221. Novel and exotic toxins

The phone rings and vibrates, sizzling on the bedside table.

Mo Lei turned over in the sheet, lifted the cup to the side, picked up the pistol between his knees, and quickly curled up. The phone on the cabinet had been shaken to the edge, and a small part of it was exposed. He held the gun in his left hand, rubbed his stiff neck with his right hand, and reached for the phone.

A number is a long string of numbers.

Pressing the call button, Mo Lei brought the phone close to his ear, and put the Yali Kingrachi in his left hand on the pillow.

There was a dull pain all over my body, especially the wound on my neck, as if a hand was pinching it, heavy and stinging.

"Hey!"

"Take the liberty to call this number, Mo Lei, I'm Charles."

Despite only two phone calls with Charles, Mo Lei immediately recognized the hoarse, slightly whistling, high-pitched voice, Charles spoke extremely fast, pausing extremely quickly, and barely had an end note.

"Uh-huh, hello Charles." Mo Lei was groggy, and when he found that when he put the barrel of his pistol on the pillow, it just reached into a hole on the edge of the bed, and he wanted to pull it out but found that a few of the lines that had been transferred out were hooked on the sights, so he pulled it vigorously, the line was broken, and he almost fell on the bed.

"Holy!" Mo Lei cursed softly.

Charles, who was sharp-eared, heard it but didn't understand, and immediately asked, "What?" ”

"Nothing, Charles, what's wrong? Is the test result out? ”

"We need to meet, and in twenty minutes I'll be waiting for you two blocks directly in front of your residence, a black Ford Taurus, parked under a tree." Charles's voice was urgent.

"Okay."

I hung up the phone and looked at the watch in my hand, the LCD numbers were jumping, and it showed that it was 1:10 in the afternoon. Mo Lei only went to bed at 7:50, and a few hours of deep sleep did not help his body to recover, and the joints of his whole body 'clicked' when he got out of bed and stood up. Standing by the window, he opened the curtain and examined the barrel of the pistol in a faint light, striking the spirit with the action of slowly untying the thin wire that was wound around the barrel. It worked, but after he removed the thread, he still went into the bathroom and threw cold water on his face, and he felt a little more refreshed.

It's good to go alone, the coyote sleeps upstairs, which happens to be the one on his ceiling. Gao Bing was on the second floor of the adjacent building. It was Nixon's place, two houses on a hillside south of the city, where other people lived.

It took five minutes to wash his face and makeup, and when Mo Lei walked out of the room, he returned to the vicissitudes of life and a somewhat gloomy middle-aged man's dress. The wig on the top of his head was messy and greasy, with a smell of smoke and hairspray. Mo Lei thought that the coyote who bought the wig had a big opinion about himself to get such a top of hair, and he had to occasionally breathe with his hand on the tip of his nose so as not to faint.

Seventeen minutes later, Mo Lei appeared at the corner of the street where Charles had made an appointment. It was a T-junction square, and the place Charles had chosen was empty, with only a few large green banyan trees, and further up was a fence, behind which there were several dilapidated houses, presumably abandoned, with half of the roof collapsed. A few dirty cars covered in dust were parked messily by the fence.

Mo Lei was standing at the door of a bookstore, through the blurred glass window, he could vaguely see an old man with only a few gray hairs on his head sitting behind the counter, wearing glasses like the bottom of a wine bottle and looking down at a book, the corridor between the bookshelves was empty, and an open magazine was placed on a small table near the door. The billboard at the entrance indicated in black that the coffee could be taken out in the store, and the color of the advertising paper was old, and I don't know how many years it had been written.

Taking the coffee from the old man's hand, Mo Lei walked out of the door of the bookstore and flicked the pistol on his waist with his left hand. The black Ford Taurus came into view and pulled up between the cars under the banyan tree, the rear window opening to reveal Charles's thin face, a clean suit that didn't fit in with his surroundings.

Looking left and right at the street, except for the few girls on the right who had nothing to do, wearing hot pants and T-shirts and smoking at the gate, Mo Lei didn't find any other suspicious people, so he strode towards the Ford with a coffee. Charles helped him open the car door and shifted his position to give up the left side to Mo Lei.

"This is Andrey." Charles patted the driver's shoulder in the driver's seat, holding a few blank sheets of paper in his right hand. Andrei, who looked like a rock, looked back and smiled innocently.

"I heard Gao Bing and Shi Zhong talk about you." Andrei's voice was dry and hoarse, as haggard as if he hadn't slept in a long time.

"Hello Andrey, thank you for helping us." Mo Lei shook Andre's hand apologetically and looked sideways at Charles. He wanted to thank Andre properly, but there was no time for a small greeting.

"Didn't you tell us to test the fluid in our eyes? The results are very interesting. Charles saw Mo Lei looking over, his pale face was a little more ruddy, and the freckles on both sides of his nose were active, and he told Mo Lei very excitedly, "Our scholars found this peak with electrophoretic chromatography, which is not a naturally occurring protein, but a peptide, what is amino acid ....... amino acid?" ”

"Amino acid folding chains." Andrei turned his head back and added, his thick arms resting on the back of his chair.

"Well, we're not experts in academic terms or anything." Mo Lei nodded, his eyes were eager, he hoped that Charles would go straight to the point as soon as possible. Charles simply opened the A4 paper in his hand, which was full of English.

"It's a synthetic substance, not a naturally occurring protein, but made in a chemical lab. The peptide's ability to selectively bind to neuronal receptors explains why we find no traces in the circulatory system, and can only be detected at trace levels in spinal fluid and intraocular fluid. ”

"In other words, this kind of thing...... This peptide acts directly on the brain, right? Mo Lei was concise and to the point.

"Uh-uh......, yes! That's probably what it means. ”

"So what kind of chemical is this?" Mo Lei patiently asked again, he couldn't help but take the A4 paper in Charles's hand and look at it himself, after all, there are too many professional terms on it, and he looks absolutely confused, he speaks English well, and his reading ability is about the level of a junior high school student.

"Very peculiar, the closest thing in nature to it is probably the venom peptide, which is similar to snake venom, but in terms of molecular structure, there is no doubt that it is synthetic. This is a new type of poison, with a molecular structure that even our scientists have not seen, and it should be one of the new toxins that has only recently been developed. Scientists believe its effect is to cause cardiac arrest. It can cross the blood-brain barrier and go directly to the brain, but it doesn't leave a trace in the serum, this thing is powerful enough! ”

Charles quickly flipped over the paper in his hand and explained to Mo Lei in a gushing voice.

Never-before-seen molecular structure, new toxin!

"There's a problem, your scholars...... Where do scientists think this toxin should be used? Biological warfare? BioChemistry Wars? Mo Lei listened to Charles as if listening to a book from heaven, and the coolness of the vest's spine rose from the bottom.

"No, no, no, not in that aspect." Charles's expression also became serious, and he put the A4 paper on his lap, "said the scientist who is engaged in basic research in biotechnology, and they will also be often exposed to the birth of new venom peptides. Generally speaking, it is synthesized from toxins naturally produced by toads, snails, snakes or other organisms. Venom peptides selectively interact with specific proteins, which happens to help scientists label those proteins. The same mechanism that makes them toxic, but not necessarily the original intention of the researchers. After all, it's just an academic study. ”

"Similar to the ammonia technology used." Mo Lei nodded, although Charles didn't express it clearly, he understood what the other party wanted to say. The initial meaning of the research is good, but the research depends on whose hands it uses. So, is it possible that this ingredient came from a biotech company? Or a pharmaceutical company? ”

"Any company with research labs in biochemistry and molecular biology can do it, even a large agricultural company. In particular, there are thousands of poisons in South America, and scientists cannot find the source of the synthesis of the toxin, nor can they confirm which research institute it came from. ”

"That means that first of all, the deaths of Ning Boyuan and Qian Lao can be classified as murder, right?"

"I'm afraid it's hard." Charles laughed uncomfortably, "This is the result of the scientist's inference, you want that group of bureaucrats to listen carefully to the scientist's analysis, you know Mo Lei...... I can only ...... Cough! That's all I can do to help. ”

Mo Lei was silent.

Find the maker and you'll find out who is the mastermind! One fact leads to another.

But thinking about it, the probability is actually very low, and it is nothing more than a small matter of finding a scapegoat. For the Volks, it's as simple as drinking water.

"Can you give me this information?" After thinking about it, Mo Lei looked at the A4 papers on Charles's lap. He thought of Tang Jian, as well as Shi Zhong, who was far away in a corner of the earth, maybe they could help.

"Of course, this was meant for you." Charles happily handed the paper in his hand to Mo Lei, and took out a USB flash drive from his pocket, "There is an electronic copy here, and the information on the computer has been destroyed." ”

After saying that, Charles smiled mysteriously again, "I also made a copy to the NSA." We have secretly discussed the matter you mentioned several times, and there are several factions within the NSA, but fortunately, at least a large part of the people still have a sense of justice, but there is just some internal friction. ”

Mo Lei didn't think about why Charles, a small sheriff who had just been transferred to Bogotá, could deal with NSA officials, after all, he had his own channels.

I took the USB flash drive and stuffed it into the inner pocket of my clothes, and carefully folded the A4 paper and stuffed it into my trouser pocket.

"Thank you very much." Mo Lei sincerely thanked Charles and Andre.

"We're helping each other, Mo Lei!" Charles smiled heartily and reached out to shake Mo Lei's hand, his fingers warm and dry. "Be careful, stay safe. André will also fully assist you in the future. In fact, it's a pity that I didn't expect that the matter of collecting evidence and arresting criminals should have been done by our police, but I asked you to do it for you. ”

Andre's square head moved up and down, looking at Mo Lei, with a simple smile.

"Also, it's better to change the place where you live, today it is said that Vaux is crazy, and he has two more corpses in his house."

"Unfortunately, we didn't get it." Mo Lei spread his hands helplessly, he has met oolong** recently, and he stuffed his teeth when he drank cold water. Fortunately, the brothers were not harmed, and the loss of Gao Bing's earlobe did not affect anything.

"In short, stay safe." Andrei said sullenly.

"Cheng, I'll look for you if there's something." Mo Lei said goodbye to the two and got out of the car. Ford drove forward to the end, then turned around and left to the left.