Chapter 20 Wuhan-Beijing, Gobi Facility Map
The transit process at Wuhan airport was smooth. Timely refueling and logistics supply in the aircraft kitchen was full again. Two people who didn't say a word got on the plane, carrying out cleaning service quickly and efficiently. Then they came down with trash and dirty utensils without saying a single word. Cecilia, who was about to greet them in a friendly manner, gave up her intention. They might be android robots. Cecilia was amused by her own thoughts.
Andalas, who had been awake since the plane touched down at Wuhan, was enjoying his coffee comfortably recalling how they were between life and death situation over the Pacific. Attacked by jet fighters that were clearly no match for them. Yet by chance and luck they survived.
It so happened that this plane was equipped with anti-aircraft weaponry, and they were lucky the attack took place after approaching Russian airspace. Andalas couldn't imagine if the Tomcat and the Fighting Falcon attacked at the same time as they just left American airspace, his guess was they would end up somewhere not on this earth.
The Organization was desperately putting all its resources to eliminating them. They obviously didn't have the slightest clue where exactly the Gobi Facility was. The largest desert in Asia. Despite having carried out high-resolution satellite scans, the Organization couldn't find any trace of the secret facility. There was once an idea to conduct a search by land or ground checking by deploying an expedition team. But searching in an area of almost 1.3 million km2 was certainly not an easy job.
Besides, of course, they would be dealing with the Chinese authorities who wouldn't remain silent about foreigners ruffling their territory. The Chairman agreed with the other 11 members that the facility must be located deep in the depths of the earth. Therefore, their target was Lian Xi. That woman was Professor Lian Yang's sister. One of the team of scientists conducting research at the facility.
Based on the intelligence data collected by the Executor, Lian Yang had contacted Lian Xi several times, including asking for his help in meeting Cecilia and Akiko who were detained by Interpol in Lyon. That was why the Executioner had sent Helda and Isamu to arrest Lian Xi.
Meanwhile, OWC had other interests so that it always prevented any actions from anyone so that this pandemic didn't end. The hope was of course that there would be chaos globally and the governments of every country would all collapse. From there they would take over the world order with only one order oriented. One global government that was no longer separated by race and country.
Actually, there was one other movement besides the two big organizations that Cecilia and her friends were not aware of. Several giant pharmaceutical companies were desperately trying to find the most appropriate formula to be able to create serum for the two diseases causing the deadly pandemic.
The giants of the pharmaceutical industry, of course, needed object 0 and traced the events at zero when the virus and bacteria first appeared. Marc who had close relation with Pierre, one of the bosses of a large pharmaceutical company in France, already learned about Fabumi and the zero point of Tropical Bacteria in the interior of the Congo Basin. But Fabumi was kidnapped by the GRU who was controlled by a member of the Organization, and no one knew whether he was alive or not.
Marc wasn't aware about point 0 and object 0 Ice Virus but he knew about the Pandora Facility doing research on object 0 Mollivirus sibericum. But when he sent an assault team to the Arctic, the laboratory had been destroyed. Again, someone else was ahead of him.
Pharmaceutical giants around the world were facing dead end. Their research on infected objects didn't show any progress. Having object 0 was very instrumental. It was from object 0 that the genome of a virus or bacterium could be mapped because it had not undergone a mutation.
There was one important thing that Cecilia had missed. She always suspected that Fabumi was a person who had been infected, but it turned out that immunity was an important object for research on Tropical Bacteria serum. Cecilia forgot that Fabumi wasn't object 0. She should have set Sefu as object 0. In fact, Cecilia already mentioned Sefu as object 0 in her important note. But since she thought that Sefu was just a victim in the logging camp, Cecilia ignored it.
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Andalas sat on the pilot seat of the Gulfstream I-AA's. They were ready to fly again. This time to Beijing where the forth riddle of Doctor Aslan's located. He had time to look carefully at the map obtained from the torn canvas at The Met Breuer. His friends were right. The map meant absolutely nothing. Just a sketch of an island surrounded by a wide ocean. Without any additional information.
The plane flew smoothly without the slightest incident. Akiko had been worried about what happened at New York Airport. But Lian Xi reassured them by saying it was very unlikely that this would happen in Chinese territory.
The trip to Beijing would only be taken less than two hours. After pressing the auto pilot mode, Andalas and Lian Xi joined Cecilia and Akiko to discuss their next steps.
"We will be in Beijing later. Why not just go to the Gobi by land?" Cecilia looked at the map on the X-One. The distance from Beijing to Gobi was quite far, approximately 1000 km. They could also take the train, followed by a road trip for the rest of the journey.
"We have to solve Doctor Aslan's riddle first. Who knows, when we reach the end of this puzzle, we can make better decisions." Andalas expressed his opinion.
Akiko nodded. She was fixed on the strange map in front of them. A thought crossed her mind.
"Lian Xi, do you really know exactly how to get to the Gobi Facility?"
Lian Xi shook her head.
"Of course I don't know. My brother said he didn't know exactly where he was. He just said that the facility was located deep underground in the Gobi mainland."
"Aahh, that's all right then. So, the Organization is hunting you down because they don't have any idea where the Gobi Facility is. No matter how powerful a satellite is, it will not be able to scan facilities that are underground. They don't know that you don't know either." Andalas said.
"Now! If my guess is correct, this map seems to be a clue on how to get to the facility!" Akiko said excitedly.
The three of them looked at each other, then simultaneously nodded their heads.
"So Doctor Aslan deliberately gave these complicated instructions so that if this map fell into the wrong hands, it would not put the Gobi Facility in jeopardy. An island in the middle of the ocean… the desert!"