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Not long after, Dr.
Hart really did go home to pack his luggage.
It seemed he truly intended to live on-site from then on.
Several other researchers looked toward him as well.
“Evelyn, arrange it,” he said after a brief pause.
“There should still be empty rooms in the company dormitory, right?”
Then he added, “Tell the cafeteria to keep someone on duty twenty-four hours a day. Don’t let researchers go hungry in the middle of the night just to save a little money.”
Based on his estimates, the samples could complete their mutation at any point within forty-eight hours.
Someone had to watch them at all times.
“Understood.”
Evelyn nodded at once.
“All right. Everyone get to work. We’ll continue once the mutation is complete, either tomorrow or the day after.”
Meanwhile, in the chairman’s office at Oli Medical, Victor Quinn’s massive body sank into his leather chair.
His expression was twisted with resentment and malice.
All he could think about was Adrian Cross.
“Just wait,” Quinn muttered.
“The major hospitals have agreed not to accept your goods. I’ve spoken to the banks, and my contacts at the court should answer soon. Let’s see how long you can hold out.”
“The moment you miss payment, they will freeze your company. Then I will make you kneel in front of me and beg me to buy it for one hundred million. Hahaha…”
Quinn hated what had happened at Umbrella with every part of him.
He wanted Adrian dead.
But he did not dare move against him openly.
He couldn’t risk anything openly illegal either.
According to rumors, the Cross family had powerful backing.
Adrian’s mother’s side was said to have serious influence in the capital.
Even in the capital, they mattered.
That made Adrian the kind of person Quinn could not casually provoke.
Still, he was confident.
Even without violence, he could take Umbrella.
He immediately contacted several more distributors that might have purchased Umbrella’s products.
Unfortunately for him, he had no way of knowing the new chairman had ordered the prices pushed so low.
At those prices, clearing the old inventory would be easy.
Distributors were not stupid.
Buy low, sell at normal market prices, and the margin would be enormous.
The products had long shelf lives anyway.
They would sell eventually.
By a little after nine the next morning, the situation had changed again.
Adrian had just reached his office when Dr.
Hart called.
He went to the laboratory immediately.
More than a dozen researchers were present.
Every one of them had dark circles under their eyes, as if they had not slept all night.
Even so, they looked intensely alert.
No one understood the stakes of HIV better than researchers like them.
And now, in front of them, was a mutated virus that could devour HIV.
That meant success was almost within reach.
They were about to witness a miracle.
A global problem solved by their own chairman.
Even if they were only witnesses, that alone was enough to make them tremble with excitement.
Dr.
Hart had even declared that until the HIV/AIDS cure entered production, he would not go home for a single day.
His wife and children had been worried enough to come by the company early that morning.
Adrian entered the lab in a white protective suit.
Dr.
Seeing the excitement on their faces, he only smiled faintly.
He carefully observed the viral sample in the sample vessel through the electron microscope.
Then he introduced an HIV particle into the vessel.
Almost instantly, the enormous Mimivirus began devouring the HIV beside it.
A 120-nanometer HIV particle was nothing in front of an 800-nanometer Mimivirus.
Like a large sphere swallowing a smaller one, the giant virus engulfed HIV into its own body.
“This virus is completely different from the original Mimivirus,” he said, clearly pleased.
“But we can confirm that it can devour HIV.”
After saying that, he focused on observing it more carefully.
Under the electron microscope, he found that after devouring HIV, the mutated virus had not changed size.
It remained just as large as before.
Its appearance, however, was completely different from Mimivirus.
The tendrils that once surrounded its body had vanished, leaving it smooth and rounded.
Adrian looked up at Dr.
Hart.
“Next, we need to make sure this virus only eats HIV. You know the method, right?”
The human body contained many viruses, including some that were beneficial.
This step was essential.
“Mr. Cross, leave it to us,” Dr.
Hart said, thrilled.
“I’ll cultivate the target strain as quickly as possible.”
The other researchers voiced their agreement at once.
The chairman had given them the method.
If they still could not complete it, they would have no right to call themselves researchers.
Dr.
Hart suddenly added, “By the way, Mr. Cross, this little thing is no longer just Mimivirus. You should give it a new name.”
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