All it took was a single shot from the military helicopter. It then turned around and returned to the city, nowhere to be seen after that.
If not for the mass of fireball and billowing smoke alight in the distance, it felt like everything that had just happened was no more than a fever dream.
Before the crowd had come to their senses, the entrance to the Eco Science City opened again. A group of armed soldiers fitted in fully enclosed protective suits marched out of the city.
Closely trailing behind the list of soldiers was an operating crane truck and a regular truck.
Without being prompted to do so, the crowd opened up a path, allowing the vehicles to head toward the wreckage of the BBC helicopter.
When Chen Chen saw the two trucks departing, he made a gesture of patting the colonel next to him to inform him that there was no need to be nervous. After that, he left the tower and got into a car.
“Back to the research center.”
The driver began on his way upon receiving the order.
On the way back, after a moment’s consideration, Chen Chen took out his phone and dialed a number.
The call was connected within two rings. A soft, womanly voice answered the call.
“Hi, this is the Foster Group, may I know who you’re looking for?”
“Connect me to Norman Foster,” Chen Chen answered.
“I’m sorry sir, our chairman is currently resting. May I know who this is?” The lady sounded extremely apologetic.
“Tell him I’m Chen Chen.”
“Alright, one moment please…”
After that, there was silence on the phone.
After about two or three minutes, the call was picked up again, a deep voice came from the other end. “Chen Chen, you dare to call me. I haven’t settled the score with you yet for killing my son.”
“Mr. Norman, I’m just helping you handle your business.”
Chen Chen answered unsympathetically, “Besides, you’ll soon be able to live several hundreds of years, long enough to bury your grandchildren. So, why bother clinging on to such trivial matters?”
“Ha!”
The man on the phone scoffed and left it at that.
Chen Chen smiled. If the other party wanted to exact revenge, it would have been done a long time ago. Chen Chen cut straight to the point. “Mr. Norman, there’s something I need your help with, I need to get in touch with the head of BBC.”
“BBC? What happened?”
“I just shot down a BBC helicopter, I think there were three people inside it. The pilot aside, there was also a videographer and reporter,” Chen Chen thought for a moment and explained.
Silence loomed briefly on the other end of the phone before a response followed, “I’m sure the wreckage and the flight recorder are taken care of.”
“It’s being taken care of, there won’t be any traces left behind.”
“How about witnesses, are they dealt with?”
“There’s no way to deal with the witnesses since hundreds of thousands of them watched me shoot down the BBC helicopter.”
Yet another wave of silence on the other end of the phone before Norman erupted. “Are you messing with me now?”
“No, Mr. Norman. I’m being serious now.”
Chen Chen announced solemnly, “It won’t be a problem because the witnesses are the refugees of Namibia. Truth be told, if Mr. Norman isn’t willing to help then I can just get in touch with Mr. Wilson, I’m certain he’ll be more than willing to help me.”
No response came from the other end.
After a brief moment, the heavy voice started again. “I get it, I can cover this up for you. You won’t even need to make an appearance. In return, I expect thirty thousand information credits as payment.”
“Five thousand, max.”
Chen Chen frowned. “It’s just three people. Surely Mr. Norman doesn’t think that they are worth ten thousand information credits each.”
“Those aren’t any common members, they are BBC reporters. The British Broadcasting Corporation is the largest media organization in the Earth Federation.”
The voice elaborated further. “If word of this gets out, your company instantly loses all credibility and its reputation is instantly soured. You’ll also be subject to the scrutiny of the federation.”
“That won’t happen, the Foster family isn’t the only one on my side. I have several other families backing me up. They won’t let any of that happen.”
Chen Chen smiled faintly. “How about this, we can both compromise a little. I’ll pay ten thousand information credits, that’s the highest I’ll go. If you’re not going to accept it, I’ll go to the Wilsons.”
“Deal.”
The answer came in the form of a growl before the call was hung up right then and there.
It was only then when Chen Chen set the phone down.
The Foster family was based in the City of London and held its position as one of the top ten financial consortiums in the European continent. Its influence spanned across several industries including the media sector.
Norman Foster, the patriarch of the Foster family, held 1.5% of shares in BBC. Even though he had no management rights, he was still a part of the board of directors, which was what prompted Chen Chen to refer to him first.
Even several days later, nobody came to follow up on the incident.
It was as if everyone had conveniently forgotten about there being a helicopter crashing in the vicinity of Eco Science City. Even the reporters of BBC stationed around Namibia were called back by the headquarters.
The wreckage of the crash was subsequently taken to the industrial zone of Eco Science City and disposed of as scrap metal.
Three days later, with armed soldiers monitoring the procedure, five thousand volunteers were selected without a hitch.
Not only that, during the written test sequence, hundreds of refugees who had recovered on their own and developed antibodies were discovered.
Having contracted BE-006 in an environment without any readily available medical aid, the fatality rate reached as high as ninety percent. Regardless, there was still a minority ten percent demographic who could recover without any medication.
Chen Chen also took this demographic into the Eco Science City as well and specifically assigned troops to watch over them.
Their blood contained antiviral serum which could be extracted accordingly. Should someone in the Eco Science City become infected with BE-006, these serums could potentially play a vital role.
One crucial thing to note was that the vaccine Chen Chen had developed only served to make ordinary people immune to the virus. It could not be used to treat patients who had already been infected by the virus. With that said, the blood of the already recovered patients could be utilized to extract antibodies for combating the virus.
The purpose of a vaccine was to prevent further infections while the serum was primed for treating the disease.
As for things on the side of the World Health Organization, Qian Wenhuan’s report of the birth of a vaccine for the virus was immediately met with uproar.
The progress took more than a month shorter than the World Health Organization’s projected model. Due to the complexity of developing attenuated and inactivated vaccines for the Ebola virus, the direction taken had leaned closer to developing adenovirus vector vaccines and genetic engineering vaccines.
Compared to the two former options, the process involved in developing the two latter variants was a great deal more complex. In addition to a hefty amount of funds and workforce required, extremely advanced biotechnology techniques were essential as well.
“Amid a vicious pandemic, the Messiah rises? Blacklight Biotechnology leads the world yet again – Washington Post.”
“Blacklight Biotechnology is one step ahead in developing the BE-006 vaccine, initial clinical trials will soon be underway – Time Magazine.”
“The greatest calamity in recorded history may be contained. Will the BE-006 vaccine save the world? – New York Times.”
As Qian Wenhuan began applying for the rights to conducting the appropriate clinical trials, the information quickly made its way around the world. The very next day, it was published in the headlines of a majority of media outlets all across the world.”