Taeho felt his blood run cold.
“Has something happened to Ms. Amira?”
“Amira suddenly collapsed!”
“What are her symptoms?”
“Her fever is rising terribly, and her consciousness is becoming hazy.”
“I’ll go there right now. Until then, lay Ms. Amira down in a safe position and keep checking her temperature.”
Twenty minutes later, when Taeho arrived at the hotel, Faisal was pacing anxiously in front of Amira’s bedroom.
“Dr. Kang!”
The moment Faisal saw Taeho, he rushed over. His face was pale, and his hands were trembling.
“Where is Amira?”
“She’s inside.”
Taeho opened the bedroom door and stepped in. Amira was lying on the bed.
She lay there helplessly. Her black hair was scattered across the pillow, and her breathing sounded ragged. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her respiration visibly unstable.
Amira’s cheeks were flushed red from the fever. Beads of sweat that had gathered on her forehead slowly trickled down along her temples.
Her eyelids were half-closed. Her lips were slightly parted as she drew short, labored breaths.
He remembered her face from two days ago, smiling brightly as she looked out at the sea.
“Amira.”
The moment he called her name, Taeho felt his chest tighten despite himself.
Even Taeho himself was startled by the sudden surge of emotion.
Taeho took a deep breath and regained his composure.
He took Amira’s wrist to check her pulse. Her wrist was hot, and so terribly slender. It felt as if it might break with the slightest pressure.
Her pulse was fast and irregular.
“Ugh… Dr. Kang.”
Amira struggled to open her eyes. Her usually clear, intelligent gaze was nowhere to be seen; her pupils were clouded by fever.
Taeho coldly steadied his mind, which kept growing dizzy.
“Tell me where it hurts.”
“My whole body… hurts. It feels like my bones are breaking.”
Amira’s voice trembled. Even speaking seemed difficult for her.
Taeho placed his hand on her forehead and checked her temperature.
She was burning hot. His hand naturally brushed over her face.
When Amira writhed in pain, Taeho instinctively took her hand.
“You’ll be all right.”
Amira smiled faintly and murmured.
“I’m not worried. Because you’re… here. Ugh…”
As Amira’s face twisted in pain, Taeho felt a heavy ache in his chest.
When he measured her fever with a thermometer, it was 39.2 degrees Celsius.
A dangerous level.
“I’ll check your blood pressure.”
85/45 mmHg.
Significantly lower than normal.
He activated Bio Vision. As the scan began, Amira’s entire body appeared as a translucent 3D image.
The first thing he saw was her vascular system. Amira’s blood vessels should have been clear and clean, but now red spots were flashing throughout them. They were inflammation markers.
‘Damn it…’
The inflammatory response had spread far more extensively than Faisal’s.
As the scan went deeper, lymph nodes appeared on the screen. The lymph nodes in her neck, armpits, and groin were all swollen. They had grown to nearly twice their normal bean-like size.
‘Her immune system is overloaded.’
When Taeho adjusted the scan angle, the spinal region enlarged.
The L5-S1 area. The same place as Faisal. But in Amira’s case, it was far more serious.
The soft tissue around the vertebrae was blazing red, as if flames were spreading. The inflammation wasn’t merely localized; it was extending to the surrounding areas.
‘This is on a completely different level from Faisal.’
Taeho zoomed in to the molecular level for a more detailed analysis. When the HLA gene region appeared on the screen, he was horrified.
The DNA double helix was shaking like a ship in a storm. In Faisal’s case, only certain regions had been disrupted, but Amira’s entire HLA complex was unstable.
Even more shocking were the new protein structures. They were far more complex and sophisticated than the first-generation artificial proteins he had seen in Faisal. They were like an evolved virus.
When Taeho observed the immune cells, an even more astonishing scene unfolded. The T cells were activated as if they had gone mad. In a normal immune response, they should have attacked only invaders, but now they were attacking her own cells as well.
‘Even an autoimmune reaction… At this rate, organ failure is inevitable.’
Through Bio Vision, Taeho could see Amira’s kidney and liver function levels dropping in real time.
Her heartbeat was becoming irregular as well. The 3D image of her heart starkly revealed the ventricular contractions growing weaker and weaker.
‘There isn’t much time.’
The most shocking result was the brain scan. The blood-brain barrier had been partially damaged. Inflammatory substances had begun penetrating the brain. That was the cause of her decreased consciousness.
Taeho turned off Bio Vision and looked at Amira again. On the outside, she looked like a patient suffering from a high fever, but inside her body, a war was raging.
Taeho’s face hardened even more.
His chest tightened.
“Ugh…”
Amira groaned again and turned her head. The sight was so pitiful that Taeho unconsciously held her hand more tightly.
“Amira, hold on just a little longer.”
Taeho came out of the bedroom and faced Faisal.
Faisal asked with an anxious expression.
“How is she?”
“Princess Amira appears to have contracted the same illness.”
“Ya Rabb—Lord!”
Faisal’s legs gave out, and he leaned against the wall.
After seeing Amira’s symptoms, he had prayed desperately that it was not so… How could God be so indifferent?
Faisal could hardly bear the fact that that kind child had to endure the same suffering as him.
“She must be transferred to a hospital immediately. Proper treatment is impossible here.”
Taeho immediately contacted the emergency room at Samcheok Central Hospital.
“Dr. Jo Hyeongjun? It’s me. An emergency transfer patient is coming in. Please prepare a VIP isolation room.”
***
Thirty minutes later, a temporary isolation room had been set up in the VIP ward of Samcheok Central Hospital. Amira was moved through the emergency room and transferred directly to the isolation room.
Nurse Go Hayoung checked Amira’s condition and reported to Taeho.
“Temperature 39.5 degrees, blood pressure 80/40, pulse 120. She’s also showing signs of dehydration.”
“Start with IV fluids, and administer an antipyretic.”
Taeho gave instructions as he collected a blood sample from Amira.
“Send this to the hematology lab immediately. CBC, biochemical tests, and special genetic marker analysis as well.”
“Yes, understood, Director.”
Thirty minutes later, the test results came out.
Taeho entered the data into Rema.
“Rema, compare and analyze these results against Prince Faisal’s existing data.”
Rema immediately projected a complex graph in hologram form before his eyes.
—I have found an interesting pattern.
“Tell me.”
—An artificial protein similar to Prince Faisal’s, but in a more evolved form, has been found in Princess Amira’s blood.
Taeho’s face hardened.
“A more evolved form?”
—Yes. It is like the difference between a first-generation and a second-generation version. It is more refined and more aggressive.
Taeho clenched his fist tightly.
Faisal was staring at Amira through the glass window of the isolation room. His eyes were wet.
When Taeho came out, Faisal asked.
“Dr. Kang, how is the development of the treatment going?”
“The new treatment is still unstable. We need at least 48 hours to obtain stable results. But judging by Amira’s condition, I’m not sure she can hold out that long…”
“I’ll test it first.”
Faisal suddenly spoke.
“That is not possible.”
“Don’t we have no time? I can’t leave Amira like that. I’ll take it first. We don’t know whether there may be side effects.”
Taeho shook his head.
“I can’t allow that.”
“Dr. Kang.”
Faisal grabbed Taeho’s hand.
“Do you know how much Amira suffered while I was ill for fifteen years? She nursed me all night and went around to hospitals all over the world. Now it’s my turn to protect Amira.”
“As a doctor, I cannot put both of you in danger. Rashid hasn’t recovered yet either. He only improved briefly. From now on, we’ll begin treatment in earnest. For now, either return to the hotel and rest, or go into a hospital room.”
Taeho rejected him coldly and turned away.
If only he could accurately identify the infectious pathogen, he could stabilize the treatment much faster…
Where had Amira been infected?
Two days ago, when they had walked along the beach together and gone to the restaurant, she had been healthy.
Taeho’s cell phone rang again. It was an urgent call from Kim Dohyeon.
“Director! We have a serious problem!”
Kim Dohyeon’s voice was urgent.
“What happened?”
—Two patients with symptoms similar to Mr. Rashid’s have come in!
“What kind of patients are they?”
—They’re both from the Middle East. They’re residents of Korea.
“I’ll come down right now. Until then, isolate all the patients.”
As he ran down the corridor, he thought.
This is no coincidence.
The most hopeful hypothesis was that the two patients might have the same source of infection as Amira.
If so, identifying the source would be easier.
Five minutes later, the moment Taeho arrived at the emergency room, he grasped the situation.
Two Middle Eastern patients were lying in separate isolation beds.
Convulsions, acute fever, and above all, the distinctive redness visible beneath the skin caught Taeho’s eye. Erythema was a phenomenon in which capillaries expanded due to inflammation in the skin or mucous membranes, causing the affected area to turn red.
Taeho quickly activated Bio Vision.
In his field of view, microscopic, abnormal protein structures could be seen spreading along each patient’s blood vessels. In both patients, virus particles with the same pattern had penetrated all the way to the nerve endings. Their activation patterns and bodily responses were weaker than Amira’s symptoms, but they matched.
Taeho hurriedly called Kim Dohyeon.
“Dr. Kim, report on the patients’ conditions.”
“Yes. The first patient is from Iraq, male, thirty-five years old, named Ali. The second is from Syria, male, twenty-eight years old, named Omar.”
As Kim Dohyeon reported in order, Taeho quickly reviewed each patient’s chart.
“Both patients commonly show high fever, muscle pain, and decreased consciousness.”
Lee Chaerin approached and added another report.
“Director, I think it may be food poisoning.”
“Why do you think that?”
“These patients all visited the same halal food store in Seoul within the past week.”
Taeho’s eyes sharpened.
“A halal food store?”
“Yes. Barakallahu Fik Halal Market in Itaewon, Seoul. It’s the place all the patients visited in common.”
Taeho’s mind began to race. He quickly called Faisal and asked.
“Rashid, did you happen to purchase halal food last week?”
—Ah, that’s right. Amira was going to make food from home at the hotel today, so yesterday she bought a few things at a halal market in Seoul.
“What did she buy?”
—She bought beef and chicken. She could have just ordered the chef to make it, but she insisted on making it herself. She said she had to shop for each ingredient personally, too. I don’t know why she suddenly wanted to make murtabak…
Murtabak…
A memory surfaced in Taeho’s mind.
Amira had said nokdujeon and murtabak were similar, and Taeho had said murtabak sounded delicious.
Had Amira been trying to make murtabak for him?
His heart throbbed painfully.
Taeho asked in a choked voice.
“Was the name of that halal market perhaps ‘Barakallahu Fik’?”
—The name? Wait a moment. I’ll check the card receipt.
After a brief wait, Faisal spoke again.
—Yes. It was ‘Barakallahu Fik.’
Taeho hung up and immediately contacted Gihwan.
“Mr. Gihwan, please come now. I need an analysis of the infection source.”