Virginia, CIA headquarters.
In the spacious director's office, a middle-aged white man was leaning on a computer chair, frowning and staring at the documents in his hand.
"Space program? What exactly is this future group planning?" Naomi couldn't help but say, leaning on her desk as she stared at the documents in her hand.
Due to the heavy losses in espionage operations in China some time ago, former CIA Director John Brennan finally resigned under the pressure of public opinion, so that Naomi Madden had the opportunity to take over. Although the authorities have adjusted their strategies against the Future Man Group for various reasons, Jiang Chen's name has always been on the CIA's list of key concerns.
From the overthrow of the former Pannu regime, to the Philippine fishing boat incident, to the recent immersive virtual reality technology, and the deep-sea mining technology that has caused topics in the mining industry... Behind this series of hot events, we can vaguely see that man's name. More intelligence showed that Jiang Chen was probably the mastermind behind the civil war in the Philippines, but because there was no evidence, the CIA could not do anything against them.
Naomi's instinct told her that this guy was a dangerous person. Not because his existence harms the national interests of the United States, but because of his ability to always create miracles. There were so many mysteries surrounding him that it reminded him of a long-dusted document...
"It's not clear. The only thing that can be confirmed is that they have now spent 5 billion US dollars to acquire all the shares of two private aerospace technology companies in our country that are on the verge of bankruptcy, and have held a board meeting to reorganize and merge the two companies into Starlink Trading Company. The aerospace project department and relocated to the new country." The agent standing next to the man said with his hands behind his back, speaking slowly.
"Customs?" Naomi didn't look away from the document in her hand.
"Eleven pieces of equipment among the assets of the two aerospace technology companies were listed in the export restricted items. However, they did not go through customs, but directly sold the equipment at a low price. It seems that they did not intend to get the equipment at all, they just wanted Those technicians.”
Naomi scoffed.
"Oh? Do they think they can create a rocket from scratch by just bringing in a group of MIT graduates?"
There is no industrial production capacity. Not even a single screw on the rocket can be made. This is not a problem that a few scientists can solve in the past. The more high-end the industry, the higher the requirements for the industrial base.
It often takes decades to establish this industrial base.
"Don't know. Just like we don't know where they got that deep-sea mining equipment from." The agent shrugged.
Naomi fell silent.
Although he is not a technician, he is familiar with the problems of deep-sea mining as he was born in science. The first one is the problem of materials. Very few materials can withstand the pressure of 7,000 meters of water for a long time, let alone mining under such terrifying pressure.
One moment it’s virtual reality, the next it’s deep-sea mining. Now they have reached out to aerospace again, and it seems that they have been laying out the most cutting-edge fields regardless of cost. Frontier means risk, but also means high reward.
The major shareholder of Futureman Group is a complete gambler, and he is a gambler who does not hesitate to use chips in his hands. This has almost reached a consensus among Wall Street investors.
"Can you find a way to find out the source of their technology?" Naomi asked in a deep voice.
"I have been arranging people to do this work, but so far there has been no success." The agent showed a helpless expression on his face, "Currently we can only speculate that they have some secret research institute, which may be underground. , or disguised as other agencies and hidden somewhere in the new country. I have to say. Although they are a bit informal in their intelligence work, they are extremely cautious in their confidentiality work. I can apply to send more manpower to the new country. ?"
"It's difficult." Naomi shook her head. "There are too many places that need to use people. Although Future Man Group is interesting, it is only a private company after all. Although some people in Congress are interested in the technology they have, The White House hopes to win over the new country and requires us to maintain a certain degree of restraint."
"Isn't the president interested?" the agent asked.
"Let's put it this way, it is the energy giants that provide campaign funds for the president, not Nasdaq listed companies." Naomi said calmly, "Our focus is still on the Middle East and Eastern Europe. As for those new things. As long as it's not a weapon of mass destruction, it's better to leave it to the businessmen to use their own brains."
Generally speaking, the CIA, which maintains "budget confidentiality", does not need to throw away the president's face. Those who are loyal to the White House should be their old enemy, the FBI. But because of the "general staff" setback in China last time. Now the CIA has little confidence when facing Congress and the White House.
John Brennan retired early because he was unpopular with both Congress and the White House. The espionage operation that was good at making claims almost dragged the White House into a diplomatic quagmire. Fortunately, China did not protest against the previous incident, otherwise the United States would have fallen into the second largest diplomatic scandal after the Bay of Pigs incident.
Although Congress has no power to interfere with the CIA's budget use, it does have the power to cut funding for it, and in fact they have already done so. Even if Naomi doesn't want to side with the president. He also had to make some compromises on budget matters.
"Well, this is damn politics... But what I want to say is that the new country has established a national security department, and our work may be affected to a certain extent. If we can't get support, I can't guarantee that we can be as stable in the future. Provide information." The agent sighed, spread his hands and said helplessly.
"Then just show off and keep an eye on their hair-raising projects... What worries me more is not the Future People Group, but the little mice we raise, who seem to be a little disobedient recently." Naomi said.
"Will Willy?" the detective asked tentatively.
"Yes, intelligence shows that they seem to have received donations from unknown sources. Not content with being a small place like Ukraine, they have extended their tentacles to our children in Europe. Recently, there is intelligence that they seem to have had an affair with Jiang Chen Some degree of contact." Naomi picked up another document and said calmly.
"You mean... Jiang Chen and Weili will have a connection."
"Probably not. There should be no focus of interest between the two parties. No...if I insist on saying so, it's not that there is none." Naomi frowned, biting her thumb and muttered to herself.
A word suddenly came to his mind.
golden apples…
To be honest, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, collecting information on the Golden Apple had always been one of the CIA's work projects. But with the end of the Cold War, this work, which had been without clues, was gradually shelved.
But does that thing really exist? A legendary item that can communicate with the future.
Then Naomi's brows relaxed, and she shook her head with a self-deprecating smile.
How could such a thing exist? It's just like the Nazi's Arctic military base.
Reality is not.
(.)