"Ever heard of sonic resonance?"
"You have a daughter? Is she pretty? How about considering me? Think I'd make a good son-in-law?"
"Hey, buddy! Say something! Keep your spirits up—you'll heal faster!"
"So, have you been to Canada? Where are you from? Are you British?..."
The moment Bella entered the hospital room, she found the random driver from before chattering away at 006, gesturing animatedly. Clearly, he'd recovered well. Meanwhile, 006 lay in bed wearing an expression of utter despair, as if he'd lost all will to live.
"Sorry, wrong room!" Bella turned and left immediately.
That evening, while the motormouth was asleep, she returned to the ward.
"Mr. Alec, have you made any progress on what I asked you to investigate?" Finding the mastermind behind Prosperity Town—that was the number one priority for both Bella and Natasha.
006 had come to Israel specifically to discuss this matter in person, but all his paper files had been destroyed when he was buried alive. Those men had burned everything to avoid leaving evidence.
Fortunately, he still had backups in his email. He opened his inbox and let Bella see for herself.
The more she read, the more alarmed she became. She finally learned the identity of the culprit behind last year's disaster—the one that killed over three thousand residents of Prosperity Town and left five hundred more seriously injured. It was the Italian pharmaceutical giant Tricell, internationally known as one of the most notorious corporations in the world.
Interestingly enough, this company had some connection to Bella. They were the ones who'd acquired Global Airlines after it went bankrupt following the Flight 180 incident.
The multinational's headquarters was located in the ancient Italian city of Taranto. Its president was Excella Gionne, a woman whose reputation was... complicated, to say the least. Most descriptions hovered around "femme fatale," "devious," and "ruthless."
"Just to demonstrate bioweapons? That's it? Prosperity Town was nothing but a testing ground to them!?" Bella had always thought she had a decent temper. She'd been roasted daily by so-called experts in the newspapers without crossing any lines, but this—this made her blood boil!
Her fury instantly affected 006. The wounded man felt his heart rate accelerating as an emotion called rage began affecting his mind.
Physical weakness combined with mental vulnerability—he coughed deliberately, hoping Bella would calm down.
Bella snapped back to awareness and quickly reined in her overflowing emotions.
"Sorry, I've been getting attacked in the press daily. I overreacted." She apologized sincerely.
006's face was ashen. He said it was fine, but inwardly, he found himself looking forward even more to Ben Gates's treasure hunt. He had absolutely no ability to resist this witch, and that put him in an extremely passive—and dangerous—position.
He felt like he was caged with a tiger. One day, if the tiger woke up in a bad mood, it might just devour him! All his vaunted special agent skills were utterly useless against mystical powers.
"Thank you, Alec. I appreciate your help. Without you, I wouldn't have learned the truth this quickly. As for dealing with Tricell from here on out—you don't need to get involved." Bella thanked him earnestly. Look at what he'd gone through for her sake! The man was hospitalized because of her investigation. Her gratitude was genuine.
006 nodded weakly. He truly didn't have the energy to get involved anyway.
Bella had originally planned to discuss building a secret bioweapons lab with him, but seeing how pale he looked, she hesitated, unsure whether she should bring it up.
"Something else?"
"...How do I put this? Actually, yes, there is something."
"Do you need me to investigate something else?"
Bella adopted a consultative tone. "Actually, it's like this—I want to partner with you. We'd go into business together. I'll provide the location and technology, and you'll handle management and sales."
Honestly, 006 wasn't wealthy. Ben Gates's Arctic expedition project was ridiculously expensive. Searching for a sunken ship in the vast Arctic was like finding a needle in a haystack. Each attempt cost a staggering amount of money. Once or twice, he could manage, but dozens or hundreds of times? He simply couldn't afford it.
And Ben Gates had named a steep price, declaring that without two years and over a hundred million dollars, there was no way to find the legendary *Charlotte*.
006 was at his wit's end. Right now, he cared deeply about money.
So he couldn't help asking, "What kind of project? Something mystical? Are we selling lucky rabbit's feet together?"
Bella laughed awkwardly. Even 006 knew about her rabbit's foot business?
"...Of course not. We'd be selling weapons. Bioweapons. Bio-organic humans that look exactly like ordinary people. Also..." She hesitated significantly. "We could also produce clones."
"You have that kind of technology?"
Bella's answer was unequivocal. "Yes."
006 immediately fell into deep thought. Whatever kind of weapon it was, as long as it had "weapon" attached to it, it would definitely make money! Anyone who claimed otherwise was just fooling civilians.
As a middle-aged agent, most of his concepts still belonged to the era of handguns and missiles. Bioweapons were unfamiliar territory—he'd never dealt with them directly, only knew the basics.
At this moment, he wasn't sure if he could handle this kind of business. "I don't understand bioweapons. Why start this kind of project all of a sudden? What are you going to do with these things? Do you even have that much capital?"
Bella answered one question at a time. "First, it's for self-preservation. Those men who buried you alive? They had bioweapons. Can you imagine? Even third-rate thugs like them have bioweapons—this stuff has already proliferated to a certain extent! I don't want to wake up one day and find my entire city surrounded by viruses, all my loved ones..."
She paused, then continued. "Second, what am I going to do with these weapons? Honestly, I haven't decided yet. Sell them for money or trade them for political resources—we can discuss it. I can't be the public face of this business. You have to be the one in front. You'll contact buyers, you'll handle sales."
006 laughed self-deprecatingly. "A disgraced former British agent is indeed more suitable than you for this kind of work. That logic holds up."
Bella concluded, "As for funding, we won't need much initially. I've already obtained mature virus samples. Creating the original strain won't be difficult. We also have complete experimental data for bio-organic humans and clones, though the raw data isn't from humans—it'll need recalibration and comparison..."
When she mentioned "the raw data isn't from humans," 006's eyelid twitched, but he wisely chose not to ask.
Bella addressed the crucial part: "I'll give you a twenty-five percent stake in Weyland Corporation. Later, I'll also allocate a small portion to the lab's director. We'll invest and share profits according to these proportions."