"It's all messed up."

In the corner tower office, Bob let out a long sigh and said with a solemn expression.

"Although Texas has always been unstable, it is indeed extremely rare to attack the state government."

"In the past, even if there were, it was a small-scale, small-scale personal act."

"And this time, it's clearly organized and planned."

"There must be someone behind them who is directing and planning, and even the equipment should come from a professional defense company. Have you found out where their weapons came from? ”

"No, it should all be from the black market, at least the HK416 and SCAR rifles they use are not the guns we have registered here."

The assistant on the side immediately replied that in fact, in this short period of 20 hours, he was also anxious about this matter.

A new North American alliance was annoying enough, and now Texas is coming?

And it happened in a more intense and violent way?

What vigilantes, what Batman League, they are just a group of retired thugs whose lives are not satisfactory.

——

However, it is precisely because of their identity that the pressure on the military is really unprecedented.

Not only did one media outlet take to the TV to question the military, "This is the soldier you have trained," but more than a group of people took to the streets to protest "the military's irresponsible disarmament behavior."

The assistant found these criticisms absurd.

The soldiers we trained?

The soldiers we have produced have no problem in the army, they are the best fighters, the most loyal patriots, and they have never disappointed when they have fought for the good of this country.

As for why disarmament is a joke, how can such a thing be blamed on the military?

Go to the White House! Go to the president!

The economic situation has deteriorated to such an extent that it is possible to do without disarmament?

If you are really determined to maintain huge military spending, then are you going to stand up again and say that we are "reckless in military force" and "disregard for the lives and deaths of ordinary people"?

Thinking of this, the assistant couldn't help but sigh too.

He looked at Bob and continued to reply:

"There was a strong sense of conspiracy in this incident, and the general view among those involved in the investigation was that the attackers did not really want to 'storm' the town hall, they just wanted to enter it."

"There is no doubt that this is just a deterrent, or rather, just a symbolic action."

"But judging from the confessions of several of the arrestees, they do not have such a symbolic 'organizational purpose.'"

"In other words, their actions are not isolated, but they are linked to other organizations, and to be honest, this situation is much more tricky than we expected."

"It's tricky."

Bob nodded slightly, then asked:

"Are they affiliated with that organization?"

"I don't know, the only two members who are determined to belong to the Black Shadow are still in the University, and we have not obtained any information about them."

"But personally, I think there must be some kind of connection between the two of them."

"Otherwise, the actions of this so-called alliance of veterans and their behind-the-scenes financiers are completely inexplicable, and it can't be said that they really want to share the worries of the Federation, right?"

"Who knows? Maybe there will be such idealists. ”

Bob said noncommittally.

"Of course there will be, but their 'idealistic' direction is impossible for us to think the same way."

The assistant shrugged his shoulders in frustration and didn't say anything more.

Bob, on the other hand, lit a cigarette and calmly looked out the window.

His face was hidden in the half-light under the smoke, and this image should have been the most popular subject for portrait photographers, because it perfectly shows the fortitude of a warrior and the wisdom of a decision-maker.

——

However, the assistant saw something completely different.

All he saw was the decadence, decay and powerlessness of an old man.

His own commander is really old.

I have heard that people grow old very quickly when they lose their beliefs and goals, is this the case?

After all, the so-called "globalization" goals pursued by his generation of soldiers have been determined to be impossible to achieve.

China took the place of the United States and will soon become a global military hegemon-—— in a way that no one expected.

The development of military equipment and military power is, of course, on the one hand, but on the other hand, they actually ended the war in a non-violent way, so that the military reserves of many major countries directly turned into a joke.

"We're going to have to get rid of that so-called Shadow Order."

Bob spoke, finishing a cigarette.

"So far, all their actions have been directed at us, and their motive is obvious, which is to completely destroy this country and destroy our rule."

"This must not happen-—— countless people will die because of it."

"We need to act more aggressively, we need to go beyond the rules."

Spanning rules.

Hearing these two words, the assistant's heart trembled, and he asked tentatively:

"What does that mean?"

"That's what it literally means-—— if you're asking what kind of strategy we're going to use, then I can tell you we're going to use all the strategies we can use."

"We're going to catch them, we're going to question them, and we're going to destroy them."

"If our movement is restricted, then we go and solve the restriction; If our identity makes it impossible for us to act, then we change our identity. ”

"Now, when I say that, do you understand?"

"Understood."

The assistant nodded slowly and did not speak again.

At this moment, the uneasiness in his heart had risen to its peak.

He could clearly feel that the things he cherished, engraved in the bones of this country, had all disappeared.

No more rules, no more reverence, even. There is no more freedom.

This is done only to protect the position of those decision-makers and to protect their illusory so-called "domination".

Is it really worth it?

He turned and walked out of Bob's office and left the corner tower.

It's time to get off work, but until he gets into his car, he hasn't recovered from that feeling of loss.

And just then, someone knocked on his car window.

It was a familiar face-—— the face of a man he had dealt with so many times, but now he had largely lost touch.

This man once held the position of commander in Iraq and is now a special adviser to the president.

And at the moment, his face was full of smiles.

"Hey, long time no see."

"Want to talk?"

At the same time, Chengdu.

The surveillance campaign against Lin Chen has been going on for nearly a week, but the progress has been pitiful.

He is still doing his job conscientiously every day, and there has never been any leakage or attempt to leak secrets, so stable that even Li Xiang once thought that Lin Chen was indeed just using his identity to "fish" as some people judged.

It's also very much in line with his personality and his way of doing things.

He's a guy who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, isn't he?

Trick a group of people, deceive the trust of Organization 003, and then arrange them all in, and finally lead to the real mastermind

In all fairness, such a direction of development would not surprise those who monitored him too much.

However, in intelligence work, any "speculation" is not advisable, and all judgments need to be based on evidence.

But fortunately, the opportunity to obtain evidence is already in front of everyone.

"Is Liu Xiao ready? Today's conversation was very important, and he had to start leading the conversation to Organization 003 and get Lin Chen's attention. ”

"Let's double-check the preset lines. Lin Chen is a very shrewd person, we can't let him see the flaws. ”

In the command room, Li Xiang asked.

"It's ready, we've checked it, all the evidence chains are complete, and all the wording is reasonable and doesn't go beyond what Liu Xiao should know."

The staff member replied.

"The point is not the content, the focus is on Liu Xiao's performance - he must be natural enough and confident enough to convince Lin Chen that he has really changed his thinking, and not deliberately provoked the topic."

"It's really damn bad, it's too hard to lie to your own people."

Li Xiang sighed, he really didn't have much confidence in this operation.

After all, human nature is not easy to speculate, and if you can't accurately grasp Lin Chen's subtle changes in "human nature", you won't be able to gain his trust.

If it really doesn't work, just implement the final plan and arrest him directly for interrogation.

As long as he didn't really rebel, theoretically, he should be able to explain it quickly.

At this time, judging from the surveillance screen, Liu Xiao had already entered Lin Chen's residence.

Considering the problem of concealment, this surveillance did not use any eavesdropping equipment that can send electromagnetic signals, and the only way to judge the movements of the two people inside was through a high-power thermal imager set up remotely.

Li Xiang could clearly see that the two were sitting on the sofa, their movements relaxed, as if they were just an ordinary meeting of old friends.

Half an hour later, Lin Chen sat up straight.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Xiao stood up.

He waved his arms and seemed to be a little excited.

This is the most critical moment, whether you can stabilize Lin Chen's important clue depends on now

In the villa, Liu Xiao was venting his dissatisfaction with Lin Chen.

His movements were loud, but his voice was low.

So I really don't understand what this organization is trying to do, all the actions are in our favor, but we really don't have any connection to them."

"Lin Chen, let's not discuss the information that is kept confidential by each other, just discuss the things that are made public."

"You say, assassinating Musk, blowing up the Falcon-9, attacking Lasracqueira — plus the Texas state government incident that just happened and could be related to them."

"Is there anything that is beneficial to those Western capital and underground forces?"

"Don't talk about me, anyone who knows the inside story can't figure it out."

"Where do their money come from, where do their resources come from, what are their motivations. It's a complete fog. ”

"It would be nice if we could figure out the path of their capital flow, but the replacement of the quantum protocol with the SWIFT protocol has not yet been completed, and we can't find many things."

"Really, sometimes I really want to give up."

"You see, we've captured two people, right, but what's the use of catching them? I can't ask anything! ”

Speaking of this, Liu Xiao sat down again.

He leaned back on the couch and muttered helplessly:

"If it weren't for the request of my superiors, I really want to let them toss it."

"That's definitely not going to work."

Lin Chen interrupted Liu Xiao and said with a smile on his face:

"You're talking angrily now, you've been under too much pressure at work lately, right?"

"Now they are targeting the United States, but how do we know that one day they will not turn their heads against us?"

"If you don't cooperate with us, this is the biggest instability."

"So, it's right to check them out, the process may be difficult, but there's always a chance."

"I know, I'm just whining."

Liu Xiao nodded, and then asked casually:

"Haven't you been tired lately? I see you're in good spirits. ”

"Me?"

Lin Chen pointed to his dark circles and replied:

"Do you think I don't look tired? It's not like you. ”

"Then you must not be as strong as us-—— you also know, the latest news, the other party may come to Xinghuo, our independent intelligence department has few manpower, and the risk is high. Forget it, don't talk about this. ”

Liu Xiao waved his hand and decisively ended the topic that might be secret.

But it was this sentence that made Lin Chen's mood fluctuate a little.

"Isn't Starfire's secrecy level going to be lowered yet?"

"It's impossible to come down, the scope of influence is too wide, and it is estimated that it will be ten or twenty years before it is decrypted."

"I don't have a good evaluation, because I'm too peripheral and can't get in touch with the real sense of the job at all, it's like a miscellaneous job, so I don't know if it's necessary to do this."

"Since the superiors have made a decision, it must be necessary, just do your own thing."

Lin Chen poured a new glass of water into Liu Xiao's teacup, and said intentionally or unintentionally:

"It's good that you're like this now, you don't need to think too much about things, just stay honest until retirement."

"The point is that I don't want to stay up like this-I knew I wouldn't be transferred."

"What you said others can't adjust if they want to. Okay, let's not talk about that - let's talk about things over there. ”

Liu Xiao's heartbeat was a little faster, and he keenly felt that the conversation had finally begun to change.

But he still didn't show anything abnormal, just said casually:

"There's nothing to talk about, the whole story is quite boring, what a vigilante, what Batman League or something, it's like acting in a movie."

"If it weren't for the element of retired veterans, I guess many people wouldn't even bother to pay attention."

"Indeed."

Lin Chen nodded and continued:

"But don't tell me, they're kind of idealistic about doing that."

Hearing this word, Liu Xiao's tense emotions finally relaxed.

He knew, the fish, had taken the bait.

(End of chapter)