Chapter 203: The culprit

The plane on which Jocelyne, Chloe and Jackson were traveling landed in Ingarpest, a town in the Meilong Republic. The journey was not very long, but all three had taken the opportunity to rest seriously. Jocelyne hadn't slept properly for days, some nights she even stayed awake. As soon as she touched the seat of the plane and all her worries vanished, she collapsed into the world of dreams. It didn't take long for Chloe and Jackson to follow her. Only the sound of the speakers telling them to fasten their seat belts for landing woke them up. As soon as the plane landed Jackson and Jocelyne got off. They both shivered because of the difference in temperature: the climate in the Meilong Republic was different from that of Odaria, and although there shouldn't have been more than three or four degrees of difference, the strong wind that blew that day made them notice the difference very much. well. Chloe instead remained on the plane, which left shortly after. After all, she couldn't stop there: she was headed for Diamond City, a city in the Gardarikian Federation that housed the headquarters of the NMWA. As a direct subordinate of the international organization, you had a duty to return as soon as possible. He had not yet completed his duties. Jackson was a little upset, but his duty was to protect miss Jersey, so he couldn't follow her beauty from her golden hair. However, the two promised to stay in touch and meet as soon as the waters calmed down. Jocelyne's arrival on foreign soil had not been made public, at least not yet, since technically it shouldn't have happened; this allowed the girl not to have the print between her feet. She at least for a few days she could move without being attacked by journalists. She intended to use that time to go to Ingarpest University. Which, incidentally, was the place where her scientific collaborators, whom she had absolute urgency to meet, must now be located. "So, let me understand, miss" Jackson had said as they waited for the bus. "The reason we're here is because you want to get to the bottom of this mystery?" "I'm here to keep the world from crumbling" Jocelyne replied simply. "I became an ambassador to protect the people, and at the moment my work is only half done. Dealing with dinosaurs was the easy part. Now we have to deal with humans" Jocelyne knew that humans were unpredictable and that they tended to be careless, foolish and unreasonable, especially when they were scared or faced with something they didn't know. Humanity was a species that always needed certainty; as soon as she was at the mercy of unknown forces, it became dangerous and insane. Jocelyne therefore had to make sure that humans, or at least governments, avoided doing some stupid act that would cause war with the dinosaurs. And the first thing to do was to explain the sudden increase in the intelligence of the dinosaurs. Humans did not know what was happening and this frightened them: but when the truth came to light, they would calm down. They would have had the illusion of having the situation under control again and would have reassured themselves. It was certainly not enough to identify the cause of an illness to know the cure, but people did not think so: they just needed an explanation and they were satisfied. Not only that, but by discovering how the Mother Cell was born, Jocelyne would also have delivered a culprit to the world. Exactly what humanity wanted: a man to blame and on whom to vent anger and fear. What would happen to that man, Jocelyne preferred to not imagine it; but she knew that sacrifices had to be done to maintain order. That would have been just the beginning anyway. There would have been more to do. At the moment, however, she had to focus on discovering how the Mother Cell originated and who had spread it. Jocelyne and Jackson arrived at the university an hour after getting off the plane. Nobody paid any attention to them, although someone turned to look at her suspiciously. It was no surprise: her face was everywhere in the world, since she was the ambassador to the dinosaurs. But since no one imagined seeing such a famous person walking the streets of their city, everyone simply mistook her for a double. The situation would not last indefinitely: sooner or later someone would realize that it was really her, but until that happened Jocelyne could move freely. Once they entered the university, the two respectfully asked the recepionist where Professor Grant's classroom was located. Having received the instructions, they went to the point indicated, and in fact they soon reached a classroom where the words 'PROF. ALAN GRANT' were printed on a bronze plaque hanging on the door. Jackson and Jocelyne entered and found themselves in a large classroom that could hold at least two hundred people, complete with a desk and interactive whiteboard. And there were six well-known people waiting for them. "Look who has finally arrived!" Ian exclaimed coming towards him and patting Jocelyne on the head. "You are shorter than I imagined" "Professor Malcolm, I thought you were in better shape" Jocelyne retorted outspokenly. Ian pursed his lips with an offended expression; Behind him, Alan smiled so broadly that he bared all his teeth, evidently happy to have met someone who could silence Ian. Robert went to his son. Jackson couldn't hold his gaze. There was a moment of awkward silence between the two, which ended with a 'good to see you, son' from Robert and a 'you too, dad' from Jackson. It was clear that there was still something unspoken between the two, but the other people in the room did not intend to interfere: it was the private matter of the two of them. "We can make some real introductions this time" Ellie said, shaking Jocelyne's hand. "Ellie Sattler, very pleased" "I know it. I know her by reputation" Jocelyne replied with a smile. Shortly after another female hand squeezed hers. "I'm happy to finally be able to meet you in person" Jamie told her. "Me too. I am happy to meet all of you in person, actually. We never got to see each other except through a screen" Jocelyne said, smiling even more. Even Alan's bear heart seemed to melt at the sight, and Mitch muttered distinctly: "What a good flatterer" "Always nice, Dr. Morgan" Jocelyne grumbled at those words. "He's part of my character" Mitch replied with a half smile. "Hey! That's my joke!" Ian yelled, pointing his accusing finger. "Don't try to imitate me, you fool! Only one specimen of me exists and will always exist!" Jocelyne deliberately ignored Professor Malcolm's rant. "You will be tired" Alan said. "I hope the journey wasn't too hard, along with... well, everything else. By the way, miss Jersey, I would like to congratulate..." "We can do it after" Alan was dumbfounded when Jocelyne stopped him. "Excuse me, but I would like to postpone any compliments, comments or anything else for later. Now we have work to do, all of us" Seriousness returned to the room. Everyone knew what those words meant: now there was no joking anymore. They had to find answers. "No more chatter. I want to know if we have what we need" Jocelyne continued, then looked at Robert, Mitch and Jamie. "Did you manage to enter the Reiden data archive, or not?" She had entrusted them with the mission of discovering the secrets of the Reiden to find out if she had really created the Mother Cell, but after leaving to talk with the dinosaurs they kept silent on the subject. Now she wanted to know if the operation was successful. The three concerned looked at each other, then let out an amused chuckle. "Did you doubt us, miss Jersey?" Mitch asked turning on the interactive whiteboard behind him. In a flash the screen lit up and an endless series of files appeared on it. "Let me introduce you the Reiden dataset" Jamie said proudly. "Every single contract, every deal, every wrongdoing, every mediation ever carried out by the multinational, are now in front of your eyes". The woman's face was triumphant: she looked like a child who had just discovered that Christmas was celebrated early that year. "How did you manage to hack the entire data archive in a few minutes?" Ian asked in surprise. "We didn't" Jamie replied. "We used those few minutes to insert a computer virus directly into the heart of the system, which allowed me to access it and decrypt all the data from a distance. An efficient method with minimal risks of interception" "A clever plan" Jocelyne complimented. "What have you discovered?" "Oh, a lot of things!" Jamie said excitedly. "We have enough material to send the whole society into ruin. You have no idea how many wrongdoings those bastards have committed! Among the scams, threats, corruption..." "As interesting as it is, it's not revealing at the moment" Jocelyne stopped her quickly. "You will give me an account of the Reiden's wrongdoing later. Now I want to know if they are really responsible for the creation of the Mother Cell" "Oh... right" Jamie got her feet back on the ground. "Well, it wasn't easy to find information... the Reiden hides its affairs well, especially secret ones like this one. We couldn't find anything about the Mother Cell so, at the suggestion of Dr. Oz, we used another way" "And what is it?" Ellie asked curiously. "We have traced the traffic of the substances necessary to produce the Mother Cell" Mitch intervened. "As Dr. Oz can confirm, the Mother Cell needs certain components to be created. Therefore we have focused on them. We checked the quantities that the Reiden bought and where it sent them... and once we traced the place where all the routes converged, we used those coordinates to extrapolate all the reports of the staff who lived in that place, and thus we discovered all their secrets" Jamie pressed the remote and pointed to the screen. "Here's what we got" A new slide appeared on the screen. It was a satellite photo of a corner of the Maakanar forest. "I don't see anything unusual" Jackson said. "The essential is invisible to the eye" Jamie replied. "Or rather... under them" The slide changed again and the floor plan of a huge, completely underground structure appeared. It was shaped like a disc with more than ten floors and several tunnels connected it to compartments positioned on the sides that allowed it to rise to the surface via a complex system of completely disguised elevators. The structure was practically invisible from the outside. "What the hell is that?" Alan grumbled. "They call it 'Pangea'. A secret laboratory known to very few where the most shady things were experimented" Mitch explained. "It's all in there. Diseases, viruses, genetically modified insects, bacteriological weapons... just one of those experiments is enough to unleash an apocalypse" Jocelyne carefully observed the structure. It was no surprise that no one had ever found her: she was too well hidden. "Did they also experience the Mother Cell in there?" "Oh, they did" Jamie replied. "It was apparently the most important project in the past three years. We found reports showing the progress of the experiments. There are at least one hundred and fifty that speak of improvements in the creation of the Mother Cell" "As I had imagined, the Reiden was trying to create it for profit" Robert said. "In their archive we have found at least half a thousand plans to use the Mother Cell. They wanted to collapse the world economy to create a new autarchy that would encompass the entire planet. They would take control of the NMWA and all the world governments that would become their puppets. This is a criminal plan that involved the death of tens of millions of people and enslaving the entire planet" Jocelyne sighed deeply and frowned as she listened to Dr. Oz. Whenever she believed that things couldn't be worse, humanity promptly contradicted her. She wasn't the only one who was disappointed: Jackson, Ian, Alan and Ellie were as upset as she was. "Make the world economy collapse, unleash an apocalypse, take control of governments... is the greed of the Raiding really that immense?" Ellie murmured. "Are you surprised? All the riches always want more than they have. The richer a person is, the more he desires something else; and the more he gets, the bigger his greed gets" Ian said. "It is a vicious circle that is inevitably leading us to the extinction of our species" "See you after the discussions on morality" Alan stopped them. "Rather, if they got the Mother Cell, why did they use it to make dinosaurs intelligent? It doesn't make sense" Incredibly, for the first time, Mitch, Jamie and Robert seemed unanswered. "Actually... none of the reports we got state that the Reiden got the Mother Cell" Jamie replied. The revelation surprised everyone. "But it's not true! Come on, the dinosaurs have become intelligent, their behavior and their abilities coincide with Robert's theories! It is obvious that it is the Mother Cell, and they must necessarily have created it there!" Jocelyne exclaimed. Mitch nodded. "We agree, but none of the reports say it was created. Even those that arrived a few weeks ago. Furthermore, another strange event, it seems that Pangea has ceased all communications with the Reiden as soon as the existence of intelligent dinosaurs has become public knowledge" "Which brings us to only two conclusions" Jamie said. "Either the leaders of the Reiden concealed the discovery of the Mother Cell even from their own data archive, or the scientist who worked in Pangea created the Mother Cell in secret and freed it without saying anything to anyone for whatever reason" "Why do such a thing?" Ellie asked, but suddenly she was stopped by Alan: "No, no, no, stop everyone! I am not interested in the reasons, but rather why did you speak of 'the scientist'? Wouldn't it be more correct to say 'scientists'?" "Er... not really" Robert replied. "Based on the data we collected... only one scientist worked in Pangea. The others were only collaborators with limited experience who limited themselves to carrying out his directives. But only one scientist was chosen to do all the work, since it was easier to avoid a leak. The Reiden had chosen the most experienced man in that work that could be found. And his name is..." When Robert said the scientist's name in the room, an uproar happened: Ellie's eyes bulged like two balls, Alan nearly choked on saliva, and Ian slipped out of his chair and rolled on the floor. Jamie and Mitch looked at each other worriedly, as if they expected a similar reaction. Jackson, for his part, began to look around not understanding the situation. Jocelyne also didn't understand, and in fact she immediately asked for an explanation. "Who the hell is Henry Wu?"