Mansur went straight to the quarantine area with the head of security.
Latifa was pacing anxiously in a small room.
When the door opened and Mansur entered, Latifa’s face turned pale.
She immediately dropped to her knees.
“Your Highness…”
“Latifa.”
Mansur’s voice was as cold as ice. The gentle man he usually was had vanished without a trace, leaving only betrayal and rage behind.
“Stand up.”
Latifa rose on trembling legs.
“You know why I’ve come here, don’t you?”
“Your Highness, I…”
“I saw Dr. Kang’s test results.”
Mansur took another step closer.
“The virus that harmed my sons was found in your blood.”
“That’s…”
Tears streamed down Latifa’s face.
“Latifa. I trusted you. Because your late father, Farouk, was a dear friend to me, I treated you like my own daughter. I entrusted my youngest son, Ali, the child I love most, to you.”
Mansur’s fists trembled.
“Do you know how much Ali adored you? That child followed you around all day.”
“I’m sorry! I’m truly sorry!”
Latifa prostrated herself on the floor and began to sob.
“Sorry? My sons nearly died, and you say you’re sorry? Not only Ali, but all my sons suffered from high fevers and nearly died, and you say you’re sorry?”
Mansur asked in a cold voice.
“Who ordered you to do it?”
“Your Highness…”
“What was the fifty thousand dollars deposited every month into the Cayman Islands account payment for? Did you think we wouldn’t find it because it was in your mother’s account?”
Latifa’s face grew even paler.
“And why did your younger brother’s business suddenly begin to thrive?”
“Your Highness, that was…”
“Why? Why did you inject poison into our children?”
Latifa burst into loud sobs, then suddenly her face went white and she collapsed to the floor.
“Latifa!”
The head of security rushed over and turned Latifa, who had fallen to the floor, onto her back to examine her. He pried open the fist she had been clenching and found a ring.
“There was a poisoned needle hidden in the ring.”
Mansur’s face twisted.
Latifa lay on the floor, gasping for breath.
“Call a doctor at once! Latifa! Stay with me! Who did this? Who threatened you?”
“Your Highness. I truly… truly loved Ali… Please… forgive me…”
One last tear slipped from Latifa’s eye.
“I know. I know.”
Latifa died in Mansur’s arms.
Mansur stared at Latifa’s body, frozen in shock.
His anger vanished, leaving only deep sorrow and helplessness.
“Your Highness.”
The head of security approached carefully.
Mansur slowly stood and said,
“Head of Security.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Find out, down to the last detail, who approached Latifa. We must uncover whoever is behind this entire conspiracy.”
Mansur looked at Latifa’s body one last time and said,
“My family must never be exposed to this kind of danger again. And bring Dr. Kang to me.”
“Dr. Kang, now?”
“If not for him, we might never have learned the truth.”
“Understood.”
***
Two hours after Latifa’s body was brought in, Taeho stood in the autopsy room with Dr. Hakim, the royal forensic specialist.
Dr. Hakim confirmed with him.
“Dr. Kang, are you certain you wish to observe in person?”
“Yes. There are things I need to verify myself.”
Taeho answered as he put on a surgical gown and gloves.
Mansur was watching from beyond the glass as well. His brow was furrowed, his expression a complex mixture of sorrow and anger.
“First, we will confirm the cause of death.”
Dr. Hakim examined Latifa’s palm.
“A cyanide reaction has been detected at the puncture site from the needle attached to the ring. It appears to be potassium cyanide.”
“Dr. Hakim, would it be possible to conduct a more precise toxicity analysis?”
“Of course.”
While Dr. Hakim prepared the component analysis, Taeho turned back to Latifa.
“Potassium cyanide?”
As Taeho focused his vision, Bio Vision activated. Latifa’s body began to appear overlaid as a three-dimensional hologram. Muscles, blood vessels, and organs separated into layers, displaying real-time analyses of their respective conditions.
“Externally, there don’t seem to be any notable injuries, but…”
Taeho’s gaze shifted to Latifa’s neck. When Bio Vision rendered the internal structure of the neck transparent, his brows knit slightly.
“There are traces of minute hemorrhaging in the hyoid region. Is this evidence of pressure on the laryngeal area? But there are no visible signs of strangulation on the outside.”
He examined the neck area in even finer detail. When Bio Vision magnified it to a microscopic level, a tiny fracture in the laryngeal cartilage and petechial hemorrhaging along the inner wall of the airway became clear.
“This is a cleverly concealed asphyxiation. It’s so precise that no one but an expert would ever notice.”
Taeho moved the scan to the brain.
“Signs of brain death are… huh?”
Taeho’s hand stopped. Bio Vision had clearly detected a foreign object utterly different from brain tissue. A metallic object about the size of a fingernail was embedded deep in the right temporal lobe.
“Dr. Hakim, take a look at this.”
Taeho incised Latifa’s scalp and exposed the area. As he carefully separated the brain tissue, a microchip identical to what he had seen through Bio Vision revealed itself.
Dr. Hakim’s eyes widened when he saw the small object Taeho extracted with tweezers.
“What is that?”
“It appears to be a brain implant chip.”
“Why would that be there?”
Rema’s voice sounded in Taeho’s ear.
—Analysis complete: It is an advanced brain-computer interface chip. It is equipped with external signal reception and behavior control functions.
“Dr. Hakim, what are the blood analysis results?”
Dr. Hakim spoke as he looked into the microscope.
“Look at this, Dr. Kang. There are some strange structures here.”
When Taeho looked into the microscope, he saw spherical structures even smaller than blood cells.
“Dr. Hakim, this is your first time seeing things like these, isn’t it?”
“Yes. There is nothing like this in any medical textbook.”
—These are microcapsules designed to react to specific signals.
Listening to Rema’s analysis, Taeho felt all the pieces of the puzzle beginning to fit together.
“Dr. Hakim, could you check the potassium cyanide concentration again?”
“Yes. …That is very strange. It is only about thirty percent of the lethal dose.”
“Then she couldn’t have died instantly from that amount, could she?”
“No. She may have lost consciousness, but she would not have died immediately.”
Taeho turned toward Mansur.
“Your Highness, Latifa did not commit suicide.”
From beyond the glass, Mansur asked with a tense expression,
“Then how did she die?”
“The organization behind this eliminated her in stages. First, they controlled her through the brain implant and made her use the poison in the ring. After the poison rendered her unconscious…”
Taeho pointed to the neck area.
“They suffocated her while she was unconscious. And finally, they ruptured the microcapsules in her blood vessels to ensure her death.”
Mansur’s face turned pale.
“Then you mean they planned to silence Latifa from the very beginning?”
“That is correct. The moment she was caught by us, they intended to eliminate her before she could tell the truth.”
Taeho’s expression grew grave.
“Your Highness, these capsules are extremely sophisticated. If we had not discovered this virus…”
“What would have happened?”
“The princes would all have died of an acute illness of unknown cause. And no one would ever have known that it was a biological attack.”
Mansur’s face grew even paler.
“And by now, the capsules would have continued activating, leading to second and third attacks.”
Mansur clenched his fists.
If all the princes had died, the royal succession structure would have collapsed, and the political stability of the UAE would have been completely shaken.
“This was not a simple assassination attempt. It was a massive conspiracy targeting our entire royal family.”
Taeho nodded.
“Yes. And the most terrifying thing is that if it had succeeded, no one would have known it was an attack.”
Mansur fell silent for a moment, then looked at Taeho and said,
“Dr. Kang.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Now that I think about it, if you had not come here…”
Mansur’s breath caught for a moment.
The possibility that the Nahayan clan might have vanished completely.
Just thinking about it was dizzying.
Especially because such unheard-of genetically targeted viruses and microcapsules could never have been detected with conventional medicine.
Mansur slowly looked around the autopsy room, at Latifa’s body and the evidence they had uncovered.
“If not for you, our family might have disappeared from history entirely.”
Taeho modestly bowed his head.
“I merely did what I should as a doctor.”
“No. Dr. Kang, you are not merely a doctor who cured our children’s illness.”
“Your Highness.”
“You are the savior of the Nahayan clan. You are the benefactor who protected the very existence of our family.”
Mansur’s voice was filled with deep gratitude and reverence.
“If you had not come, I would have lost not only my sons, but Faisal and Amira as well. I understand now.”
Mansur approached Taeho and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Your coming to us was no mere coincidence. It was fate. God sent you to save our clan.”
When Taeho looked flustered, Mansur smiled.
“Of course, it was possible because of your medical skill and effort. But the timing… Everything was far too perfect. Dr. Kang.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“From this moment on, you are a member of our Nahayan clan. We are not bound by blood, but by a bond even deeper than that.”
Mansur spoke with sincerity.
“Because without you, we would not exist.”
Taeho felt warmth spread through his heart at Mansur’s words.
When a clan of the desert called an outsider a member of the family, it meant they were willing to stake their lives for him.
“Your Highness, it is an honor.”
“We must prevent an attack like this from ever happening again, and stop other royal families or innocent people from suffering such harm.”
“Yes, Your Highness. I will stand with you.”
Mansur now fully understood that Taeho was not simply a foreign doctor, but an absolutely vital figure to the survival of the Nahayan clan.
He recalled what Amira had said to him a few days earlier.
Amira had pleaded with him through tears.
“Uncle, I truly cannot go through with that marriage.”
“Amira.”
“I told Father, but he only speaks of political necessity. But you are different, Uncle. I thought you would understand my heart.”
“Amira, what is this unseemly behavior?”
“Uncle, please listen. Please listen to the end.”
Amira knelt before Mansur.
“Amira! Stand up!”
“Uncle, I love Dr. Kang. You saw it too, didn’t you? You saw what kind of person Dr. Kang is to our family. He saved Ali and Hashim, Khalid and Raiyan. He is not merely a doctor. He is the guardian angel of our Nahayan clan. Is it wrong that I fell in love with someone like that?”
Mansur nodded.
“She was right.”