Chapter 814
Chapter 814
“Mr President, this is…”
Opening the door, they saw a conference room so vast it could practically be called an assembly hall.
There was a small podium and nearly a hundred seats arranged in a semi-circle shape before it. Behind the podium was a large LCD screen, which was displaying a video recording of the monster attack inside Los Angeles.
The President was seated at the centremost seat with his legs crossed and his head raised high as he watched the screen. Seated beside him were the heavyweight members of their nation such as the Director of the CIA, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of State etc.
The one who asked the question earlier was the Secretary of Defence.
“The White House’s Special Intelligence Unit!” The President gave him an impatient glare. “Looks like you plan on finding out the identities of these unimportant fellows before you are even done giving me a report about that important matter, is that it?”
“Of course not!” The Secretary of Defence, who was standing before the podium, promptly shook his head. “It’s just… these people, I think there are too many…”
“Can we not seat them all here? If you think this room is too crowded, then it will be necessary for me to carefully investigate where all the construction funds for Area 51 have been going to all these years!” The President forcefully tugged at his tie, looking as though he wanted to devour someone. “Is there such a need, Mr Cotton?”
“Gentlemen, please… take your seats.” The Secretary of Defence immediately decided against getting further entangled with this President who was like a mad dog.
“Please allow me to continue my report on the military casualties. The 1st Marine Division’s 1st Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Regiment, 7th Marine Regiment…”
“Enough! No need to say anymore! I can’t remember the names of so many military groups. Mike, come sit here with me and have your men go back!”
The Secretary of Defence watched as the President patted the Secretary of State who was beside him before pointing at him again. “You, give Mike a seat! You, just tell me directly, is our military completely wiped out?”
The Secretary of State stood up awkwardly to give his seat to Mike, the man in sunglasses. Mike simply sat down, not giving even a word of thanks.
The other men orderly sat themselves at the back area of the conference room.
“I’m asking you a question here, Mr Cotton! Look here! Here!” The President waved his hand vigorously at the Secretary of Defence. “Tell me, are they all wiped out?!”
“To be precise…” The Secretary of Defence could only clench his teeth as he answered the humiliating question. “The ones who are completely wiped out are limited to the Marine Corps and Naval Aviation forces that are on the ground… the strike force of the Air Force and the reconnaissance team are still intact.”
“The reason! The reason!” The President heavily slapped the armrest of the chair.
“When the meteorite first landed on the damned town, you told me that all the damned alien monsters had been killed. And that the damned meteorite will soon be sent here for in-depth research. All of it was under your goddamned control! And now, you are telling me that tens of thousands of elite soldiers from our United States of America have died?!”
“Err… a variable has appeared…” The Secretary of Defence coughed awkwardly.
“The battle situation in the frontlines was originally very reassuring. Our soldiers had been advancing into the city, but… a new source of infection suddenly appeared inside the city. As you know, the meteorite that landed in Greendale carried with it alien genes. But while it could infect the local residents and turn them into alien monsters, back then, it could only spread through wounds. But now…”
“Now what?!” Seeing the Secretary of Defence pause, the President rapped the small table before him with force.
“Now, it seems to have become airborne…” The Secretary of Defence wiped his sweat. “Even those on helicopters for air-to-ground attacks were infected… this is the video sent by our troops on the ground…”
“Am I to understand that…” The President’s face turned contorted. “Right now, all the original residents of Los Angeles and my elite soldiers have become infected and mutated into those monsters and that their number is still increasing?”
“Judging from the reports we received from the ground, the mutation time after someone is infected varies depending on the individual’s physique. Due to that, there will be some differences. Technically speaking…” The Secretary of Defence hesitated for a moment. “In truth, most of them will die to the attacks of those who mutated beside them. So, the absolute number… should not be that high.”
Also, technically speaking, those are not your soldiers, but America’s soldiers.
Naturally, he was not dumb enough to say that out loud. He simply muttered it to himself.
“Enough! Over 10 million or one million, that no longer makes a difference to us!” The President’s messy blond hair had seemingly – due to his rage – turned even messier.
“If so, plans. Gentlemen, I want to hear a plan.”
“Err…”
The several senior figures there exchanged glances. All of them remained silent.
“The country is the one paying your salaries, gentlemen! At a time like this, could you fellows not come up with a single plan?” The President was like a raging lion and his gaze swept across the faces of the bigwigs there non-stop.
“Our nation’s survival is at stake right this moment! If we cannot salvage this situation, the catastrophe happening in Los Angeles will soon spread across all of California, the entire West Coast and even all of our United States of America!”
“We obtained some samples from the mutant corpses on the ground. Back then, we had also conducted some preliminary research and obtained some samples on the meteorite.” The Director of the CIA cleared his throat. “We have already sent the samples and information to the medical department. A vaccine is currently in development…”
“Vaccine.” The President huffed. “How long will it take to successfully develop the vaccine?”
“Err… we are still unable to ascertain that,” the Director of the CIA responded with a bitter smile.
“So, your plan is to have us wait for a vaccine, one that we do not know when it will be completed, then wait again until enough doses have been produced for all American citizens, and then, like last time, we’ll go to war again, recruit millions of soldiers and send them to fight those monsters?” The President gave the CIA Director a furious glare.
“Why don’t you go eat shit!”
“Our air force, as they were flying at a high altitude, was not affected,” the Secretary of Defence said tentatively. “We can send all our fighters to the sky, bombers, fighters, it doesn’t matter. We’ll attack with incendiary bombs, a lot of them, and…”
“How long will it take to burn all these damned monsters?”
The Secretary of Defence fell silent.
In truth, everyone there had a common answer in their minds.
An obvious answer.
But none of them dared to be the first to say it.
“Fine. Now that it has come to this, it seems we have no other choice!” The President abruptly stood up, breaking the silence. There was a dark look on his face.
“Use the nukes! Wipe out all the infected areas off the map!”
When the words left his mouth, everyone there secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Map of the infected area!”
The President turned around and said to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Quickly, a digital map was displayed on the large screen.
“The area marked red is the infected area.” The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff took out a laser pointer and drew on the screen. “To the west, it is up to Thousand Oaks, up to Banning in the east, Long Beach in the south and Santa Clarita in the north. Our aerial reconnaissance indicates that all those places show signs of infected creatures. Also… this is our estimate of the number and impact points needed to cover the whole area.”
After the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that, eight flashing dots appeared on the screen. They were evenly spread across the red zone. “By our calculations, eight W88 warheads, each with a yield of 475 kilotons, should be enough to ensure that the whole area is cleared.”
“Should?”
The President strode forward and forcefully gave the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff a shove while glaring daggers at him. “If there is nothing wrong with the English I learned as a child, that doesn’t seem to be a vocabulary that should appear in this situation!
“Gentlemen! We are now talking about the future of America! Maybe even the future of humanity and the entire planet! It’s been less than ten days since the meteorite landed, but it has already destroyed our biggest city in the West Coast and the lives of nearly 20 million American citizens!”
The President picked up a marker pen from the podium. While talking, he vigorously drew cross marks on the screen.
The screen was not designed to be written on, but no one uttered a word to stop the President.
It wasn’t until there were cross marks filling the entire red zone did the President – gasping for breath – hurl the marker pen in his hand to the ground.
“Just follow the marks I drew! What I want right now is certainty! Absolute certainty! Even if the city we used to call Los Angeles is wiped off the map, no, not reduced to ruins, but turned into part of the ocean! Make sure that not a single one of that damned alien cell survives! Understand? Answer me!”
On the screen, there was a particularly high number of crosses drawn on the Rosemont Preserve. Only, given the situation at hand, no one paid it any attention.
“Understood, Mr President!”
Everyone answered in unison.
At the same time, the President received words of praise from the smug Jiang Long from his guild channel.
“Excellent job, Tong You. Exactly the same as that vulgar businessman President. No one will notice anything. Sending you to acting class was truly a perfect decision.”