Homo Sapiens

On the far side of the Pacific Ocean.

America.

Decatur City, Illinois.

Like many other small American cities, it had a population of just over one hundred thousand, yet it had managed to attract the favor of quite a few large corporations.

A Latin American man was driving a pickup truck, which carried several small cages. Inside, a group of large rats chittered as they ate dog biscuits.

His name was Hook. He had immigrated to America from Mexico half a year ago. On the surface, he was a small-time merchant in the import-export business, primarily purchasing medical supplies from America to export to southern Mexico.

Because American regulations on the export of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies were very lax, Hook’s business was only in the range of a few hundred thousand US Dollars, making it quite inconspicuous. Naturally, it didn’t attract any attention.

More than half a year had passed since he moved to the suburbs near the city, and he had even taken over a pet supply store in the urban area.

The rats in the pickup were, in fact, Hook’s pets. The employees at his store and his neighbors all knew that Hook liked to raise rats.

What they didn’t know, however, was that Hook’s fondness for raising rats wasn’t because he genuinely liked them, but rather as a cover.

He drove his pickup truck to a hillside not far from the city, where he began to set up a tent, preparing for a barbecue and to camp out.

The hillside offered a wide-open view. The cold autumn wind didn’t seem to dampen Hook’s spirits. He sat by a campfire, warming himself while holding a pair of binoculars.

In his view, a cluster of buildings came into sight.

It was the ADM Headquarters, one of the four major global grain traders known as ABCD.

At that moment, Catherine Adams, who had just returned to headquarters from Southeast Asia, was in a conference room in the main building, reporting to the President, Jen Martin.

Catherine said confidently, ”Mr. President, the grain war plan against Luzon has already begun. The Fernando Clan and the Lopez Clan will pay the price for their disobedience.”

Jen took a sip of black coffee. ”Kids always have a rebellious phase. A good beating usually sorts them out. I hear that Gafei from the Fernando Clan is competing with Aston from the Marcus Clan, is that right?”

A secretary to the side nodded. ”Yes, Mr. President.”

”Then what are we waiting for? We should have our dear Mr. Aston serving our interests, not let that self-righteous Mr. Gafei take the stage.” Jen’s eyes were filled with cold malice.

Catherine then suggested, ”Guo from Malaysia, and perhaps Temasek Investment from Xing Island, could lend a hand. After all, their influence in Southeast Asia is considerable.”

Jen glanced at Catherine and then chuckled. ”It seems Ms. Catherine had quite a fruitful trip, didn’t she?”

”I’m just doing what’s best for the company. After all, it’s better to have one more friend than one more enemy,” Catherine replied with a smile.

Jen wasn’t angry about this. As long as it didn’t affect the company’s interests, he didn’t really care if Catherine made some moves of her own during the secret negotiations.

In the midst of this pleasant atmosphere.

In the crawlspace above the conference room ceiling, a miniature signal receiver suddenly flashed a red light.

Triggered by the circuitry, hundreds of kilograms of TNT were instantly detonated.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...

One moment, Jen, Catherine, and the others were laughing and talking; the next, they were blown to smithereens. The explosion collapsed three floors of the building, centered on the conference room.

Other areas of the ADM Headquarters instantly felt the shockwave and roar of the explosion.

”Oh my god!”

”Ahhh...”

”Quick, call 911...”

Amidst a backdrop of panicked screams, people outdoors saw the ADM building burst into raging flames after the explosion.

「At the same time.」

On the hillside, two kilometers away from ADM Headquarters.

Hook lowered his binoculars, pressed a special button in his hand, and then went back to his barbecue.

In a tree near the ADM Headquarters, a large black rat chewed through a white wire, then quickly leaped from a hollow in the tree and scurried toward the distant woods.

Inside the tree hollow, the ticking of a mechanical alarm clock began. About 60 seconds later, a bottle of specially made thermite inside the hollow ignited, and intense flames quickly consumed all the electronic equipment within.

Back in the pickup truck.

Hook took a sip of hot coffee, then tossed a large handful of dog biscuits to the dozen or so large black rats in the cages in his truck bed. Suddenly, a rat scurried out from a nearby bush and ran to his feet.

”My little darling, welcome home.”

He gently placed the rat in a cage, grabbed a large handful of beef jerky and dog biscuits from a feed bucket, and placed them on a special little plate.

The rat happily gnawed on its food.

Hook, however, remained unhurried, continuing to admire the towering flames in the distance.

Through the billowing smoke, he could see the panicked crowds in the city. It was as if some demon was crawling out from the inferno.

”Now *this* is a real business war,” he said, a strange smile on his face. He then raised his hot coffee and took a long drink.

...

A dozen or so fire trucks came speeding to the scene.

Spurred on by ADM Company’s money, hundreds of firefighters braved the cold wind and scorching heat, working tirelessly to spray jets of water and suppress the raging inferno.

It wasn’t until dusk that the fire was completely extinguished.

「Under a blood-red setting sun.」

Philip, the local FBI chief, had a grim expression on his face. Staring at the ruins of the ADM Headquarters building, he knew he was definitely getting fired.

Members of the technical division, already in bomb suits, were carefully entering the building, searching for any evidence.

The middle-aged white man standing next to Philip kept a straight face, but deep in his eyes, there was a flicker of delight.

’Jen, Catherine, and the others are definitely done for. My position might just move up a notch. God really is on my side,’ Ohm thought excitedly.

Philip slapped his own forehead, then glanced at the dazed Ohm. Suppressing the rage in his heart, he asked coldly:

”Mr. Ohm, may I ask you a few questions?”

Ohm, who had been in a daze, snapped out of it. He only came to his senses after seeing Philip next to him.

”Er... as long as it doesn’t involve company secrets, I can answer what I know.”

”OK,” Philip said, activating his recorder. He then asked, ”Has anything unusual been going on with ADM Company recently? I’m talking about enemies.”

”Well, about that...” Ohm didn’t know how to answer. He could hardly say that plenty of powers around the world would love to see Archer Daniels Midland blow up on the spot.

After all, to grow a company into a world-class grain trader, you’re bound to make a whole host of enemies among those with vested interests along the way.

”Right. I get it.” Philip knew he had asked a stupid question and immediately changed the subject.

”Next question, then. What can you tell me about the five floors that were destroyed? What were their functions?”

Ohm thought for a moment and replied, ”The 4th floor was the Global Communications Center, the 5th floor was the main conference room, the 6th floor had smaller meeting rooms and the records archive, the 7th floor was the President’s office and library, and the 8th floor was the President’s private lounge and gym.”

Philip looked at the blast zone. He could roughly estimate that the epicenter of the explosion was near the smaller meeting rooms. Clearly, the target had been ADM’s top executives.

But Ohm’s evasiveness on many questions left Philip feeling helpless. He knew that a large corporation like this was bound to have a mountain of skeletons in its closet, but that just made the investigation all the more difficult.

The bombing of the ADM Headquarters immediately sent a wave of unease through the other major grain traders and threw many of their plans into disarray.