"Fourth," Guy cut in, "the Land of Rivers has the best medical infrastructure of any small country outside the Five Great Nations.
Its economy depends on medicinal herb exports, and it has several large herb-processing plants and medical research institutes.
Kabuto can obtain all the experimental supplies, drugs, and equipment he needs through the Land of Rivers' legitimate trade channels. He doesn't need to smuggle anything."
When Guy finished, he pushed a supplementary report in an envelope across to Chisen.
The supplementary report was only three pages long. It looked like a compilation of scattered information an intelligence operative had gathered locally in the Land of Rivers. The handwriting was messy, and the formatting was irregular.
Chisen flipped through two pages, stopped at one passage, and read it aloud.
"Tiantang Pharmaceutical Factory in the northern Land of Rivers received an anonymous foreign investment this March.
The investor requested that the factory convert Production Workshop No. 3 into a cleanroom suitable for cell culture, with all conversion costs covered by the investor.
After the conversion was complete, personnel appointed by the investor, none of them factory employees, took over management of Workshop No. 3. The factory's original employees were forbidden from entering.
The investor transferred funds through an intermediary agency in the capital of the Land of Rivers. The agency's registered address was on a commercial street in the capital's southern district.
The Intelligence Department sent someone to investigate that street. The registered address turned out to be an empty building that had been abandoned for three years.
"
After reading the passage, Chisen set down the report, took off his glasses, wiped the salt spray from them with the hem of his white coat, and put them back on.
"Tiantang Pharmaceutical Factory.
The second-largest pharmaceutical company in the Land of