Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume12 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 8===

It was a long while before a patrol boat arrived to rescue Quenser from the drifting antenna buoy.

It was already evening.

When he arrived back at the maintenance base zone, he was soaking wet and asked his awful friend a question.

“What happened to Catherine?”

“See for yourself. You’ve earned the right.”

Heivia did not take him to a general medical room. It was a sterile room kept at a low temperature for military computers. One corner was separated out by thick translucent tape for a makeshift treatment room.

But how much good did that really do?

Catherine Blueangel was sleeping inside a spindle-shaped capsule. It looked like a fancy coffin to Quenser, so it put him in a really bad mood.

The blonde braid girl seemed to notice her guest.

Unable to remove the oxygen mask covering her mouth, she only opened one eye a little. An amateur like Quenser did not know why she did not open the other eye.

“Big brother…”

“Catherine.”

He had no idea how dangerous it was to do so, but Quenser pressed both hands against the clear shade of the capsule.

“I’m sorry, Catherine. I was ordered to return you to a safe country. I was supposed to help you say goodbye to these dangerous wars. I was supposed to help you gather all the stamps and clear your quota so you could go home!!”

“…”

“What am I supposed to do? How can I reward all the effort you put into this? Just tell me. This happened because you fought to protect not just the 37th but Second Venice as a whole. So tell me! Is there anything I can do for you!?”

He had a feeling Catherine smiled ever so slightly.

“Then…please.”

Her young lips whispered to him.

“Protect everyone, big brother.”

Finally, Quenser left the treatment room sealed off by thick plastic.

Heivia had waited outside the giant vehicle the entire time.

“Our busty commander says she has something to discuss with us.”

“So I guess everyone’s thinking the same thing. If Frolaytia hadn’t suggested it, I would have deserted.”

Not everyone knew the truth. To prevent a panic, very few people knew about the infection base or the deadly mold even within the 37th. For that reason, they were called to Frolaytia’s room full of Island Nation products instead of a large conference room.

Quenser asked a question as soon as he stepped inside.

“Do we know what it is infecting Catherine?”

“Yes. Our doctors, the intelligence division, and the electronic simulation division worked hard even if this wasn’t their specialty. It seems Catherine is quite well liked.”

“How many stamps do you think she had earned in such a short time? And most of them couldn’t be done alone. She isn’t a monster. She’s a human being who can create her own circle of friends to smile with. …So much so that she threw away her own life to rescue this idiot here.”

“Yes. That’s right.” Frolaytia lit her long, narrow kiseru. “I’ll get right to the point: Argeiphontes. Catherine is suffering from the primary component of an infamous riot suppression gas used by the Faith Organization special police. It was developed to be nonlethal, but it was more powerful than intended and the rioters began dropping like flies. And since it took time to prove a link between the accidental deaths and the gas rounds, the number of deaths only grew. Apparently 15,000 people died just in the Faith Organization safe countries around Rome and Athens. It probably took so long to respond because of collusion between the pharmaceutical company and the central ethics board. It apparently began by accepting the reports from computer simulation tests while foregoing actual clinical trials to cut costs.”

“A military chemical…”

“Breathe in even a small amount and it takes out your autonomic nervous system. Do you know what Catherine’s body temperature is right now? If she wasn’t being cooled there, she would have broken 42 degrees within an hour. Stomach pumping and dialysis don’t work. The death rate is 99.8%. That beats out mustard gas for mankind’s worst invention.”

Quenser inhaled and exhaled.

And he touched on the crux of the issue.

“But 0.2% survive, right? I’m not talking about relying on a miracle or some emotional story. Isn’t it possible those people bought god’s love with money?”

“As always, you notice the most interesting things.” Frolaytia grinned. “I just said most of the victims were in the major cities of Rome and Athens, didn’t I? Naturally, plenty of VIPs and wealthy people were involved. And some of those miraculously survived even after being exposed to the Argeiphontes. The mass media called them ‘a beautiful woman loved by god’ or whatever else, but every last one of them used a complex route to donate a large sum to a certain bank account.”

“Who owns the account?”

“That’s an obvious one.”

Frolaytia shrugged and spoke their target’s name.

“Hermes Pharmaceuticals. The developer of the Argeiphontes poison gas and a major investor secretly supporting the Kerukeion special forces.”