Chapter-15 Moscow, 55° 45′ 21″ N, 37° 37′ 2″ E Savoy Hotel

Cecilia tidied up her bag. They had her notebook. If they found out the note was crap, it could be dangerous for me. I must leave immediately.

Where should I go? The WHO? CDC? MI6? CIA?

Cecilia's mind went through a series of best possible scenarios for her to take. The WHO. I'm going to Geneva. Marc is a conniving bastard. I'm not going to meet him. I will go straight to the director general. No matter how.

She started packing that night and booked a flight to Geneva. She left the Savoy soon after that. She booked a slightly rundown hotel near the Airport. The distraught doctor bought another burner phone on her way to the hotel. Cathy was a very important resource for her. The more she knew, the easier it would be for Cecilia to make a plan.

What Cecilia didn't know was a few minutes after she left the hotel, her room was again raided by GRU agents. Ivan was among them. They found nothing.

Ivan made a phone call. He described what happened at the Savoy. Cecilia's notes were completely useless.

"Execute plan B. Tell our agent in Johannesburg!" a cold, curt voice was heard on the other end. Ivan briefed his team about the plan. They would leave for Brazzaville first thing tomorrow.

The next morning, Cecilia had a chance to watch from afar as Ivan and 3 of his friends boarded a plane to South Africa. Hmm, they must be going to the Congo. What for?

Fabumi of course! What could attract the attention of an institution like GRU if it was not someone who had natural immunity from a horrifying decease. Perhaps Ivan was still better than Marc's treacherous and greedy intention. Or Professor Sato's efforts in finding a way to deal with the virus in secret with the help from CIA and MI6, was still far more noble.

Cecilia knew there was nothing more she could do to help Fabumi. The most important thing was for her to muster up strength to deal with whatever was going to happen. The threats appeared from two different parts of the world. Both were extremely dangerous. Both could trigger global chaos. And the most terrible thing was, both had no cure.

Cecilia understood that there were two things in the world that were being fought over by parties of interest. Those were Object X in the Arctic and Fabumi in Congo. Both were the only known defense against the threat of deadly viruses and bacteria which could manifest into a massive scale epidemic.

Cecilia was sure that the incidents had been within the radar of pharmaceutical industries. They would gain tremendous profits if they could synthesize drugs from Mollivirus sibericum and Afrormosia Bacteria. That was how she named the two cases so that it would be easy for her to remember.

Many parties would be competing to find the cure for the two diseases. For pharmaceutical industry it would be financial gain. Protection of the nation for secret agents. Accountability for organizations like WHO. And maybe a weapon for a bunch of anarchist geniuses. Then there was the logic of the crazy super-rich who hoped the disease would turn into a pandemic so that the earth's population would be under control.

People with natural immunity or patient zero at the ground zero were critical assets for them. As for Cecilia, she was just one person out of only a handful of people who truly valued human life. Chaos, mass death were the very last things she wanted to hear from the news. As a survivor, she was trying desperately to do something on her own.

She finally fell asleep on the plane after saying to herself that she needed to find a trustworthy friend.

----

Fabumi shoved the last piece of apple into his mouth. Every day he was served with delicious and nutritious food. Every day a group of people dressed in white who he thought must be doctors came to examine him. They checked everything from urine, blood, stool, to fluid from the nasal cavity and mouth.

That was what he had to go through every day. He didn't enjoy it at all. If only he was given the chance, Fabumi would willingly volunteer to be the research object for a drug to stop the disease that rampaged the Congo Basin logging camp. Maybe they had not been able to find it or they did find it but had not been able to test it. Unless they went to the inland of Cuvette Centrale and conducted experiments on infected people.

How was the fate of his friends over there? That night there was a massacre committed by Mister Bob and his men. Maybe the people who got infected had died. Or maybe the disease was isolated again in the wilderness because there was no one else to infect.

So what were Mister Bob and Adisa doing at Pointe Noire that day? Did they want to kill him because he witnessed the massacre? Or did they just want to kill him so that no one else had the potential to be infected?

But they didn't know that I'd been infected.

Seemed like the first possibility was the reason why Mister Bob tried to get him. Fabumi shook his head to get rid the uneasiness piling up in his head.

That was when the first shot heard. Then responded by a shot from inside the house. DGSE undercover base was being attacked! Fabumi laid down on the floor. Armed conflict occurred in Congo from time to time. Fabumi was not surprised.

Gunfire went on for several minutes before it died down. Fabumi kept laying on the ground. His experience told him that it was not safe yet.

Sure enough. An explosion blew his bedroom door. Several people wearing masks and carrying AK-47s rushed in. Fabumi only felt the muzzle of the gun against his temple.

"Don't resist! Unless you want your head blown off! Move!" The deep, threatening voice forced Fabumi to follow his captors out of the house.

On his way out, Fabumi saw bodies in the living room, terrace, and on front yard. Fabumi shuddered. It was a massacre.

A helicopter was waiting in the backyard. Fabumi sensed that they kidnapped him for the same reason. He could only surrender and pray. May the African Gods protect him.