Chapter 501: CIB’s Reaction
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
CIB headquarters.
In the spacious director’s office, a Caucasian male sunk into his chair while staring at the document in hand.
“An aerospace project? What is Future Group planning?” Ohm gazed at the documents and exclaimed.
Due to the catastrophic error made by the CIB in the last Hua mission, the former CIB director couldn’t withstand the criticism from the public and resigned. Ohm finally got the opportunity to step up. Although due to various reasons, the current government adjusted the strategy against Future Group, the name Jiang Chen had been on the list of top priority targets.
From the collapse of the former Pannu regime to the fishing boat incident, and now the popular immersive virtual reality technology, as well as the deepwater mining technology that sparked conversations in the mining industry… the series of events were all related to that man. And intelligence indicated that Jiang Chen was behind the civil war in Country F, but without any evidence, the CIB couldn’t do anything.
Instincts told Ohm that the guy is dangerous. Not because his existence endangered the national interest of UA, but his ability to create miracles. Because he had too many mysteries surrounding him, it made him remember a restricted document that existed for a long time…
“This is unclear, but the only thing we can be certain of is that they spent 5 billion purchasing two private aerospace technology companies on the brink of bankruptcy and restructured the two companies so that they are part of Celestial Trade’s aerospace department. They also planned to move their assets to Xin,” The agent stood beside Ohm reported calmly.
“What about customs?” Ohm’s eyes didn’t leave the document.
“11 equipment out of the two companies’ assets were prohibited from being exported, but they didn’t go through customs and sold the equipment at a discount to SpaceX. They don’t seem to want the equipment, but the experts.
Ohm burst out laughing.
“Oh? Do they think that by just getting a bunch of graduates from MIT, they could make a rocket appear from nothing?”
Without the production capability, it would be impossible even to produce a screw on the rocket. It was not something that a few scientists could solve, the more advanced the technology, the higher the demand for the industrial foundation.
And to establish the foundation, it would require twenty to thirty years’ time.
“We don’t know, just like we don’t know where they obtained that deep water mining equipment.” The agent shrugged.
Ohm was silent.
Although he was not a technical expert, as someone with a science background, he knew a bit about the difficulty in deep water mining. The first problem was the material strength as materials rarely could withstand water pressure 7000 meters below the surface, let alone withstand that pressure to mine.
Virtual reality, deep water mining, and now they planned to enter aerospace. They seemed to be developing every field at the frontier of innovation without concern for cost. Frontier meant high risk, but it also meant high returns.
The shareholders of Future Group were complete gamblers, and gamblers unafraid of being all in. This was a common agreement among the investors on Wall Street.
“Is there a way to investigate where they obtained their technology?” Ohm asked.
“I have been arranging for people to do this without much success.” The agent had a wry expression on his face. “Currently we could only deduce that they have a hidden research institute, it could be underground, or disguised as another organization in Xin. Needless to say, while their intelligence work is somewhat careless, their confidentiality is flawless. “Could I request for additional personnel in Xin?”
“Very difficult.” Ohm shook his head, “There are too many places that need people. Future Group is interesting, but it is a private corporation. Although some people from Congress are interested in their technology, the Capitol wants to win over Xin, and they instructed us to be restrained.”
“Is the President not interested?” The agent asked.
“Let’s say this. The energy giants are the ones providing the president with election funds, not the public companies on NASDAQ.” Ohm said emotionlessly, “Our work’s focus is still in the Middle East and East Europe. As to the interesting stuff, as long as it is not weapons of mass destruction, it is better to leave it to the businessmen to think for themselves.”
Typically speaking, the CIB with an “undisclosed budget” didn’t need to listen to the president too much. Their long rival FBA was the one loyal to the Capitol. But because of being “tricked” by the General Staff Department in Hua, CIB no longer had confidence in front of the Congress or the Capitol.
The reason why the former director retired early was that he didn’t gain support in either Congress or Capitol. The rushed mission almost dragged the government into another diplomatic mud hole. Fortunately, Hua didn’t protest on this incident or UA would be in the middle of another massive scandal.
Although Congress had no right to ask for the budget breakdown of the CIB, they did possess the power to cut the budget, and they were doing that already. Even if Ohm didn’t want to lean toward the president, he had to compromise because of the budget.
“Okay, the damned politics… But I want to say, Xin currently established the national security department and our work may be influenced. If we cannot receive support, I can’t promise that there will be stable intelligence in the future.” The agent sighed and shrugged without any other solutions.
“Then pretend and keep an eye on their launch project… I don’t care about Future Group, but our little white rat seems to be disobedient recently,” Ohm said.
“The Willie Society?” The agent guessed.
“That’s right. Intelligence indicated that they received donations from an unknown source and they are no longer satisfied with the small place they are in as they have begun to reach out to our little friends in Europe. Another intelligence stated that they had contacted Jiang Chen to some extent,” Ohm picked up another file and said without emotion.
“You’re saying… there is a connection between Jiang Chen and the Willie Society.”
“No, they don’t have a common interest, no… if you force it, there is something.” Ohm frowned as he mumbled while biting his thumb.
A word suddenly surfaced in his head.
[The Golden Apple…]
To be honest, until the Soviet collapse, collecting intelligence on the Golden Apple had been the job of the CIB. But followed by the conclusion of the cold war, the work was put aside due to the lack of information.
[But does that thing really exist? The tool that can communicate with the future.]
Ohm’s no longer frowned as he self-mockingly shook his head.
[How could that thing exist, just like the Nazi military base in the Arctic.]
Reality is not a novel after all.