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all the transmission towers and cut off the power. That alone should be fatal.”

“...”

“The emergency generations will kick in, but those hospitals don’t have that much emergency power. The hospital will be paralyzed within hours,” Aziz said.

“Do you think we can do enough damage with that?”

“Absolutely. They’ll try to restore the power system while the emergency generators are running, but we just have to disrupt it by intercepting them at those points.”

*

“Robert, there’s something I want to ask you,” Young-Joon said.

“What is it?” asked Robert, pausing in his conversation with Prime Minister Felus.

“What happens if the terrorists destroy the transmission towers and cut off the power instead of hitting the hospital directly? Is the hospital prepared for that? Is there anything we can figure out right now, such as the number of patients at Afula’s medical center who are on respirators, how many medications are in stock that need to be refrigerated or frozen…”

“I’m talking about the possibility. If I was the terrorist, I think that’s what I would do if the security level was raised,” Young-Joon said. “Except for very specialized buildings, hospitals have the highest average power consumption per unit area in a city by far, and they suffer the most when the power goes out.

“Some patients die immediately if the respirators don’t work. If the freezer stops, drugs worth tens of millions of won become useless, and it can take weeks to import them from overseas to resupply them. Worst case scenario, we won’t be able to treat even the treatable patients.”

“...”

Robert’s face darkened. He quickly pointed out to Felus that the terrorists might try to cut off the power supply.

—Damn it. I’ll get back to you in a moment.

Felus’ voice was full of fear as he hung up the phone.

Robert thought for a moment, then smiled bitterly.

“I think you will be right, Doctor Ryu,” he said.

“Really?”

“In the past, Israel used to use nasty weapons like white phosphorus bombs when they were at war with Gaza. But after Prime Minister Felus came into power, they stopped using such aggressive methods. There were issues with international public opinion, but Prime Minister Felus was friendly to Palestine.”

He went on.

“But the cease-fire agreement kept failing, so, as the prime minister of Israel, Felus needed to put pressure on the Hamas government in Gaza and Palestine. Power was what he used.”

“...”

“The impoverished Palestinian territory of Gaza only has one power plant. Even that doesn’t work anymore because the bombing and war destroyed the fuel supply chain.”

“So they can’t generate power?” Young-Joon asked.

“That’s right.”

“Then… What do they do? Where do they get their electricity from?”

“Well, Israel didn’t exist about eighty years ago, and all that land belonged to Palestine, right? So, Gaza is connected to a nearby power plant in Israel by a transmission system. They import power from there.”

“Gaza imports power from Israel?” Young-Joon asked.

“It’s odd, but yes. When things got bad with the Hamas government, Prime Minister Felus started pressuring them by cutting off their electricity. Thanks to that, Gaza only has electricity for four hours a day. It’s been like that for a few years now,” Robert said.

“What? How could they do that? Cutting off electricity for a prolonged time in a modern city is more than just an inconvenience. It can prevent emergency patients from having surgeries, and the risk it creates for mothers giving birth…”

“Of course, it’s hard.”

“Isn’t that basically the same as holding civilians’ lives and livelihoods hostage and threatening them? How is that any different from what the terrorists are doing now?”

“It’s not something that we can judge by our standards, Doctor Ryu. Israel and the Palestinian government are at war.”

“...”

“The fact that they are selling electricity to an enemy country is ridiculous. Sometimes, Prime Minister Felus is pressured by right-winged powers in his country for this. ‘Why are you selling electricity when they’re using that energy to power factories that build bombs for terrorism?’ ‘Even four hours is a waste of electricity. Just cut it.’ Things like that.”

Robert added, “The whole structure of this area is odd. The very existence of Israel is just wrong. Palestine is in a position where they cannot accept the existence of Israel, but at the same time they have to be cautious to stay alive.”

“... We will supply our solar cells to Gaza,” Young-Joon said.

Robert gulped a little.

“You should think about that. It could make things worse. And the United States is Israel’s friend, Doctor Ryu. I’m an American intelligence agent.”

“How can they not use electricity in this day and age? Issues of war and territory should be resolved by the international community, not by threatening the power supply! Why should the civilians living there be deprived of the most basic level of civilization? What did they do to deserve that?”

Robert smiled.

“You’re going to win the Nobel Peace Prize, too. Are you going to take everything for yourself?”

“...”

“To be honest, I agree with you, Doctor Ryu. All the civilians living here, who are exhausted by war and death and want peace, probably think the same way,” Robert said.

“Anyways, let’s think about that later and get back to the topic at hand. The Palestine Liberation Army probably knows the suffering of living without electricity better than anyone else in the modern world. They probably also know the damage that a power outage does to a hospital. With the heightened level of alert now, this is a strategy that they are very likely considering.”

Robert went on.

“It seems they are planning to destroy the transmission towers coming from the power plant in Afula to cut off all the electricity.”

“Turn the car around,” Young-Joon said.

“What?”

“I have to stop by Jerusalem first.”

*

Pzz.

The lights went out.

“Ah, damn it!”

Jennifer, an A-GenBio scientist who was working on making the induced pluripotent stem cells for the clinical trial, screamed. She quickly pulled out her hands from the biosafety cabinet (BSC) and pulled down the barrier. It was because the electricity to the bench had been cut, and the aeration had stopped. It was a system that flowed air from the inside to the outside to prevent bacteria or dust from entering and contaminating the interior.

“Crap… What happened?”

Jennifer looked anxiously at the petri dish where the stem cells were growing.

“It’s probably fine, right? I removed it and closed it right away, so it’s probably not contaminated, right?”

She would have to culture the cells again if there was any contamination, and there was no telling if the brain-dead clinical patient, the little boy, would survive that.

“Please…”

Jennifer anxiously tapped her foot.

That was when…

Pzz!

The lights turned back on. Then, an announcement came over the speaker system.

—There is currently a power outage in the hospital and labs. Emergency power has been activated. Scientists in the lab: please ensure that all cold storage rooms, including the deep freezers and cold rooms, are operational.

“Jennifer!”

Lim Cho-Yoon, her senior, came in from outside.

“Didn’t you hear about the terrorist attack? Everyone who can evacuate needs to go right now.”

“Yes, I’m almost done with the experiment. I just need to put it into the incubator,” said Jennifer.

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