Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 468 Threat
"Since this virus is so terrifying, why not just cut off all contact with the outside world?"

Li Siyu finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked curiously, "This virus is only spreading in the United States right now, right? In that case, we should just block all flights and cruise ships related to that country and prevent it from entering the country!"

"How could such a thing possibly be possible?"

The old leader smiled and waved his hand, saying, "Leaving aside the fact that this tiger virus has an incubation period of seven to twenty days in humans, just considering the current volume of people moving out of the United States, unless we completely close our borders, it's impossible to completely prevent this virus from entering the country. And don't think too badly of the United States or the situation; at least for now, the weakened form of the tiger virus, after multiple transmissions, still has limited transmissibility and harm to humans. This has already been confirmed in phone conversations between national leaders and the US government. For example, as you see here, the virus is over there, but we're all sitting here."

'Shuh! '

Li Siyu's face turned extremely pale. She never imagined that the terrifying virus that Wei Zhengxun had mentioned was actually in the same room as her, less than twenty meters away.

"Fuck!"

Lin Ge's hair stood on end in fright; damn it, he almost bumped right into it!

Lin Ge glared angrily at the old man, gritting his teeth. This old guy was taking such a terrifying situation so lightly! A virus spreading rampantly in America, just lying around on the ground like that?
"This is the weakest variant of the virus sample that has spread five or six times and no longer has the ability to harm the human body."

Wei Zhengxun's words relieved Lin Ge and Li Siyu. It turned out that this virus would lose its effectiveness after only a few transmissions; finally, they didn't have to treat it like the terrifying HIV or zombie virus.

But... if the spread of the virus isn't as exaggerated as people imagine, why is the former leader still taking this matter so seriously?
Lin Ge was somewhat confused.

He even suddenly thought of a guy named Zhu Wentao, who had disappeared from the gossip at the police station since his arrest. But he couldn't forget that this guy, a PhD graduate from the US, seemed to have been involved in research on something. Lin Ge didn't know exactly what it was, but based solely on the timeline Wei Zhengxun had mentioned, Lin Ge inexplicably connected Zhu Wentao with this Tiger virus.

Could this guy be one of the ways someone tries to shift the blame?

"The weakest form of the Tiger virus is indeed not scary, and even weakened Tiger viruses that have spread multiple times are not fatal. However! What we cannot ignore is that the organization that obtained the original weakened Tiger virus mutation sample still possesses a highly threatening original sample! Given the virus's ability to culture and reproduce, it can generate countless secondary transmissions of weakened viruses! And how many people a single secondary transmission virus cell can infect and how many tertiary infections it can generate is unknown!"

The old leader took the reins from Wei Zhengxun, his expression serious, and said, "This is the problem we need to face right now: how to stop terrorists from sending potentially lethal virus samples into the country! Just last month, one of the country's outstanding intelligence officers sacrificed his life! He gave his life to send a message back to the country! Someone wants to try and cause some trouble at the World Military Games that are about to open in Chu City!"

"..."

Li Siyu's face was a little pale. Looking at her old leader's serious expression and angry eyes, she felt a deep resentment that such a person was not crushed to ashes.
Lin Ge finally understood why Chu Province had urgently launched the police dog competition and why he had been specifically summoned. It was because Chu City, Chu Province, and even the entire country were facing a serious threat from this tiger virus. Currently, there seemed to be no effective portable testing method for this virus. In other words, unless all people entering the country were sent to hospitals regardless of cost or reputation, other effective measures had to be taken to prevent the virus from spreading domestically. And based on some verifications by these leaders and Lin Ge's personal experience, police dogs and police cats seemed to be able to react to this virus.

Given that scientific methods are neither portable nor quick enough to identify all returning travelers, relying on animal sensing for defense has become the only available, or so far, method.

Lin Ge suddenly felt a heavy pressure.

He couldn't even understand why animal senses had become a way to protect people. This thing, like a sixth sense, completely disregarded any scientific basis! Lin Ge didn't know if viral cells could actually be detected by smell. But at least for now, he hadn't detected any unusual odors from the bottles. The reason he reacted to them was because they perceived a threat!

It's just a feeling, understand? As for whether this feeling is reliable or not, and whether there will be any loopholes in actual operation, only God knows!

But Lin Ge simply couldn't refuse!
Or perhaps he had already grasped the gravity of the situation, understanding the immense impact on public safety and national reputation that would befall the country if the virus were to emerge domestically, or if it were spread to other countries by soldiers from various nations participating in the competition in Chu City. No one would mention that the virus originated in the United States; they would only believe that my country had spread it worldwide. If this led to any particularly horrific consequences, it might even damage relations between the two countries, and even between my country and several other nations. my country's hard-won and revitalized reputation would plummet amidst the angry condemnation of those infected and their families.

This is not impossible!

Therefore, Lin Ge knew that the enemy's plot had to be stopped! The World Military Games, which had already been announced, could not be canceled or postponed, and a powerful nation would not allow itself to back down in the face of any difficulties. Therefore, the best approach was to arrest and control the virus, or rather, anyone carrying the virus, as soon as they entered the country and Chu City, thus preventing the virus from spreading and becoming rampant. And these… were the difficulties he would have to face.

"That's really terrifying!"

Lin Ge couldn't imagine how outrageous and irresponsible it was to entrust a task that could threaten tens of thousands of innocent people to a cat and the sixth sense of a police dog.

Although the situation is indeed very serious, with saboteurs who could infiltrate the country at any time hanging like the Sword of Damocles over Chu City's head, Lin Ge still hopes to make things more certain.

Just as the leaders of the Chu Province Public Security Bureau went to great lengths to organize such a large-scale competition to select the best and most capable police dogs to complete the mission, Lin Ge also hoped that his sixth sense would be 100% accurate and successful. This current mission could not afford to allow even a single dog to slip through the net. The thought of the virus potentially spreading rapidly from one person to ten, then ten to a hundred, outside Chu City made Lin Ge unwilling to make the slightest mistake.

So he went to the bottles and jars in the corner again, and once again lowered his head to sniff them carefully and earnestly.

Even though Wei Zhengxun had reiterated that the weakened virus posed little harm to humans, and even though Lin Ge knew that cats couldn't compare to humans in terms of physical strength, and that a virus less threatening to humans might still be extremely dangerous to him, Lin Ge didn't back down. And for some reason, when he approached the virus samples again, the sense of threat in Lin Ge's heart lessened considerably. Although his brain still labeled the bottles and jars in front of him with a dangerous red, Lin Ge inexplicably felt that these things posed no threat to him personally. It was as if the virus was indeed dangerous, but inexplicably unable to cause any harm to the cat.

"Could there really be such a strange virus in this world?"

Lin Ge was a little puzzled, but ultimately secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He moved a little closer and heard Li Siyu behind him trying to stop him, but she swallowed her words after only saying half of them. Clearly, Li Siyu also knew that this was not the time to be willful.

Everyone in the conference room turned and watched the cat's movements silently. To be honest, no one knew what the cat would do, but at the moment, there were no other effective solutions. Whether the suspect appeared on its own, hid among the athletes and their entourage, or had already infiltrated Chu City, these were all unknowns. Aside from knowing they wouldn't release the virus prematurely, and that they would wait until the start of the Games when the crowds were at their peak, releasing the virus into Chu City during its incubation period, everyone was currently completely ignorant. Even now, besides the efforts here, major medical experts across the country were also working diligently to analyze and research the virus, searching for its weaknesses, solutions, and effective identification methods. While the general public remained completely unaware, the nation's power was already operating behind the scenes. Just like countless similar operations before, it was quietly extinguishing various crises.

Countless people are working hard behind the scenes to ensure the security of the World Military Games, which will be held in a little over ten days. Regardless of whether effective measures and defenses can be found in time, everyone is doing their best.

"Sniff!"

Boldly, Lin Ge stuck his nose into the bottle opening, and immediately the fishy smell and salty aroma of shrimp filled the air. Lin Ge sneezed, then put his nose back in. This time, perhaps because his nasal passages were clearer after the sneeze, he actually detected something unusual.

It wasn't a joke that he smelled the virus. Lin Ge simply noticed a strange, necrotic odor emanating from the two shrimp.

I'm not sure how to describe it, but if I had to find a similar analogy, it would be like the peculiar smell that emanates from a dead crab a few hours later. As we all know, when a crab appears to be dying or dead, its body is already slowly deteriorating and producing toxic substances. If this continues for more than two or three hours, the deterioration becomes very severe. At this point, it emits a putrid odor, and consuming it could lead to poisoning symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting. What Lin Ge smelled on the two still-living shrimp was that kind of putrid odor from their already deteriorating bodies. However, it didn't originate from inside the shrimp's bodies; rather, it was something hard to describe—perhaps the shrimp's surface was infected with a virus, and the mucous membranes or body fluids reacted with the virus, causing the foul smell.

"In other words, this virus may be transmitted through mucous membranes or bodily fluids. Hmm... Could the reason it was able to spread so rapidly across various states in the US be due to saliva or close person-to-person contact?"

While making guesses, Lin Ge looked for similarities in several other samples.

Soon, besides the solvent that simply contained the virus, everything else—sponges, seaweed, shrimp, and even the white mouse in the last bottle—was detected by Lin Ge with a subtle, putrid odor. The white mouse even showed obvious symptoms of illness; its eyes had turned bloodshot and were clearly visible. It was extremely agitated, constantly pacing and even bumping into things inside the large glass bottle. Lin Ge could sense its emotional state; it seemed to be in great discomfort…

"Even the most harmless weakened virus has the effect of killing mice, right? In other words, the harmlessness that Wei Zhengxun mentioned probably only means that it does not pose a threat to life safety, not that it will definitely prevent illness, right?"

Thinking this way, Lingo's vigilance and awareness of the threat posed by this tiger virus increased even further.

He knew that Wei Zhengxun, or rather the leaders in this office, wouldn't tell him and Li Siyu all the details. Providing him with confidential information was already a concession to ensure he could focus on his work. Therefore, whether these weakened viruses were completely harmless was neither Lin Ge's concern nor his concern. His task was to nip this dangerous event in the bud and give domestic experts sufficient time for research and countermeasures.

According to Wei Zhengxun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has made a commitment to come up with the most basic countermeasures in a little over a year and to completely eliminate all potential risks posed by the virus within three years!
More than ten months have passed since the Tiger virus was discovered at the end of April last year. It's about two months away from the most basic commitment made by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is also the most dangerous period. If the virus breaks out domestically before a solution is available, all the waiting and patience will be in vain. However, if we can defend against it with all our might until a solution emerges, this virus will not pose any threat to China…

Just like the untold stories of protection that Lin Ge occasionally learned from Nie Guoqiang, the country will once again thwart an evil conspiracy from the outside world.

"Two or three months! There's still half a month until the Military World Games open, and the entire Games will last ten days, totaling only twenty-five days. This is truly a terrible time. The enemy is right at the final and most critical juncture of our country's research into defensive measures! But coincidentally, there haven't been any major sporting events across the country for the past two months, so the Military World Games naturally becomes their only and most useful target. Heh... When tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people crowd together to watch the games, there's no need for word to spread; it'll spread to millions! Damn it, they really have a brilliant plan! Are those people really just terrorists?"

While cursing under his breath, Lin Ge patiently analyzed all the intelligence he had obtained.

Currently, we can't detect enough signs of the virus through smell, and that faint odor requires a large enough sample to verify its authenticity. So, the most reliable thing right now is actually my sixth sense, which detects threats.

"Hmm... I guess it's a sixth sense? I don't know how to describe it exactly, but when this virus appears nearby, it gives me a creepy feeling. But strangely, it doesn't seem to harm me at all? So what kind of phenomenon is this? It can't be called a sixth sense, it's more like a body radar! And according to them, some police dogs can do it too?"

Lin Ge squatted in Li Siyu's hotel room, gazing at the scenery outside the window while deep in thought.

It was the second day after they left the conference room, and also the most exciting time of the police dog competition. However, Lin Ge and Li Siyu deliberately locked themselves in their room, just to prevent themselves from revealing the Tiger virus when they were being outspoken or discussing things with each other.

Even when faced with Sun Chang and the others' curious inquiries, Li Siyu simply used the term "special mission" to stop them from asking any further questions.

Furthermore, Li Siyu repeatedly encouraged Sun Chang and the others, hoping they would achieve excellent results with their police dogs in this competition. Only the police dogs with outstanding performance and exceptional results would be selected to undergo the same virus detection test as Mimi. And only those dogs that pass the test will be able to team up with Mimi to participate in the crucial missions that seem to protect the entire nation!

Li Siyu even had a selfish motive, because so far, the old leaders had not made a decision that Mimi would definitely become the captain of this team.

Therefore, Li Siyu hoped that more familiar and acquainted police dogs could join the team to enhance Mimi's influence and command efficiency, so that Mimi could become the captain and give full play to its abilities to lead the police dogs to complete this difficult mission.

A single Mimi is very powerful, but a Mimi capable of leading a large army...

Whether it's the army of cats or the army of police dogs, it has already proven its leadership! So even if it's just to make the mission go more smoothly, Li Siyu hopes that Lin Ge can get the leadership of the team.

And this is inseparable from the support of Sun Chang and others, and even Chen Song and others.

"Come on, Changchang! Come on, everyone! And... come on, City of Chu! We must get through this disaster safely, without harming even a single innocent civilian!"

Li Siyu couldn't help but clench her hands and pray softly.

(End of this chapter)