How could Gale, on the earpiece, know that someone was listening just a few hundred meters away from them? He simply looked at his friend's nephew in surprise and waved his hands.
Jason, who was thinking about what to do next, was pulled back by Gale's voice, so all he could do was withdraw his thoughts and focus on the dialogue between the two men.
"Haha, it's not the kind of vaccine you're thinking of. It's a vaccine that prevents people from becoming walkers after dying of natural causes. If they're bitten specifically, they'll still turn into the undead."
Logan, who had been excited, was cut off by the old man and his illusion vanished. "What good is that? We can't go back to our lives as they were."
"You're wrong — it's a vaccine with a lot of future potential. As long as people have that vaccine in their bodies, provided they aren't bitten by walkers, it will eventually change the world's future. You must understand that walkers rot; once they disappear, we'll be fine."
"Those vaccines are our hope…"
Logan immediately understood the meaning of the vaccines after the old man explained, but then he asked oddly, "Then why don't you like those people?"
When Logan mentioned this, Gale stroked his beard and his expression grew furious. He slapped the table and said bitterly, "Their vaccine production is very slow. It's been half a year and they've only produced six doses. Their excuse is a lack of materials—making many doses at once is difficult."
"But there's something really wrong. I can't trust those people. All I see is those sons of bitches taking advantage of their skills."
"But they said they're developing a new vaccine, and once they develop a vaccine that truly immunizes against the virus, they won't ask for anything and we wouldn't want to offend them in any way."
"We're doing all the work here right now, while the other side does nothing but focus on those damn vaccines. I suspect they're just pretending. In fact, there are no new vaccines at all. I don't want your saviors to stay, because they'd be living a lie."
"Those people produce one vaccine a month, so a person would have to wait more than a month to receive their dose. In turn, they'd only become laborers if they stayed here."
Gale finally stopped. His thoughtful gaze sank as he considered how one person could have so much power over something like that.
After hearing his words, Logan felt conflicted; now he understood why Gale didn't want Jason and the others to stay.
"Hey, new kid!"
Just as Gale and Logan were talking, Jason had finished listening to what he wanted and fell silent, trying to absorb the information.
The rest of the group exchanged wordless looks, and T-dog was the first who couldn't help but speak: "Jason, aren't those exactly our vaccines?"
"How did they do it? I mean, leak the vaccines out of our organization — and for what purpose…" Negan was truly baffled.
"Hmm, it could be a coincidence, or there are already infiltrators in our organization."
When everyone heard Jason's words, they couldn't help but erupt into a heated discussion. Negan understood what Jason was implying: if they thought of infiltrating the CRM, why couldn't the CRM or the Commonwealth infiltrate their base?
"For God's sake, if that's true, they've fucked us without us realizing it until now."
Luke no longer took part in the argument inside the Humvee; he was thinking about the best course of action.
From a personal perspective he certainly wanted to intervene, but there was a problem: whether those vaccines really came from their organization or from somewhere else. If he acted now, the people behind all this could hide so well they would become impossible to find.
Gale's community actually had a well-established system. As long as no one bothered them, those people could live very peacefully. However, they had touched on a subject that couldn't be ignored, no matter whose tail was being pulled.
He no longer cared if it was the CRM or not; from the start he had avoided that mysterious organization, and if he continued to act quietly he would never dominate the country and eventually control the future. So the time for excuses was over.
His base was already established; the operation to take Birmingham and eventually all of Alabama was a matter of patience and time. He could no longer delay — now was the time to fight.
As for the vaccine, it was an important matter that interested him somewhat, but mostly he didn't care.
That was because those vaccines would eventually be mass-produced and distributed across the country regardless of whether the CRM remained active. So the only thing he wanted to know was who the hell leaked their vaccine, or whether this was something entirely new.
If that vaccine was different from the one they used, it would be useful to obtain the research data in order to press forward from another angle so their work could advance quickly.
Having made a decision, Jason grabbed the radio and contacted his people in Atlanta directly: "Zz… Sam Valdez, this is Jason."
When everyone heard Jason's cold voice, they knew trouble was coming — it was the first time in a long while his anger had reached such levels. The last time Jason acted like that was in Texas, and the last orders he gave there were to kill several people and imprison humans as test subjects.
"Zz… This is Sam Valdez. What's up, boss?"
Jason narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Zz… We have a vaccine leak. Before we check whether they're ours, you need to ensure a full registry of the researchers."
After a while, Sam's voice responded over the intercom: "Zz… I understand, sir. I apologize for not keeping this place under better control."
Jason shook his head at that and said, "Zz… It's inevitable, friend. You know I owe you a lot. Everything we've achieved I owe to you. I want you to send the cleanup and elimination team to Birmingham as soon as possible."
"Zz… Full operation?"
"Zz… Yes. I want both armored vehicles and tanks moved into this part of the city. I want coordination first — we need to clear out the walkers and capture some people who might answer our questions about the authenticity of that vaccine."
After ending the call with Sam, Jason looked at everyone and said, "The time has come for us to stop hiding. We're going to slowly take back our country and, hopefully, gain far more territory than our enemies."
"I like those words. The last time we left Hilltop unexpected things happened. Now's the time to stop hiding — we must show the real power our base has!"
"Yes. First we notify Abraham, then wait for the attack and cleanup teams." Jason ordered they move back to the mall to coordinate the entire assault and control of this great city.
….
S.C.T. A-1 Base
At this moment, several armored cars and men with parachutes were being mobilized into numerous C5s ready to begin the mission to take Birmingham.
Among all the soldiers, there was a man who had been arrested by Jason's people and who, after finding his mother safe in the prison, pledged to cooperate with the organization he believed would save the world.
"This is the first step, Mom. I'll come back safe…"