"What happened up there?" a frantic President Yin asked in broken English when he saw Michael Collier, his face darker than the bottom of a pot, returning to the PEOC with only one subordinate.
The latter merely glanced at him, ignoring his response.
After entering a password into the console and watching the heavy steel door slowly close, Collier breathed a sigh of relief.
The PEOC reeked of blood, and the bodies of several Secret Service agents lay piled in a corner.
The Indian-American First Lady, several presidential aides, and a group of White House staff were tied to the railing in front of the command console. The bruised and battered President was restrained to a chair nearby by two of Collier's men, looking dejected.
Although he still had a vague feeling that something was amiss, Collier was too late to dwell on it. He quickly walked over to the large screen and saw the progress bar, which had barely reached a quarter of the way through, and his face darkened again.
"Didn't we estimate it would take six hours at most?"
Collier questioned. The PEOC fell silent. The progress bar on the large screen flickered slightly, as if signaling a poor signal, before switching to a text document. The cursor flickered, slowly typing a sentence.
"90% of the computing nodes are missing. The estimated cracking time is incalculable."
"Fuck!" Collier, enraged, transformed into a desktop cleaning master, sweeping everything on the table to the floor.
The "First Lady," tied to the railing, let out a shrill scream, only to be slapped across the face by the other first lady, Ms. Kim, whose sharp nails scratched her.
"Shut up! You Indian bitch!"
But then something even more shocking occurred. "President" Mais, who had been held captive, angrily pushed aside the armed guards and slapped Ms. Kim to the ground.
"You are the one who should shut up!"
Ms. Jin, who looked like a silicone doll, couldn't bother to get up from the ground, and hurriedly took out her makeup mirror to examine it, only to find that her pretty artificial nose was tilted to the side.
At this point, Max dropped the act. He pulled up a chair and sat down, his eyes fixed fiercely on Collier, whose expression shifted from gloomy to gloomy.
"Although the plan failed, my previous promise still stands. You and your men will be fine." He then glanced meaningfully at Yin Kaka, who was being awkwardly helped to his feet by his agents.
Collier's eyes shifted, and after a long pause, he slowly spoke, "Are you sure you can get your power back after you get out?"
"There are almost no survivors in the Capitol. You should know what this means." Max had a chubby face that looked easy to bully, but with the black eyeliner and beard, he also had a certain air of superiority.
"Although it was an accident, it also gave us a far better Plan B. There will be no more impeachment, no more opposition. With the help of the Samaritans, we can establish a new world order."
Collier struggled. "I founded Always Vigilant to oppose the federal government's infringement on individual freedom. In this free world, there's no need for government or industry, and everyone can return to a pastoral life."
"Idiot." With an impatient wave of his hand, a gunshot rang out, and Collier fell forward, a bloody wound in the back of his head.
One of Collier's men, who had been standing behind him, stepped over the body without hesitation and shielded him behind him.
This sudden turn of events stunned everyone present, and the sobbing First Lady fell silent.
Although she had sensed something was amiss from their earlier conversation, suggesting her husband had struck some kind of deal with the terrorists who had held them hostage,
this sudden betrayal still frightened her, leaving her confused as to what had happened.
——
"Yes, my code name is 'Master Controller', and I am fully responsible for the work of 'Project Aurora' and 'Intelligence Support Operations Division'. Agent Hersh cleaned out Nathan Ingram and Special Prosecutor Bolton not long ago according to my orders."
In a conference room in the Pentagon's underground command center, a bloated, gloomy middle-aged woman sat opposite Maureen and Zoe. The first thing she said was to admit her identity and what she had done.
Standing next to her were Reese and Finch, both of whom looked at the woman with extremely complicated eyes.
"Including what happened to Mr. Reese in Afghanistan, although it was an order from the CIA, it was also at my instruction.
But I have a clear conscience about my decision. Everything I did was to ensure Project Aurora was kept secret, as it concerns national security."
Facing the mixed gazes, the "Master Controller" wore a righteous, unfailingly candid expression.
She even countered with a question, "Mr. Finch, wasn't your original intention in inventing the 'Machine' also to better prepare this country for terrorist threats? I thought we were on the same side."
Finch was speechless for a moment.
After a long pause, Maureen sighed and spoke, breaking the somewhat stagnant atmosphere in the room. "While I don't approve of your actions, I'm not here to judge you today.
We need to know: to whom did you give the 'Samaritan'? Why was it used to crack 'Cerberus'?"
The woman codenamed "Master Controller" faltered for a moment, then blurted out, "How is that possible? This was an order from the President. President Mays personally requested that I hand over the 'Samaritan' to the Ministry of Defense." "
——As
a green flare rose into the sky, Jason Hayes' calm report came from the communicator, "'Olympus' has been recaptured. I repeat, 'Olympus' has been recaptured."
Cheers broke out in the front-line command center. David Rossi, with graying temples, forcefully opened the tent curtain and trotted to the FBI command vehicle.
A halogen lamp for construction was mounted in front of the command vehicle. An excavator had been moved to the side. Clay and Aubrey were sweating profusely, leaning on their shovels and looking at the large pit that had just been dug.
At the bottom of the pit, Jubal, wearing a hard hat equipped with a lighting, was busy in front of a thick cable that had been dug.
The rear end of Jack's "Mammoth" car was facing the pit. A long cable extended from the rear compartment, and the other end was held in the hands of Hannah and Jiejie, who were also helping at the bottom of the pit.
"OK! "Jubal shouted, then wiped the sweat from his forehead, only to end up smearing himself all over.
Alice, who was waiting by the car, nodded and typed a series of commands on her laptop. With the final press of the Enter key, the satellite antenna on the rear compartment of the "Mammoth" slowly unfolded.
——At
this moment, the atmosphere in the "PEOC" was somewhat strange.
Yin Kaka, who had been beaten like a pig's head, fell to the ground and groaned continuously. His wife, Ms. Jin, fell to the ground beside him, holding her nose that needed to be re-made and crying bitterly.
The terrorists who were supposed to work for Collier now all took off their hoods and coats, revealing the same black suits as the Secret Service.
Several Han country agents looked at each other, not understanding what was happening. They raised their guns nervously, but raised the muzzles slightly. They were at a huge disadvantage in numbers and feared any misunderstanding.
Mais sat awkwardly against the computer console, his eyes uncertain, and he didn't know what he was thinking until he heard a slightly trembling call.
"Honey, can you please untie me first?"
The President was slightly stunned when he heard his wife's choked request, and then seemed to come back to his senses.
Reaching out to take a switchblade from the guard beside him, Mais walked down the command console and personally cut the plastic ties that bound his wife.
"It's okay, honey." The president hugged his crying wife and comforted her softly.
Although his first lady was born into the upper class of India's "Brahmins", her skin color was not white, because she was a Telugu from Andhra Pradesh.
"What is going on? Honey, I don't understand why..."
The woman's voice gradually became smaller and smaller until it finally disappeared, and blood spurted out from her cut neck.
She looked at her husband in disbelief, his expression gradually becoming cold, and he slowly stood up, still holding the switchblade stained with his own blood in his hand, until the last ray of life gradually disappeared from his eyes.
Amidst the stunned crowd, Mais showed a ferocious smile and ordered his men, "Go! Kill them all! "
The few remaining Han country agents in the "PEOC" were suddenly terrified and were about to raise their guns to fight back when the cursor on the large screen on the command desk, which had been flashing continuously, suddenly disappeared and a sharp and piercing whistle came from the loudspeaker.
The cursor lit up again, but disappeared instantly after typing "Help", and was replaced by a dazzling light.
All the luminous objects in the "PEOC", whether it was the LED lights on the wall or the decorative wall lamps, including the display screens on the wall, all emitted a dazzling white light like three suns in the sky.
Along with this dazzling light, there was also deafening music, and a high-pitched female voice sang in a shrill voice, "If you come in three winters, I will give you a city of snow-white."
Just when everyone at the scene was at a loss, two offensive grenades with their safety pins pulled out bounced down the stairs and rolled right to the feet of Mais.
(End of this chapter)