Sensing the great interest of His Excellency the President on this matter, Marshall's words were very succinct:

"In my opinion, considering the current technical level, industry scale and production capacity in the field of aircraft manufacturing in the world, not to mention that only part of the project information has been stolen, even if the full set of files and prototypes and other physical objects that have long been sealed in the dust are given together, even if China, Soviet Russia and other aviation industry powers, in just a few months, at most it is only enough to thoroughly understand the design of the prototype and preliminarily complete the mass production preparation of the corresponding model.

But now? The situation is clear, the number of 'YF-23' in the Syrian sky is obviously already considerable, what is this...... With all due respect, I can't speculate here as to why things are the way they are. ”

"Oh...... Good, I see. ”

After listening to Marshall's introduction, and seeing that everyone else in the audience nodded in agreement, Woodrow Wilson basically rejected the idea just now, but he still wanted to hear what Director Catherine Grant had to say:

"So, Ms. Grant! ――As you can see, do you think the theft will be related to our current investigation? ”

"Yes, Your Excellency."

As soon as she left the eyes of her subordinates, Catherine Grant, who was known for her tough style, became softer, as a senior CIA official, it was clear that this strong woman over forty knew how to communicate with her superiors, and her appearance was as appropriate as a CIA intelligence officer who did her job dutifully, but the object of the report became the national leaders and staff of the entire United States:

"Not only that, my personal opinion. The nature of this theft may be more important than we thought; Now, of course. Just when we were communicating remotely. More than a dozen FBI agents are already assisting our investigators in their investigation, and we believe that some valuable updates will be available soon.

As for why should I order my subordinates to investigate this matter?

Based on a logical inference, if the YF-23 'ghosts' that appeared over Syria were from the United States of America, then our investigation must have found a double vulnerability, but in fact it was not - the information I have here indicates that CIA and Pentagon secret service teams have raided Northrop, Boeing, and Lockheed. Not even the slightest sign of anomalies outside of normal production operations was noted.

So the conclusion is clear, these YF-23s, or whatever model they are, they don't come from the United States, do they? ”

"Yes, Ms. Grant,"

Having just denied His Excellency the President's speculation that "the 'ghost' fighter plane was produced in another country", but it is impossible not to disagree with Catherine Grant's analysis, General Winston Cleveland, who was present, immediately picked up the conversation, "In this regard, the Department of Defense has just held a consultation meeting. The experts' advisory report gives us a full understanding of such an act as the creation of a stealth fighter. It is impossible to secretly carry out under the heavy supervision of the government and the Pentagon -- it may be possible to secretly manufacture a batch of guided munitions, but it is almost impossible to steal armored vehicles, and when it comes to stealth fighters, unless someone can move the entire factory into the 'Area 51', it is absolutely impossible to go undetected.

But, folks, then we have to face another problem, and that is that since these planes can't come from within the United States, and then, according to Marshall," he said, looking aside and making brief eye contact with Marshall, "it can't be China, Russia, or the European Community, so doesn't that mean they're in the Middle East out of thin air, or—oh, or just something the Syrian rebels themselves have concocted?" ”

Compared with the first two possibilities, this more unreliable statement naturally raises questions from everyone present:

"'Liberals'? I think it's a joke; All the intelligence showed that they could only produce some inferior weapons, not even a working piston engine. ”

"Yes, otherwise why would we strictly control the arms trade, and why would old Europe keep importing weapons into Syria?"

"Yes, gentlemen, these are all very reasonable."

After asking a question, she was frequently interjected, but Catherine Grant on the other end of the line seemed very patient, anyway, at this time, her men were still constantly tracking down all the clues, including the investigation of the strange theft, as a supervisor, she did not need to show anxiety here:

"In short, we have now come to a consensus that the suspected 'ghost' warplanes that emerged in the incident were neither from the United States nor from elsewhere – not to mention Syria itself, of course, which is only a theoretical possibility.

Then we are faced with a question that may not be answered: where do these black 'ghosts' come from?

On this issue, I will be frank here, and the CIA has not yet put forward any definite inferences; At this moment, it is the theft that appears before my eyes, and in my opinion, when all other possibilities have been ruled out, this only clue at present is the most important part of the investigation.

Yes, no matter how worthless it may seem at first glance, as long as we follow this trail, we may—"

“…… Ms. Grant, excuse me...... One time! ”

In the holographic projection of the conference room, just as Catherine Grant was talking to the crowd, the voice of an outsider came through the guò line, as if to make her leave for a while to attend to official business.

was directly connected with the dignitaries of the White House, and the face of the strong woman who was disturbed changed slightly, of course, in front of so many people, she could not directly reprimand the reckless behavior of her subordinates, but she just turned around on the spot and asked the person very indifferently:

"What, Matthew, what's new?"

"Very important situation, well...... Or rather strangely,--Ms. Grant, here's ......."

As the voice became indistinct, and the dark woman in the dress in the picture also left everyone's sight, President Woodrow Wilson, who looked puzzled, turned to look at the audience, spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders appropriately; In the face of His Excellency the President's actions, Daniel Lee, deputy director of the CIA and who is not usually in charge of specific affairs, coughed awkwardly and excused the workaholic known to everyone in the bureau:

"Uh...... Maybe there's something new?

Otherwise, Ms. Grant, well...... She certainly wouldn't leave in a hurry. ”

As the speaker left for a while, there was a whispering of head-to-head conversations in the conference room, and the audio on the other end of the line seemed to be deliberately turned off by Catherine Grant, and no one could hear the movement in the office over there for the time being. After a while, the figure of the director of the CIA hurriedly appeared in the projection, and the strong woman with a strange face first opened her mouth to the camera, but she didn't hear any sound, and it took more than ten seconds before she realized that the audio had been turned off by herself, and hurriedly turned it on:

"Uh-sorry, Your Excellency, and all of you.

Yes, there has been some progress in the investigation into the theft of Northrop Grumman's headquarters; I have asked my subordinates to compile an interim report on these developments and send them to CIA headquarters and the White House...... But in these reports, if I'm not mistaken......"

is completely different from the usual sharp words, Catherine Grant in the video, the supervisor with a paper in her hand, has some hesitation and hesitation when she speaks, and the final conclusion has really become a bit mysterious:

"In any case, the last part of this report, in accordance with the Bureau's internal secrecy regulations, invites Mr. Woodrow Wilson to go to CIA headquarters for authorization to inspect it."

……

"I don't care so much, Daniel Lee, you have to give an explanation now!"

Quite abruptly ended the long discussion meeting, and everyone left the conference room along the corridor, Woodrow Wilson now had a puzzle in his head, of course, he would not let go of the top boss of the strongwoman like this, but reached out by the elevator at the corner of the corridor and grabbed the slow, confused deputy director of the CIA.

In any case, Wilson is also the president of the United States of America, and he has as many things to deal with every day as a hill, and no matter how great the impact of this scandal is, it is impossible to go around this matter twenty-four hours a day!

"What 'authorized viewing', is it some top-secret file, all those weird theories about 'AIDS', 'XCOM' or 'Area 51'?

What the hell is your Catherine Grant trying to say?

I'm not the first day I'm president, Daniel, and for years I've thought there were no weird 'top secret documents' in this democracy, but what's going on today, what kind of thing is going on from the Pentagon generals, from my national security adviser, and what does this qiē have to do with the Northrop data theft, is it really aliens, or is it some other? ”

"Ahh

In the face of Woodrow Wilson, who has a strong personality and is also full of words, Deputy Director Daniel Lee, who is purely here to play soy sauce today, responded with a helpless smile. In fact, he, the deputy director in charge of the coordination of the affairs of the Intelligence Bureau and the handling of foreign public relations, is not a core official in the CIA organizational system, so how can he deal with the president's questioning? (To be continued......)