cicada

Chapter 1196: Borrowing Strength

"Patriots with Conscientiousness"

"The Shameless Traitor of the Intelligence Agency"

"ONI conceals the truth about pollution"

Oahu exploded, not really an explosion, but not far off.

All the media seemed to have agreed. The front page headlines were news about ONI poisoning German spies and killing innocent engineers, along with a few photos of polluted rivers.

Although the picture is not very clear, the reporters squatting by the river wearing masks and holding sludge in their hands are enough to illustrate the seriousness of the pollution. The charm of journalism is undoubtedly revealed at this moment.

In an office at Pacific Fleet Command, Commander Richardson threw several newspapers into Nathan Hale's face. The American admiral, who had participated in the Philippine Campaign and the last European War, was extremely angry at the moment.

"Damn it, is this your job? Murdering American citizens and passing the buck?"

Since the Pacific Fleet headquarters moved from San Diego to Oahu, Richardson has been expressing opposition to Washington because forward defense is neither practical nor useful and the Pacific Fleet will be the first target after war with Japan.

But bureaucrats in Washington ignored his suggestions, and now that something like this happened, he felt it was only a matter of time before he was fired.

But before being kicked back to the mainland, he will definitely send this bastard Nathan Hale to Alaska first, he swears!

Nathan Hal had long since lost the leisurely complacency he felt when he got up. He looked puzzled and panicked as to why such a thing happened and who revealed the news to the media.

In a panic, he stammered a suggestion that experts from the Public Building Administration, who are responsible for building and maintaining federal offices and reviewing and approving construction applications, could be asked to inspect the Red Mountain Oil Depot and make the inspection results public.

No matter what the real result is, those experts must assure residents that the leak has nothing to do with the military. If the matter is delayed, time will dilute everything.

After hearing this, Richardson held his pipe in his mouth and thought for a while. He didn't say he agreed or disagreed. He pointed in the direction of the door and told Hal to get out.

Nathan Hal cursed secretly and turned around to leave. He knew that he had now become a scapegoat and would get no credit even if the plan succeeded. If the plan failed, Richardson would definitely hand him over to quell the anger of Washington and the residents.

For the sake of his own future and life, he immediately called his subordinates after coming out of the headquarters, drove to the Oahu branch of the Public Building Administration, and blocked the person in charge.

For the sake of the pistol, the other party "happily" agreed to send people to investigate immediately, and promised that the experts would act in accordance with ONI's requirements.

The conversation ended happily. With the gift from the head of the Public Building Administration, Hal left with several construction experts who looked confused. He had no time to waste now.

When he arrived at the Hongshan Oil Depot, Hal was surprised to find many residents and reporters blocking the door. Thanks to the help of sentries, the convoy was able to enter.

The person in charge of the oil depot who got the news had been waiting for a long time. When he saw Hal, his eyes were full of anger. He wanted to have a Western duel on the spot. It was not a big deal at first, but it became more complicated after ONI got involved.

"Damn it, Mr. Major, why are you here again? Who are these guys?"

The person in charge of the oil depot looked at the dull-witted experts and asked Hal loudly, while his right hand kept touching the revolver hanging on his waist.

Nathan Hall introduced the identity of the expert without expression, and once again assured that this was the last time. This was true. If the matter could not be resolved, he would indeed have no chance to come here again.

Cursing FU┴CK in a low voice, the person in charge of the oil depot led everyone into the oil depot, and also called the men in charge of construction to cooperate with the experts' inspection without daring to slack off.

Both the military and the Construction Management Bureau conducted a careful survey on the height, width, cement layer thickness, level conditions, soil quality, rock quality, distance from the groundwater system, overlying soil layer, design and actual differences of each part of the oil depot.

According to the survey, experts have obtained a result, that is, there is a risk of leakage from the Hongshan Oil Storage, which may be now, tomorrow, or a hundred years from now.

Nathan Hall was not interested in this meaningless result. He pulled out his gun and put it on the head of the leader of the Building Administration Bureau, asking the other party to sign a document certifying that the oil depot had no safety hazards.

"Mr. Hughes, if you and your family don't want any accidents, then follow my arrangements."

The military personnel present all turned their heads when they saw this, pretending not to see this scene. The rest of the people from the Building Management Bureau also lowered their heads, not knowing what they were thinking.

At this time, less than 10 years have passed since the Pension March incident. The blood of American veterans who died at the hands of their own people is still there. The military can even attack its own people, let alone civilians.

Hughes was torn between professional ethics and conscience, and the safety of himself and his family, but at the moment Hal was about to pull the hammer, he made a choice.

"OK."

As he spoke, he picked up a pen and wrote his name at the end of the document, and then signed a confidentiality agreement, promising not to disclose what happened today to the outside world.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief, and Hughes's colleagues signed one after another, even if there was only a few consciences left that kept questioning them.

"Good~"

Nathan Hal smiled with satisfaction. He took the document and looked at it carefully. He waved his hand and asked his men to send Hughes and others away. After getting what they wanted, the other party would have no use value.

Obtaining the documents was just the beginning. Next, Hal went to many newspapers and had heart-to-heart chats with various editors, and successfully obtained the "understanding and support" of these people. After all, the pen was not as strong as the gun. After all, no one lives in the air.

As a result, the residents of Oahu saw an extremely absurd scene in a civilized society. No matter how they protested, the military and government only gave an explanation and then ignored it like a deaf or dumb person.

The media, which used to be extremely active in the past, is now like an ostrich huddled in the sand. Newspapers publish all irrelevant information and seem to have completely forgotten about the pollution that is happening.

The residents couldn't deal with the military, the government, the reporters, and they couldn't deal with a few experts. The people headed by Hughes became the target and suffered all the infamy.

"You bastard! Come out! Come out!" "I'm going to crush your head!"

Listening to the scolding outside the house, Hughes, his wife, and children hid in their room and shivered. The calls they made to the police were like nothing, and they received no response.

Fortunately, as time passed, the angry residents slowly dispersed, leaving only a mess.

Looking out the window at the garbage-strewn lawn, Hughes was about to cry. For a moment, he really wanted to rush out and tell everyone the truth, but the cold pistol kept reappearing in his mind. He had no choice but to rush out and tell everyone the truth. Silently spitting out the bitter pill and trading one's own reputation for the safety of his family.

As night fell, Hughes cautiously walked out of the room and cleaned up the trash. After comforting his family, he opened the study door and prepared to finish the work at hand and then find a way to leave Hawaii.

With a tired look on his face, he turned on the desk lamp, took out his pen, spread out the document, and just wrote a few letters when he heard a voice coming from the dark corner.

"Hello Mr. Hughes."

Hughes stood up suddenly while holding on to the desk, and the chair behind him fell to the thick carpet with a muffled sound.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

Outside the door, Hughes' wife heard a voice and asked. Hughes's expression became nervous, and his right hand slowly reached towards the drawer.

"Mr. Hughes, is this what you're looking for?"

The uninvited guest spoke again, throwing a Browning pistol to the ground, and spoke lightly in English with an indistinguishable accent.

"A piece of advice to you, never put your family in danger."

Hughes' expression kept changing, and finally he shouted to his wife that it didn't matter, and gave up calling for help and resisting. Just like the other party said, he couldn't involve his family.

"Good, we're off to a good start, aren't we."

The visitor chuckled and complimented. The body hidden in the shadows sat on the sofa, holding an invisible pistol in his hand. After Hughes regained his composure, the other party revealed the purpose of his trip.

"I need all the data on the Hongshan Oil Depot. This is not a difficult task for a person who graduated first in architecture from Princeton University and has just been to the oil depot, right?"

When Hughes heard this, he suddenly understood and felt relieved at the same time.

A few days ago, as a patriot, he would never have told the other party about the information about the Hongshan Oil Depot. But now, thinking of ONI's threats and humiliation, the resentment from the bottom of his heart drove him to tell what he knew.

In fact, subverting a person's cognition or a political power is not as difficult and complicated as imagined.

The first step is to destroy people's trust in the media.

They then begin to doubt the nature of the truth, even if the "truth" is an elaborate lie.

The second step is to divide social factions.

When everyone no longer sees each other as human beings, authority, law, and morality are no longer obstacles to action.

The third step is to marginalize experts.

If people start to distrust experts and academics, they will become manipulative.

Isn't it familiar?

The descendants of ONI have overthrown countless hostile countries with the help of three axes. Zuo Zhong is now learning and applying them to help the Americans preview them in advance.

He and Hughes, one talking and the other writing, completely unveiled the mystery of the Hongshan Oil Depot.

Hughes even took the initiative to provide the weak points of the oil depot. As a construction expert, he estimated how much explosives would be needed to blast the covering soil layer above the oil depot. The amount was accurate to the gram. He was worthy of being a top student at Princeton.

Faced with such a cooperative goal, Zuo Zhong wrote the last line, threw the record to the other party for signature, and secretly thanked ONI for its "dedication".

If it weren't for ONI's clever operation, which used the public to put pressure on the US military, the plan to fish in troubled waters to obtain intelligence would not have gone so smoothly. The commander of ONI is really a good person.

Under the pressure of Pacific Fleet executives, citizens and the media, this opponent came up with all kinds of tricks and acted almost according to his "command" without any surprises.

It's a pity. If the timing hadn't been wrong, Zuo Zhong would have wanted to treat the other party to a drink.

On the other side, Hughes signed the confession without hesitation. He closed his eyes at the order of the person who came and placed his hands on the table to count down to thirty.

When he opened his eyes again, there was no one on the sofa, and only the curtains were fluttering in the wind, as if he had just had a dream.

Hughes slumped in his chair and was stunned for a while. He went out and called his wife to pack her luggage. There were few job opportunities in the country, but the Philippines was short of experienced architects who could go there to start a new life.

Newspapers reported more than once that Governor MacArthur's Cavite fortress was so strong that it would take one million men to attack it for a hundred years before it could be broken.

More than a year later, walking in the tropical rainforest of Bataan, Hughes regretted his decision extremely, but compared to some things that happened in Oahu, the Philippines may be a good choice.