In the order in which the speeches were made, a civilian general from the Pentagon spoke first:

"Ladies and gentlemen, with regard to the investigation into the 'ghost' fighter jet of the Syrian Liberal Party, first of all, I must say that the investigation into this matter did not begin yesterday.

Prior to this, the military intelligence agency under the Ministry of Defense and the information channel of the CIA had mentioned clues in this regard, and it is believed that some people have seen black stealth fighters in the sky in Syria and Jordan; In addition, there have been reports from the Arab coalition defence air force and the Syrian regime that there are suspicions that the black fighters witnessed by the pilots are F-22 'Raptors' - which, frankly, is what makes our plan of action a little skewed: our previous investigation has been focused on the Syrian Liberal Party's weapons import channels, and never imagined that these fighters would come from within the United States; Of course, this is not necessarily the case now. ”

"'Not necessarily'? But, General Winston, allow me to be frank,"

The general's words were picked up by a middle-aged man from the president's think tank, Hamilton Fischer, who is in charge of national security affairs, shook his head and said he couldn't agree, "Even now, the news about 'ghosts' is flying all over the sky, but I still don't think it's the slightest possibility."

Yes, even if there will be loopholes in our domestic military-industrial system, but after all, this is not a rifle or body armor, but a fighter with considerable dimensions. If even this kind of thing can be made unknowingly, and then smuggled out of the country. Transoceanic entry into Syrian territory. And there are quite a few of them. And the fact that everything from the Ministry of Defense and the intelligence services to the customs and overseas agencies is not known is a kind of decoration?

I don't think that's possible, Your Excellency, and we'd better consider some of the other assumptions. ”

"Oh? Maybe so, so I'll go on. ”

Hearing the doubts raised by the president's staff, and knowing that this should represent a part of President Woodrow Wilson's position, the general blinked his elongated gray-blue eyes. There was not much unhappiness on his face with a sense of vicissitudes, in fact, what he wanted to express was such a point of view:

"Due to the misleading information before, and of course some of our habitual thinking, the preliminary investigation work of the Ministry of Defense has not made much progress, and my colleagues in the CIA should also understand this, the Syrian Freedom Party is not a very easy organization to infiltrate, and the existence of the 'ghost' fighter plane is obviously also extremely secret in this organization.

But now, now that there is enough evidence in front of me. The personnel sent to participate in the investigation have also basically confirmed the model of the fallen wreckage, so I personally think. This information is still largely credible. So the central question now is, if we admit that the black fighters that appear in the Middle East are the YF-23 'ghosts', then how did these fighters come to be built and how did they travel across the ocean to reach Syria? ”

"Yes, Winston! That's exactly what we're going to track down now. ”

As in the line of thought of those present, Wilson, who listened to General Winston's speech, fully agreed with him, and to answer the two questions raised by the general, the CIA, which was the most anticipated source of first-hand information by those present.

After a brief exchange, the holographic projection in the conference room was turned on, revealing a woman in a dark formal suit, and Kathleen Grant, the CIA's chief of operations in Sacramento, participating in a secret White House consultation in this format. In the slightly blurred projection area, I only saw the strong woman with a dark and solemn color, frowning, and it seemed that she was worried about the failure of the investigation, but in fact this was not the case, and the participants at both ends of the line only exchanged a few words, and immediately understood their respective situations.

Contrary to what his expression revealed, the agents who went to San Diego to search Northrop Grumman's headquarters had reported important information before they had gone through the complicated process of sifting through the personnel list, which made the seasoned and calm person in charge a little suspicious.

At the beginning of the operation, there was such a discovery, what kind of situation is this?

Although Catherine Grant did not think she could compare herself to the professionals, although she hastily strengthened her knowledge of aviation technology before the operation, she did know something: for example, the YF-23 "Ghost", which became famous but eventually failed, did not continue to develop after the bid failed, and the two prototypes were built in different places, one was kept at Edwards Air Force Base for testing, and the other was stored in the Western Flight Museum for a long time, and all the materials related to the project were basically sealedor destroy it as a copy.

Needless to say, the CIA's initial view on this matter is also consistent with the thinking of the vast majority of people present: since the stealth fighter plane that failed the ATF competition has been produced and transported overseas, the national defense and security system of the United States must have been greatly flawed.

Under this guiding ideology, looking at the entire territory of the United States, there are actually only a few defense enterprises that can organize the production of fighter planes, and it seems that as long as a large-scale surprise investigation is launched, the initiators of the incident can be arrested and brought to justice.

But now, in the face of the officials in the conference room, she took decisive action according to Wilson's orders, and the situation was completely unexpected, and Catherine Grant, who had always remained calm and moody, could not help but show a little confusion, and at the moment she had not yet figured out what the clue was that was almost at her fingertips:

"Uh...... Yes, Your Excellency, the investigation into the 'ghost' incident has made significant progress, and I think it is important to explain this to you, as well as to all of you.

Prior to planning and executing this investigation, our initial assumption was to conduct an initial screening based on the list provided by Northrop Grumman, from which to identify potential persons of interest, with the aim of identifying areas that needed further investigation within a 'few days'. This would have been time-consuming, and just as we were about to take this step, another investigation had already responded. ”

As he spoke, he picked up a few blank pieces of paper on the desktop next to him, and Director Grant showed them to the camera equipment, of course, on the holographic screen, he couldn't see the content of the paper:

"I beg your pardon, but now I have to describe things in more detail in order to explain the situation clearly.

According to the research and analysis of the CIA department, and of course my personal opinion, if we start from the current situation of the mass production of the 'YF-23' prototype and put it into the battlefield, then this will inevitably be a serious national security incident with a wide impact and many participants; But after actually intervening in the investigation, our agents did not find anything unusual at Northrop Grumman, or any other military aviation supplier, which has caused us to be highly alarmed.

Just after the operation began, no signs of large-scale anomalous activity were detected, and agents stationed in San Diego to search Northrop Grumman's headquarters uncovered a criminal case that had not yet been detected, and several suspects had been identified.

I have sent you a copy of the background information on these people through the guò network.

To put it simply, these people are suspected of infiltrating the headquarters building of Northrop Grumman about four months ago and stealing a copy of the plan of the 'YF-23' project, as well as a large number of classified numbers, in the classified warehouse where historical materials are stored. If these numbers are fully mastered, it is entirely possible to replicate a weapon similar to the YF-23 'Ghost' fighter on the basis of the industrial base and the ability to manufacture various subsystems. ”

"W-What? Grant, what did you mean...... Someone stole the technical data of the 'ghost' and gave it to the Syrian Freedom Party with a copy of the fighter jet? ”

Hearing so many new developments in one breath, not only were the faces of everyone here full of surprise, but Woodrow Wilson, who was staring sideways at the oval conference table, was even more surprised.

He summoned the head of the CIA yesterday and ordered her to immediately organize people to investigate several suppliers of military fighters. The president expected no large-scale violations and no signs of any involvement in the manufacturer, but what about the "theft" that followed?

Although as the president of the United States, after all, he did not have a deep understanding of the military industry, Wilson looked at another important member of the Department of Defense present with suspicion, who obviously understood the suspicion and inquiry in the president's eyes, and he slowly shook his head:

"This ...... Impossible, Your Excellency the President: Although we don't yet know what the specific materials of the 'YF-23' project are that have been stolen, the whole process of developing and manufacturing fighter jets will definitely not be as simple as counterfeiting counterfeit banknotes. ”

"Are you sure, Marshall?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

In response to His Excellency the President's slightly stern but expectant question, Marshall, a key member of the Department of Defense in charge of military equipment planning and project coordination, nodded solemnly. (To be continued......)