Pandemic Spy School

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten - Protests

Angrignon Park

Montreal, Quebec

December 31

1230 hours

We talked for 5 hours about the notification. The one that told us there was a virus in China. After an hour, Erica had gone and collected my jacket because I was sweaty and it was -10 outside.

Now we sat there, silent, reading the message over and over, seeing if anything new popped out.

ALERT/ATTENTION

The message began. Nothing weird there.

COVID-19 confirmed. Found Wuhan China.

Still nothing weird. It didn't surprise me that the virus started there.

Safety precautions vital. Deadly virus.

It sent shivers down my spine. But at the same time, it was exciting. Erica zoomed in on her screen, then zoomed out, scanned it again, and then looked up at me.

"It's useless," She groaned.

"There's nothing to it," I cried.

"We can't wait though. We have to do something,"

"Something? What can we do if we have nothing to work on?"

"We have something. It started in China,"

"So you want to put me closer to a deadly virus?"

"That's not what I meant,"

"Why are you always so cryptic?"

Erica sighed, and then looked back at her phone.

"Fine. What did you have in mind," I asked her.

"Who do we know that lives in China?"

"My grandmother,"

"Someone other than your grandmother,"

"My grandfather,"

"Stop with your family. Someone who is an arms dealer, and lives in China,"

"I don't know,"

"Fine, I'll answer it for you. The Shangs,"

I tried to sort that out in my mind. It didn't help that the wind had picked up and my jacket had seemingly stopped working.

I glanced through a crack in the trees and saw a few teenage girls standing in a circle in ripped jeans and hoodies. All of them looked normal. As if winter didn't affect them. Erica noticed that I had lost my focus, so she turned around and looked at them too.

"Their Canadians," She said simply. "They like winter,"

One of them got hit with a snowball, and she screamed before turning around and whipping a snowball back at her unseen attacker. Erica snickered, and then turned her attention back to me.

"Shangs? No response?" she asked.

"You're telling me you think Leo Shang started this virus?"

"It's not impossible,"

"It's unlikely. China has a population of 1.398 billion,"

"That's your opinion. I think it's likely,"

"I'll think about it,"

Erica paused before continuing.

"I've been meaning to ask you this since we got to the chalet. Do you want-"