"Simple."
Mbeki spread a map across the table.
It was an old military map. Creased and torn, it bore pencil marks and red X's in several places.
His thick finger stabbed at the center of the map.
The village of Eungili.
It was trapped inside a circle drawn in red marker.
"Eungili is currently under lockdown. The entire area within a five-kilometer radius is sealed with barbed wire. Three-meter razor wire fences stand in three layers. Twelve checkpoints have been established, each manned by ten soldiers."
He pointed to the check marks on the map one by one.
"Northern road, southern road, eastern riverbank, western forest trail. All access routes are completely cut off. Not even a rat gets out without my permission."
Leclerc's face went white.
"This is a clear violation of human rights!"
"Human rights?"
Mbeki snorted.
"Ituri is my territory. I decide."
"Then what happens to the villagers?"
He pointed at Eungili on the map. And slowly, enunciating each word, he said:
"We raze it."
"Ra...ze?"
Leclerc repeated.
An expression of disbelief.
"That's right. Raze it."
Mbeki repeated.
"Mortars. Burn the entire village. Virus, people, everything goes up in flames."
"General!"
Leclerc shot to his feet.
His chair toppled backward and crashed to the floor.
"That is a massacre! You're saying you'll burn eight hundred fifty people alive?!"
"Massacre?"
Mbeki slowly raised his head. Shadows pooling on his face made his scars look deeper. A corner of his mouth lifted in a sneer.
"You can't do the math, Leclerc?"
Mbeki jabbed the map with his finger.
"If we leave those eight hundred fifty in Eungili, within a week the surrounding five villages—twenty-three thousand people—will be infected."
He rose from his seat. His massive frame, towering over 190 centimeters, cast a long shadow.
"They say this virus is highly contagious? One infects twelve, from what I hear."
Mbeki leaned over the table, looking down at Leclerc.
"Two weeks, and all of Ituri crumbles. One month, and a hundred thousand are dead. Are you stupid? Which is better—killing eight hundred fifty, or killing a hundred thousand?"
"But that violates humanitarian principles! The WHO maintains that under any circumstances..."
"Principles?"
Mbeki scoffed and stepped closer.
One step.
Two steps.
Leclerc instinctively stepped back.
"Fine. Let's talk principles."
Mbeki said in a low voice.
"Where is your WHO team leader, Pierre? He abandoned the patients and ran, didn't he?"
"That is..."
"He took the drugs and equipment with him too. And now you lecture me about principles?"
Mbeki snorted.
"Don't make me laugh."
He returned to his seat.
"What did you do during the Ebola outbreak in 2014? Kendu Village in Sierra Leone—two thousand four hundred people. Quarantined and burned in the end."
Leclerc's face stiffened.
"The WHO turned a blind eye then. The UN approved it."
Mbeki folded the map as he spoke.
"It's no different now. The only difference is, this time I'm the one deciding. Not the white men."
When Mbeki finished, Taeho, who had been listening quietly, opened his mouth.
"General."
"What."
"Right now, inside Eungili, there are patients and medical staff."
"I know. Wasn't that your own choice? You stayed behind when the WHO fled. If you want to live, don't go back to Eungili. Stay here."
Mbeki looked down at Taeho and spoke.
Leclerc looked at Taeho.
Mbunga looked at Taeho too.
On the monitor, Tshisekedi also looked at Taeho.
Taeho was silent for a long moment.
Then he slowly raised his head.
"General."
"What."
"General, do you believe that if you raze Eungili, that will be the end of it?"
Mbeki's eyebrows twitched.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm asking if you think the virus will end there."
Taeho pointed at the map.
"If you burn Eungili, the virus will burn with it. The patients, the medical staff, everyone."
"So?"
"What if the same virus appears next month in Kongola?"
Taeho looked straight at Mbeki.
Mbeki's face hardened.
"What if it appears again in three months in Kisangani? What if it breaks out again in six months in a gold-mining village in Ituri? Will you burn the villages every time?"
"That won't happen."
Mbeki said in a low voice.
But there was no certainty in it.
"It will."
Taeho said firmly.
"This virus is not naturally occurring. It's artificial. Someone made it."
The conference room stirred.
"And whoever made this virus will spread it again. If Eungili fails, they'll try again somewhere else. Kongola, Kisangani, Kinshasa. Eventually, all of Ituri will be in danger."
Mbeki did not answer.
But his eyes wavered.
Taeho did not miss that opening.
"General."
"..."
"Razing the village is not a solution. It's only a temporary blockade. The real solution is a cure. A protocol that can stop this virus wherever it appears."
"A cure?"
Mbeki snorted.
"You think you can make one?"
"Yes."
Taeho answered confidently.
Then Dr. Mbunga raised his hand.
He, who had been listening quietly until now, spoke for the first time.
"I have a question."
He took off his glasses and wiped them with a cloth.
Slowly, carefully.
He put them back on and looked at Taeho.
"Dr. Gang."
"Yes."
"Why is the WHO being so proactive?"
Mbunga's voice was quiet, but sharp.
"During Ebola in 2018, and cholera in 2020, you people didn't move this fast. Writing reports, holding meetings, seeking approvals. It took at least a month."
He leaned forward, resting his arms on the table.
"But this time, the Assistant Director-General came personally in three days. And they say a UAE medical team is here as well. Doesn't that seem strange?"
Taeho did not answer.
"Let's be honest, Dr. Gang."
Mbunga stared at Taeho over his glasses.
"Isn't this another experiment by Western pharmaceutical companies?"
"An experiment?"
"Yes. An experiment."
Mbunga smiled cynically.
"Kano, Nigeria, 1996. What did Pfizer do during the meningitis outbreak? They administered an experimental drug to two hundred children. Trovan—an antibiotic not even approved by the FDA. Without parental consent, simply calling it a 'treatment.'"
Mbunga's voice trembled.
"Eleven died then. The rest suffered brain damage, hearing loss, paralysis. And what did Pfizer say? That it was a clinical trial! A clinical trial! They used African children as lab rats!"
Leclerc cut in.
"Dr. Mbunga, that was in the past..."
"The past?"
Mbunga scoffed.
"In the 2000s, HIV vaccine trials. In Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Malawi, they vaccinated thousands with unproven vaccines. They never even tracked the side effects. Because it was Africa, after all."
He rose from his seat.
"Just last month, the same thing happened in Uganda. The British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline conducted a malaria vaccine trial without properly obtaining consent from the villagers."
Mbunga looked straight at Taeho.
His eyes held a mixture of rage and sorrow.
"Do we look that easy, Dr. Gang? Did you think we would just take it again?"
He pointed at the map.
"Who made this? Tell me honestly."
Taeho was silent.
He could not answer.
No, he must not answer.
A biochemical weapon made by BioSynergy.
A triple chimera combining Ebola, Corona, and Marburg.
Eungili is the final field test site.
Taeho suspected their long-term goals. But he could not speak of them now.
He needed time.
Taeho raised his head.
Looking directly into Mbunga's eyes, he spoke.
"I cannot answer that now. Right now, saving the patients comes first. The truth will be revealed later."
Until then, President Tshisekedi on the monitor had been watching the situation. Now he opened his mouth.
"-Minister Mbunga."
"Yes, Mr. President."
"What you say has merit. But now is not the time for suspicion. We must save the patients first."
"Mr. President, but—"
"The international community is watching."
Tshisekedi looked straight into the camera.
"The UN Security Council, WHO headquarters, the US CDC, the European ECDC. All eyes are on Eungili. If we abandon them, sanctions will follow."
"Sanctions?"
Mbeki sneered.
"Are you afraid of sanctions, Mr. President?"
Tshisekedi did not answer.
But Taeho suspected what he truly feared was not sanctions, but Faisal.
If the $3.5 billion cobalt mine investment evaporated, the Tshisekedi regime would collapse.
Taeho stared at Tshisekedi on the monitor.
For a moment, the President's eyes turned toward Taeho.
Those eyes held a mix of emotions.
Mbeki was folding the map; Mbunga had his arms crossed.
Leclerc sat in his chair, head bowed.
The conference room was filled with a sense of defeat.
Taeho felt that atmosphere.
'Now.'
He opened his mouth.
"Give me sixty-seven hours."
All eyes turned to Taeho at once.
Mbeki stopped folding the map.
Mbunga raised his eyebrows.
Leclerc lifted his head.
"What?"
Mbeki furrowed his brow.
"Sixty-seven hours?"
"Yes."
Taeho put his hand on the table and stood.
"In sixty-seven hours, I can complete the treatment protocol."
"Treatment protocol?"
Mbeki repeated.
His voice was laced with scorn.
"Not a vaccine, not a cure?"
"A protocol."
"It's possible in sixty-seven hours."
"How."
"Right now, RNA sequencing is underway in Eungili."
Taeho explained.
"Oxford Nanopore MinION portable sequencers. Genome analysis of the virus is currently seventy-three percent complete. In twelve hours, we'll have the full structure."
Mbeki furrowed his brow.
"So?"
"Once we know the structure, drug design is possible."
Taeho said.
"This virus is a combination of Ebola, Corona, and Marburg. We can suppress it with a combination of antivirals targeting each component."
"With existing drugs?"
Mbunga cut in.
"Yes."
Taeho nodded.
"Remdesivir, favipiravir, monoclonal antibody cocktails. Already validated drugs. The supplies brought in by the WHO are in a Kinshasa warehouse."
Leclerc asked.
"But what about the combination protocol? That takes months to—"
"Sixty-seven hours."
Taeho cut him off.
"It's possible through simulation."
"Simulation?"
Mbeki scoffed.
"Save people with a computer game?"
"During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, do you know how the combination of dexamethasone and remdesivir was found to be effective?"
"..."
"Supercomputers simulated thousands of drug combinations. Only the most promising ones entered clinical trials, and millions of lives were saved."
Taeho looked straight at Mbeki.
"I will use the same method."
Mbeki crossed his arms and looked at Taeho.
"Let's say it's possible."
"Yes."
"What changes if you succeed?"
"Two things."
Taeho held up two fingers.
"First, we can save the patients."
"Is that important?"
Mbeki sneered.
"Second, I will give the protocol to you first, General."
Mbeki's gaze changed.
"What?"
"The treatment protocol."
Taeho spoke slowly.
"Viral structure analysis data, drug combination recipes, dosages, timing, sequence. I will give everything to you first, General."
"Before the WHO?"
"Yes."
Taeho nodded.
"If you receive it first, Ituri will be safe from this virus. It could become the safest region in the world from this disease. If an outbreak occurs in Kongola, or appears in Kisangani, you can treat it immediately."
Mbeki's eyes narrowed.
"You're telling me to monopolize it?"
"I'm telling you to protect them."
Taeho said.
"Your people, General."
Mbeki looked at Taeho with interest.