BLOOD DRAGON by Freddie Peters (books to get back into reading .TXT) 📕

He must have been right.

They walked through the lobby without anybody querying Randy’s presence. Jack chose a couple of seats in a corner from which he could survey the scene. He had heard the word ‘police’ as they passed the check-in desk and he wanted to make sure the Mandarin would not be swarming with cops asking the wrong questions.

Randy was anxious too. He didn’t particularly trust the police, but seemed happy enough to be following Jack’s lead for the time being.

Jack sat down facing the lobby whilst Randy sat opposite him. He ordered two Scotches and Randy nodded. He was not fussed as long as it might help soothe his nerves.

“Why don’t you tell me your side of the story?” Jack picked up his glass and took a mouthful.

“To start with, Ollie and I simply disagreed with Viro-Tech transferring technology to China for further development, on ethical grounds, even though there was nothing illegal about it. Other companies get a lucrative deal with China because they are prepared to agree to a technology transfer. At the end of the day, they are private companies, financed in the private sector, doing what they like with their own research and development.” Randy drained half his whisky and began to look a lot calmer. “ US government barely knows what R&D the private sector is developing, let alone its impact on national security.”

“I gathered that.” Jack kept an eye on the far end of the large reception area. A couple of policemen had arrived and were moving toward the lifts.

“I worked with Ollie on the same piece of research. He was building the programme that would gather all the data I needed to validate our findings. Our research concentrated on how the human body protects itself against certain viruses, in particular pulmonary infections like bird flu. It’s really interesting to understand what it would take to create a universal vaccine for pulmonary diseases … you know the RNA-based vaccination idea is not that new in concept but Ollie and I had found a new way of delivering the instructions to the human immune system through Lipid Nanoparticules and …” Randy stopped himself. “Sorry … I get carried away when I start talking shop.”

“That’s alright. I’ve done a crash course on what you and Ollie were studying at Harvard.”

“We stumbled over this piece of research from another lab that had never been fully exploited. This RNA-vaccine is incredible … you can map a virus RNA sequence, assemble a vaccine and start testing on mice a week later …”

“You mean it would take only a week to come up with a vaccine that can work on human, even if it is a novel virus?” Jack redirected his attention to what Randy was saying.

“That’s a bit of a simplification, but yes, that’s the general idea. You can do in one month what may take a year or more and this gives you a platform too.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means you don’t have to reinvent the process for a new virus … you simply update the RNA sequence or even combine different viruses sequences altogether.”

“Is it legal?”

“That’s legal as long as you don’t use it in combination with the development of a man-made virus and that’s where the conversation became more complicated … we were only at the beginning of our research, trying to come to some conclusion about that.”

“Did you speak to Turner about it?”

Randy squirmed at the thought of his former boss. “He was on our backs because of our apparent lack of progress, so we eventually spoke to him about the preliminary results of our research.”

“And he saw an opportunity?”

“He has been working on a very high-profile project. He would not tell us what it was, but it involved regular trips to China. Then he wanted to know everything about the potential of what we had discovered. He had some applications in mind for it, but he never told us what they were.”

“But you and Ollie did some further research and came up with your own conclusions.”

“Jared seems a nice guy when you first meet him, but he is also a tough businessman. Ollie thought he might want to approach the military with the idea … after all, the US army is always looking for ways to enhance its soldiers’ resistance to disease whilst engaged in combat. So, you can imagine the importance of what that would mean, to make their soldiers immune to viruses deployed in a biological attack.”

“But you didn’t buy it.”

“It’s not that we didn’t buy it. Turner made no effort to contact the military. Ollie eventually got into his diary … he is a wizard with encryption you know …” Randy emptied his glass and the alcohol was doing the trick. “Turner spoke to his father instead.”

“About what? I know his father is on the board of a large US pharmaceutical company. Why the interest?”

“Cutting edge biotechnological agent production in China. He and his father have already created a company to do that and entered into partnership with the US pharma you just mentioned.”

Randy slumped back in his chair. “But still, that’s not illegal. Although that may depend on whether there is a conflict of interest. But as long as all parties are well compensated, I doubt anybody will stop the Turners.” Randy looked at his glass, somewhat forlorn. Jack ordered two refills. “The point is, as long as the technology remains in the private sector, they can transfer it to whoever they wish including China.”

Jack recalled a passage in the McCain report he had just read. The transfer of technology from the private sector, proceeding unchecked or even openly tolerated by both the US and Europe, had enabled China to leapfrog the rest of the world, cutting the time and cost of the research process and cost by many years. China now had an advantage over the US in