“What the hell is going on!” Carter yelled at Lieutenant Admiral Thomas, “Why did you open the military base? Are you stupid! You could have blocked out the annoying cameras outside of the base, why did you give them the opportunity to obtain evidence? When do we need to explain our actions to others? Have you forgotten who you are loyal to? Take a good look at the national emblem on your own hat!”
“But Frank…”
Lieutenant Admiral Thomas’ face was flushed as he tried to justify his actions. However, before he could finish speaking, Secretary Carter’s roar interrupted his speech.
“That idiot Frank is fooling around, and you are following him?! Lieutenant Admiral Thomas, and Major General Hogg, I don’t want to say more about your stupidity, now, no, immediately! Block the military base immediately! Prohibit any one from coming in and out! I mean anyone!”
Didn’t you ask me to cooperate with the CIB?!
Thomas cursed in his heart, but he dared not to say anything and had to accept the order.
Carter’s chest was pumping violently up and down and he had to change the hand holding the phone. Then he leaned against the chair for a moment to calm his breathing down.
Maybe he cursed, or maybe he just didn’t want to hear Thomas’ voice, he broke the silence.
“So that’s it, do what I just said.”
“Wait, wait a minute,” Thomas hurriedly said as Secretary Carter was about to hang up.
“What else?” Carter said impatiently.
“What should we do about the reporters? They are still under our house arrest in the military base,” Lieutenant General Thomas said immediately.
“Confiscate their memory cards, then kick them out,” Carter said with a headache as he pressed his fingers against his sore temple.
“Yes…”
Although he doubted the usefulness of the action, Lieutenant General Thomas nodded.
After he hung up, he took a deep breath, suppressed his burning anger, and dialed Frank’s number.
If possible, his wished to grab the guy by the collar and question the idiot to see how he could come up with such a foolish plan. If he didn’t handle this properly, there was no doubt that he and Major Admiral Howard would be used as the scapegoat behind this incident, and may potentially end up in military court.
He only regretted the fact that he chose to believe in that idiot’s plan in the first place…
To his surprise, the phone rang more than a dozen times and still did not connect.
Thomas dialed the number again, but the busy tone on the other side remained the same.
“FU*K! WHERE DID THIS IDIOT GO!” After Thomas cussed out, he slammed the phone down.
Major Admiral Howard, who stood next to him, looked to him solemnly and asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Who knows what he’s doing,” Thomas swore, dropped the phone on the table, then put his head down on the desk as he grabbed his hair in pain, “God… who can tell me what I should do now.”
The key person disappeared.
Based on Secretary Carter’s request, he should release those reporters?
It’s okay to release them, but what about after?
How should they explain to the protesters who surrounded the base? How should they explain to the Nippon government? How should they explain it to the Capitol, Congress, and even military courts?
And Secretary Carter did not tell him anything about these unanswered questions…
…
“How did you… come up with this plan?”
In the office of the Xin Embassy.
Gill looked at Jiang Chen with eyes of disbelief as she stood in front of the desk; there was a touch of admiration on her face and it became more and more obvious. Although she also came up with many plans to destroy those servers, she never imagined such a creative solution.
Even when Jiang Chen explained the whole plan to her, there were still many doubts in her mind.
It wasn’t until time passed that she gradually realized the brilliance of the whole plan…
“My idea was very simple. If they chose to be a turtle and respond to all doubts by ignoring them, then I would prevail in the public’s eye and continue to use them as scapegoats until they are completely annoyed and flustered. However, with their attitude, it’s very unlikely for them to do that. Since an opportunity to prove their innocence lied in front of them, they can easily use me as a scapegoat, and I don’t believe they can withstand this temptation.” Jiang Chen grinned.
Especially when they had not won against Celestial Trade in a public opinion battle for a long time.
Being on the edge of victory always made people lose sense of their surroundings.
“If we hadn’t done anything, would they have discovered issues with those servers?” Gill wondered, “They were so confident that they couldn’t be exposed?”
“You can say that,” Jiang Chen nodded. “It’s impossible to recover the formatted data without a whole technical team working day and night. Just relying on a few experts with a terminal is not enough to get anything, let alone just having an hour.”
“The only chance to spot any issues was to disassemble the servers check the electronic parts in the case one by one, and look for clues about the connection between this batch of servers and Takeda Pharmaceutical. But you have also seen it when the experts from Hua made the request to disassemble the machines for inspection, the Lieutenant Admiral refused without hesitation.”
“But what about those servers? The T-virus data is contained on it. If they copy that data…” Gill wondered.
“It’s impossible,” Jiang Chen shook his head and said slowly, “I only said that I would give them a big gift. When did I say that the virus data I gave them is real?”
Gill took a second to process before her eyes lit up.
With her cleverness, she instantly understood what Jiang Chen meant.
Jiang Chen used the same logic as the UA military.
The UA military used the point that “experts appointed by media would not be able to prove that these servers contained T-virus data in a limited time” to prove their innocence. And Jiang Chen also took advantage of the fact that “no one would be able to verify the authenticity of the data within a limited period of time” to trick them.
Yes, the data Lilith transmitted to the server was fake.
Other than the structure diagram of the T virus and the RNA molecular chain, which had long been published, the information transmitted to the server was a forgery from Celestial Trade, and some of the information in this fake virus was also missing.
It was impossible for the UA to prove the fact the virus was fake unless they produced favorable evidence. However, under what circumstances could they prove this? It would only be possible given one scenario.
And this correct “answer”, in turn, would make the fact that they collected T-virus data a reality.
It was a contradiction in logic.
Therefore, they had to accept the fact that they were forced to be the perpetrator…
Gill’s pupils flashed with a light of admiration. If she only respected Jiang Chen’s strategy before, she had full admiration over his abilities now. It was that she hid everything in her heart and did not show any obvious emotions.
“The next step is to get rid of Frank, and then force the UA military out. We have almost won this confrontation.” Jiang Chen, who stared at the ceiling, leaned back on his chair and thought about it for a moment, then he said, “As for those servers… Regardless of whether they take that piece of data seriously or not, I will send it to them as a consolation prize.”
Even if they successfully restore the data deleted by Tanaka, they would still be confused by the fake data transmitted by Lilith. Therefore, the possibility that they could restore the T virus data was infinitely small, and it was no longer meaningful to destroy those servers.
What’s more, the fact these servers were still in the UA’s hands was more beneficial to Jiang Chen.
“I see,” Gill said seriously.
“Anyway, the opening ceremony of the Olympics will be in a few days. I hope to end this mess soon, preferably before the torch symbolizing peace is lit,” Jiang Chen smiled at the serious-looking Gill. He joked humorously, “After all, as an amateur athlete, I also want to cherish this hard-won opportunity.”
