Babel Novel
Chapter 27: Calculated
Upon hearing those words, Victor set aside his work and thought about the image of Olivia leaving with a stranger last night. His gaze darkened slightly as he asked, “Who is he?”
“His name is Gabriel Sutcliffe. He is the head of the Virus Research Institute. Old Whitaker had asked him to examine a disease previously,” Nathan replied cautiously, sensing the decreased tension in the office. “Also, I found out that Gabriel Sutcliffe is currently single, so there shouldn’t be any special relationship between him and Miss Prescott. Miss Prescott studied medicine in college, so they might have known each other from school, but it’s not certain.”
Victor’s expression eased a bit upon hearing this explanation. “Anything else you’ve discovered?”
Nathan looked somewhat troubled as he responded, “Currently, this is all we’ve found. Regarding Miss Prescott, we only know that she recently returned to the country. We couldn’t find much about her activities and whereabouts overseas for the time being.”
Victor furrowed his brow slightly, feeling somewhat dissatisfied. However, since there was no further information to be found, pressing on would be futile. He shifted the topic to Old Whitaker instead. “How is Old Whitaker’s condition now?”
Nathan was about to apologize for his inefficiency when he heard his master change the subject. He immediately felt relieved and said, “The situation with Old Whitaker is not optimistic. The Whitaker family has consulted numerous renowned doctors both domestically and internationally, but they are all helpless in the face of Old Whitaker’s condition.”
Victor nodded slightly. “Cancel all my appointments for tomorrow night. I will go and see Old Whitaker tomorrow night.”
“Yes,” Nathan acknowledged. After waiting for a moment and realizing there were no further instructions, he turned and left the room.
…
Olivia and Gabriel had just returned to the research institute and immediately began contacting Seacrest’s medicinal herb suppliers one by one.
Many projects in the institute were currently on hold due to the lack of herbal supplies, and if this continued, the losses would only increase.
The search for a cooperative supplier of medicinal herbs could not be delayed any longer.
Gabriel had previously contacted almost all of Seacrest’s suppliers, only to be rejected time and time again. Now, they had no choice but to dial those numbers again.
“Virus Research Institute? Didn’t we discuss this before? The price you offered is too low; we can’t cooperate with you!”
Olivia heard an immediate and resolute rejection as soon as she mentioned the name of the institute.
After pondering for a few seconds, Olivia gritted her teeth and said, “We can increase the price by half a percent from the original offer. Let’s compromise, and if we have a pleasant cooperation, we can negotiate the price in the future…”
The other party interrupted her, “It’s too low. At least three percents higher, otherwise, there’s no room for negotiation.”
Upon hearing the exorbitant demand, Olivia hung up the phone directly.
On the other side, Gabriel’s expression was equally grim.
“Sorry, Dr. Sutcliffe, but all our medicinal herbs have already been reserved. We can’t supply your research institute with any additional herbs,” came the obvious excuse, clearly indicating their refusal to cooperate.
Gabriel didn’t insist, saying, “Alright, I understand.”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
After that, he hung up the phone.
They made call after call, but by the next afternoon, they hadn’t received any good news.
The attitudes of the herb suppliers ranged from polite to impatient, but the overall result was the same-they had no intention of collaborating.
There was even one supplier who explicitly told Olivia that they could not and would not work with the Virus Research Institute without providing any reasons.
Both of them knew that they had been calculated.
As for the mastermind behind the scenes, there was hardly any doubt.
Apart from Emma, they couldn’t think of a second possibility.