The top virologist in the country has been given a dark directive that may have horrific consequences, not only for him and his own daughter, but for the global population.The CIA have caught wind of a plot, but they need to send in one of their own. Nobody can be trusted.A young recruit has caught the CIA's attention. She was born in Beijing, but spent most of her life in the States. Her life will be thrown into the deadly game of cat and mouse, pitting operative against a double agent to either save the world or to bring down the global economy. From Langley to Wuhan, Beijing to New York and finally in Milan, how will it end?
This publisher expressed to me that this book, with its original title, did not comply with their guidelines. As a result they did not wish to offer the book for sale.
“Due to the rapidly changing nature of information around the COVID-19 virus, we are referring customers to official sources for health information about the virus. Please consider removing references to COVID-19 for this book.”
The morning smog over Wuhan was worse than usual as Xue Lin biked through the spiderweb of streets to work. It had been four months since she had arrived here and begun working as a lab assistant at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It was dull work, mostly repetitive data entry, but she didn’t care too much as she had other things on her mind.
Her boss, Doctor Wu had made numerous passes at her but she had always let them slide. His thinly veiled advances showed her his weakness. It made him malleable, easily manipulated. Dr. Wu was in charge of the Biosafety Level IV Facility which was guarded by two armed members of China’s Ministry of State Security. None of the lab assistants were allowed into that section of the building. Only Wu had clearance to get through that particular door.
Her bike’s brakes squealed as she stopped at the traffic light next to the Exotic Food Market. She always felt so disgusted as she passed the market because the stall on the corner was a dog vendor. She loved dogs, and the appalling scene of caged dogs and steel drum cookers and welding torches often made her gag.
After two more sets of lights, she arrived at the Institute. She parked her rusty bike and entered the building, greeting no-one on the way in, as was her way. She had managed to stay relatively anonymous despite her good looks. She always tied her hair up in a bun with steel chopsticks and she wore thick rimmed glasses, no makeup, loose fitting black cargo pants and running shoes. Her appearance of course was not enough to put off her boss Dr. Wu who liked to lean over her and smell her hair as she worked. She neither encouraged, nor put a halt to his subtle but clumsy moves. Always in control, she knew just how much to allow before swiveling her chair to face him, throwing him off balance.
Xue Lin had been orphaned at the age of five, but as she was a very cute little girl, she had soon been adopted by an American couple who had been working in Beijing in the nineties.
Doctor Wu had been running the Biosafety Level IV Facility for nearly a year, and was obviously making good money as he drove a nice car and had sent his twenty year old daughter to New York City to study. He talked about her often: ‘what shopping she had done and how much her education was costing’. He was clearly very proud of her.
As the head honcho, each day he patrolled the whole Institute of Virology checking on everyone’s work, but his office and lab were in the Biosafety Level IV Facility deeper into the building. He never mentioned his own work to anyone. All that anyone knew was that he was experimenting on mice and primates that were occasionally replaced, as the dead subjects were incinerated.
This morning, as Dr. Wu arrived at the Institute building, Xue Lin appeared to be working diligently in her cubicle. He eyed her suspiciously. He was quite surprised to see her there before any of the other lab assistants, it was only 8:15am.
He passed by Xue Lin’s cubicle, and he greeted her informally standing behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She swiveled into him slowly, without pulling him off balance, and looked up at him with a coy smile.
“Good morning Doctor Wu! How are you feeling today?”
“I am fine, Xue Lin. Your smiling face always gives me hope for a better world.”
