Pierre Beaumont chewed a few Brazil nuts and got on the stage in front of the assembled delegates. It was time to shine. Pierre was giving a presentation on how the World Bank was going to 'help' developing countries affected by the Coronavirus lockdowns. In reality, the World Bank had never, ever, helped any country, and the places that received their subsidies stayed poor indefinitely. Pierre speech slurred, and he feared that he had revealed this detail. Judging from the lack of reactions from the crowd he hadn't. Or maybe they already knew, but they didn't care, as long as they could enrichen themselves. Pierre studied the gathered world leaders. All the prominent ones were present.
- Jing Xi from China
- Deidrick Dump from the USA
- Angela Mittler from Germany
- Scurry Morrissett from Australia.
Would any of them survive the outbreak? It was crucial that Jing Xi survived. It would be hard to pin the blame on him for the outbreak if he died.
Pierre feared that the outbreak could cause a nuclear war. Neither he nor the World Bank would win if things escalated to a nuclear exchange. An economic collapse was what Pierre needed, but people were unpredictable and things could go out of hand. For a second, Pierre thought about contacting Vladimir and tell him to not contaminate the drinking water. But if he didn't move ahead with the attack, he would lose all his money and owe billions. In such a scenario, jail time was the best possible outcome for Pierre.
Pierre made up his mind. He would proceed as planned. The fear that he experienced was only his conscience messing with his mind. After a bit of mumbling, he continued his presentation.
***
Jing Xi was listening to Pierre Beaumont's presentation. He wondered what the bloody idiot was talking about. Pierre didn't follow the presentation notes, and he was rambling incoherent nonsense. Jing shrugged his shoulders. He didn't care about the presentation. But the number of diseased people among the crowd, would be a good distraction from the main event that was to take place in Suwan. Jing ate his fifth nut and coughed loudly. Since the Hei Bai virus was airborne and extremely contagious, this would be enough to infect everyone in the room. Once the outbreak began, it would implicate the USA as Deidrick Dump wouldn't get infected while world leaders who were against Dump would.
Pierre paused his presentation and spoke to Jing:
- Chairman Xi. Are you okay?
Jing:
- No, I am not. I need to return to my hotel at once!
Everyone in the room stared at Jing as he got up and walked out of the room. Jing braced himself. The rash was getting painful, but it wasn't dangerous to him as he had antibodies from several other Hei Bai virus episodes.
"Get me to my hotel suite, and make sure that the cameras are ready for my statement," Jing commanded his bodyguards and he left the UN headquarters together with them.
***
Pierre finished his presentation and he hurried to leave the venue. What a disaster the presentation had been. Pierre brushed off some imaginary dust from his jacket. Although he felt like a fool, he would feel marvellous once his plan had come into fruition. Pierre texted Vladimir. "Did you complete the mission?" A few minutes later he received a "Yes."
Pierre got up. He needed to attend a meeting at the Federal Reserve, where the real power resided. Besides, Pierre didn't want to be at the UN headquarters when people started collapsing around him. When the outbreak took place, Pierre would much rather follow the figures on his trading screen. He got excited thinking about how his shorting of the market would propel him to unparalleled wealth.
***
Pierre was attending a seminar at the Federal Reserve bank of New York. Angus Brothschild was explaining how the federal reserve could print more money and give to the wealthy to stimulate the economy. Pierre agreed to the notion but he found listening to Angus dull and boring. Angus was an intellectual lightweight. The only reason that he was the head for the Federal Reserves' New York branch was that he was heir to the Brothschild throne. Pierre wasn't a fan of the hereditary transition of power. It allowed imbeciles to rise to the top instead of promoting talent. Pierre wasn't born wealthy. He had clawed his way to the top, reaching the top spot through murdering his rival Chakri Apinya. That was the true spirit of nature, to do anything to reach one's goal!
Pierre got interrupted from his daydreaming when the man next to him, the vice-chancellor of the European central bank, turned sick. Was the man infected by the Hei Bai virus? How could that be? While Pierre could have infected him, he hadn't seen the man eat any selenium-rich food to activate the disease.
Angus:
- Are you okay, Jurgen?
Jurgen:
- My back. It is on fire.
"Oh shit. Here we go." Pierre thought. But how had this happened? Had Jurgen eaten some high-selenium food before attending the meeting? That would be some bad luck! Suddenly, the man opposite Pierre collapsed to the floor as well. "I feel so hot, please help me."
Pierre realised that he needed to get out of the room. His intention had failed and somehow, he was killing his fellow bankers. Even though he didn't care about their lives, he didn't want to end up in quarantine. It was crucial that he didn't. He couldn't implement his trading schemes if he was in hospital lockup and all his plans could come to naught.
Pierre rushed out of the room and into the bathroom. He inserted his Zetan monocle, set it to avoid confrontation, and left the Federal Reserve building.
"Vladimir, meet me at the airport at once. We are heading back to Geneva straight away." Pierre texted. Pierre got back to his limousine. His driver was lying on the ground next to the car, screaming in pain. "Fuck this shit." Pierre thought and shouted:
- Give me your keys now. I need to get back to the airport straight away.
Driver:
- Please help me. The pain is unbearable!
Pierre:
- Give me the keys, and I'll drive you to the hospital.
Driver:
- Here. Take them.
The driver handed Pierre the keys. Pierre scoffed at him.
- Bloody useless. Did you really think that I would drive YOU?
The driver wheezed something in return but Pierre didn't bother to respond. Instead, he drove as fast as he could to the airport. It wasn't easy. The city had descended into complete chaos. Dead and dying were lying everywhere. How had this happened?
***
Jing Xi had finished recording the video showing how the Americans had poisoned him, when he suspected that something was amiss. The endless sirens of emergency vehicles and screaming were making the city surreal. Jing looked outside the window. There was several Hei Bai infected outside on the street and it seemed that the army was gathering in hazmat suits.
Jing turned on the TV. The headline read. Biological warfare attack in New York. Most world leaders attending United Nations summit confirmed dead, including the US president Deidrick Dump.
Jing turned off the TV. This was a disaster. Jing had hoped to infect a few leaders that were enemies of the United States. This would have implicated the USA was behind the chemical warfare attack that would take place in Suwan. Jing called Tzi Cheng:
- Tzi. Something is amiss. New York has been hit hard by a Hei Bai virus attack. You have to abort the attack on Suwan. We can no longer blame the US for an attack on China since the US president died himself from the virus.
Tzi stayed silent for a while and replied:
- It is too late. We have already contaminated the water supply a few hours ago.
Jing:
- Turn off the water in the city. Let's minimise the outbreak.
Tzi:
- That would implicate us, Chairman Xi. How would we know that the water supply is the culprit if we were not the ones who released the virus? When the Americans analyse the water supply of New York, they will only find elevated levels of selenium. That will only confuse them further.
- If we close down our water supplies, they'll know that we know about the virus' secret, and they will know that we released it.
Jing sighed. Someone had played him and he was in trouble. But the situation was still salvageable. After all, Jing had been infected himself from the outbreak and the virus struck one of China's cities as well. Jing hoped that he could implicate a third party. Jing:
- Okay. You're right. Do nothing with the water supply. Release Jared next to Eileen's rally. He will seek her out. Then arrest them and everyone else that opposes us once the outbreak starts.
Tzi:
- Understood, heavenly master. I recommend that you leave the United States as fast as possible. Things are going to get nasty in New York.
Jing:
- Yes. I will get out of here as quickly as possible.
Jing hung up the phone, and he turned to his bodyguards:
- What are you waiting for, you idiots? We are leaving New York at once. Take me to the airport. And whatever you do, don't drink anything from the tap!
Having said this, the group got up and they all rushed towards the airport.
***
Pierre Beaumont got on the plane, and he noticed that the pilot hadn't arrived. This was bloody inconvenient. He had saved his servant by warning about the tap water, but he hadn't saved his pilot. "That was a stupid way to prioritise!" Pierre muttered to himself.
Vladimir arrived at the aircraft and he looked happy, happier than Pierre had ever seen his Russian assassin and booty call. Pierre looked at Vladimir and spoke:
- What happened? Why was there an outbreak in the entire city? I only intended to infect the United Nations summit.
Vladimir smiled maliciously and replied:
- I went above and beyond your orders, Pierre.
Pierre stared at Vladimir with a mixture of terror and admiration. Pierre:
- WHAT exactly did you do, Vladimir?
Vladimir smirked:
- Well, after you told me about the mission, I had a thought. I thought: Why kill 500 when I can kill 500,000?
- So, I ordered 5 tonnes of selenium hydride, and I dumped it straight into New York's water supply.
- Then I walked around in the city and coughed at everyone while being infectious. You know how contagious this virus is. Jackpot! Muahaha
Pierre:
- Bah, I don't advocate for needless killing. Killing 500 world leaders would have made me the same amount of money.
The intuitive interface of Pierre's monocle revealed that Michel had overheard the conversation. "Fucking hell, such a hassle it would be to train a new butler!" Pierre thought and shouted:
- Vladimir, Michel overheard us. Seize him.
Michel tried to escape from the dangerous Russian, but it was to no avail, and Vladimir subdued him.
Pierre:
- Drag him onto the plane. We'll deal with him there.
Vladimir dragged Michel onto the plane. As they reached the inside of the plane, Michel whimpered:
- Please spare me. I won't say anything. Think about my family.
Pierre shrugged his shoulders and replied:
- I am sorry, Michel. You have been a good servant and I would love to spare you. But I am not willing to take the risk. Instead, you'll die from the Hei Bai virus like most of Manhattan. It will be painful and unpleasant, but I need an alibi.
Pierre took out some selenium hydride and dissolved it into a bottle of water. He handed the bottle to Vladimir and spoke.
- Marcel must be thirsty. Let's give him some water.
After that, Pierre and Vladimir force-fed Marcel from the bottle. Due to the extremely high selenium content in the water bottle, Marcel's symptoms spread fast. When Pierre was satisfied that Marcel would die, they threw Michel out of the plane, closed the door and prepared for take-off. Pierre used the Zetan monocle to start the plane and took off. He didn't even bother to contact air traffic control to get permission to leave. The city had descended into chaos anyway.
***
Jing Xi arrived at the same private airport in New York. He saw how Pierre and Vladimir threw out the body of Marcel from their plane and then took off. Jing didn't reflect much over it. He needed to get out of the city himself.
Jing:
- Get my plane ready.
Jing's bodyguard, Ma Tin, shook her head and replied.
- I have tried calling our pilots. None of them is picking up. The outbreak must have infected them.
Jing panicked. He couldn't be stuck in this city. It was way too dangerous. Because after the deaths from the virus had subsided, the city would collapse into anarchy with the death of the US leadership. Jing:
- Come with me. We need to use the airport's PA system to look for a pilot.
Jing and his bodyguards entered the airport terminal. Dead and dying were littering the corridors. Jing approached the air traffic control room. The door was locked. Ma Tin took out her pistol and shot the lock to pieces. After that, she kicked in the door. Jing walked up to a microphone and made an announcement.
- Hello. This is Jing Xi, the president of China. I am willing to pay $1 million to any pilot that can pilot our plane away from this city. Please come to gate 12 to declare your interest.
Jing felt a deep sense of relief when a pilot showed up a few minutes later. He felt so relieved, so he didn't even object when the pilot insisted on flying to London instead of Beijing. After agreeing on the pilot's terms, Jing hurried to the plane that would take him away from the disaster-struck New York City.