Chapter 182 A Difficult Decision
The lights in the lab were still on, and the air was sticky and oppressive. Su Wanqing wrote down the last line, put the pen down, and lowered her voice by two degrees: "Everyone sit down, don't rush to say anything. I need everyone to speak clearly at once."
Lu Zhao was still holding the plan in his hand, with the corners of the paper wrinkled. Lin Che's left thumb was rubbing the Band-Aid on the blood collection point.
Han Xue stood by the operating table without moving. Xiao Ran leaned against the door, glanced at Su Wanqing, and said nothing.
Su Wanqing looked around and reported the meeting agenda: "The focus is only on discussing the sampling method for serum research. In addition to the most conservative supplementation induction, all others, including the spinal puncture proposed by Han Xue, are included. Now vote, speak first, then vote."
Lu Zhao was the first to speak up: “I don’t agree to do high-risk sampling on girls with childlike voices.
In vitro induction is slow, but only if the patient survives can we say that we have saved the patient. No matter how fast we are, we cannot risk our life.”
Lin Che clenched the edge of the chair and said, "I agree with Lu Zhao. I can increase the frequency of blood draws or assist with in vitro induction, but I cannot let her get a needle that cannot be poked."
Han Xue pushed the information away and said calmly: "The time window will not wait for us. Among all the existing methods, only high-density collection can break through the bottleneck of deactivation rate. When the zombie tide breaks out outside, no matter how good the ethics are, they can't protect anyone.
If the operation can be guaranteed to be safe, I am willing to perform the entire operation and have everyone supervise the entire process."
Xiao Ran thought for a moment and said, "I agree with Han Xue. If we delay for a day, more people will die. The key is that this is not a simple academic discussion, and we are uncertain how much safe time we will have. I will be responsible for safety. Anyway, hurry up."
Lin Che lowered his voice and pressed his left hand firmly on the edge of the table: "Don't touch her."
Han Xue leaned over and said, "If you were her biological child, I might understand. But you also know that all the survivors are waiting for the result. None of them can choose the weight on your head."
Lu Zhao folded the paper and asked in a deep voice: "Do you think she can hold on? Have you calculated the dosage of the medicine? Who will be responsible if the immune system collapses?"
Xiao Ran didn't move, but added: "None of the previous plans really used children of that age. What if something goes wrong?"
Su Wanqing sat at the table without saying a word. She just glanced around at the four people.
After a moment, she turned a piece of paper on the table over, face down, and pointed at the corner of the table with her index finger: "All speeches have been written down. Now, vote. Dangerous sampling - do you support it? Think it over carefully."
Lu Zhao and Lin Che said in unison: "We object."
Han Xue looked up: "I agree."
Xiao Ran just said: "I agree."
It's still 2 to 2, and the situation is stuck there.
Su Wanqing gently stroked the table, stood up to pack up the meeting materials, and without asking any more questions, turned around and left the laboratory.
The corridor was quiet. Su Wanqing tightened the folder in her hand without looking back.
She went down the stairs to the basement and pushed open the door into the makeshift medical area.
The girl with a childish voice was curled up in the quilt, sleeping uneasily, with a new cold compress on her forehead.
Su Wanqing walked to the bedside and leaned over to sit down. The girl moved her lips and uttered a very soft mutter: "The key... the door is... locked..."
Su Wanqing held her breath and listened closely. She looked at the child's face carefully, a trace of hesitation flashed through her mind, and she pulled the corner of the girl's quilt.
He kept murmur- ing “key…door…” and when he mentioned “box” his voice became muted.
Su Wanqing didn't wake her up. She just pursed her lips, wrote down these words, and put them in her notes.
When she came out again, Xiao Ran was waiting in the corridor. He whispered, "I just took a look around and found that three surveillance cameras on the east side of the base were out of order. When I was repairing them, I found that the equipment wiring had been cut off by someone, and the method was not like that of an ordinary wanderer.
There is also a series of new mud prints in the outer woods, the soles of military shoes. "
Su Wanqing stopped and asked directly: "What do you think?"
Xiao Ran replied: "I suspect there are professionals watching around, maybe targeting the girl, or maybe coming for the serum or something else."
Su Wanqing thought for a moment and said, "Add two more sentries to monitor the scavengers. They have been debugging their weapons and communicators recently, and they seem to be preparing for a big move."
Xiao Ran nodded and turned to make arrangements.
Su Wanqing returned to the experimental area. Lin Che leaned against the experimental table, playing with the experimental report in his hand. His eyes fell on the data table on the desktop, and his brows were furrowed.
Lu Zhao and Han Xue hadn't left yet. Han Xue was filing documents quickly, while Lu Zhao was still revising the operation plan without any relaxation.
At this moment, electronic noise came from the radio, followed by Liming's voice: "The situation is worse than you think. The outer defense line has just detected a large number of zombies moving, the density is more than five times the usual, and the direction of movement is pointing to your base.
We cannot guarantee how long we can hold out, so we must speed up our actions immediately."
Su Wanqing approached the radio and picked up the receiver: "Do you have a specific number? How many are approaching?"
"We have discovered more than 4,000 zombies so far. It's too late to mobilize weapons. You either need to make the serum immediately or find another way out. The scale of the zombie tide is unprecedented, and the basic defense line can only hold out for a day at most. Anyway, I'll wait for your decision."
The radio went dead.
Su Wanqing put down the phone and didn't speak for a long time. Han Xue said bluntly: "The situation is obvious.
It is not us who make the choice, but the situation that forces us to make the choice. We must delay for an hour and not waste any more time."
Lin Che grabbed the corner of the data sheet and said, "No, I suggest that Lu Zhao and I lead the entire reaction process, and double my sampling frequency. All personnel must sign and agree to any high-risk method. It's impossible for her to bear the risk alone."
Lu Zhao raised his head and said firmly, "Give me some time. Three days - no, two days, forty-eight hours. Lin Che and I will take turns non-stop and try all possible workarounds. Even if the success rate is only one percent, it will be better than now."
Xiao Ran said, "If there is no result in 48 hours, and the zombies are at the door, what can we do? Who will make the decision then?"
Su Wanqing put away the plan on the table and took a last look at Han Xue. "I'll give you forty-eight hours. Lu Zhao will be in charge of in vitro culture and induction, and Han Xue will be responsible for bypass plan preparation. Each of us will give the optimal rate. I will make the final review after forty-eight hours."
Han Xue nodded: "I have prepared all the experimental steps in advance. Unless necessary, do not hurt the girl at all. Only when the backup plan fails, will we consider more radical operations."
Su Wanqing glanced at everyone and added simply, "All decisions regarding the girl are approved by me. No one is allowed to touch her without my permission."
Xiao Ran took one last look at Su Wanqing. "The scavengers have been deployed frequently recently, and all they use are professional equipment. Their people were all wearing pistols tonight, and their movements were very strange. I arranged for the survivors on the periphery to watch in the dark and report anything as soon as they find it."
Su Wanqing said: "Write it down. Transfer more posts and work more shifts."
Lin Che held the lab table in her hand and stood up to adjust the equipment. Lu Zhao opened the reagent cabinet behind him and sorted out the instruments and substrates.
Han Xue put several experimental records back into the file cabinet and didn't argue with anyone anymore.
Su Wanqing returned to the table, opened the folder full of plans, and wrote the words "48 hours" in heavy letters.
No one spoke, only the instruments operated silently.
The air in the laboratory was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe. Su Wanqing drew a line under the words "48 hours", opened the glass window above, stuffed a few pages of last night's plan into the folder, and said nothing more. She only asked Lu Zhao and Lin Che to form a team, and Han Xue to file separately, and no one should be lazy.
Lu Zhao stayed in the operation area all night, continuously sorting out data on the screen.
When he turned to Lin Che's sampling records, his brows were tightly knitted, and he chewed on each set of parameters.
The electromagnetic stirrer made a sound of electricity. Lin Che stood aside, rubbing the veins in his right arm repeatedly and adjusting the mixing ratio from time to time.
The girl with the childlike voice was still sleeping, so the sampling amount was pitifully small.
“Lin Che, take out the batch of healing factor solutions you brought to the cold storage room, and select the three most stable ones.”
Lu Zhao stared at the operation interface and filed the reagent dishes one by one. "Don't shake your hands. Be careful. The amount is only enough for two tests."
Lin Che nodded, his movements clean. He pressed down the collection needle on the laboratory table, said nothing else, and silently handed over the packaged blood sample and steady-state reagent.
Lu Zhao lowered his head slightly and kept calculating the reaction time and buffer concentration, filling all the variables into another preset table.
At night, the automatic timer was on time, and Lu Zhao's hands never stopped. He titrated Lin Che's healing factor and the girl's diluted plasma in the same reaction tube and quickly connected the catalytic enzyme module.
When the time was up, the catalytic enzyme board lit up green, the instrument core lit up red, and the stable signal jumped several times.
"There's a way." Lu Zhao stared at the data curve in the window. His shoulders moved slightly. The curve was more than twice higher than last night.
He changed another set of conditions and added the collected antigen fragments.
With each catalysis, the activity value seemed to be amplified. After Lu Zhao calculated, he called Lin Che.
"Come and take a look. This catalytic rate exceeds the original setting. Theoretically, we don't need to take any additional samples. Based on the samples you and the girl provided, plus the biological amplification step, the amount of antibodies should be enough for a small medical station to operate."
Lu Zhao paused and glanced at Lin Che. "The problem is that we still need stabilizers. How is Han Xue's preparation?"
Lin Che tried to mix all the healing purified liquids that met the standards in the refrigerator and handed over the parameters.
Su Wanqing just came in from the outer room. She didn't say anything else but just asked Han Xue for the data.
Han Xue was sitting at the other operating table, typing away on the keyboard.
She pulled out two molecular models from her drawer and sorted out the latest records one by one.
Lu Zhao walked over and asked, "Which step of the adjustment plan have we made? We need to increase the molecular stability by three times, otherwise the production capacity will be completely dispersed."
Han Xue folded the reaction diagram while looking at several variables in the data.
She cut off a row of old settings, pushed the adjusted sample to Lu Zhao, and lowered her voice: "I have made local mutations in the antibody sequence, and some side chains are protected by 'critical separation enzymes'. According to the formula, the degree of polymerization is theoretically 3.4. You'd better try the calculator again."
Lu Zhao didn't waste any time, he took the calculation paper and deduced the formula. The parameters were more than double what he had originally calculated.
He stared at the reaction bottle on the operating table again and wiped off the condensed water on the surface: "Did you miss something? How come this stability coefficient has three more decimal places?"
Han Xue shrugged, opened the experimental log, and left several key nodes blank.
She signaled Lu Zhao to stop talking: "Don't you want the speed? Now we can produce a batch in three hours, which is a whole day faster than your original plan. Just leave some variables for me to record."
Lu Zhao curled his lips and didn't investigate further, just diverting the samples. Lin Che stared at the computer screen, occasionally sending physiological curves to the main feedback board.
Han Xue quietly returned to the terminal, her finger pausing at the last step of the calculation program. Every step was in compliance, but some details always made people feel that there was something hidden.
Before dawn, the first bottle of optimized antibody mixture was placed into the isolation cabin.
Lu Zhao moved the small centrifuge device to the compartment. Su Wanqing stood at the door and asked, "After the first batch of serum sampling is completed, who will do the field testing?"
Lin Che pushed the test tube rack. "I will work overtime to complete the remaining parameters. You can use the archived infection samples to simulate first, and I will follow up to monitor each reaction data."
Su Wanqing nodded and went to the rescue area to collect blood samples from adult survivors who had been slightly bitten two days ago for model testing.
Lu Zhao quickly issued a test order, and Han Xue also called up the assistant terminal to do a control test on the spot.
The first test used a live zombie virus solution collected at the base. After adding new serum, the conversion rate was only one-seventh of the original.
According to the model readings, the virus activity, which originally automatically increased sharply 24 hours after infection, was obviously delayed, with the longest delay being six days and eighteen hours.
Han Xue pointed at the graph on the screen and said, "Look for yourselves. The current parameters can delay the activation conversion period from one day to one week, but it is ineffective for the complete body. The basic indicators of the control group test subjects did not respond."
Lu Zhao thought about it and typed it directly on the record book: "Conclusion: The serum is effective for early infected people, but there is no way to save completely transformed individuals."
Su Wanqing took a look around and said, "The results are good. The rest will be organized for mass production. Lin Che, it depends on you. Can the three lines hold up?"
Lin Che went to the side to count the equipment and came back after counting: "The equipment and substrate are complete. Su Wanqing, can you bring some more raw materials over? The inventory in the warehouse is almost empty."
Su Wanqing whispered a few words of advice, returned to the storage area, put on the jade bracelets on both hands, picked out several packages of the most critical reagent powder and cryoenzyme, lowered her head to carefully check the quantity, and put them into the spare box.
When she came back, she moved all the raw materials to the production room converted from the wine cellar and piled them neatly aside.
Lin Che assisted in planning three production lines on the spot, listing all the steps required for production, batch synthesis sequence and label packaging into charts.
Lu Zhao and Han Xue take shifts to supervise the preparation of ingredients, repeatedly checking the operation of the automatic mixer and sterilization chamber. Even if they have just a few minutes of free time, they will monitor the real-time data board.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the first batch of fifty antibody sera were packed in special cold boxes, with each group of ten labeled.
Lu Zhao tested the stability of the sample packaging, verified the activity of each one with instruments again, and registered them one by one.
"The results are excellent and the production capacity can be expanded, but the current raw materials at the dock are only enough to last for a week."
Lu Zhao handed the cold box to Su Wanqing, "The rest can only rely on continuous sampling and continued optimization of the molecular amplification with Han Xue."
Just as Lu Zhao was recording the last serum, Han Xue quietly closed the experimental record and archived all the batch numbers.
She froze in the data log for a few seconds, deliberately miscalculated three variables, and then turned to the next page.
Lin Che whispered as he worked, “Separate the medicines into warehouses, isolate the infected samples, and report to the public that the medicines are limited in effectiveness. Don’t let anyone around the base know about it. If the higher-ups keep a close eye on it, we may not be able to prevent it.”
Su Wanqing didn't answer, but just sent the batches of serum to the storage room and locked the password cabinet. She was thinking about another question in her mind: no matter how fast the mass production speed is, once the external threat is breached, what will the "scavengers" and the military do? The production line did not stop for a moment. Lin Che and two assistants raced against time. Each line was repeatedly disinfected and the raw materials were weighed tightly. He even skipped a break and kept a close eye on the batch number.
Lu Zhao also made a reference card for the vaccination records and single-dose distribution list.
Late in the evening, Xiao Ran pushed the door open, stepped into the production room, and called Su Wanqing in a low voice.
He handed her a piece of muddy wire, the ends of the wire were broken and there was a slanted cut on the surface.
He shook out a bag of parts in his hand and put them on the table, saying, "In the outer defense area, the barbed wire in the southeast corner and northwest corner was precisely cut in two places. The bites were clean and it was not done by an ordinary person."
Su Wanqing stopped at the door and did not move. Xiao Ran said, "The technique looks delicate and neat. He is not a wanderer. He must have received military training. The new footprints outside are too neatly distributed. I guess someone is watching us."
Su Wanqing only said one sentence: "Strengthen the defense line, move the sentries to the outer circle, and change the passwords of all monitoring channels. Don't alert the 'scavenger' for the time being."
Xiao Ran nodded, updated the radio channel, and checked the internal team that knew the password again.
He also asked several surviving veterans to take turns setting traps, using recordings and camouflage to confuse their footsteps.
He spread new lime on the mud outside the base and hid several bouncing hooks. Before leaving, he seemingly casually sent Liming an error message, saying only that the serum production was blocked and would be delayed for two days.
Everything was arranged. Su Wanqing returned to the laboratory, counted the finished serum in the refrigerator, and wrote the factory number of each batch in the master file book.
Lin Che wiped the sweat off his hands, checked all the reaction curves from beginning to end, and affixed color-coded glue to the two batches of refrigerated boxes that were about to be shipped out.
Finally, Lu Zhao walked to the data analysis table and, without saying a word, packaged the new version of the catalyst and stable enzyme data into an independent document and copied it to the host backup disk for record keeping.
Han Xue stood in the corner, pressing the last page of the revised molecular sequence sketch under the mezzanine, her eyes fixed on the door lock.
It was close to midnight, the machines were still running, and the air was filled with the smell of disinfectants and reagents.
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