His father, though, was restless.
Every day, he searched every company he could find, different methods he could find that could save his son’s life. From physical to chemical and even spiritual.
But every company he contacted, they could only promise a few more months for Alex to live and nothing more.
He traveled the entire world, meeting different people and companies, from international companies to small clinics in the streets, continuously searching for a way. That continued for five months, eventually getting himself also ill due to neglecting his own self.
Dean was a brilliant entrepreneur and had made the company prosper by his own endeavor. When he stopped coming to business meetings, his company also started falling.
In the end, he was left with poor health and only 10% of his total wealth.
He was in Germany, working on his laptop to at least know how bad had his company fallen after a long time. It appeared like that physically, but in his mind, he was depressed, thinking how miserably he failed and was thinking about what he could have done.
--I should have kept Alex in check when she died, knowing there was a possibility that it could genetically transfer. Even if not that early, I should have kept that in mind and have him get checked up when he was 12 or 13.
His eyes started to well up with tears.
While staring at the laptop’s screen, he got an email. Thinking it was probably from his company, he opened it, but when he read the email, his hands shook.
_Mr. Dean, news of you searching for a cure for an incurable disease all around the world has become quite famous, and finally, it has piqued our interest. We may have what you have been searching for all this time and perhaps even more but for a price, of course. If you agree to our terms, then we can begin without a problem. Please contact us on the number below if you are interested.
xoxx-xxooxox
The email was a symbol of hope to him.
Humans, when in darkness, tend to reach out for light no matter how faint it might be. It does not matter if it will save them, as long as there’s hope, they shall try.
That is the nature of humans.
Without wasting a moment, he took out his phone and dialed the number on it. As soon as he pressed call, the screen of his laptop went blank.
Then a video started playing on it.
He could see in the video, a dark room. A man entered the room, but because it was so dark, he couldn’t make out his face.
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He sat down on something which looked like a chair and faced towards the camera. It looked like a live chat.
“This is a live chat, Mr. Dean.”
The man startled him, and he sprang to his feet, nearly dropping his laptop.
“Please be calm, Mr. Dean. I am a representative of the company you just called and am simply here to discuss terms and conditions with you.”
“Ah...Of-Of course, but um... you see the thing is that I’m in a little bit of an economic crisis right now and I’m sure the treatment will cost a fortune so I can only pay you some advance for now, but I will pay yo-”
“Please bear it in mind that we do not require money. In fact, the treatment itself is free of cost.”
The man interrupted Dean and also surprised him. A treatment that can cure brain cancer stage 4 for free, who wouldn’t be surprised.
“I-I see so-”
“However, there is a price, as mentioned in the email”
“What is it? Do you need a donor or something?
“No, nothing like that. You see, our treatment is highly experimental, and there is a 60%-40% chance that it will be successful. If not, the patient will die.”
Dean was put in a dilemma. He was ready to give away everything he had so that his son could live, his money, his company, and even his life, but this risk was to him, a price greater than all of the three combined.
“Also, let me add one more thing if the treatment is successful, your son will be immune to every known disease and will live a life never worrying about his life.”
The man had put another thing of great value on the table to seal the deal.
“A treatment like that must cost fortunes, why are you doing it for free?”
“The treatment will be of cost in the future, but our company’s owner is a compassionate man, that’s why we are doing it for free now. Even in the future, it shall be kept at an affordable price.”
On one hand, if he refused the treatment, Alex will only live for about 10 more months. On the other, if he agreed to it and the procedure failed, it will take his son away from him instantly, of which there is a 40% chance.
If the treatment succeeds, of which there was a 60% chance, his son will be immune to every known disease.
It was a situation hard enough to make him sweat. Although Dean was used to taking risks in businesses, for the first time, he didn’t know what to do.
“Fine, but I have two conditions.”
Dean was obviously in no position to impose conditions, but the man decided to hear him out anyway.
“Okay, what are they?”
“Firstly, I also want you to ask Alex about this, tell him about the treatment and the risk, and if he agrees, then perform it.”
Ignoring the fact that there was no need to put such a condition as it’s like standard procedure everywhere, Dean said it to make himself feel like he was not completely helpless and he some ground too.
“That will be no problem because we were going to ask the patient already. So, what is your 2nd condition?”
“Secondly, I want you to perform the operation in nowhere else but Japan.”
“Fine, but then it will take a month to get things ready, and we shall not tell you our location due to classified reasons, but I assure you it will be performed in Japan.”
“Alright, I guess this much goes.”
“Well, now as we have come to an agreement, I shall be going now if there’s anything else you want to ask, please send us an email on the email address with which we sent you our first email. Good day, sir.”
“Wait, what’s your company name?”
“JIRA”
And with that, the live chat ended.
Both of Dean’s conditions were utterly arbitrary, but his mind had stopped working a while ago. On instinct, Dean searched the internet if he could find anything about this mysterious company called Jira.
After searching for a while, he couldn’t find anything relevant.
Another email came, after Dean read it, he was a little worried about his decision.
_Don’t waste your time searching for us on the internet because you won’t find anything. We are a company that doesn’t exist, or you can say, a company the world has no idea that it exists. Good day, sir.
A company that the world doesn’t know exists, any way you look at it, it’s suspicious.