Wuhan Conspiracy

By John Special

Fiction novel about a hypothetical case that could have happened in a laboratory in Wuhan. A very entertaining novel that will keep you in suspense until the end.
Dr. Wen, one of China's leading scientists, is infected with a virus created in a Wuhan laboratory to spread the virus.
Realizing this, she flees with the virus and the only vaccine capable of stopping the pandemic, and with the help of young Zhao, they must outwit the Chinese secret service and another criminal organization behind the vaccine.
Escapes, escapes, violence, romance and action from the beginning will keep you on your toes until the last page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Juan Speciale
• Release date: Jan 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215137215

Book preview

I

Sitting at the bar of the singles bar called Dānshēn, where she was a regular customer, she looked at her watch. It was close to eight o'clock on that Friday night in late November, and it was still half an hour before Huang arrived.

She had met him through an online dating app, and he seemed like a nice and interesting person after chatting a couple of times on the phone. She didn't notice a man just by his outward appearance, and thinking he might be good company to enjoy an evening with, she arranged to meet him in person, and if there was a good connection between them, spend the night together.

She motioned to the bartender to pour him another glass of whiskey, more to warm her up on that cold night, and thus pass the time until the man she was waiting for arrived.

She regretted having come too soon. She never had any illusions about meeting a man just because she was interested in him, as she thought that the position she held in her profession did not allow her to do so. For the time being, at least. People who worked for the state lived under surveillance, and even their phones were tapped. So her life was spent between work, most of the time, and an occasional relationship from time to time.

Being part of the staff of scientists in the virology department at the highest security level made her one of the important people in that cabinet. She dealt directly with the minister's deputy secretary, and was under his orders. The bartender placed the glass of whiskey in front of her.

She took a good sip.

Her cell phone, which she always kept in sight, rang over the bar, and she glanced at it to see who the phone call was from.

She didn't recognize the number, and thought it might be from Huang, so she took the call. On the other end of the line someone identified themselves with a password and a name. They chatted for about a minute, then she paid the bill and left. She got into one of the cabs waiting for customers outside the bar.

Although she knew how to drive a car, she didn't own one. She felt safer that way. She gave the driver the address and settled into the back seat.

She hesitated whether or not to warn Huang. Hopefully I can get back in time, she thought. She felt like getting drunk that night, as she had been given a week's leave and planned to visit her parents the next day.

They arrived at the indicated address, she paid the bill and went to the entrance of the building, where she showed her credentials to the guards, who after being verified let her in.

Doctor Wen, that was how the beautiful and elegant thirty-two-year-old scientist was known to those who worked with her. She was one of the best virologists in the country.

The guards followed her with their eyes to check whether she would continue directly to the elevator that would take her to the virology department on the third floor, where a dozen of the best scientists of the molecular biology branch of security level P4 worked, or turn left, towards the elevator that would take her to the basement, where the secret laboratory of level P5 was located, of which no one knew, except a very small number of people of the official elite of which she was part. She turned left. In that laboratory they worked with viruses that could be used as biological weapons, and especially with those that were genetically modified. The acronyms P1, P2, P3, indicated the biosecurity level of the labs that worked with viruses and bacteria. The highest security laboratories used the acronym P4, recognized worldwide and highly controlled. But no one knew of the existence of this P5 security laboratory.

She identified herself again to enter the elevator, and went down to the basement, where half a dozen guards were spread out along that corridor. She hated elevators, and avoided them if she could. She reached the end, inserted her ID card into the identity verification slot, then passed through the facial recognition identifier. The sliding door opened, entering the room where items that did not enter the lab, such as wallets, purses, cell phones or coats, were deposited in a closet. The door closed again. She already knew it by heart and did not need to look where the light switch was to turn it on. Only six people had direct access to that room, no one else. To the right was another room of larger dimensions, where the people who would enter the laboratory had to put on the protective suit.

She thought it odd to find the door open, and stepped inside, it was dimly lit by the light coming from the entrance hall, and she went in search of her protective suit, an immaculate white color hanging on a hanger with her initials on the left side of the chest in blue letters, and took it in her hands. She hated that color. It reminded her of his childhood.

It happened at her birthday party organized by her parents to celebrate her eighth birthday. The candles were red in the middle of the cake decorated in white with whipped cream and colored fireworks on the sides of the candles. She was wearing a dress the same color as the uniform they wore inside the lab. Trying to extinguish the candles, she tripped and fell to the ground, in the meantime the fireworks that were lit on the cake fell on her, burning her right knee and her dress.

A few minutes later she was taken to the hospital and the birthday was over.

She thought that it was not necessary to follow the protocol dictated by the rules to enter the laboratory, since she only had to place a capsule containing a vaccine and a vial with virus inside in a small box, to pick it up first thing the next day. In addition, inside the laboratory there were alarms, which in the presence of virus in the environment, no matter how low the viral load present, would sound to protect those who worked there. So she left the suit and headed for the pressurized lab. She almost fell to the floor when she tripped over the door that was ajar. She hadn't turned on all the lights and wondered who could have left it unlocked.

Despite the slight dizziness she felt from being under the effects of the whiskey she had drunk, she was sure that it was not going to affect her. But she needed that drink to relax from the tension she had been under those last two weeks, which had been the most complicated since she had been transferred from the laboratory where she had previously worked.

If she thought it odd to find the door to the lounge open, this she considered unacceptable. The pressurized door had to be closed no matter what, without exception. And although she was confident that the alarm would sound if she was in the presence of any kind of virus, she told herself that she would personally inform doctor Li, her boss, about this inadmissible fact in the laboratory. She turned on the lights and entered. She approached the table on which she had left the capsule with the vaccine inside for doctor Li to examine it the next day, but she could not find it. She thought for a few seconds where she had left it.

Yes, it had slipped her mind for an instant. But not because of the drink she'd had in Dānshēn, she thought. Sometimes she used to leave her unfinished tasks in the toxic waste bag. She did this so that no one would touch her work, because in the laboratory where she worked before, a person had spilled a liquid on an almost finished work in her absence, thus going through a bad experience due to that fact. Since then, she made a habit of hiding it there. She used to do that behind the back of the camera on the roof, and since she was in charge of moving the toxic waste to the incinerator, no one else would check it, and although she would not come the next day because of the start of her vacation, with a message to doctor Li, she could fix it. That vaccine still had to go through a long process of testing until it was approved for use, but basically she knew it would pass all the tests.

Not in vain they had been working on it day and night for almost three years. She bent down and carefully picked up the red bag, from which she took out the ultra light graphite capsule specially built to store the vaccine which had to be at a temperature below zero degrees Celsius and placed it in the small bamboo box. She then picked up the vial with the viruses.

She did not find it where it was supposed to be. Her colleague and section chief, doctor Li, was a model of professionalism, and would have left it in place if she had handled it. She looked up, and on the first visual sweep she saw it. The glass vial was to her right, on a shelf against the wall, a little more than five feet above the floor, at the edge of the box where it should have been stored. Evidently someone had removed it from its box and never put it back. She paused for a moment to think about who could have been the irresponsible person who left it in such an unsafe place on that small box.

Could it have been doctor Wong? She wondered. Protocol said not to pick it up until she was absolutely certain she could secure it with both hands, because being a glass vial, it could shatter if it fell to the floor and release the viruses inside.

And that mild dizziness that wouldn't leave her.

She took three steps to her right, and grabbed with both hands the vial containing the viruses they had managed to modify after a long and complicated genetic engineering work that had lasted a little more than three years. She looked at it more closely, and a wave of terror swept over her. ¡¡¡¡ It was open!!!!! For a few seconds she did not know how to react, it was impossible that the alarm had not sounded, the liquid in which the viruses were contained was very volatile, and the viral load at that instant must have been at its highest level. Despite the desperation of the moment, she tried to remain calm. The viruses, the most dangerous created by the laboratory up to that moment, had to be disseminated in the air, and the alarm had not sounded. She reached for a lid, closed the vial and placed it in the box next to the vaccine, putting it back in the toxic waste bag under that long table, and hurried to the decontamination booth.

The viruses they had modified were the simplest of the influenza viruses, but very lethal in their new genetic combination with other viruses, and they had placed them in a very volatile liquid inside that flask so that they could be preserved for dozens of years inside. She undressed, putting her clothes in a bag prepared for that purpose, then placed it in a box where they deposited the toxic waste, and went under the decontamination shower for several minutes. She could not think straight about what was happening. The dizziness, plus the desperation of the moment, clouded her mind. And she had no doubt that she had been in contact with a very high viral load of the original, most lethal viruses. That whole room must have been infested with viruses, in the air and on the floor, and she had breathed it in by not wearing the protective suit. What's more, the security alarm had not sounded.

She closed the shower handle and walked out the exit door. Despite the serious mishap, she tried to remain calm and follow protocol. It was the first time she had used the decontamination booth in an accident case, and she had not even put on a mask.

The anger she felt at that moment made the craziest ideas of taking justice into her own hands go through her mind. She wanted to find the culprit of what was happening. And it was happening to her, who boasted of being an example of neatness and professionalism. She was a cautious woman, and always left a set of clothes in the dressing room in case of an emergency. She got her out of there, got dressed, and grabbed her purse and left the building. She did not want to sound the alarm without first notifying doctor Li. Nor did she try to call her, because the secret service would find out about the accident, and she didn't want them to know before she did. Despite being dizzy, confused and desperate, she thought she could still handle the situation well.

She knew doctor Li's apartment. She had already visited her on several occasions, as she lived alone, and decided to go there to consult her about what they would do about it, and she would tell her everything that had happened since she received the call at the bar, including why she put the vaccine and viruses back in the toxic waste bag.

She arrived in a cab, got out and called on the intercom. She identified herself when doctor Li asked who she was. The answer was curt and blunt. She would not be able to take her at that moment, and the next day she would be in the lab if she needed to speak to her, and she hung up. She again insisted on ringing the doorbell, but again got no response.

She did not know what to do or who to turn to. The other person working with them in the lab was doctor Wong, an excellent professional but very sullen. They only said hello to each other. Besides, it did not even cross her mind to communicate with him. It was getting late and she decided to go to her apartment. She was hesitating about what would be the best decision to make at that moment. She had been in contact with a high viral load of very infectious viruses, and she did not know how it could affect his body. They never did any tests to know the consequences of his exposure. They only knew that they were very easily transmitted, infected many organs within a person, mutated into more dangerous viruses and had a high probability of being fatal.

As soon as she entered her apartment she sent a text message to doctor Li, telling her very briefly about an accident that had occurred in the lab, and the urgent need to talk to her, although she did not mention specifically what had happened. While waiting for a reply, she went to take a shower.

The warm falling water left her feeling relaxed, whetting her appetite. She came out of the bathroom with rumbling in her stomach, going to see what was in the refrigerator. Just bread, a piece of chicken, cheese, milk and a couple of beers. She made herself a sandwich and savored it lying on her bed. She checked her phone again... nothing, and doctor Li had already seen her message, so said the information on her phone. Worry was stronger than hunger.

She didn't have the patience to wait for favorable situations to appear in her life, she was a woman of action. And she didn't think twice about it. She dressed in an old Jean with holes in the knees and in several other places, some sneakers, a blouse and her old black leather jacket with bangs. She grabbed her purse and went out. No one would imagine that under that outfit, she was one of the best scientists in the country.

She ran down the stairs. She never used the elevator. It made her mad to wait to go up or down. She went out to the street, flagged down a cab parked in a beverage warehouse a few meters from the building, gave the cab driver the address and asked to go very quickly. She had a bad feeling, and regretted not staying to wait for doctor Li. They arrived, she paid the fare and rushed to the entrance of the building. She rang the doorbell several times, but no one answered.

She continued to insist without stopping. The waiting was tormenting her. At that moment the door of the building opened, she saw two men coming out in a hurry, who looked at her from head to toe