This time it was a big deal.
Lake originally thought that since he had been wandering around outside for almost a year and had not done any official work last year, he might as well take this clue and play around a bit to see if he could catch a big fish.
but...
This fish is big enough, but it is a big-headed fish with a mutated head.
After disconnecting from Mandy, Lake called Minister Kelly directly.
Immediately following.
The Department of Homeland Security, the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Operations Division, the FBI's Counter-Terrorism Center, and even S.H.I.E.L.D. all knew about this instantly.
Then.
There was an uproar at the Port of Los Angeles.
Including Afghanistan.
Hassan Raham was pulled out of prison again, packed up overnight, and flew back to the Federation on the first flight with Mandy and SEAL Team B.
Not long ago, Nick Fury, the new director who had just succeeded the retired Alexander Pierce and successfully rose to power with the help of European SHIELD, personally led a large force to Los Angeles.
Lake was unhappy about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s involvement, but the case was too serious. The more people got involved, the more people would be blamed.
Besides.
Lake also has his own things to do.
for example...
First, he bought three tickets to Paris. As soon as he saw that the situation was not right, he immediately asked Karen to take Betty and Skye to Paris to seek refuge first.
Lake himself is still in New York, watching the situation. If there is still time, he will not run away. If there is no time, then there is no doubt that among the thirty-six strategies, running away is the best one.
but...
The situation did not develop in the worst direction.
Three days later, with the coordination of the federal anti-terrorism department, a cargo ship that seemed to have been ravaged by a violent storm and was only one day away from reaching the port of Los Angeles was intercepted.
The Aegis fell from the sky.
The FBI raided from the sea.
After a gunfight, the SHIELD agents, with lingering fear, loaded three boxes of densely protected items onto the Quinjets, and then flew directly towards the secret base.
It seems that this was a false alarm.
After hearing the news, Lake couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
That's too exaggerated.
Planning to conduct nuclear testing on federal land?
It has to be said that this time, the crazy Kingdom of God has completely angered the Federation, and even Hydra.
Yes.
Hydra.
After all, Hydra is like a parasite on the Federation. Maybe Hydra still wants to rule the world. Most of the Hydra agents have family members in the Federation. If they run the Federation themselves, it is called freedom, but if others come to run the Federation, it means they do not take Hydra seriously.
Let me put it this way.
Hydra also put in a lot of effort this time. The information about the freighter came from a secret communication telegram intercepted by Dr. Zola, who was parasitic in the network. It was then accidentally eavesdropped on by a Hydra agent and reported to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Lake's tense nerves relaxed. He turned his head to look at Bleecker Street behind him, shook his head, got back into the car, and returned to the Homeland Security Building.
The crisis of nuclear testing was approaching.
but...
There is a terrorist lurking on the mainland who can make a nuclear bomb with his own hands as long as he has the raw materials.
check!
Investigate thoroughly!
But Hassan Haram's status was limited, and he could only confirm the information that the terrorist was one of theirs. He was only responsible for organizing the logistics, and the specific contacts were all done by other people.
Unfortunately, when the Afghan base found clues about the "Glory of Freedom" organization again, SEAL Team D faced a pile of rubble and corpses when they attacked at night.
After Hassan Haram's identification, the bodies were all members of the organization, even including the leaders No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 who were ranked before him.
Silenced?
The satellite at the Afghan base reconstructed what happened, and their local informants also provided some intelligence. It seemed that a terrorist who established an organization in a mountain cave had some unpleasantness when doing a deal with [Freedom and Glory]. Then, the leader of that organization led his men to wipe out [Freedom and Glory].
Seems like a coincidence.
At the joint meeting of the Operations Center in the National Land Building.
Lake frowned as he flipped through Langley's intelligence from Afghanistan. "Internecine fighting! What's the name of this new organization?"
The person in charge at Langley shook his head. "I don't know. This is a new organization, and they've been hiding in the mountains. So far, we don't have any leads, but our people are trying to get intelligence."
Supervisor Carmen, who was nearby, was looking through the fragments of weapons left on the ruins and looked up: "Stark's weapons?"
When Lake heard this, he turned to look sideways.
Director Carmen handed Lake some photos.
Lake looked at the photo. The corpses scattered all over the ground in the ruins did not make him feel uncomfortable at all. He had seen scenes that were even more terrifying than this, and they were the kind that made him feel like he was there in person. The scene in the photo was just a small part of it.
What caught Lake's attention were the fragments of several weapons in the photo, with the Stark Industries logo prominently displayed.
The head of the military's counter-terrorism department said: "It is possible that the weapons leaked before September 2001."
Before the September 11th incident, federal arms dealers sold their weapons to whoever paid for them. It was impossible for the federal government to track their sales flows through weapons or other companies.
But after 9/11, the Patriot Act was introduced, and the Federation had the right to do so when necessary. Not to mention that Stark Industries is a large arms industry, and any heavy weapons sold by Stark are of concern to the Federation. However, under normal circumstances, the Federation will not interfere with Stark Industries' normal business transactions.
Just then.
After the Langley representative hung up the phone, he came back online and told the attendees, "An informant in Afghanistan just provided information that the leader of this newly emerged organization is called Raza."
Lake looked up and raised an eyebrow.
Lazar?
This name... sounds familiar.
However, Lake couldn't remember it for a while, and Langley only got the information about a name, and no other information was obtained.
The meeting lasted nearly a day.
If nothing unexpected happens, such a meeting will continue for a long time. When it ends will depend on when that damn local terrorist is caught.
But for a whole month, no new clues were found.
Hassan had confessed everything he could, and all the members of Freedom and Glory were wiped out by the organization led by their leader, Raza. As for the information about the interrogation after the attack on the freighter, all he had was the number of a so-called disposable mobile phone, which was turned off.
After the successful raid on the freighter, the California FBI held a press conference to take credit for the success, which completely eliminated any clues about the disposable phone that was originally turned off.
At a joint investigation meeting, when they were about to disband the meeting and let the Department of Homeland Security take over the case again and slowly investigate it, Lake directly proposed a very old method.
Manual troubleshooting.
There are not many people in the Federation who know that they can make nuclear bombs with the raw materials. There are only a few of them. Just make a list and re-investigate them one by one. Only those who are suspicious, even if they have traveled to those countries, will be arrested first without any hesitation and then deal with the others.
This is a terrorist act, and a very serious terrorist act that would turn the Federation into a laughing stock if it succeeded.
Minister Kelly and the Attorney General looked at each other and agreed to Lake's approach.
Immediately following.
After the Federation listed them, all the famous professors from universities in the Federation were invited to have coffee, and the same was even more true in society.
After learning the reason for the tea party, the federal media changed their attitude of fearing that the federal government would not bomb the country. Apart from reporting on the dangers of nuclear tests on the homeland, they chose to remain silent on the simple and rough law enforcement behavior of the law enforcement community.
but...
Still no useful news.
Although the Federation claims to be open to all and holds high the pawns of the Federation dream, there are many people who are qualified to access this knowledge, but there are still only a few who are qualified to access and can rub it out by hand. Not to mention that since some of these people escaped, the Federation has been extremely strict in controlling talents in this area.
After two months of investigation, they still couldn't find out who had the motive for committing the crime. The only one was that his wife was of that faith, but she died half a year ago. After that, he found a new beautiful blonde wife with a curvy figure.
He hasn't enjoyed it yet, so how could he possibly rub a nuclear bomb with his hands? Not to mention, he is already over seventy years old, so even if he did, he wouldn't have the energy to do so.
It seemed that this clue was interrupted again.
At the final meeting.
Director Langley said directly: "Actually, there is one place we haven't checked yet."
Minister Kelly and the Attorney General exchanged a glance. "Did we miss something?"
Director Langley's eyes fell on a certain empty seat that had been absent since the fifth joint meeting.
Everyone followed Director Langley's gaze.
Lake raised his eyebrows and looked at Director Langley with eyes full of admiration and respect.
Good job.
Directly firing at the military?
but...
indeed.
In the past two months, the subjects of their investigations were all university professors and social researchers. As for the military, they had thought about it, but because of the special nature of the military, they only asked the military to conduct self-inspection.
However, just like the fruitless investigation here, the explanation reported by the military was also investigated, but nothing was found.
Although the military said it investigated.
but...
They have no idea whether it really happened or not. Anyway, they investigated it and almost turned the federation up in the past two months. However, there was no sign of any investigation from the military.
and.
The next second, Director Langley directly threw out the file of a military personnel.
…