Chapter 81: The Cover Up

After booking at a local hotel, Jiyo Kael spent the rest of the night calling several contacts he knew in mainland Cagayan, and Manila, arranging for a small group of builders to be sent to island soon in the next few days.

Jiyo Kael finally fell asleep around two in the morning, tired but satisfied that he had made a good start. He found sleep deprivation and woke up in the morning with dark eyes and thick headaches. Looking at the miniatures lined up in the bedside cabinet, he saw why that was. He had not drunk for several years and the alcohol had gone straight to his head. Brushing his teeth, he decided that now was not a good time to go back to old habits.

After a hot shower and breakfast, he spent the rest of the day renting a suitable room near the port of Cagayan, that he could use as an office, buying some office furniture from a local store second hand, and met his builders outside the province.

For the next six weeks, Jiyo Kael was barely on the island, only returning to the mainland to sleep and make phone calls, as there was no mobile signal on the island. His builders complained about the lack of facilities and had some Health and Safety concerns, but a hefty bonus soon took care of that nonsense. Overall, Jiyo Kael thought things were going well in this area compared to other Philippine islands.

It is very important that Jiyo Kael stops anyone venturing underground in the laboratory before the task is finished. He couldn't take the opportunity to make anyone too curious about his builder. If someone discovers what they bury under tons of concrete laid, not only Jiyo Kael, but thousands of other people's jobs, will be put at risk.

Jiyo Kael has two minds on what they are doing. He knew that, if not against Philippine law, then what he was doing was definitely flying close to the edge. But it turned out to be a tragic accident, and they had nothing left for the families to bury but a few scattered bones. On the whole, he had to agree with the Strict Man's perspective on what had happened and how to deal with it.

The first thing Jiyo Kael did was make a small floating dock just outside the dock. This will serve as a staging post for his workers to hose themselves before reaching shore. The whole deception has to be carried out correctly. The picture he paints must be convincing otherwise it will be directly visible to the locals.

Jiyo Kael knows that from time to time some of the youths come and party on the island's lone beach at night, even if they risk calling the local police force by doing so. It's impossible to keep them on the island while using the lab, but he needs to find a way to do it now.

To this end, Jiyo Kael posted the story about his team's departure after a chemical spill, hoping the information, along with men wearing white decontamination suits running across the island, will keep party goers from on the island temporarily. When they finished covering up the evidence concretely, it didn't matter much, but even then he had a plan to keep people away for at least a few years after that.

At first Jiyo Kael's builders raised an eyebrow when he asked them to work on lawsuits for decontamination but, as usual, a huge increase in their wages got them back to work. Jiyo Kael wondered how many reasons they could find to get more money from the project.

The boatman unexpectedly found himself with a new contract to carry workers across the island and back every day; the local hotel is fully booked; and the small village store saw its own doubling of its usual wholesale order. Everyone seemed happy and Jiyo Kael tried to keep it that way.

After constructing the small floating dock, Jiyo Kael ordered his workers to dismantle the glass contained in the entrance building, and bury the pieces next to the concrete roof. The original contractors filled the space between the concrete box and the gravel stones to allow drainage, so it made it easier to dispose of the thick glass pane and aluminum frame than to ship them ashore or fly to them using a helicopter.

Throughout the dismantling process, Jiyo Kael carefully monitors his staff, making sure nothing slips on the ground. Before anyone stepped into the building area, he was careful to remove the elevator controls and turn off the power supplies, but he couldn't afford to take the slightest chance that someone might stumble upon the secret they were hiding at the bottom of the island. Too many ride here for a bit of slip-up.

In the last week of the contract, the builders finally filled the elevator shaft, and Jiyo Kael was able to rest.

As he watched the last load of cement set up over the large cover of the recycling chute, he breathed a sigh of relief. No one will know what is buried under the island today. There was no way in or out of the laboratory, and the horrors still living there would soon run out of food and die.

Local island residents are fascinated with men wearing white suits, who are regularly seen washing themselves after every shift on the island. They have been the talk of the local pub for weeks and soon the most outrageous gossip is spreading in the surrounding areas. But for all the imaginations of the locals, none of them are ready for the final stage of Jiyo Kael's massive counter.

After attaching the shores of the island with a high, barbed wire fence at the top, Jiyo Kael has large signs affixed to it at three-meter intervals. The notices were large and colored bright red, and raised an eyebrow miles around - reading, as they did, "Danger. Go away. Biological Hazard."

XXX


After Three Long Years, while Jiyo Kael was reading his newspaper, he read the Headlines:

"MILLIONS OF 'KILLER SLUGS' DETERMINED TO KILL PLANTS."

"After the worst year on record for slugs, things are only going to get worse with millions of new 'killer slug' species expected to take over gardens this spring. The new species are thought to have arrived throughout Cagayan, the Philippines and around the world, by importing salad leaves. The monster slugs, from Spain, which can grow up to five inches long, have been found eating dead mice, dog litter and even to each other."

Jiyo Kael frowned while reading the second paragraph.

'WHITE-ROT FUNGI SHOW FIRST BIODEGRADABILITY OF PHENOLIC RESIN. Phenolic resins, phenol−formaldehyde polymers once thought to be non-biodegradable, are produced at an annual rate of 2.2 million metric tons in the United States for many industrial and commercial applications. Three independent lines of evidence have established their biodegradability using the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium.'

"OMG, genetically engineered a slug that can eat plastic with a fungus with the help of this Phanerochaete chrysosporium. But then he had a problem?"

XXX