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As secretary of state, Sternberg did his duty. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

His report, which is more than 1,700 pages long, details the property damage in Manhattan, mainly the severe damage to the city's buildings, and more than 1,800 of the more than 2,500 buildings that collapsed, including more than 1,800 high-rise buildings with more than 12 floors. In addition to this, more than 5,000 buildings have been severely damaged beyond repair, and more than 7,000 have been partially damaged.

Although there are many criteria for estimating property damage, such as whether the furniture inside the building is calculated after it is damaged, and the value of various public infrastructure, Sternberg still does his due diligence and uses a more fair estimation method to make the assessment.

According to his estimates, the total loss of property is more than ten trillion dollars.

This is a conservative estimate, which does not include valuables and does not follow the floor price of Manhattan, but uses the price of the work, which is the cost of rebuilding. If calculated at market prices, after deducting invariables, the total loss of property would have to be at least doubled.

Twenty trillion dollars, which is already more than the GDP of the United States in a year!

While these losses do not have to be paid for by the federal government, they do have to be accounted for by the United States, and the impact on the economy will be incalculable.

Among other things, the vast majority of insurance companies in the United States are threatened with bankruptcy.

Sternberg made a special trip to Norris to present the report to Norris at dinner, hoping to take the opportunity to find a way out for those insurance companies.

"Today I met with the presidents of more than a dozen insurance companies."

"Insurance company?" Norris glanced at Sternberg and got up and walked towards the break room.

"They want the federal axe to make a difference." Sternberg immediately followed, "According to the relevant laws, as long as we declare this a war, we can allow the vast majority of insurance companies to survive." ”

"But the people have to bear all the consequences."

Sternberg smiled and did not refute the president's words.

"I know that you have a very good relationship with those insurance companies, and if you want to achieve more, you have to rely on them to support them." Norris sat down on the couch and let Sternberg close the door, "There's no denying that this is a war on our home soil. The question is, who are our opponents? ”

"War doesn't necessarily need a visible adversary."

"I know that more than 10 years ago, George W. Bush waged two wars that bogged us down in the mire without a visible opponent." Norris smiled and waited for Sternberg to sit down before he said, "We can declare that a terrorist group carried out this attack, and it can create some convincing reasons for the people, and even use it to stir up patriotic sentiment in the country and pave the way for revenge for the war." The problem is that if this attack is called war, we have to think about the legal issues. From a legal point of view, a war is officially established only if we declare war on a certain country. Don't forget, when George W. Bush launched the war on terror, he didn't declare war on any country. ”

"At this point, we will definitely have to declare war on a certain country."

Norris sighed, shook his head, and said, "You're right, we must declare war on a certain country, but this person is not me, but the next president. In the morning, I met with several members of Congress to discuss the lifting of the state of emergency. Although I have declared responsibility for this incident, you should know that Congress is not buying it, and not only the Republicans want to take the opportunity to bring us down, but even some members of the Ming Cooking Party want to fall into the trap. If war were to be declared on a certain country at this time, I am afraid that before the battle began, I would be kicked out of the White House. ”

"Congress has already granted you privileges, so ......"

"Will the people agree with the war we are waging? Even if it is a war of revenge, even if the patriotic passion of the people has been ignited, even if everyone thinks that we have a reason to take revenge on a certain country, the parliament will not compromise easily, and what we need now is not disagreement, but unity. ”

Sternberg sighed, looking a little frustrated.

"There has been such a catastrophe that any disagreement will weaken us and make us lose even more. I promise that an explanation will definitely be given to the population, but not now, but in the near future. ”

"Presidential ......"

"In a few days, after the first round of search and rescue efforts, I will hand over the power to the vice president. Of course, before that, I will negotiate with Congress, and I will also engage with the Republican Party to discuss the future strategic direction. No matter who lives in the White House next year, we all have to agree. ”

Sternberg's eyebrows jumped a few times and he said, "The Republican Party will certainly not compromise." ”

"They will compromise as long as they are given enough benefits."

"But ......"

"What is partisan division compared to the threat we face?"

Hearing the president say this, Sternberg did not say anything more.

While there is nothing wrong with that, as an individual, Sternberg is still very difficult to accept, because Norris is already planning to compromise with the Republican Party.

Without Norris' support, it would be difficult for any of the Myongcho candidates to defeat their Republican rivals in the general election.

This result made Sternberg very disappointed, because he gave advice to Norris and prepared for the upcoming election, but he was put on the side by Norris.

No matter how high-sounding Norris's reasons were, Sternberg believed that Norris had betrayed him.

Unfortunately, Norris didn't see Sternberg's mental activity.

He didn't have the energy to do that, because he had a lot of trouble to deal with.

After sending Sternberg away, Norris asked his secretary to bring in the heads of federal law enforcement agencies such as the F.B.I., as well as intelligence agencies such as the CIA.

Before he could explain to the people, Norris had to figure out two things.

One is who planned and organized the attack, and the other is where the gold in the Federal Reserve Bank has gone.

First of all, Lucas made an investigative debriefing on behalf of the CIA. Although the whereabouts of the six transport planes are unknown, there is sufficient reason to believe that these six transport planes have crashed, and it is likely that they will crash over the ocean, because all the airfields within their range that can land, even the flat land that is large enough, are under the surveillance of the CIA. The Navy has intercepted more than 20 merchant ships and conducted boarding inspections, but has not found any leads. Based on these circumstances, Lucas is convinced that the attackers have escaped the US search range and left the area of the incident on a submarine from a certain country.

At this point, the key issue is to find out which country's submarine picked up the attacker.

The mainland was the first to be ruled out, because before the attack, all of the mainland's nuclear submarines were operating in the East and South China Seas, and they were all under the surveillance of the US military, so they had no chance to go to the Atlantic. As for the conventional submarines that can be left behind, even if they are not completely monitored by the US military, they do not have enough range to go to the Atlantic Ocean and then return to the Continental Army Port with the attackers. On the way, you must stop at a port in a certain country or rendezvous with a ship carrying fuel, and such an operation cannot escape the net laid by the CIA and the US military.

Russia's suspicion is also greatly reduced, since the Russian Navy has only five nuclear submarines out of port, one of which is a strategic nuclear submarine on combat readiness patrol under the ice of the Arctic Ocean, followed by an attack nuclear submarine of the US military. Of the four attack nuclear submarines, three were participating in regular training for the Russian Navy, and all of them had contact with the US submarines that had gone to provoke them within 24 hours before and after the incident. The other returned to the Murmansk military port twelve hours after the incident, so it is unlikely that it will be in the middle of the Atlantic.

As a result, there are only a few countries left that do not have nuclear submarines, but have less close relations with the United States.

According to Lucas's analysis, Iran is the most suspicious because the Iranian Navy has two conventional submarines with a range of more than 12,000 nautical miles, and both submarines left the port after the attack and have not returned to the Iranian military port. If, in the next ten days, the two submarines still do not return to Iranian ports, there is reason to believe that they went to the Atlantic and picked up the attackers.

As a result, it will take as soon as 10 days to determine whether Iran planned the attack.

If the traceable investigation of the culprit is still traceable, then more than 10,000 tons of gold are like evaporation, and there is no clue at all. At least at this time, the federal law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation did not find any clues and could only speculate about what might have happened.

According to the FBI report, there are three possible scenarios.

One is that the gold is still on the island of Manhattan, and it has not been dissolved, buried somewhere. The second is that it has been dissolved, but it has not been transported away, and it is still hidden somewhere. The third is that it has been dissolved, and it has been shipped out of Manhattan, and maybe it will be shipped out of the United States.

The possibility of the first two cases is not too large, after all, more than 10,000 tons of gold are piled up a lot, and it is difficult to hide.

Besides, the attackers will definitely not leave the gold in the United States for federal law enforcement agencies to find, and if there is no reliable means to transport the gold out of the United States, the attackers will definitely dissolve the gold and then discharge it into New York Bay, leaving the United States with nothing to gain and lose its entire strategic reserves.

The question is how the attackers managed to transport tens of thousands of tons of gold, or even tens of thousands of tons of highly toxic solutions dissolved in gold, out of Manhattan. On the other hand, how did the attackers transport tens of thousands of tons of highly toxic solution to Manhattan?

Since it is impossible to trace it, it can only be traced to the source, that is, how the attackers brought in the highly toxic solution.

The only way to transport it was by sea, where the solution was transported by ship to the port and then transported near the Federal Reserve Bank through a drainage pipe.

The FBI found the right direction, but Manhattan Island was in ruins and there were hundreds of piers, so the investigation could not be carried out in full swing for the time being.

What's more, with dozens of freighters entering and leaving New York every day, it is likely that the attackers had already brought in the solution, and the scope of the investigation far exceeded the capacity of the FBI, which would have to be coordinated and supported by other federal agencies.

Since the FBI made a request, Norris said on the spot that all federal agencies would cooperate with the investigation and provide the FBI with all the help they could.

It's just that the investigation is not easy for the aftermath that has just begun.

(To be continued)