NOVEL NEXT Chapter 36: Black Corpses
Time goes back a little.
At 4,000 meters above the skies of Ceylon Island———–
A man was currently dreaming.
[Doctor, we will be at the base in about 30 minutes.]
Dr. Fernando was shaken awake.
As he awoke, the blurred vision of his glasses and the sharp propeller noise of the turboprop aircraft resounded in his ears.
[You look very tired, Doctor!]
A dark-skinned young soldier spoke to him in a voice loud enough not to be drowned by the sound of the propeller.
[Ahh, I’m sorry about that. I was up all night yesterday trying to arrange my equipment……!]
Putting on his glasses back on in response to the young man’s bothersome kindness, Dr. Fernando answered in a loud voice, trying to hide the discomfort on his face.
Rubbing the drowsiness out of his tear-stained eyes, Dr. Fernando looked out of the small window of the plane and towards the carpet of greeneries spreading out below.
The green squares spread out here and there on the mountain tops, as if cutting through the dense forests, were probably fields of Ceylon Tea.
It will be harvest season in 2 months.
Looking closely, Dr. Fernando could see the farmers working in the tea fields.
The dense forest, which seemed to stretch on forever when he boarded the plane, became sparse, and soon the horizon came into view.
[We are about to land. Please make sure your seatbelts are fastened.]
Hearing the announcer’s words, Dr. Fernando began struggling with the seat belts that were as tough as the hard seats of the new Chinese-made aircraft he had been led to ride in.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
It was two days ago that Dr. Fernando, who works at the National University Hospital in Sri Lanka’s capital, received a call from the Director.
He entered the Director’s Office somewhat nervous, and was shown to sit on the visitor’s couch.
Because the staff in this hospital were usually only given short announcements, they are kept standing before they are dismissed, but seeing this unexpectedly generous treatment, Fernando braced himself for something bad to happen.
[I read your thesis when you were studying in London. If I’m not mistaken, you specialized in pathology, right? The study of infectious diseases……]
[Yes.]
With the backing of his wealthy clan, Dr. Fernando had chosen to study abroad in English for his studies.
His wife, also a doctor at another private hospital, was someone he met at his internship in London.
[What is your opinion of this picture?]
The director presented a white A4 sheet of paper with an enlarged, poor-resolution image that appeared to have been printed from a screenshot of a photo from a social media site.
The image was of a person lying on a white beach.
[It seemed to be a corpse. From its features, it looked like a Tamil.]
(T/N: Tamil is a group of ethnic people apparently living in southern India and northeastern Sri Lanka.)
In Sri Lanka, the civil war between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils had continued for a long time due to the British rule.
Even after the civil war finally ended, Tamil influence is still strong in the northern and eastern provinces.
One would guess that this photo may have been an image leaked during the civil war.
However, Dr. Fernando, an excellent doctor, felt something out of place with the skin color of the corpse in the photo.
[……He looks black. That looks too black to be the skin tone of a corpse who was burnt under the sun…… Don’t tell me……]
[Our thoughts were just as what you had in mind. The Black Death…… or at least, that’s what we suspect.]
[This is domestic, isn’t it? Where is it? When is this picture taken? If we don’t contact all the relevant authorities immediately, it will be too late! Do you have any other photos!?]
The Director gently stopped Dr. Fernando, who flusteredly stood up.
[Wait a moment. For now, we only have this one photo as evidence. Besides, it has been erased from that social media site for ethical reasons. We can’t rule out the possibility that this photo is a sophisticated information warfare tactic or just a prank.]
[……But if it’s true!]
[Yes, if it’s true, this is a very bad situation. It could lead to a total country-wide lockdown. As you know, the border of any country that has suffered from a plague will be closed and all airplanes will be kept at the airport. Export licenses for all cargo at the ports would be revoked, and their tea industry would suffer a major blow.]
After that much explanation, Dr. Fernando understood why he had been summoned.
The CEO, the Director and many Sinhalese upper-class clans, including his own clan, own many tea plantations as assets.
If the World Health Organization, which has a branch in the capital, were to start a fuss based on vague information, the economic loss to the nation and his family’s assets that would result from the rumors would be immeasurable.
As such thoughts came to Dr. Fernando’s mind, the Director gravely cut to the chase.
[The CEO is concerned about this situation. He wants to know what is going on, preferably in secret. I will dispatch a team of military doctors and military personnel to investigate this matter. I would like you to join the team as an expert advisor.]
Even though the Director said it like a request, Dr. Fernando himself knows that he has no right to refuse.
★ ★ ★ ★
After landing at a military base in the north, he was transferred from the military port to a landing ship.
It was apparently decided that it would be faster to get to the fishing village on the northeastern coast, where that photo on the social media site was posted, by passing through Adam’s Bridge between India and Ceylon Island, and then by sea to the east coast than by taking the unimproved land route.
There was also a proposal to rush there by helicopter, but this was rejected because it wouldn’t be enough to carry the people and equipment.
Dr. Fernando, who was swiftly passed from the Air Force to the Navy like a baton in a relay race, felt the sense of crisis and impatience of the upper management.
[Ten hours to arrival huh.]
There’s only so much that can be done at sea after their departure.
That being the case, Dr. Fernando again read the military’s investigative report on the photos.
According to the investigation, the photo was posted at 3:12 pm, two weeks ago.
It was uploaded to an Indian-capital social media site and deleted by the operator 15 minutes later.
The management company has a history of information on the location where the photo was uploaded, and the fishing village is considered to be the location where the photo was taken.
The contract owner of the smartphone is also considered to be a member of that village.
However, it isn’t uncommon in these remote villages for people to jointly own rented smartphones rather than each person individually having one, so the person who took the photo is still unknown.
There seemed to be a person from a neighboring village who complained to the local government that he couldn’t contact his relatives in that fishing village, but because he couldn’t pay a bribe, the person in charge ignored his complaint and delayed reporting it to his superiors.
The same thing happened again and again in the report to the higher authorities, which delayed the report even further.
When the local government finally learned of the situation, they stepped up their efforts, but at first, they only blocked the road because they suspected that it was a biological weapons test that had been conducted by government forces, and even now, as far as they know, no on-site investigation has been conducted.
This is the only good point that has come out of this unfortunate series of events.
And this situation continues to this day. The reason for such a delay in reporting the situation from the provinces to the government is probably due to the deep-seated distrust that the Tamils have of the central government.
[Biological weapons huh……]
The ABC weapons are generally called as such by the initials of Atomic, Bio and Chemical Weapons.
Bio-weapons, weaponry making use of biological means. In other words, they are classified as B weapons.
Because they don’t require a huge amount of money to develop, but are very effective, BC weapons are compared to Atomic weapons, which is why they are referred to as “Poor Man’s Nuclear Weapons”.
Dr. Fernando sighed as he finished reading the report.
There was no way they would use a biological weapon against their own people on such a small island……
The long civil war had bred hatred between Sinhalese and Tamils.
[Ruler of the Waves, Divide and Rule huh.]
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As Dr. Fernando gazed out over the calm night waves of the Indian Ocean from his cabin, he felt a faint dislike for the quarter English blood flowing in his veins.