Chapter 213: Artificial Organs (2)
“Wow... This is terrifying,” said Manager Joo Hee-Jun.
K-BIO, a Korean venture firm in Guangdong, was doing business as usual. Not only them but most Korean companies in the area weren’t paralyzed at all. It was because they were quick to buy A-GenBio’s mosquito repellent.
“It looks like a swarm of locusts from a novel about the Three Kingdoms or something,” CEO Choi Sung-Ho said.
“It’s a relief that we prepared the repellent in advance,” Joo Hee-Jun said.
“I heard that A-GenBio supplied it to Korean companies first.”
“It’s probably true since there were a lot of companies asking for help when there wasn’t a lot of stock. He’s just God at this point...”
“But I heard that health centers and hospitals are somehow managing to get by with some emergency supplies.”
Click.
A woman walked in as the front door opened.
“Whew.”
She shrudded in disgust.
“I thought I was going to die.”
“Welcome, Joo-Young. Did you get bitten anywhere?” Choi Sung-Ho asked.
“No. That mosquito repellent is amazing. They don’t get within three meters of me. The ones that get close just fall to the ground.”
She took the broomstick near the front door and swept the front of the door. With each sweep, a pile of mosquito carcasses rolled away.
A-Gen had biosynthesized ABcPa1, a volatile compound that was a perfect match for the mosquito’s olfactory receptors, and then laced it with a cellular respiratory inhibitor. It didn’t affect large organisms like humans, but it was a fatal poison to small insects like mosquitoes. One could become a walking mosquito repellent if they applied the densely compressed ointment or the spray to the nape of their neck or their wrists. Or, they could apply it to the cracks in the window or the door to make a natural mosquito-free bunker, like K-BIO.
“It really feels like a disaster movie,” said Lee Joo-Young, who was cleaning up the mosquito carcasses. “But I heard that Doctor Ryu is coming to Guangzhou tomorrow.”
“Really?”
“I heard it when I was delivering the goods earlier. The governor of Guangdong called him urgently, and he begged me to save him.”
“I don’t know about that, but I hope things get back to normal soon.”
* * *
Yang Gunyu, who was backed up into a corner, asked A-Gen for help. Although he was authoritarian, controlling, and arrogant, he still had a strong sense of responsibility to Guangdong. In a situation as serious as this, he could no longer afford to let his pride get in the way.
—I will do anything. Please forgive me for my previous impertinence, and please produce a little more of that repellent.
Yang Gunyu was talking to A-Gen on the phone.
“But we’ve already concentrated most of the supply to Guangdong. This is not just a problem for Guangdong but for all the neighboring regions along the tributaries of the Pearl River Basin,” A-Gen replied. “We are also supplying them the minimum as their government offices need to function properly as well.”
—Still... Is there any other way?
“Actually, we were expecting to run out of mosquito repellent, so we’ve been working on other alternatives. I don’t know if you’ll like them, though.”
—Anything is fine. Please, I beg you...
Yang Gunyu sounded like he was in pain.
“Hm.”
A-Gen hesitated for a moment, then said, “There aren’t a lot of mosquitos in Guangdong yet.”
—There aren’t a lot?
“The simulation predicted that it was going to increase to twenty-eight billion, which is two months from now. Right now, it’s probably around one hundred million at best.”
—...
“Do you remember the mosquito extinction project I told you about?” A-Gen asked.
—Yes, of course...
Yang Gunyu’s voice was tense.
“That project uses a bacterium called Wolbachia. It destroys the sex ratio of mosquitoes by using male mosquitoes with modified seminal vesicles,” A-Gen said. “Male mosquitoes are just regular insects that suck nectar from flowers; they do not bite humans. When you start disrupting the sex ratio with Wolbachia, it quickly tilts the balance so that all the eggs are male.”
—But we can only do that when we have Wolbachia-infected male mosquitos, right?
“That’s why I told you. We prepared it just in case because we expected to run out of the mosquito repellent.”
—...
“I started preparing this when Jessie told me that the PCB concentration was rising. It was quick because it only takes two weeks to make the male mosquitoes.”
Suddenly, Yang Gunyu felt small and humbled.
‘I’m embarrassed.’
Yang Gunyu was like a child who refused to listen to his parents but ended up getting help from them. Despite his many rejections and push-backs, A-Gen had predicted this catastrophe and had prepared for it.
‘How far is this guy thinking ahead? Is this possible for a human being?’
“I will proceed with this if you would like, or I will dispose of it. What would you like to do?” A-Gen asked.
—Please do it. Please.
“Alright.”
—Doctor Ryu.
“Yes?”
—I apologize. And thank you so much.
“I think it’s a good idea for China to build Guangdong into a top economic hub in Asia,” A-Gen said. “Asia should have something like that, too. I hope you handle this situation well.”
* * *
The Chinese Minister of Health couldn’t afford to be distracted by the biological disaster in Guangdong because something far more serious was happening in China’s upper class.
“Foreign Minister Wang Shubin had facial paralysis this morning.”
Reports kept coming in from below. The State Councillor, the Vice Premier, the Minister of Commerce, the Minister of Transportation, seven directors of the Ministry of State Security, and the Chief Superintendent of the Public Security Bureau: these people were affected in just the administrative branch alone. Even the leaders of powerful private companies were falling live autumn leaves in the wind. They could not figure out how to control this inferno that was suddenly spreading like wildfire.
“I feel like a designated survivor.”
The Minister of Health let out a deep sigh.
“You still don’t know the cause?”
He badgered his staff.
“The best doctors in China are analyzing the cause, but they’re still not sure,” said one of his staff. “According to Professor Genfu at Peking University Hospital, it appears to be a disease called subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy.”
“What does that mean? What is that? What department is Professor Genfu from?”
“Um... He’s from the pediatrics department.”
The Minister of Health frowned.
“Everyone who has collapsed right now is old. How would a professor of pediatrics know?”
“But no other professors have given an opinion yet.”
“What’s the disease?” the Minister asked.
“Apparently, it’s caused by a mutation in the mitochondria. It’s a genetic disease, and most die when they are young.”
“...”
“But the symptoms of this disease are almost exactly the same as what’s happening right now. They feel nauseous, their vision decreases rapidly, they have eye muscle paralysis, and then they have a heart attack or breathing problems,” the staff member said. “Professor Genfu said there are rare cases where children can grow up without any problems and then develop the disease as adults...”
“There are more than one hundred patients right now. All the highest-ranking people in China have this genetic disease, and they all developed it at the same time in their fifties, like they made a promise? Do you think that makes sense?” the minister said.
“...”
The staff stayed quiet. The Minister sighed in frustration.
“Sir!”
One of his staff who was taking a call at the other end of the office jumped to his feet.
“Look at this. This is what the patients have in common right now.”
“What is it?” the Minister asked, frowning.
“They all received organ transplants in Xinjiang Uygur six months ago.”
“In Xinjiang Uygur?”
“Perhaps that had something to do with it?”
“Get me a list of people who received organ transplants in Xinjiang Uygur.”
“I already put it together,” the staff member said, picking up a stack of printed documents.
As the Minister of Health was about to take it...
“Sir!”
Another person shouted in horror from the desk on the other side of the office.
“What is it?”
“I... got a call, and...” they said, stammering. “The President says he’s feeling nauseous.”
The Minister of Health froze. He picked up the Xinjiang Uygur organ transplant list.
“... The President is also on this list,” said the staff member who gave him the list.
* * *
Doctor Ref released the virus in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It was a lentivirus that inserted its genes into human DNA. The virus spread rapidly among the one million inmates of Xinjiang Uygur. It first infected their respiratory tracts, then traveled in their blood to infect organs throughout the body. All eight transplantable organs were infected: the heart, liver, kidneys, cornea, small intestine, pancreas, and lungs.
The nucleases produced by the virus destroyed the existing mitochondria and triggered specific mutations. However, the Uygur prisoners’ health was not affected, as this mutation only caused problems when cell division occurred rapidly. This virus was not pathogenic to the organs of fully-grown adults.
“But it’s a different story if they got organ transplants.” Doctor Ref, who finished tidying up the new camp for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, sipped her tea and read the calendar. It had been six months since she had released the virus.
As organ transplant surgery involved removing and attaching healthy organs, it caused significant damage to the junction. In order to repair the damage, the organ, which was infected with the virus, would naturally undergo cell division. This was a special case of a disease that occurred in newborns occurring in adults.
“Doctor Ref,” said a man with a beard. “Ryu Young-Joon went to Guangdong to solve the mosquito problem.”
“Mosquitoes aren’t a problem to him. They’re just bothersome,” Doctor Ref replied.
“He’ll probably solve the Xinjiang Uygur problem, right?”
“Probably.”
Doctor Ref nodded.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s fine if he solves it. The point is to get Rosaline to witness the shit that’s going on in Uygur,” she said. “I said that humans don’t deserve science. People like Ryu Young-Joon are rare. There aren’t many elites like him on Earth. She needs to realize that. She needs to give up hope in humanity.”
The man nodded.
Doctor Ref took another sip of tea.
“Rosaline is more advanced than any creature on Earth, on a different level than the descendants of a primitive cell. She can’t just live as Ryu Young-Joon’s vending machine for scientific technology,” she said. “This is what we call eusociality, where humans are the laborers of the material world, and Rosaline is the one who guides their actions in the right direction.”
Doctor Ref thought of a blueprint for the future she had long envisioned.
“Rosaline must rule the world.”
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