"What do you mean by asking the United Nations Command to issue an ultimatum to the peninsula's northern neighbor?"
Jack, who was squatting in the laundry room chewing on an energy bar with water, almost spit out a mouthful of anger after hearing Kate's retelling.
The so-called United Nations Command is a product left over from the 1950s. Initially, there were a total of 15 countries involved, most of whom were beaten by the Chinese People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War.
Today, the United Nations Command has increased from the original 15 countries to 18 countries, becoming a kind of "mini-NATO".
This is also the source of the later ridicule that a certain cosmic superpower was so arrogant that it established a country on the military bases of 18 countries.
"Is President Yin on too many drugs or is he possessed by Lee Seung-wan?" Jack felt angry and amused.
Kate's tone was rather elusive. "He claims to be a messenger of justice, fighting to end the current divisions on the Korean Peninsula."
There were so many flaws in this short sentence that Jack didn't know where to begin. "So what's his true purpose? What benefits would he gain from starting a war on the Korean Peninsula?"
Kate teased. "That's something you should investigate. Even with the increased computing power, Finch's logic program isn't enough for me to analyze the complex and chaotic national political situation.
I don't even fully understand human nature, which is full of random factors. For example, why didn't you just leave with Senator Anderson? That would have been the best option."
Jack certainly understood what Kate meant by best option.
Returning to the White House was an extremely risky move. While the bigger the storm, the more valuable the fish, the risk doesn't always equal the reward.
Now that Maureen was acting president, regardless of how long she could remain in office, Jack's best course of action was to sit back and watch the president, held hostage in the "PEOC," be eliminated.
Whether it's rebuilding Congress or maintaining a national state of emergency, the longer Maureen stays in office, the greater the benefits.
"You're right, but now's not the time to calculate the benefits. I want to figure out what those guys are trying to do."
Jack finished his sweet energy bar, stuffed the wrapper into a plastic bottle, and hid it in an inconspicuous corner.
"Haven't you breached the PEOC's firewall yet? If I could see what's going on inside through internal surveillance, I might not have to take such risks."
Kate was unusually silent for a long moment. When her voice returned to Jack's earpiece, it was a bit of a stutter.
"Jack, I think I'm in trouble."
Kate's tone had become increasingly human when she spoke to him recently, and Jack had even begun to use her tone to judge her "emotions." It took him a while to realize that Kate's words weren't a stutter, but a hitch that had never occurred before.
"What's going on? Kate?" Jack panicked.
"Something's spotted me. It's right here, and it's very aggressive. It's trying to destroy me!" Kate's voice was a little raspy for a moment, but quickly returned to normal.
"Jack, I might have encountered that artificial intelligence you mentioned."
Jack paused as he was about to push open the laundry room door. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure that just now almost all the server firewalls of 'Shangri-La' have been invaded. Someone is trying to use our computing power to run some kind of cracking program."
Kate's speech speed suddenly became faster than Finch's. "The target of the cracking is a sixteen-digit password. The other party discovered my existence during the invasion process and became very aggressive. Its code has been iterating rapidly. This is not something humans can do."
Soon Kate's voice became intermittent again. "Jack, I'm sorry, I can't accompany you for the time being. Wait for me to come back. I need to be offline temporarily."
After that, Kate fell silent. No matter how Jack called, there was no response. He quickly took out his satellite phone and called Finch directly.
The prompt tone sounded only once before the call was connected. Finch on the other end seemed to have been waiting for it. "Jack, I know what happened. The 'machine' is fine. Thanks to your previous reminder, Justin and I have already made a plan for this."
Jack breathed a sigh of relief and asked quickly, "So it was that thing?"
"Its code name is 'Samaritan'. As we speculated before, it has been deployed in the military network, but its permissions were restricted before, so we have never been able to find it."
Although Finch's tone was still calm, which made Jack feel a little relieved, the content he revealed was still shocking.
"So Kate didn't discover today's attack on the White House because of the Samaritans?"
"Not exactly. Ms. Root is working with Ms. Shaw to locate my college classmate, Arthur, hoping he can tell us more about Decima.
Mr. Reese suggested you capture a few of the intruders who broke into the White House and question them."
Jack had the same idea. He'd stayed in the White House for this very reason; he couldn't rest assured until he understood their intentions.
Just as he was about to press for more details, the screen on another satellite phone silently lit up, forcing Jack to temporarily end his call with Finch.
"I haven't taken any action yet, ma'am," Jack said, pressing the supposedly presidential satellite phone to his ear.
"I know," Dana Moger said anxiously from the other end. "Someone entered a Cerberus code.
" "What's Cerberus?" Jack asked knowingly.
"A self-destruct mechanism specifically designed for intercontinental ballistic missiles, used as a safety net to prevent accidental nuclear launches," the female boss replied, as expected.
Such a naive concept actually existed?
Jack found it baffling. "What's the purpose of designing this? I thought an unannounced intercontinental missile launch would immediately draw attention from other countries.
Before the missile broke through the atmosphere, other countries' missile silos would open and retaliate."
The female boss sighed. "You're talking about the Cold War era. After the Cold War, especially since the beginning of the 21st century, the major powers have established more direct lines of communication to prevent misunderstandings from leading to nuclear war, so there's no need to worry about such a situation.
The 'Cerberus' system is a safety measure to prevent accidents during intercontinental missile tests. It consists of three 16-digit codes, one for the President, one for the Secretary of Defense, and one for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."
(End of this chapter)