Chapter 276 - 276: Submission in Terror

Wu Wei faced a sea of cameras and said with a smile:

"Moses Lake Town, Ainwood Town, Cawinton Town, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Lake Ozarks, Lamisa Town, Canyonlands National Park, Whitney Mountain, Risef Town…

These are all inconspicuous yet scenic places. If I could watch the brilliant sunrise from these locations, I would truly die without regret.

I trust that Mr. James, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Thomson feel the same way, don't you?"

「Washington.」

「Moses Lake Town.」

「Deep underground beneath Moon Lake, on the town's south side.」

Thomas Morgan happened to be watching the live broadcast of the conference. When he heard Wu Wei's words, his pupils contracted sharply. "Shit…"

The butler beside him turned pale. "Sir, I'll arrange for your evacuation immediately."

Suddenly, his secure phone rang.

"Hello."

"Thomas, it's me."

"James, we've been exposed."

"I know. What are you thinking?"

"Call off the nuclear strike for now."

"Okay."

After hanging up, a thin layer of sweat broke out on Thomas's forehead.

A short while later, the butler had already arranged the evacuation route. He also deployed several of Thomas's body doubles to appear in other locations to confuse anyone tracking the real target.

Sitting inside a custom-built armored vehicle, Thomas had a grim expression on his face.

Members of the other major clans were also spooked and began evacuating quickly.

Meanwhile, intelligence agencies like the FBI and Black Ship were thrown into absolute chaos. A leak of this magnitude was far too severe.

The current situation was equivalent to the major clans, like the Morgans and Rockefellers, having a gun pointed directly at their heads.

The Morgan, Rockefeller, and other clans had formed the City of the Summit, manipulating America to stir up trouble all over the world. The only reason they dared to be so arrogant was because it was incredibly difficult for anyone to threaten them.

Many people might talk up the power of nuclear bombs, but in reality, they aren't as powerful as one might imagine.

Even with a Big Ivan-class nuclear bomb, as long as you weren't in the direct impact zone, you'd typically be fine in an underground nuclear bunker about 10 kilometers from the blast's epicenter.

This was especially true for the advanced nuclear bunker bases built by the City of the Summit. They were usually located beneath hundreds of meters of granite or under massive mountains, reinforced with all sorts of artificial structures for enhanced protection. The defenses were incredibly strong.

However, there are always exceptions.

No matter how strong a nuclear bunker was, it couldn't withstand a direct hit from a nuclear warhead.

Once a bunker's location was exposed, it was basically finished, losing its entire purpose as a shelter.

After all, a few hundred meters of granite or a mountain one or two kilometers thick couldn't withstand a specialized bunker-buster nuclear warhead.

If one were to be extravagant, they could even hit the same location with consecutive nuclear detonations.

In other words, Wu Wei's speech had just compromised eight of the City of the Summit's advanced nuclear bunker bases. In an instant, these facilities, built with tens of billions of US Dollars, were rendered useless.

A discovered nuclear bunker basically lost its qualification to serve as a trump card for these major clans.

Thomas, James, and the others had clearly understood Wu Wei's unspoken message: the moment war was declared, he would be the first to annihilate their major clans, grinding their bones to dust.

And now, unable to gauge the true strength of Luzon, Hongsawaddy, and Siam, Thomas, James, and the others immediately backed down.

In truth, they had no idea that the Homo Sapiens Company had long since obtained a full list of the major clans' members and their specific locations. If Li Qingye wanted to eliminate them, it would be an incredibly easy task.

But the consequence of doing so would be a fight to the death between both sides.

Compared to the death-defying rednecks and the neurotic white liberals, the major clans like the Morgan Clan were actually the opponents Li Qingye preferred to face.

Killing Thomas and the others would be helping America remove the great cancer that was the City of the Summit. Li Qingye and the Homo Sapiens Company actually hoped these cowardly, life-clinging bastards would continue to plague America.

...

「The Pentagon.」

After hanging up the phone, Mark William sat back down in his seat with a helpless expression and slowly gave an order:

"Lewis, cancel the nuclear strike scheduled for two hours from now. However, place all nuclear strike systems on high alert, ready to launch at a moment's notice."

Lewis, the head of the Office of Nuclear Strategy, nodded. "Okay."

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Edward Jackson; the head of the Navy, Benjamin Franklin; the head of the Air Force, Powell Clark; the head of the Army, Hall Philip; and the head of the military intelligence department, Reid Van, all remained silent.

A moment later, Reid Van received an urgent surveillance report. He projected the satellite images onto the large screen in the conference room.

"According to data analysis, there were a total of 12 megaton-yield hydrogen bombs."

"Bullshit! What the hell is Black Ship doing? How did they not spot this…" Hall Philip couldn't stop himself from swearing.

Reid Van continued, "Judging by the weight and volume of the munitions, the Southeast Asians' hydrogen bombs are extremely compact. It's highly likely they are using a new configuration."

Powell looked at the others. "What do we do now?"

Mark William was deeply conflicted. "The Council is demanding peace talks."

They had also seen Wu Wei's threat just now. Given the typical spinelessness of the City of the Council, with a gun to their heads, they had no choice but to back down.

"Peace talks! Impossible!" As the head of the Navy, Benjamin slammed his hand on the table and roared, "The Fifth Fleet has at least fourteen hundred soldiers dead! I do not consent…"

"Calm down, Benjamin." Chairman Edward kept a stern face. It wasn't that he didn't want to retaliate, but now that their bosses behind the scenes had caved, what were they, the hired muscle, supposed to do?

'Are we supposed to learn from East Japan and stage a mutiny?'

'They must have a death wish.'

Don't be fooled by the fact that the United States Army can even "accidentally" get rid of accountants who audit them. That only happens because such things actually harm the interests of their behind-the-scenes bosses, so of course it's not a problem.

But now, with a gun to their bosses' heads, anyone who dared to pull any tricks would be blatantly disregarding their bosses' precious lives. The bosses would undoubtedly eliminate such a "genius" immediately.

Mark William said with a deadpan expression:

"If your navy can defeat the four fleets of the Luzon people in a conventional war and find that super-submarine, then I can lobby the Council to continue the fight."

Hearing this, Benjamin opened his mouth, but he couldn't offer any forceful rebuttal.

The head of the Air Force changed the subject. "Reid, why didn't the Fifth Fleet's Aegis System defend against the enemy's attack?"

Reid Van, who had already received a partial intelligence analysis report, had a bitter look on his face.

"Currently, we have only identified three reasons: ultra-low-altitude flight, stealth materials, and rapid trajectory changes."

"Specifically, the enemy's drones can evade radar detection, and they change trajectory so quickly that the Aegis System can't lock onto them."

Radar is the core of modern automated weaponry. If you can't lock onto a target, interceptor missiles and Phalanx CIWS are essentially blind.

And these drones, equipped with bio-chips and magnetic field radar, could change their trajectories as fast as lightning and as erratically as phantoms.

The radar systems, already half-blinded by radar-absorbent materials and the drones' ultra-low-altitude flight, were then confronted with such abnormal trajectory-changing technology. They were completely overwhelmed.

Edward's expression was grave. "In other words, if we can't lock onto these drones, then our other fleets will suffer the same fate if they are attacked?"

Reid nodded heavily. "Yes. That is without a doubt. Especially on the sea at night, it would be extremely difficult to lock onto the targets even with manual operation."

At this, all the generals present were on the verge of losing their minds.