Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Sammy, Gloria, Danna, and Mikkie were preparing for all that they could do to finish off the outbreak there. The Chinese officer that had been part of the UN mission in Sydney had arrived and was conversing with General Heroud.
"You did well to get the city quarantined," the Chinese officer spoke clearly, "And best to get those not infected to the mainland."
"Which we've done," General Heroud answered, "Thankfully when the outbreak started people actually moved to the areas where the Kats weren't. That made getting them out much easier."
That had been a plus in Hong Kong. In Fee City, the news reporters that caught onto, apparently by noticing the first transformations outside of the Old Chakat Industries based off of a security camera outside their local station, made the advice that people stayed in their homes. That same thing happened again in Paris, mostly as those in the part of Paris where the outbreak had been contained had seen some of the violent ones and were too afraid to head out. Sydney had been somewhat different, there the virus had been solely an airborne virus where it spread through either firm breaths, sneezes, and coughs or through a fine mist that went through the city on the breeze with an early morning fog, but the fact that that outbreak had been oddly peaceful, people hadn't felt compelled to leave their homes or flee. The outbreak in Cairo went on in much the same way that Paris had gone. They managed to get more humans out or find more humans that hadn't been infected, but that might have been because the virus started in the midst of a political protest and most of the Kats were outside of the buildings. In Hong Kong though, most people fled the city, after seeing all of the reports of violence from Paris and Cairo.
"True," the Chinese officer answered, "Did you find anything that would indicate who did this?"
"The start of the outbreak or the one who has been triggering these outbreaks?" General Heroud wondered.
"Either would be helpful," the Chinese officer answered.
"The outbreak started with a woman who had escaped the Sydney outbreak, the REAL terrorist kidnapped her and infected her and left her here," General Heroud answered, "she then transformed and the outbreak started from there."
"The real terrorist?" the Chinese officer asked.
"Li Sang," General Heroud spoke, "apparently your country's execution of him for things related to piracy was with a decoy."
The Chinese officer's face put on a particularly sour look. Heroud guessed that he probably wanted to execute the one who had been the start of the outbreak as a threat to the people of China, but the mention of Li Sang was enough to make him change his mind.
"We'll want him caught!" the Chinese officer answered, "the world should want him dead for all that he's done!"
"The one he kidnapped is quite willing to use hir claws on him in way that would not be friendly," General Heroud told him, "though from the UN groups, we've found no sign of him here."
"If there anyway we can stop these outbreaks?" the Chinese officer asked, "Your assisting Kats have come up with most... if not all of the Vaccines against it... is there any way to stop the Virus?"
"They're actually with one of your armaments men at the moment," General Heroud answered, "They have an idea... but it will require detonating the Justin Vaccine on top of Mount Everest and use the winds and the height to get it into the jet stream... At least in the northern hemisphere. We may have to do it again for the southern hemisphere."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Outside, the two Dracokats, one Chakat, and one Skunkat looked around a fairly large set of demolitions charges tied together by wires. A couple of Chinese soldiers were actually present to help with the actual process. This was actually quite a good thing for Mikkie, Danna, and Sammy as none of them spoke Chinese or understood the nature of explosives. They had wanted to go with the teams going into finish the tranquilizing of the Kats that Sammy and Gloria had created while they were under the full influence of the lust phase of the virus, but the Chinese soldiers turned them down, particularly as several Dracokats had apparently recovered, either from Mikkie and Danna's first explorations of Hong Kong and their subsequent using of the Foxkat vaccine on them, or from when they had burned through the lust phase and came in asking to help. In this, the soldiers requested that the Kats working with the UN remain behind and finish the "vaccine bomb" as Sammy had called it.
"Does the vaccine have any heat vulnerabilities?" Gloria asked to Mikkie and Danna, since they had picked up enough from Snowy, Maurice, and Jess to have some knowledge of the Justin and Foxkat vaccines' abilities.
"Not really, how hot will the bomb blast be?" Mikkie asked.
Gloria then repeated the question to the demolitions experts in the Chinese Army. They then gave the answer based on the type of explosive used in the demolitions charge. Gloria then translated the answer back to the other Kats. After hearing the answer, Mikkie and Danna traded glances.
"That should be just low enough for the Justin Vaccine 2.0 to survive the blast to get into the wind," Mikkie answered, "though, I wouldn't add any more explosive, just to be safe."
The Chinese soldiers then nodded and and made motions for the canisters containing the Justin Vaccine 2.0 into a place in the center of the demolition charges. Once the canisters were in place, Gloria instructed the soldiers to inform the Chinese officer that the vaccine bomb was ready to be deployed. They nodded and moved off, leaving the Kats alone. Sammy sat close to Gloria and felt very grateful for the friendship the two had shared in the past. Gloria was actually a product of Britain's former hold on Hong Kong as a colony. Hir father had been a Chinese man who worked in one of the British colonial administration buildings and hir mother had been a married woman of a British official, who was somewhat displeased with her husband's own extramarital affairs. The results of this were revealed to both when Gloria was born and ultimately left hir Chinese father. The only thing that Gloria got from hir English family was hir first name.
"I'm glad you're doing better, Sammy," Mikkie said to hir sister as shi moved to sit on the other side of Sammy. Danna was quick to move and sit beside Mikkie.
"Well... you all said there is no way of going back," Sammy said with a weak chuckle, "I'd been a Kat for a few hours before you and Danna arrived...and well... since then, I've been feeling the same mental changes you two and Alexis and Flake told me about in Sydney."
Mikkie gave a smile, "You've bonded with your mate and are happy with hir." Mikkie then leaned over and hugged Sammy to hir. "And seeing my sither happy makes me happy."
"Sither?" Sammy asked.
"Combination of sister and brother," Mikkie answered, "and you're now a hermaphrodite like any Kat."
"Ah," Sammy sighed, "Well... I am happy to have Gloria as a mate and shi is happy with me."
"That I am," Gloria told hir and then looked to see General Heroud and the Chinese officer approached. They also had a few Chinese soldiers with them as well. The soldiers then began to carefully lift up the vaccine bomb.
"Okay, we're ready to go," General Heroud, "There is a plane left that we can use for delivering the vaccine bomb. With that... it'll begin to stop the spread of the virus..."
"Unless Li Sang figures out away to change the virus, just as the new Chakat Industries has done for those who have been vaccinated and then decided to become Kats, or those who are like Jess and have type O blood with partial D antigens," Danna warned.
"We'll consider that if and when he does do something like that," the Chinese officer answered, "but I doubt that would work. All of the new Chakat Industries statements have said that once one has the Justin Vaccine in their system, if one wants to become a Kat, the serum must not only be engineered to overcome the vaccine but also fit the individual's genetic make up... and no two humans have the exact same genetic code. Even those of us with only the most basic knowledge of genetics knows that."
"At present that's true," Mikkie answered, "but if the virus mutates, we have no idea what could happen."
"Best to do what we can with what we have now," General Heroud commented, "We'd best move. If we can vaccinate the world now, we'll buy more time to hunt and catch Li Sang."
All the Kats agreed to that.
"Agent Nu," the Chinese officer then spoke to Gloria.
"Yes, sir," Gloria saluted.
"Given Li Sang is Chinese, his arrest is ultimately to be carried out by Chinese officials," the officer spoke, "and so to cooperate with the UN mandates of controlling these Chakat Outbreaks that he has been launching, you will be assigned to the present task forces hunting him..."
"Of course," Gloria answered, "May I keep my mate with me?"
The Chinese officer looked to Sammy and then sighed, "we will have no problem with that."
"It may mean that you'll need to relocate to Janace, Colorado," General Heroud said in warning, "from what I've heard over the various channels... is that since the population there is relatively small and it has no human residents, it might make the perfect base from which to gather information and try to track his movements without being caught up in any outbreak he might cause. If he's attacking major cities, you don't want your main headquarters there... and..."
"As Kats we can smell or hear him if he tries to sneak in," Danna commented.
The two military men nodded.
"Let's get going," Sammy spoke.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Actually releasing the vaccine bomb was a rather anticlimactic event. While they had no bomber available and had to use a civilian transport plane, it was capable of reaching Mt. Everest in Nepal and the vaccine bomb could be released by opening one of the passenger doors and pushing it out. The vaccine bomb had to be specially insulated to keep all its mechanisms warm enough to detonate, and the thin air required everyone to wear a breath mask so that they didn't die from lack of oxygen when the door opened... but General Heroud and the rest of the UN staff working with the Chinese had been very efficient. Everything they needed was ready and waiting for them when they arrived on the plane. The greatest difficulty they had was the Nepalese government, but even that was cleared when they got confirmation that the drop was to combat the Chakat Virus outbreaks. As such the vaccine bomb was released and detonated leaving a pink cloud that slowly dissipated into the wind.
"Hopefully that ends the outbreaks," Danna said softly.
"Yes, and leaving us with one important task," Mikkie commented.
"Fashion?" Danna smirked.
"Finding and catching Li Sang," Gloria spoke up.