Chapter 1014 Our Journey Is to the Sea of Stars (Two Chapters in One)
The Gaia hypothesis is a theory created and promoted by two British and American scientists in the 1960s and 1970s.
This theory regards the earth as a living, planet-level organism with the ability to self-regulate, an organism composed of humans, other animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, viruses, rocks, minerals and other substances.
This was a quite subversive doctrine at the time, and to some extent encountered resistance and even criticism from the mainstream scientific community.
Of course, to this day, some of the ideas in the Gaia hypothesis have been accepted by the mainstream scientific community, such as the impact of various living organisms, including humans and microorganisms, on climate.
Although there are still various debates and discussions about this hypothesis in the scientific community, since its birth, it has quickly evolved into a fertile theoretical soil, on which countless science fiction works, environmental protection concepts and cults have been born.
There is no way, the Gaia hypothesis is too in line with Westerners’ philosophical concept of turning everything to God. The name Gaia itself comes from the mother of the earth in Greek mythology, the first original god born from chaos (not activated), Seen as the original natural force that created all life.
Since the earth is a huge living body, it must also have its own will. Therefore, the concept that any human action that damages the natural environment is blasphemous to God is naturally born.
Therefore, while the scientific community is still debating the Gaia hypothesis, especially when it is criticized and ridiculed by neo-Darwinians, outside the ivory tower, countless people are already adding to it and even twisting it and packaging it. Used for myself.
The most typical among them is the movie "Avatar", the carbon neutrality theory advocated by Western environmentalism, and the more radical extreme environmentalism that regards human beings as cancer cells on Mother Earth.
After Jack finished giving everyone a general introduction, he continued with a constipated expression.
"All in all, the good news is that Rachel Horton, as a highly educated doctor, is not so extreme as to think that humans must be completely removed from the earth's ecosystem."
"Just tell me the bad news." Danny couldn't stand this guy's pretense.
“The bad news is that she believes that the human population has become out of balance, seriously affecting the ecological balance of the earth and destroying Mother Earth’s ability to self-regulate.
Rachel Horton believes that the smallpox virus is one of the means by which the earth regulates itself. Human beings have eliminated the smallpox virus and created a certain imbalance. This is a wrong behavior and needs to be corrected. "
Jack opened one of the papers and read a quote from the Bible, "Those four angels have been prepared to be released on this particular day of this month and month to kill one-third of humanity. "
"She thinks she is carrying out God's will by creating the great plague described in the Bible." Grandma Heidi murmured once again as she appeared in the conference room at an unknown time.
"Doctor Horton plans to leave tomorrow afternoon, which means she will implement her plan tomorrow morning at the latest. Gentlemen, no matter what method you use, stop her. I believe you will not let me down."
After saying these words, this old woman whose height and aura were completely inversely proportional disappeared outside the conference room door as quietly as she came.
After a while, Danny seemed to have learned to breathe again, and took a deep breath, "OK, let's think about how to stop a mad doctor's plan to destroy mankind. To be honest, is your supervisor usually so elusive?"
"You're afraid of Heidi." Cheng Hao could see through this guy's thoughts at a glance.
"Oh no, Ms. Heidi is a respectable elder. I respect her very much, yes, very much." Danny tried to explain.
"No, you're just afraid. Jack's kind is respectful." Cheng Hao winked at him, and the others also had understanding expressions.
After a brief joking, everyone got busy. The first step was to notify the TSA (Federal Transportation Security Administration) to further strengthen security checks to prevent the recurrence of the previous situation of people impersonating their identities and boarding in advance.
Of course, traveling domestically and going abroad by flight are two different situations. Because of the presence of customs, this possibility is possible but unlikely, at least it will not be as trivial as before.
The most important thing is to prevent the other party from carrying the virus out of the country. Although according to Jack's profile, this possibility is also unlikely. A small and remote country like Costa Rica is more like a hiding place, not a good place to spread the virus.
The next step is to investigate all large-scale activities that may be attacked tomorrow morning, whether open-air or indoor. The larger the scale, the greater the possibility of being attacked.
After working almost all night, everyone was a little exhausted at dawn. More and more information was collected from all parties, but there was no information that could clearly point to Rachel Horton's whereabouts.
"OK, it's almost 9 o'clock, and time is getting tighter. I think we must have missed something." Danny waved his hand, pushed the laptop in front of him further away, and rubbed his sore eyes hard.
"Are you talking about our sleep?" Cheng Hao covered his face and yawned. Unexpectedly, it caused a chain reaction, and everyone in the conference room yawned for a while.
Jack made the first pot of coffee and looked at the bright sunshine outside the window. He couldn't help but feel a little impatient. "Why don't you all share your thoughts? Maybe there will be some unexpected gains."
Danny wiped the tears from his eyes caused by yawning and was the first to speak.
“It’s still the Christmas holiday, with concerts, catwalk shows, discounts in shopping malls, and targets for crowds everywhere, but don’t you think it’s strange? There will only be more large-scale group activities on New Year’s Day than now.
Why doesn’t Rachel Horton just hide and wait until there’s a big wave, like New Year’s Eve, when Los Angeles will be crowded with tourists from all over the country and even the world, and there will be targets everywhere? . "
Danny's words made everyone fall into deep thought, and Karen clarified his thoughts, "You mean, Doctor Holden has probably chosen a target already? A carefully selected large-scale event with a predetermined date? "
"Maybe she planned to just leave the virus at the international airport before leaving the country, which is full of passengers flying to all over the world." Hanna frowned and expressed dissent.
"No, no, no, it shouldn't be that simple. The airport is not a good choice. When there is a threat of a terrorist attack, it is the first place where the alert level is raised."
Danny retorted, and just as he was about to say something else, Jack had an idea, "You said she might have planned all of this, right?"
He pulled up a record from the computer, "This is a credit card record of Rachel Horton more than two months ago, when she spent a large amount of money at an office supply store.
I felt a little strange when I saw this record yesterday. I called the store to inquire and found that she purchased at least 300 Parker pens and notebooks as well as some student supplies. Do you think it is possible that she was planning an attack? related? "
"You mean her target might be children?" Danny suddenly felt a little creepy.
Cheng Hao shook his head and rejected this conjecture, "But I remember that the smallpox virus loses its activity quickly in the air. This is not a good means of transmission."
"But spraying the virus on clothes is different." Karen quickly clicked on the next link, "There is also an order for 300 customized T-shirts."
"This is in line with her concept of communication, just like the Spanish gave the clothes and blankets worn by those infected with smallpox to the Indians." Hanna suddenly realized. "
Danny then hugged his head and said dejectedly, "But she has probably donated these things to the school a long time ago."
"Wait a minute." Jack opened the order attachment and showed the specific content inside, "These T-shirts have a LOGO."
"'Future International Leader'?" He muttered a line of fine print above and directly opened the browser search box.
"High school graduates from 36 countries will gather together to participate in a series of lectures and trainings aimed at promoting cultural exchanges between each other, strengthening understanding and tolerance, and promoting friendship?"
Danny was dumbfounded on the spot, "Giving virus-laden T-shirts to children from various countries, and then infecting their families with the virus when they return home, this woman is simply crazy!"
"This event must be canceled immediately."
Hanna was about to pick up the phone, but Karen grabbed his wrist, "It's too late, the event started 20 minutes ago."
——
The "Future International Leaders" event is located in a corner of Hancock Park, next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which happens to be within the jurisdiction of the Wilshire Police Department.
When everyone arrived here, there was already a sea of people outside the venue. There were many activity stalls with awnings on the square, and various souvenirs and promotional brochures were being distributed. There were at least three to four hundred people with complexions gathered around them. Different teenagers.
John, who had also just arrived, saw Jack and the others and came over quickly, "Only two police cars came, the others are still on the way. Do we need to activate the bomb attack plan immediately?"
Jack sighed, "It's too late. People from the CDC will arrive later and block the entrances and exits to prevent anyone from leaving."
John was a little embarrassed after hearing this, "The organizer has been notified to temporarily close the venue. Now most of the children are in the open square outside."
"Then block the surrounding roads, prohibit any vehicle from entering or leaving, and ask people to wear masks and gloves."
Just as Jack and John were talking these few words, Danny beside him had already discovered the target. It was not Rachel Horton, but two teenage boys holding bags with T-shirts.
"Put down what you are holding!" Danny shouted, startling the two of them and freezing them in place.
Cheng Hao quickly stepped forward and showed the police badge on his waist. Although it said "HPD" on it, no one would care about it at the moment. "Police, where did you get these T-shirts?"
"It's right there." The two little boys were obviously not Americans, but fortunately they could understand English. One of them, a tall and thin man, quickly threw away the paper bag containing T-shirts and stationery in his hand and pointed to a stall not far away.
A middle-aged white woman with a big smile was distributing paper bags containing T-shirts and stationery to the students. Who else could it be but Rachel Horton.
"Stay here, John, call for backup immediately." Jack was about to use the earphone to call others, but it was already too late. The commotion here had already attracted the attention of the people around him.
Rachel Holden looked here and her face suddenly changed, turned around and ran away.
"Karen, Hanna! She's running away under the blue awning in the southeast corner." Before Cheng Hao finished speaking, the middle-aged woman who sensed something was wrong had already wormed her way into the crowd.
"Federal agents!" Jack warned loudly, but was blocked by the panicked crowd.
"Damn it!" He simply transformed into Liu Xiang and stepped over the long tables under the parasols.
"Beige knitted jacket, black trousers," Jack shouted out the other person's clothing features while running.
"We saw her!" Maddy Dix and Kensi Bly from the other group replied, "There are too many people, we can't shoot! Be careful, she's going to get in the car and run away."
Rachel Horton had already gotten into a silver SUV on the side of the road and started the car.
The two little girls standing in the front of the car were talking with their heads down, and they didn't realize what was happening at all. Fortunately, Karen and Hannah arrived in time and hugged them away from the spot, but they also missed the best time to shoot.
"Fuck!" Seeing that he couldn't catch up, Jack burst out with swear words in anger, but saw a Dodge Charger painted with LAPD police car paint rushing out from the other side and ramming into the SUV driven by Rachel Horton.
This powerful PIT attack, which was not in line with the style of the California police, directly turned the SUV 180 degrees. The left front wheel was immediately free and ran into the green belt on the side.
Jack rushed forward, exerted his strange strength to open the deformed car door, dragged the frightened Rachel Horton out of the car, and took off the handcuffs from behind his waist.
"FBI, Rachel Horton, you are arrested."
Others finally arrived. Karen and Hannah stepped forward to open the trunk of the SUV and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw a silver suitcase inside.
"We found the potion bottle! It's all empty!" Hannah put on gloves and opened the suitcase. Inside were 9 small glass bottles that were exactly the same as the ones he had taken from Komescu in Hawaii.
John got rid of the airbag and got off the Dodge Charger with only a deformed bumper. He shook his dizzy head and looked at the ashen-faced Rachel Horton with an expression of disbelief on his face.
"Why, how could you bear to do that to those children?"
Rachel Horton looked like an ordinary middle-aged white woman, with a trace of compassion between her eyebrows.
She looked at everyone with this compassionate look, "You don't understand, the world is dying, we are the root of the problem, I just want to give the earth a chance to resist."
"By slaughtering hundreds of millions of your compatriots?" John had not heard of the Gaia hypothesis explained by Jack before, but he had also met some similar extreme environmentalists.
"It took tens of thousands of years for the world's human population to grow to one billion, but now it only takes 10 years to grow from 7 billion to 8 billion. This is just a simple math problem."
Even though she was handcuffed, Rachel Horton still tried to promote her views.
"Tsunamis, earthquakes, cosmic radiation, and of course nuclear wars and genocide. Whether it is nature or humans themselves, there are countless ways to destroy them. It is a miracle that humans can survive to this day.
When people like you fall into despair and try to prove the correctness of your theory by destroying others, there are still some people who look up at the sky and regard the sea of stars as the journey of the future."
Jack looked at the mentally ill woman with contempt and chuckled at her.
"In addition, I don't know if you deliberately ignore the speed of human technological progress, or if this kind of thing is not so intuitive and can be measured by simple mathematical problems.
But if you think you can't solve certain problems, you can choose to die quietly and don't block the way for others."