Chapter 303: Dominos Effect
Rochester, NY, USA.
Gabriel was just about to go to bed when he heard a notification sound from his phone and laptop.
"Strange." He narrowed his eyes. He remembered putting his phone on silent and his laptop was supposed to be on sleep mode. If so, how is it now possible that these devices are making notification sounds?
Gabriel felt that something was wrong. Slowly, he got out of his bed and stealthily shifted the curtain of his window, allowing him to be peep outside. But when he looked outside, there was nothing.
The street was as normal as it could be everyday, with nothing out of the ordinary in sight. There was no strange black cars or vans, or people dressed in any attire that looks suspicious.
Gabriel let out a huge sigh of relief when he saw this. As an independent and private TV host of one of the most controversial TV shows in the world, he knew a lot of things that even some of the veterans news anchors are privy to.
He thought that his life might be in danger and it was the reason why he checked to make sure that nothing was up.
Gabriel switched on the lights in his room, as he picked up his phone from the beside table and walked to the table where his laptop is.
He took his seat and looked at his phone, to check what the notification sounds was for. Immediately, the thing that caught his attention was a message being boldly displayed on his phone's notification panel.
"Confidential! This message is for your eyes only, Mr Gabriel, and I trust that you will know what to do with it," Gabriel read out the boldly written words.
Gabriel could already guess where everything was going. He knew that for someone to go through such trouble of forcing him to instantly taking notice of the message and the boldly written words in red, then the content of the message is extremely important.
"I wonder what the content of the message is. Was it sent by a whistleblower?" He asked himself as he clicked on the message.
Immediately, a huge file was unloaded into his phone, almost causing it to lag. Gabriel felt that someone might be trying to hack his phone through the message but as a knowledgeable person, he knew that the only way that is possible is through a link embedded in the message. And he didn't see any.
He decided to wait a little and after a few seconds of waiting, his phone was back to normal and displayed on the screen, is a vast amount of information.
Gabriel was immediately intrigued when he saw this. Without hesitation, he started reading through the information.
The next moment, he frowned as he paused reading the document. He felt that something was terribly wrong somewhere.
"This can't be right, right?" He asked himself as he decided to start reading the document all over again.
He thought he was seeing things wrong and his eyes was playing a trick on him but after he started reading the document from the beginning again, he found that there was nothing wrong and his eyes were working perfectly.
"This is impossible. It can't be." He said to himself in disbelief.
Gabriel couldn't tear his eyes away from the screen. The document was endless, page after page detailing atrocities that were too horrifying to be real—and yet, they were.
One section caught his attention, a report titled "Strategic Resource Sabotage in Oil-Rich Nations."
His heart sank as he read:
"The destabilization of Nation X was executed as planned. The insurgent groups received $250 million in funding, with an additional $100 million allocated to media suppression.
The subsequent civil war displaced 1.2 million civilians and reduced oil exports by 65%, creating a price surge that netted the organization an estimated $75 billion in profit."
Gabriel's hand trembled as he scrolled to the next section. A new title appeared:
"Pandemic Engineering and Pharmaceutical Profiteering."
"In 20XX, the organization released Virus Z in Region Y. The engineered outbreak resulted in a global pandemic, creating a demand for the pre-developed cure. Meditek's profits exceeded $45 trillion within three years.
Projections for the next pandemic are set for 2035, with expected profits reaching $60 trillion."
"Supplied weapons to both sides of the ongoing conflict in Region Z. Peace negotiations were deliberately sabotaged by assassinating key diplomats, ensuring the war extended beyond its natural timeline. Estimated profits: $10 billion annually."
"This is monstrous," Gabriel whispered, his voice cracking. "How can this... how can this exist?"
Out of curiosity, he looked at a side of his phone where the amount of pages of the document was listed, and he was shocked by the numbers.
"3200 pages?! The hell?!" Gabriel was so shocked that he didn't know what to say.
The information in the document was extremely sensitive and horrendous they he can't imagine just crazy it is for it to be 3200 pages long.
He didn't want to believe what he's seeing but he knew that denying it won't help him in anyway.
Steeling his heart, he decided to continue reading through the information in the document.
It wasn't only Gabriel that was feeling this way. The reactions of everyone that Silas asked Luna to send the information on the organization's deeds were similar. Some were even worse than Gabriel's.
That night, Gabriel didn't sleep a wink as he continued to read through the document and dissect every single information in it.
Even though he had a show scheduled for early morning of the next day that he has to prepare for, he didn't bother with it. He has found the most juiciest topic and it's a topic that would create a storm around the world.
For the first time in his life, Gabriel felt that he was finally going to make the type of changes that he has always wanted to make.
It was into the late afternoon before he was finally done with what he was doing. He immediately called his producer and made an announcement that he was going to doing a live show that night.
Initially, his producer was mad at him for not showing up for his show, not picking up calls, replying to messages and not answering the door when they came. But Gabriel did his best to explain everything without giving out any information.
After he was done convincing his producer, the announcement was made for the show that would take place in a few hours to come.
That night, Gabriel went on live television and exposed everything in the documents to the general public.
It wasn't just him. This information was popping up everywhere, around the world.
Within hours, the leaks began to surface. Social media platforms exploded with headlines and viral posts:
"Secret organization, Black Hand, Deliberate Acts of Sabotage of Oil-Producing Nations Uncovered"
"Their Profits from Human Misery: Evidence of Artificial Drug Shortages"
"Secret organization or Arms Dealers: Selling Death for Profit on a Global Scale"
News outlets around the globe picked up the story, their anchors visibly shaken as they read the shocking revelations.
Within what could be called minutes, protestors flooded the streets in major cities, demanding accountability.
The headquarters the energy companies located in New York became the site of massive demonstrations, with activists calling for its leaders to be arrested.
Governments were forced to respond. Politicians gave hastily prepared press conferences, feigning ignorance of the scandals while pledging investigations.
Stock markets trembled as investors began pulling out of the implicated corporations