Chapter 35 Dangerous Speculations
"You don't believe it?" Su Wanqing keenly noticed the hesitation in his words.
"I don't know," Lu Zhao said. "Her body is incomplete. The DNA test confirmed it was her, but..."
He paused, as if collecting his thoughts. "After the accident, I was not allowed to go near the scene. When I was finally allowed to see her, there was only a badly burned body."
"Do you suspect that it wasn't her?" Xiao Ran asked.
"I'm not sure. But Alan hinted before he disappeared that Elizabeth might know something important."
Su Wanqing pondered this information. "So, Alan discovered the true purpose of the project, which might be related to your wife, and then he disappeared."
Lu Zhao nodded. "Besides, before he disappeared, he specifically mentioned 'her'. I always thought he was referring to a project leader, but now..."
"Do you think he is referring to your wife?" Su Wanqing asked.
"Possibly. But if so, it would mean..."
"It means she may still be alive," Xiao Ran continued.
Lu Zhao's expression became complicated. "Or maybe she knows some secrets that even I don't know."
Su Wanqing was flipping through the photos in the notebook, and one of them caught her attention.
The photo shows a group of scientists in white coats standing in front of a huge circular device.
"What is this?" she asked, pointing to the photo.
Lu Zhao took a look. "That's the prototype channel, used in the first experiment."
Su Wanqing noticed a woman standing in the front row of the photo. She had dark hair and sharp eyes.
"Is this your wife?"
Lu Zhao nodded, his expression softening. "Yes, that's Elizabeth."
Su Wanqing looked at the photo carefully and noticed that Elizabeth was holding a notebook with a strange symbol on the cover.
"What is this symbol?" she asked.
Lu Zhao took a closer look. "That's her personal notebook. The symbols were designed by us together, representing our research directions."
"Do you have her notebook?"
Lu Zhao shook his head. "No. All her personal belongings were confiscated by the institute."
Lin Che had been listening quietly, and suddenly said, "I've seen that symbol."
Everyone turned to him.
"Where is it?" Lu Zhao asked anxiously.
"In a secret archive room at the institute," Lin Che said, "I accidentally saw it when I was taken for testing. There was a safe with this symbol on it."
Lu Zhao's eyes lit up. "Are you sure?"
Lin Che nodded. "Very sure. That symbol is very special and not easy to forget."
Lu Zhao stood up and began to walk back and forth in the warehouse. "If Elizabeth's notebook is there, it may contain important information."
"Information about what?" Xiao Ran asked.
"About the true purpose of the project. About the truth on the other side of the tunnel. About..." He paused. "About what happened to her."
Su Wanqing looked at Lu Zhao: "You want to find that notebook."
"Yes," Lu Zhao said, "but that archive is located in the core area of the institute, and the security level is extremely high."
"We can deal with them together during tomorrow's operation," Su Wanqing said, "If the notebook can help prevent them from opening the channel, then it's worth the risk."
Lu Zhao nodded, grateful. "Thank you."
Xiao Ran has been checking other files on the computer. "There are some encrypted files here, but they require a more advanced password."
Lu Zhao walked over and took a look. "These may be Allen's most important discoveries. He always hides the most critical information the deepest."
"We need to crack these codes," Su Wanqing said, "but time is running out."
Lin Che showed an unstable state again. "Lin Che?" Su Wanqing asked worriedly.
Lin Che shook her head, as if trying to stay awake. "I'm fine, I just feel something stirring in my brain."
Su Wanqing walked to his side and gently held his hand. "Do you need to rest?"
Lin Che nodded. "Maybe."
Xiao Ran stood up. "We all need to rest. Tomorrow will be a critical day."
Lu Zhao was still staring at the computer screen. "You guys take a break. I'll take a look at these files."
Su Wanqing looked at Lu Zhao and noticed the determination in his eyes. "Don't stay up too late. We need you to stay awake tomorrow."
Lu Zhao nodded but didn't look away.
Su Wanqing helped Lin Che lie down, and then she found a corner to rest.
Xiao Ran chose a position close to the door and remained alert.
The warehouse gradually became quiet, with only the sound of Lu Zhao typing on the keyboard and the dim light of the computer screen.
Su Wanqing closed her eyes, but could not fall asleep. Her mind was filled with the information she had obtained today: the channel, the element holder, the missing scientist, and her wife who might still be alive. She opened her eyes and looked at Lu Zhao. He was still sitting in front of the computer.
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In the blue light of the screen, his face took on a ghostly glow, as if trapped somewhere between the past and the present.
Su Wanqing was awakened by the sound of metal knocking. Lu Zhao was lying on the operating table with seven empty coffee cans in front of him and dense formulas floating on the computer.
Xiao Ran was checking the magazine of the assault rifle, while Lin Che was curled up in the corner chewing on compressed biscuits, with salt grains constantly falling from between his fingers onto the floor.
"Thirty-seven hours." Lu Zhao tore off the sticky note stuck to his sleeve, on which was a double helix structure diagram. "Alan's diary mentioned traces of viral gene editing. Here."
He pulled up the gene sequence map, and a red marker flashed on the third link. "This precise shearing is impossible with natural mutations."
"Three years ago, a leaked report from a Northwestern laboratory mentioned similar gene editing technology."
Su Wanqing picked up the document and found a paragraph circled in red: "The experimental subject showed abnormal aggressiveness. It is recommended to terminate the application of CRISPR-Cas9 vector." She turned to the gene comparison chart in the appendix, which overlapped 80% with the image on Lu Zhao's screen.
Lin Che suddenly coughed violently, and blue liquid splashed on the monitor.
He hurriedly wiped it with his sleeve, but water droplets seeped out from his fingertips, automatically repairing the circuit board corroded by the coffee stains.
"This memory chip." He stared at the increasingly clear code. "I saw something similar last week. It's on the destruction list of the seventh laboratory."
The screen flashed twice, and an encrypted file popped up. Lu Zhao's fingers swiped quickly, calling up the logos of six different organizations: "The Source Zero project has seven partners."
He clicked on a grayed-out icon. “This Swiss biotech company went bankrupt three years ago due to a leak.”
"I just saw their logo last week." Xiao Ran pulled out a photo.
The picture shows an underground laboratory with a faded company logo printed on the ventilation duct. "This is the last place my sister was seen before she disappeared."
Su Wanqing's jade bracelet suddenly became hot, and an experimental record automatically popped up in the space warehouse.
Turning to the dog-eared page, a genetic modification flowchart was drawn on the yellowed paper, and seven stamps of different colors were stamped in the approval signature column.
There are three seal patterns that are exactly the same as the logo shown by Lu Zhao.
"Twenty grams." Lin Che suddenly said. He was drawing a circuit diagram on the table with salt water. "The deleted files need twenty grams of salt crystals as a carrier."
Water droplets wrap around salt particles to form prisms, projecting an incomplete 3D image.
In the picture, a dozen people in white coats are observing the culture tanks, two of whom are wearing badges of a Swiss company.
Xiao Ran's knuckles turned white from pinching. Half of the girl's face was revealed at the edge of the photo, with a flame-shaped hairpin pinned to her ponytail.
"Before Xiao Yu was arrested, he said that someone wanted to collect seven people with special abilities."
Lu Zhao pulled up a global map, and seven red dots were flashing. "These are the places where large-scale infections have occurred."
He clicked on the red dot in Tokyo, and a surveillance video of a pharmaceutical company popped up.
A researcher in protective clothing is destroying documents, with a human-shaped shadow floating in the culture tank behind him.
Lin Che's crystal prism suddenly exploded. Salt water spilled onto the keyboard, activating a hidden folder.
Hundreds of email titles flashed by, finally stopping at a letter labeled "Final Disposal Plan" with the sender's address prefixed with shadow001.
"Shadow." Su Wanqing read out the sender ID, "This code name was mentioned in the third email."
(End of this chapter)
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