift solution.” Milton tapped the table. “Immediately purchase inert materials, such as borosilicate glass, to solidify and seal the nuclear waste, burying it underground forever. I will prepare Geiger counters, chemical protective suits, and self-sustaining masks—the gaseous particles of iodine-131 are difficult to block with ordinary gas masks; they can only be forcibly isolated.”

"Strictly limit the time each person can enter the highly contaminated area. Even with the highest level of protection, they must leave within 15 minutes. Each rescuer works in shifts, and a comprehensive check must be conducted after each mission."

“The process of handling pollution must strictly comply with the ALARA (Lowest Feasible Dose) principle.”

"Anyone willing to take on the task will receive a $1 bonus."

"If any long-term effects occur after the mission, the military government will guarantee their medical care and provide subsidies and compensation in accordance with the military disability benefits."

"The same applies to death; compensation and pensions will be paid as if the person died in action, and an immediate family member will be given a job."

Upon hearing this, Flora immediately began to gather her soldiers.

Milton looked at Brandon and instructed, "Brandon, you are in charge of sealing off the site, sealing off any place these gold prospectors have been, restricting personnel access, until all sources of contamination are isolated."

"Roger that!"

“Luz, go and inform Olya to bring her team of reporters to the scene for on-site interviews. The reporters must also take the most basic protective measures.”

"Roger that!"

"..."

After Milton had arranged all the plans, Flora asked, "Hmm... I've said how to handle it, but given the 'Hell Tax Collector's' personality, this is definitely not over yet. Tell me, how do you plan to retaliate?"

You really understand me.

Milton, his face cold, tapped the table: "Didn't you just mention a weapon, a 'dirty bomb'? Since someone has sent us the raw materials for a dirty bomb for free, wouldn't it be a waste of their 'kindness' if I didn't take advantage of it?"

"I rely on..."

Dirty bombs and nuclear bombs are fundamentally different. Dirty bombs rely on various explosive materials to spread radioactive material on a large scale, causing widespread radiation damage.

Nuclear bombs generate a large amount of energy through fission or fusion reactions. They are essentially super high-explosive bombs. Depending on the type of nuclear bomb, some are accompanied by large-scale nuclear contamination, while others have little to no contamination.

Dirty bombs may have little effect on well-organized, modernized units with comprehensive NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical) protection capabilities.

But in Guatemala, Milton was confident he could inflict a heavy blow on the enemy with a dirty bomb. The only concern was how to avoid affecting civilians... otherwise, things could get really serious.

Flora took a moment to process Milton's words before reminding him, "However, I still have to say that the destructive power of a dirty bomb is actually not that great... Don't treat it as a decisive weapon."

“Of course I know,” Milton nodded slightly, “but in fact, wounds are in some ways more devastating to the enemy than deaths.”

The wounded will have a huge impact on the already strained logistics and medical systems.

This is more important than ordinary economic pressure.

“The mission is all arranged, we need to get ready and set off immediately.” Milton redeemed a Geiger counter and a large number of hazmat suits on the panel, while cursing Lopez under his breath, “Go check it out over there.”

Geiger counters can detect ionizing radiation, which is sufficient to handle nuclear waste.

Flora's eyes widened: "You're going to do it yourself?"

“What we need most right now is morale,” Milton explained. “Many people here don’t know what nuclear radiation is. Just now, a soldier thought it was a curse. As the head of the military government, I’m personally on the front lines with so many scientific and technological products. I can easily subdue what they call a curse and effectively dispel their feudal superstitions.”

"What kind of lousy curse is that? Can it stop a fin-stabilized discarding sabot armor-piercing round?"

The only way to break this "curse" at its root is through education.

But the results of education take time to show. Faced with a group of people who could barely write their own names, Milton had no choice but to take matters into his own hands to solve the problem quickly.

Flora remained silent for a long time, then muttered in a voice only she could hear, "I think if you do this, they might believe you're some kind of great wizard, instead of believing in materialism..." Milton, who was checking his hazmat suit at that moment, asked, "What did you say?"

"It's nothing!" Flora quickly followed. "Sigh, working with you for the past few months has been more exciting than when I was a mercenary, or rather, running PMC for so many years. Now we're even involved with 'nuclear bombs'."

"I can't even imagine what mission I'll be on a year from now..."

"Don't worry, you can get to the other side." Milton chuckled. "Come on, put on your hazmat suits, and get on the helicopter!"

……

Mullulham town.

An ominous atmosphere hung over this small town of just over a thousand people.

As a small town located further southeast of Champellico Port, in a completely unimportant position with little economic value, the recent battle had no impact on them whatsoever.

That's the advantage of a place that is not contested by military strategists.

For them, the ruler's name was simply changed from Lopez to Milton; life had to go on as usual.

For some unknown reason, some gold prospectors from out of nowhere heard rumors that some extremely rare metals, even rarer than gold, had been discovered near the town.

You can make a fortune if you can dig up even a tiny bit.

Originally, the people in the town just treated this kind of thing as a joke. When the locals finished their busy day and were drinking in the tavern, they would bring it up as a funny story to relieve their boredom.

What a joke! If there really were a gold mine, or a mineral even rarer than gold, would it take until now for a bunch of gold prospectors from who-knows-where to discover it?
It was probably hollowed out by the Spanish 100 years ago.

But to everyone's surprise, these gold prospectors from outside actually brought some metals with a strange luster that they had never seen before!
It wasn't any metal they had ever seen before!
Many people went up to take a look and found that it was indeed the natural luster of the metal, not some special paint!

Is there really a special metal mine nearby?
A mysterious metal mine that has never been discovered before?

The town had a small population to begin with, so the news spread like wildfire, and the whole town was in an uproar!
Many people have even begun to imagine that this opportunity might allow the small town to become a major city like San Francisco.

But soon, in less than two hours, the whole thing started to take the turn into a bizarre story.

First, the gold prospectors suddenly felt nauseous and unwell, and kept vomiting, spilling their wine and steak all over the ground.

At first, they thought it was because the food in the town was unsanitary, but no one else had such symptoms; only the gold prospectors' group seemed to be acting strangely.

After taking some medicine, the gold prospectors' condition not only did not improve, but it began to deteriorate rapidly, with purple blisters, oozing pus and blood, and inexplicable hair loss...

While talking, his teeth fell out, his eyeballs seemed about to pop out when he blinked, and he inexplicably coughed up a lot of blood...

These people then struggled in agony for several days before finally dying.

Everything was exactly like those weird movies that play on TV, the kind that keep you up at night!
No, it's even scarier than horror movies. At least in most horror movies, there's an entity called a "ghost."

These gold prospectors were literally cursed to death!
Meanwhile, in a bar, several young men and women were drinking beer and whispering among themselves—the bar's only old black-and-white television was broken and under emergency repair, so they could only chat to pass the time.

"Did you hear that?"

"Nonsense, everyone's heard that if my parents found out I sneaked out to drink, they'd kick my ass raw."

"This is terrifying... Can we, can we still live in this town? Could it be that we've all been cursed? Could the whole town be cursed?"

"Where did this curse come from? Why have I never heard my parents, or even my grandparents, mention it? It's like it just appeared out of nowhere."

"When I was little, my grandma told me a similar story. It was about a person who took something that didn't belong to him, was cursed, and died mysteriously. It scared me to tears!"

"But my grandmother said she took a rag doll, not some kind of mineral."

"Perhaps, perhaps your grandmother was wrong. The truth is that those metals... perhaps they are cursed, or things buried with a wizard. They shouldn't be dug up casually."

"God..." a girl said anxiously, clutching the wooden crucifix in her hand, "Please bless us..."

“How about we go to Port Champerico? It’s closer… Besides, I heard that the ‘Hell Tax Collector’ lives there. No matter how powerful the curse is, it shouldn’t be able to curse a demon from hell, right? I heard that as long as you pay him a little tax, he won’t make things difficult for you.”

“Let’s go home!” The boy became more and more frightened as he spoke. He felt that the pub, which was not well lit and had far fewer customers than usual, was not safe at all. “I’m so scared. Those gold prospectors came here. I’m afraid this place is cursed too.”

"The TV is broken...maybe something is playing tricks on it."

The tavern was hardly occupied, but the four young men and women felt it was incredibly lively, as if every corner held a pair of eyes watching them.

The best effect comes from scaring yourself. The group quickly left the tavern, intending to go home separately.

However, they hadn't walked far when they saw thirty or forty people gathered in the forest park not far away, and more and more people were crowding around them.

A barefoot man dressed in a black and red linen robe, with a sash woven from a gallows, his body covered in strange symbols, was standing in front of a very simple altar, giving some kind of speech.

On the altar, there was also a bowl of "Ayakata water".

The group exchanged glances and immediately realized that the priest might have come because of the town's curse. They quickly stepped forward to hear what he had to say.

Perhaps, perhaps we can find a way to survive, or to break the curse?

The priest's face was full of mystery.

"Can you smell the sweet stench of decay in the wind? That is the spirit of Mother Earth chewing on the souls of sinners!"

"Those greedy gold diggers angered the Earth Mother, angered her priests, and incurred Her punishment! Their wails are the sacred songs of spirits gnawing at souls!"

"Look at those fools who died under the curse—they thought they had struck gold, but they had actually opened the gates of hell! Now, the vengeful spirits behind the gates are looking for new prey, all because of your stupidity, your ignorance, your blasphemy, your arrogance... and your forgetfulness."

"Only blood can quench the earth's burning pain! Bind your enemy to the altar—rip open his chest, let the throbbing flesh quench the thirst of his soul! Quell the wrath of Mother Earth!"

"When the screams of the sacrifice reach their peak—the Earth Mother will withdraw her curse, and we must always remember Her name and please Her."

"Otherwise, the curse will descend once more, and then even death itself will be a luxury. The Earth Mother will curse your souls, imprisoning them forever in your bodies, turning them into resurrected corpses, slaves for eternity, to suffer torment."

"..."

People listened with fear and confusion.

Are they really cursed?

Was the town truly cursed with death because of those few pieces of metal?
Moreover, the method to resolve it sounds...

but……

The boy who had just finished a beer suddenly had a flash of inspiration and blurted out, "'Resurrected corpse'... I've heard of it. You, you're a priest of the Voodoo Cult, but..."

But something feels off about this outfit.
The priest erupted in fury: "Don't mention those heretics! They've distorted God's teachings; they are blasphemers and will soon face retribution! In the inevitable apocalypse on December 21, 2012, they've already lost all hope of survival!!!"

"If you want to survive, do as I say!"

"Shut up!" Just then, a squad of three officers came running from a distance. The sheriff in the lead had a grim face. "Everyone, go home immediately, isolate yourselves, and wait for us to handle these matters."

They were the local police—the town only had a small police station with eight officers.

As for the curse, this sheriff, who was somewhat educated, unlike the others, believed it was likely some kind of Black Death, not a curse. As for why he fell ill after mining, that was just a coincidence.

The priest flew into a rage: "You want to take us all to die? Is this your policeman? Is he trying to steal your chance of survival in the apocalypse to please other evil gods?"

"This……"

The others, including the other two officers, exchanged bewildered glances. Some even whispered requests for the sheriff to let the priest finish speaking and for the sheriff to remove his hand from the holster of his revolver.

The priest grew even more smug: "How dare you wield a blasphemous weapon..."

beep beep beep...

Before the priest could finish speaking, the sound of a helicopter engine came from the sky, and a howling wind blew the Aya vine over to the ground.

Everyone looked on in astonishment, only to see several giant steel beasts descending from the sky, followed by a large number of people dressed in clothes that covered their entire bodies, who were carrying strange instruments and inspecting the area.

Milton, who was in charge, stepped forward. He frowned slightly as he looked at the puddle of ayahuasca on the ground, and finally just waved his hand: "Everyone, disperse immediately and go home. Protect yourselves with all kinds of metals as much as possible. No one is allowed to leave without my orders. Starting tomorrow, the army will provide everyone with full food rations."

"Local police, right? Come and collect your hazmat suits. The order of this town is your responsibility..."

Seeing that someone dared to ignore him, the priest raised his staff and slammed it against the floor: "Shut up! Blasphemer! You are provoking Mother Earth!"

“I am the priestess of the Earth Mother, and I can hear Her divine pronouncements. I tell you, you will suffer terrible consequences for your blasphemy…”

boom!
Milton pulled out his pistol and fired a shot into the air.

At the same time, he turned around and took a 12.7x99mm bullet from the helicopter's ammunition box.

"This is an M8 armor-piercing incendiary round, 12.7mm caliber. I can pull the trigger of a heavy machine gun and shoot it at you. Let me tell you, if I hear another word of nonsense, you and your so-called Mother Earth will be blasted into pieces by this bullet. I guarantee that even Satan won't recognize what you look like when you go to hell."

P.S.: After three days of IV drips, I finally feel a little better. The pain that tormented me for almost 10 days is finally gone.

(End of this chapter)