The Loop Closed

The instant the heat wave hit, Murphy grabbed the rope too and vanished.

Not long after he left, Malfoy Manor blew apart with a deafening crash, and the fragments tainted with Fiendfyre even set the woods near the estate ablaze. A towering inferno roared to life.

After a dizzying spin, Murphy and the five Muggles were transported by the rope-shaped Portkey into the warehouse.

"Urgh..." One of the Muggles couldn't take the sudden spatial shift and started vomiting.

Alex stared dumbfounded at the people who had suddenly appeared, completely at a loss. "Mr. Parker, who are these people?"

"Muggles."

"Ah, you're hurt?!" Alex noticed the bloodstains on Murphy.

Murphy looked down. There really was quite a bit of blood on him. "Someone else's."

As he spoke, he used Scourgify to clean himself up.

"What exactly did you go to do?" Alex still couldn't help asking.

Murphy had just escaped from a fierce battle, and his nerves had still been a little taut, but when he heard the man ask that, he somehow felt himself relax. He reached out and patted the round-faced wizard on the shoulder. "Do you really want to know?"

Alex chickened out and hurriedly shook his head like a rattle drum. "No, no, I'd better not ask."

Murphy smiled, his mood easing a little. Then he looked at the Muggles again. They had all been badly frightened and tortured, but fortunately, none of them were seriously injured.

So he drew his wand and cast a Memory Charm on each of them.

Those terrible memories were better off erased.

After that, Murphy used Apparition to move the unconscious Muggles one by one to a safe little wood near the factory, disguising it as if they had gotten lost after escaping.

Then he called Patrick.

"Where did you go? I couldn't reach you just now."

"Handled something. How are things on your end?"

"The police came over, and later a few people from the Security Service showed up. I'd never even seen their credentials before, but the police seemed to listen to them. After they checked the place over, they said the explosion was caused by a gas pipe leak. I don't really believe it, but the video camera was broken, and the security guards passed out for some reason too. After they woke up, they didn't remember anything. We had no choice but to accept their explanation."

The more Patrick spoke, the heavier his tone became. "I think this isn't simple. Someone's definitely pulling strings behind the scenes!"

"Did they send anyone to look for the missing workers?"

"The police are looking. No leads so far."

"Mm." Murphy was silent for a while. "I have an idea..."

"I think you're thinking the same thing I am," Patrick said. "This must be those pharmaceutical companies manipulating everything from behind the scenes! Damn it, we just don't have any evidence!"

"Uh..." Murphy fell silent for a moment.

What he had actually wanted to say just now was that he thought they could pin this on those pharmaceutical companies, but he hadn't expected Patrick to skip that step entirely and genuinely believe they were the ones causing trouble.

After thinking it over, Murphy didn't correct him. Instead, he asked, "How did your negotiations with them go?"

"Failed. They don't want to just take a share of the profits at all," Patrick said. "And there's even worse news. The Committee's ban has already come down, and it's stricter than we'd imagined. They're demanding that unless we disclose the formula, we have to pull the drug from the shelves."

"They're trying to leave us no way out," Murphy said.

In that case, don't blame me for being ruthless.

"Go meet with them again. The heads of those pharmaceutical companies, and the director of the Committee on Safety of Medicines—meet them all."

"They're clearly trying to drive us to our deaths. They won't agree to any of our conditions," Patrick said.

"Just say you want to surrender. They'll meet you at least once," Murphy said. "Then get some of their hair. Not much. One strand from each person will do."

"Hair?" Patrick was baffled. "You're not planning to put a curse on them, are you?"

"A curse?" Murphy was amused. "Think of it that way."

Didn't you say there was no evidence? I'll find you some evidence.

A few days later, BBC, Sky Broadcasting, London Weekend Television, and several other major British television stations all received an anonymous tip-off. Out of caution, the major news outlets did not report it.

But soon, after a video of around two minutes spread through several smaller television stations, it immediately caused a sensation across Britain.

In that two-minute secretly recorded video, four or five men could be seen sitting around a dining table, drinking coffee.

Because the recording equipment was relatively far from them, the image quality and audio were not clear, but their general identities could still be inferred from the contents of their conversation.

One was a senior official from the Committee on Safety of Medicines, while the others came from major first-tier pharmaceutical companies such as Wellcome, Glaxo, and Zeneca.

And the content of their conversation targeted a newly founded pharmaceutical company and one of the drugs it produced.

It was a naked exchange of power and money, intended to strangle the new pharmaceutical company in its cradle and seize for themselves the formula of the drug it produced, which had extraordinary therapeutic effects.

As soon as the video was made public, it immediately sparked nationwide condemnation, with demands for a thorough investigation.

And after an investigation, investigators found even more evidence proving that the conversation had indeed taken place.

That evidence included, but was not limited to, testimony from multiple people in the private café and fragments of footage recorded by several cameras. The most conclusive evidence came from an amateur street photographer, who had accidentally captured footage of the men leaving the café.

And what happened next further corroborated the truth of the matter.

It was clearly a miracle drug with unprecedented effects, yet it still had not received clinical approval, and had even been ordered off the shelves unless its formula was disclosed. Its orders had clearly already been booked out nearly a year in advance, meaning it was not short of money at all, yet rumors kept spreading that it would go public or be acquired. Add to that insider leaks from pharmaceutical companies saying the other side had made concession after concession, only to still face the fate of being bought out, and the small, helpless, newly founded pharmaceutical company reaped a huge wave of sympathy points.

After that, as the incident continued to ferment, people also noticed the "gas pipeline explosion accident" that had occurred some days earlier at a factory under that new pharmaceutical company—the Umbrella Corporation—and all the suspicious details of the accident were dug up.

For example: there were no gas pipelines at the site of the explosion; five workers who had gone missing for several hours were found but had lost their memories; large quantities of medicinal materials and finished pharmaceuticals had disappeared; the police refused to say a word about the incident or disclose the investigation process...

A complete chain of logic gradually took shape in people's minds:

Wellcome, Glaxo, Zeneca, and a host of other pharmaceutical groups had enormous reach, monopolized the market, and were already raking in money hand over fist. Then, out of nowhere, the Umbrella Corporation appeared, using the almost magical effects of White Medicine to rapidly break into the market and threaten the interests of the pharmaceutical groups.

So, they first bribed officials of the Medicines Safety Committee and obstructed it in every possible way. Then, when the other side was in dire straits, they launched a hostile acquisition. Unfortunately for them, although Umbrella Corporation was small, it had backbone, and still refused to be afraid or submit, continuing to struggle and save itself.

And so the enraged pharmaceutical groups finally resorted to ruthless measures, sending gang members/terrorists/mercenaries to launch a brazen attack on Umbrella's manufacturing factory, plunder raw materials and samples, and kidnap employees, all to force the formula out of them!

At the same time, in order to cover it up, they even bribed the police and used the childish excuse of a "gas explosion" to deceive the public, attempting to muddy the waters!

The loop was closed!

Perfect!