25th November, 2019, Moscow: Boris Yaroslav, the commander of GRU had a faint smile on his face as he logged into his mail. The Chinese had finally agreed to share their latest weapon development with the Russians. After all, a communist always helped a communist. He called Asst. commander Valery Ignatenko, and asked him to plan a visit to the Hubei province of China. After all Russia was going to add to its arsenal, the latest category of ammunition.... "THE BIO-WEAPONRY". 'Huh, the Americans are always boasting about their military might' he chuckled 'they have a secret research facility, about which the whole world knows. They don't have the faintest idea as to what we can do. Russians have a pretty solid military framework and with this new development, we can be the biggest superpower again.'
5th December, 2019, Huanan seafood wholesale market: A low profile meeting for a high profile deal. Ignatenko felt a bit uneasy, the Chinese had pretty odd conditions... No guards, No guns, but it was fine. What could possibly happen? Sitting in the almost empty shrimp shop, he was staring blankly at the wall, when two men entered. Wang Yanyi, director Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, and Gong peng, deputy director WNBL, themselves had come to hand over the specimen. A small cylinder of steel was exchanged for a briefcase. A weapon was exchanged for data. With that the short meeting came to an end, the Chinese left immediately. Ignatenko was curious enough to check the contents of the tube. But the tube was sealed, and he did not want to take any risks. Ignatenko smiled,' this in my hand is possibly the most dangerous weapon in the world', he thought. With this he left the shop from the back door. Moving forward, he then turned to a deserted street.
FREEZE... someone called out. Ignatenko was taken aback. He turned around. Two men in black suits had guns pointed at him. 'AMERICANS... How the hell did they get here?' Ignatenko thought.
"Hand over the tube to us." cried Rob Harris, senior agent CIA.
Ignatenko slowly moved his hands towards his vest. But, he suddenly picked up the Trash can full of animal waste and threw at the Americans. Ignatenko ran, Agent Henry Borden followed him. The Russian, turned towards the busy part of the market, knowing that the Americans won't shoot in a crowded place. Constantly looking back at Borden and Harris, he kept running in the narrow streets of the market. All of a sudden, he slipped over a patch of fish residue, which the local dealer was careless enough to throw on the street. He fell with a thud. By the time he could get up again, Borden knocked him out with a kick. Harris soon joined his fellow agent. They took out the tube form Ignatenko's vest, it had a dent near the seal. But it did not appear to be quite serious. Next, they picked up Ignatenko and carried him to a deserted spot, acting as they were helping the Russian. There they shot him and dumped the body in a filthy drain.
Sitting in the car, a faint smile spread across agent Harris' face. ' So, what the Chinese mystery man told us was quite true....' he thought.
26th November, 2019, Wuhan: Li Wenliang, lead researcher WNBL, got to know that their director Wang Yanyi had struck a deal with the Russians to use his latest viral specimen as a WEAPON. Under any circumstance, he could not let this happen. An idea came up, a pretty dangerous thing, but he had to do it. He made a complete report of his new development. He then made a high profile email id getting into the Chinese database. Next he mailed it to the Pentagon. Hoping that the CIA would consider it seriously. All he could do now, was wait.
Same Day, PENTAGON: Agent Harris was looking at the new anonymous mail that he had just received. A high profile Chinese E-mail id. Was this a prank?... Or was it serious? Thinking about this he opened the mail. The mail talked about a new weapon deal between the Chinese and the Russians. The mystery man wanted the CIA to stop it... STRANGE.
There was even an attachment, which talked about some kind of a virus.
What the mail said was pretty serious, but was it really true? Harris went up to the commander and showed him the mail.
" Aaah, its a prank!", exclaimed the commander.
"But it talks about pretty serious things.", said Harris.
"That's why its a prank." said the commander.
"But should we not get this checked once?", asked Harris.
"Okay, its just a waste of time. But go, send it to some Virology Institute." said the commander.
Harris sent the file to the Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore, for the researchers to assess. The Institute sent its report the next day. What it said was quite disturbing.
....It seems like the Chinese have developed a highly infectious virus, that too which shows its symptoms after a few days. Though its mortality rate is quite low, but it can become a dangerous bioweapon with a few genetic rearrangements. The virus can also be used for treatment purposes and can prove to be really helpful in curing epidemics...
Harris said,"We don't know what the Russians are going to do go this?"
"Oh, they are Russians, those sons of devil convert every new discovery into a weapon. The States' arsenal right now has no such weapon, and we cannot let the Russians get hold of this at any cost."said the commander."Take Borden with you, and stop these Russians."
Harris went and briefed Borden about their next mission.
"Do we have someone in the GRU?"asked Borden.
"Yes, if I'm not wrong, there is a guy in their housekeeping." said Harris.
"Man, seriously! You need to admit that we are far behind the Russians in spying and hiding things." exclaimed Borden.
"Whatever it is. Call up the guy and ask him to tag, whoever is up on this mission from the GRU." said Harris and left.
The spy in Moscow was successful in tagging Ignatenko. China and Russia had a common border, thus Ignatenko preferred taking the road route to Wuhan. The CIA had a track of all his movements. Meanwhile, Borden and Harris entered the mainland from the Tibetan border. The American embassy helped them to get to the city of Wuhan and would also help them get out of there.
7th December, 2019, IHV: Harris presented the sealed tube to Dr. Frank Henry, director IHV. Seeing the dent on the tube the doctor frowned and handed it over to his assistant who took it inside the lab. After a short while the assistant returned, a sense of fear clearly visible on his face. " The tube was broken... The virus has leaked out." he said in a broken voice.....