Chapter 223: Talking in front of the NMWA

That same evening Chloe contacted the top of the NMWA and claimed that Jocelyne Jersey was in possession of 'information of vital importance to the dinosaur problem'. Governments reacted promptly and set up a meeting as early as three days later. For the second time, Jocelyne appeared before the NMWA, but this time she did not hide anything. She explained in detail everything she had done, what she had discovered, how she had put together her team of scientists and everything else about her. She didn't miss a single detail. Nobody interrupted her during her explanation. The heads of state of the various nations remained silent as they listened to her. Wrinkles formed on their faces, their brows arched, their eyes hardened, but they didn't speak. "... and that's all" Jocelyne finally concluded after a good twenty minutes of explanation. "And unfortunately, based on Henry Wu's statements, we have confirmation that creating a cure is not possible" For a single instant, not a fly flew into the hall. Then Queen Mackenzie spoke up: "Let's see if we got it right" she said. "You, miss Jersey, have not only spread news regarding the negotiations with the dinosaurs by forcing us to accept the peace you wanted, not only have you disappeared for twenty-four hours, but now you reveal to us that you knew everything from the beginning, that you had a valid explanation and that you have assembled a team in great secrecy that you have sent to Maakanar, violating the peace treaty and risking a war with the dinosaurs, to capture the person responsible for this disaster?" "You couldn't have said it better" Jocelyne confirmed. "Seriously, do you have a soul!?" President Palma blurted out. "How can you stay so expressionless? Not only did you jeopardize the security of all humanity by violating the peace treaty, but you knew what was happening and kept silent about it!" "Every decision I made had a calculated risk" was Jocelyne's dry reply. "When the fact that I was silent about the truth... yes, I did, but it cannot be said that you too weren't warned. You didn't believe an esteemed and famous scientist like Robert Oz when he warned the world of the danger of the Mother Cell; would you have believed me if I had presented myself to you before this situation and told you about intelligent dinosaurs? If you preferred to discredit a genius man and believe the lies of a multinational, then you can only blame yourself. If you let a snake enter into the garden, you can't be surprised if it starts crawling around" The heads of state in the hall looked at each other with a mixed expression between irritated and guilty. Jocelyne had hit the mark: they were, in fact, the first to disbelieve Robert Oz. "The fact remains that you lied about the matter. We asked you if you had discovered anything during our last meeting, and you denied" "Of course, because if I had spoken, the news would surely have reached the Reiden's ears. I couldn't allow it before I had hard evidence" was Jocelyne's dry reply. "The Reiden has eyes and ears everywhere. If they had known in advance that I knew, then they would have been concerned with destroying the evidence. Now they can't do it anymore". The girl smacked her lips. "The evidence my team has collected, along with all the confessions and secret data, is your property from this exactly moment. You can send helicopters to pick them up from the ship if you like, or I can just contact my team right now and ask them to send me a copy of all the material they obtained. By examining it, you will understand for yourself that even if Henry Wu is responsible for everything, the Reiden Global is by no means exempt from blame, in fact it has committed enough wrongdoing and had enough sinister plans to be even worse than Henry Wu" The people gathered in the hall chatted among themselves for a few moments, then President Bennett spoke: "Before moving on, I propose that we immediately issue an arrest warrant for all the Raiding shareholders, and establish a task force that will review all the evidence gathered. and who will investigate any illegal action carried out by the multinational" "I agree" confirmed President Palma. "Yes" "Yes, it is! We must act now!" "If we waste time those bastards will run away. Let's create a task force immediately!" "Let's put it to a vote. Who agree to this?" The members of the NMWA knew how to be quick when it came to such important decisions. Even though the Reiden had strong power in the political world as well, reality couldn't be denied indefinitely. Moreover, at the moment the population wanted an explanation and, above all, they wanted a culprit. Even if the indictment of the Reiden would have had enormous consequences on the world economic level, from the point of view of the politicians it was much better to get it out of the way. Furthermore, according to what Jocelyne said, the Reiden aimed to use the Mother Cell for nefarious purposes also for governments, so it had to disappear. In a way, they had to thank Henry Wu for covering up the discovery of the Mother Cell from the Reiden. The votes were almost all in favor of forming the task force. The verdict was clear. "Miss Tousignant" Queen Mackenzie said, looking at Chloe, who immediately stood to attention. "While your conduct hasn't been the best in recent times, at the moment you are the government agent who knows the situation best, so we entrust you with the task of creating the task force. Contact the police immediately and have the Reiden executives arrested, then hire the investigators you think are best suited to this case. Find out every dirty secret that the Reiden has hidden" Chloe nodded. "I will do it with great pleasure" "Then get to work immediately" Chloe glanced quickly at Jocelyne; basically, her heads of state were asking her to leave her alone. Wanting her too, however, she couldn't object to their decision, so she turned and walked out of the room. "Now we come to you" Emperor Wafner said, looking at the girl. "Are you aware that you have violated many international laws?" "How? I had carte blanche, have you forgotten?" Jocelyne asked rhetorically. "When I organized the expedition and hired the person who led it, my role as ambassador hadn't yet been revoked, and with it the possibility of arbitrarily deciding what to do and what to not do" "You have violated the peace treaty prescribed globally by all the nations of the planet, and do you expect to be able to get away with a little rhetoric?" President Palma snapped. "I haven't violated any treaties. When my team crossed the border, they waited to be joined by the pterosaurs and only moved on after explaining the situation to them and receiving their permission"Jocelyne replied. "Lord Sobek had confided to me that he didn't intend to completely close the borders. He was willing to let us through if we kindly asked him. And in fact there have been no accidents" "The dinosaurs could have pretended to let your team pass and then use it as an excuse to go to war. Have you thought about it?" "Of course I've thought about it, but I'm smart enough to realize that dinosaurs wouldn't need many subterfuges if they wanted to go to war. Face the reality, gentlemen: dinosaurs are many, they are big, they are armed and if they decide to attack us we would be all fucked. The present peace exists only because they have allowed it. They will not resort to such devious tricks when they want to declare war on us: they will just attack us" A nervous buzz filled the room. The heads of state weren't happy with Jocelyne's claims, mainly because they knew it was the truth. Especially the leaders of the superpowers of the planet. He was indecent to those who had been on top of the world up to that point to be told that there was a threat that even they had to fear. "You can continue to accuse me as long as you want, I haven't violated any law" Jocelyne continued. "So, rather than keep yelling at us, maybe it would be convenient to go back to discussing the main problem, right? You wanted an explanation, now you have it, and you also know that the world cannot go back to being as it was before. Therefore, the decisions you make from this moment will determine whether humanity can survive on this planet or not" If anyone else had spoken like this in front of the NMWA, the debate would most likely have sparked. This time, however, the heads of state could not find words with which to respond. It was as if Jocelyne's gaze had frozen them. Many looking at her agreed with Palma's version, wondering if that girl had a soul: there was not the slightest emotion of her in those eyes, only an unusual coldness and determination. In the end, the leaders of the NMWA chose to listen to her. "All right. Then talk: how do you think we should proceed, since, according to you, there is no cure?" "I brought someone more experienced than me here to answer this question" Jocelyne said, then looked at the guards on either side of the door. "Let him in" The doors swung open and a grim man with a gray beard and glassy eyes entered him. His arrival caused quite a stir. After years, Robert Oz was back in the rooms of the NMWA again. And he did it with his head held high. "This, for the uninitiated, is Dr. Robert Oz. The scientist who had foreseen all this and who had been discredited because of the Reiden Global... and others" Jocelyne introduced him, voluntarily throwing a dig at those present. "He has been studying for years the dynamics that an organism infected with the Mother Cell could take. At the moment, he is the best person to trust us to decide how to move in the future" Robert looked proudly at the members of the NMWA. Their stunned gaze was a pleasure for him. It was great to see the same people who had made fun of him hanging from his lips. At last he had had his justice of him. He had Jocelyne to thank for that. He had kept his promise. After all those years he was finally back in front of the NMWA, but this time no one discredited him. The same thought had to be shared by the other heads of state, even if their sentiment was much closer to shame than pride. "Doctor Oz" President Palma finally began. "Ambassador Jersey says you know what to do" Robert nodded. "I have an idea. I have spent the last few decades actively studying how an organism infected with the Mother Cell could move. And so far my predictions have turned out to be correct" he explained. "You see, my lords, the ultimate goal of every living being is always survival. Now, what if you gave an organism the ability to adapt? These would begin to evolve and change in order to survive better. It would get stronger, bigger, and more and more intelligent, until there would be nothing left that could defeat it in nature. At that point, however, he will have only one enemy left, one he cannot defeat alone: us. Therefore he would begin to trigger a rapid evolution in all other living creatures to be able to actively counter us. Exactly how it happened" "So you are saying that lord Sobek's ultimate goal is to exterminate us?" "No, sir. Lord Sobek's ultimate goal is survival. If he attacked us it was because his survival, and that of all the other creatures on the planet, was threatened by us. We were destroying their environment and therefore lord Sobek decided that he couldn't allow us to continue" Robert's face became serious: "Up to this moment we have postponed the discussion because we were hoping for a cure, but now we know for sure that it isn't possible to create one. Therefore, our only hope for averting a disaster on a global scale is to never again threaten the survival of lord Sobek and all other animals on the planet. In lesser words, our lifestyle must completely change" The heads of state got nervous. If there was one thing people hated doing, it was change. Nobody liked to change, except very young people who had their whole life available. "I will quickly illustrate what would happen in the event of war: to win, we humans would be forced to destroy every forest, every land, every sea, and eradicate every animal from the world. Not to mention that these animals will fight back very violently. With a war, at least half of the global population would die. Regardless of who wins or who loses, the planet will be so devastated that it will cause a mass death that will exterminate us in a few months" Robert continued. "Our only hope, therefore, is to stop attempting the survival of other living creatures. With this peace treaty we have already taken a step forward, because now, willy-nilly, we will be forced to create new sources of energy and stop breeding other animals en masse. However, this will not be enough. For now, lord Sobek has focused on ensuring that only his herd will survive, but it won't be long before he realizes that our influence is slowly destroying this planet. When he understands that, then he will decide to get us out of the way. With our current lifestyle, we are a cancer to be destroyed by any other creature able to thought. We must therefore change our nature and transform ourselves into a functioning and healthy organ instead" "What do you mean, Dr. Oz?" "That we must be able to achieve the delicate balance between technological development and respect for the environment. This time, nice words and a few solar panels won't be enough: we will have to completely revolutionize our lifestyle. We need to clean up the seas, stop polluting the atmosphere, better dispose of trash... our only hope, at the moment, is to be able to harmonize ourselves again with the nature. Only in this way the dinosaurs will no longer feel threatened by us, and only in this way we will have a chance to survive" "What Robert Oz says is true, my lords" Jocelyne interjected. "During the peace treaties, lord Sobek confided to me that he doesn't intend to build a wall with us, but that he doesn't want to have contact until we reconcile with the nature. Only when this happens he will be open to new dialogues and a greater mixing of our cultures" "If we want to put it simply" Robert said solemnly. "From now on, humans will have to learn to coexist with the rest of the planet. We can no longer afford to be its rulers: we will have to give every life form the same value we give to ourselves. Only by changing our mentality and forgetting the concept of 'dominant species' will we be able to achieve a balance with the other species on the planet. The only other alternative is extermination"