66: Chapter 66 Shorting this city

The car was quiet, save for the sound of the windshield wipers swinging frantically.

Chen Mo sat in the backseat with the military-grade rugged laptop resting on his knees.

The blue light from the screen reflected on his face, making him look like a cold, marble statue.

Since getting into the car, his fingers had been typing away incessantly on the keyboard.

Jessica sat in the passenger seat, gripping the glock tightly in her hand.

She glanced back from time to time; the way Chen Mo was focused—to the point of being cold-blooded—gave her an inexplicable chill.

Outside, it was already hell.

The radio was filled with screams and garbled distress signals.

Several blocks around Georgetown University had been completely cordoned off; it was said that anyone attempting to break through the blockade was shot on the spot.

But this seemed to have nothing to do with Chen Mo.

All he cared about now were the red and green numbers flickering on the screen.

"Connect to Jack Martin."

Chen Mo pressed the Enter key.

An encrypted call window popped up on the screen.

It was answered almost instantly.

Jack Martin's slightly neurotic face appeared on the screen.

The background noise was chaotic, filled with ringing phones and the shouts of traders.

He looked like he had just run a marathon; his tie was crooked, he was drenched in sweat, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"Boss! Did you see the news? It's crazy! Everything is crazy!"

Jack clutched a cup of coffee, his hand shaking. "CNN says it's a terrorist attack! Someone released poison gas at the university! The Dow Jones plummeted five hundred points at the opening bell and is still falling!"

"How are those medical stocks I told you to buy doing?"

Chen Mo's voice was as steady as if he were asking about the weather.

"They hit the limit! They all hit the limit!" Jack pressed his face close to the camera, his excitement bordering on twisted.

"Georgetown Bio, Vanguard Pharma... those junk stocks that were about to go bankrupt are now literal money-printing machines! Boss, how did you know? This is incredible!"

"This is just the beginning."

Chen Mo interrupted his celebration. "Listen, pull out all the liquid capital you have."

"Pull it out? Now?" Jack paused. "But this is the perfect opportunity to buy the dip during the chaos..."

"I want you to short."

Chen Mo stared at Jack on the screen. His speech was slow, but every word hit like a nail.

"Short the entire aviation sector. Boeing, Delta, United... anything that can fly, sell it short for me."

"And the tourism industry," Chen Mo continued. "Marriott, Hilton, Disney... even Carnival Cruise, don't keep a single share."

Jack's mouth hung open; he didn't even react when he spilled coffee all over his hand.

"Boss, isn't that too risky? This is just a localized attack. Even though people died, it should be under control soon..."

"It won't be."

Chen Mo looked out the window.

The rain was still falling. This rainwater would carry the virus-laden aerosol into the sewers, into the underground rivers, and into every corner of this city.

"This isn't just an attack, Jack. This is a plague."

Chen Mo's fingers tapped lightly on the touchpad.

"Tomorrow morning, Washington D.C. will declare a state of emergency. Within three days, all airports on the East Coast will be closed.

A week from now, no one will even buy a ticket to Mars, because everyone will be too afraid to step outside."

Jack swallowed hard.

He was a gambler, but he had never seen a bet this big.

"Do you have insider information?" Jack lowered his voice. "Just like that time before?"

"This isn't called insider information," Chen Mo curled his lip slightly. "This is called a spoiler."

"One more thing."

Chen Mo typed a few lines of code on the keyboard and sent them over.

"Take the money you made from shorting and buy call options on these companies."

Jack glanced at the list.

They were all obscure, small-scale pharmaceutical companies; some didn't even have a decent laboratory.

"Atlas Medical? This company laid off half its staff last month. Their main business is manufacturing... ventilator parts?"

Jack frowned. "And this one, a foundry that makes protective clothing fabric?"

"Do it."

Chen Mo didn't want to explain. "Remember, don't use the Legacy account to buy directly. Use those offshore shell companies, enter the market in batches, and don't muddy the waters."

"But..."

"Jack." Chen Mo's voice turned cold.

"Do you want to continue being a rat in a basement, or do you want to stand on top of the Empire State Building and rain money down? This is the only chance you'll have in your life to reshuffle the deck."

Jack on the other side of the screen was silent for two seconds.

That greed for wealth finally overcame his fear.

"Understood." Jack slammed the coffee cup onto the floor. "Screw the risk! I'm placing the order now! Let those Wall Street pigs go to hell!"

The video call ended.

Chen Mo closed the laptop.

The car fell back into dead silence.

"You knew this would happen all along."

Jessica suddenly spoke. She didn't turn around, but her voice carried a suppressed fury.

"You had that lunatic short the aviation industry and buy ventilator stocks... you knew the virus would spread, and you knew this virus targets the respiratory system."

"That's common sense."

Chen Mo leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes to rest.

"If it were contact-transmitted, they wouldn't bother turning it into an aerosol. Only respiratory transmission can cause maximum panic."

"Do you have the cure?"

Jessica turned around, her eyes fixed intently on Chen Mo.

"You were fumbling around on that corpse for ages; you must have gotten something. Don't tell me you were just doing it for fun."

Chen Mo opened his eyes and looked at this angry former agent.

He could see the struggle in her eyes.

That was the old moral code and the cruel laws of the new world clashing.

"I do."

Chen Mo answered bluntly.

"Then hand it over!" Jessica almost shouted, raising her phone.

"I can contact the CDC right now, or that Rogers. As long as we have the formula, we can stop this catastrophe!"

Screech—!

George slammed on the brakes.

Inertia sent Jessica crashing hard against the dashboard.

"Calm down, rookie." George placed his hand on the handle of his M1911 and gave her a warning look through the rearview mirror.

Chen Mo didn't even move.

He just watched Jessica quietly, his gaze like that of someone looking at a child who hadn't grown up yet.

"Hand it over?"

Chen Mo laughed, but the amusement didn't reach his eyes. "To whom? Rogers? That superior who threw you away like a discarded pawn? Or to those congressmen who created this plague?"

"And then what, after you give it to them?"

Chen Mo leaned forward, his presence instantly making the atmosphere in the car heavy.

"Do you think they will use the formula to save people? Don't be naive. They will lock the formula in a safe the first chance they get, and then use it to filter who lives and who dies."

"They will sell the vaccine at an exorbitant price, letting the poor die in the streets and making the rich beg on their knees."

"Is that the justice you want to see?"

Jessica opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Because she knew Chen Mo was right. This goddamn world worked exactly like that.

"Then what about you?" Jessica gritted her teeth. "What will you do? Will you use it to save people?"

"I will."

Chen Mo leaned back against the seat again, watching the rain falling from the sky outside the window, as if watching a sky full of dollars.

"But not now."

"Why?"

"Because right now, everyone isn't scared enough."