Oahu, Pearl Harbor, US Navy Pacific Fleet Command.

In the commander's office, facing the harbor, Admiral Sullivan, dressed in a summer short-sleeved military uniform, sat face to face with Hubert, in a suit and leather shoes, on opposite sides of the desk. The atmosphere in the room was unfriendly, and Sullivan, as the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, didn't need to be too kind to the civilian from Langley, Virginia.

In fact, Sullivan had long been bored with the C.I.A. intelligence officer.

For more than a month, not only Sullivan's daily work and life have been disrupted, but even the entire Pacific Fleet has been disturbed by Hubert.

Thirteen days ago, the aircraft carrier "Lincoln," which was sent to carry out a mission in the waters east of the Kuril Islands, accidentally "strayed" into Russian waters, and as a result, the ship's carrier-based aircraft clashed with fighters sent by the Russian Air Force and almost misfired. Seven days ago, the antisubmarine patrol plane of the USS Washington, which was operating in the waters west of the Okinawa Islands, was tracking and monitoring a returning Chinese strategic nuclear submarine when it almost got into a fight with a Chinese fighter that had rushed to support. The worst thing happened three days ago, when the cruiser "Antietam", which entered the Sea of Japan, "strayed" into the eastern territorial waters of North Korea while carrying out a tracking and surveillance mission, was intercepted by three North Korean ships, and an armed conflict broke out.

These things are directly related to that CIA agent.

"Hubert, what the hell are you looking for?" Sullivan finally couldn't help it, knocked on the table and said, "Although I have no right to know about you, you must let me know why you sent all the warships out." ”

"General, I have nothing to say about your question." Hubert shrugged his shoulders, "Actually, I don't know what I'm looking for, I'm just like you, I'm just carrying out orders." ”

Sullivan clenched his fists, eager to give the "Langley liar" a punch.

Hubert must have lied, he must have known the purpose of the operation. Anyone knows that CIA agents are liars with mouths full of lies.

It's just that Sullivan has no other way, because Hubert has a presidential decree in his hand.

"Okay. You don't say anything. There's no way I can help you. ”

"General. This is a direct order from the president. Hubert picked up the feather arrow. Time is running out for us. Monitoring and search must be broadened. Another week. If it hasn't been found yet. You can withdraw all the Ground Ships. But within this week. You have to mobilize all the power in your hands. Expand the scope of monitoring and search. Search for all suspicious ships and submarines! ”

"Oh God. What do you want me to do? The anger that pressed Sullivan's heart exploded completely. For more than a month. I've sent out all the battleships that I can find. Even all shore-based patrol aircraft were dispatched. Where do you tell me to find more ships? ”

"It's your job. It has nothing to do with me. ”

"Really?" Sulven stood up suddenly. He pointed to the massive warship docked on the other side of the harbor. "I immediately reported to the president. Demand that the 'Missouri' be unsealed immediately. Then I personally set up that battleship. Go on this bullshit mission. Right now. You should be satisfied, right? ”

"General!" Hubert couldn't sit still. "Anger is not the solution to the problem. If there is another way. We will also not mobilize all the warships of the Pacific Fleet. Other than that. This is a local order issued by the President himself. At all costs. We all have to execute. ”

With a sigh of relief, Sullivan sat down again.

He began to really get angry, venting the resentment in his heart. The battleship "Missouri" had been mothballed for more than a decade, and it was so old that it would be difficult to even sail out of Pearl Harbor to return to service in a week.

The problem now is that Sullivan really doesn't have a ship on his hands that can be mobilized.

"Well, think about it carefully and give me an answer in the afternoon." Hubert also decided to end the talks as soon as possible. "Also, I'll report your problem to HQ and hopefully find another way."

Sullivan didn't say goodbye to the intelligence officer, and he was still angry.

Back in the makeshift office, Hubert immediately contacted Langley's headquarters using a confidential telephone number assigned by the CIA to foreign intelligence officers, and made a direct call to Deputy Director Wesley's office.

The CIA has one director and four deputy directors. In addition to the Director-General, who was directly appointed by successive Presidents, the four Deputy Directors for Operations, Intelligence, Security and Logistics are all career intelligence officers with no political affiliations. After graduating from college at the age of 21 and being admitted to the CIA, Wesley worked for the CIA for 37 years, from an ordinary intelligence analyst to the deputy director in charge of intelligence, and was also the oldest member of the CIA's leadership team.

Unlike the intelligence officers he knew from the outside world, Wesley had been dealing with a wide variety of intelligence materials for thirty-seven years and had never been on a field mission. An intelligence analyst like him will not be sent on a field mission at all, and the vast majority of intelligence analysts are ordinary people who do extraordinary work.

Putting down the microphone, Wes wiped his wrinkled face with force.

It's been more than a month, and it's like a stone sinking into the sea, and there is still no clue. At some point, Wesley even wondered if the forces that attacked the camp and the submarine that had killed the Houston and slipped under the noses of the Connecticut were armed forces from the human world. Of course, this is just a whimsical fantasy to relax the nerves. As a veteran intelligence officer, Wesley has always believed that there is no such thing in the world that cannot be explained, except in District 51, which is widely circulated among the people.

Where did the mysterious special forces, and the mysterious submarine, go?

For more than a month, thousands of intelligence analysts in the intelligence analysis department led by Wesley conducted a comprehensive analysis using the information fed back from various quarters, and finally came to only a few ambiguous conclusions.

First, the camp was attacked by a powerful special forces force that used Ka-27 helicopters and small arms from Germany, France, Italy, and even the United States.

Secondly, the submarine that sank the "Houston" did not belong to any of the allies of the United States, and it was certainly a nuclear submarine, and there is no information about it in the CIA and naval intelligence arsenals, not even data on characteristic noise.

In the end, based on the above two points, it can only be roughly determined that Russia or China was involved in this operation.

Is it Russia, or is it China?

Wesley's intelligence analysts were unable to draw conclusions, and Wesley was unable to draw accurate conclusions.

The Ka-27 anti-submarine helicopter is produced in Russia, but it is equipped with the navies of more than a dozen countries, including China, and can even be bought in stock on the black market of arms. The year before, Russia had two nuclear submarines in service, and the U.S. Navy has not collected any data on those two nuclear submarines. China, for its part, has been building nuclear submarines, with at least three of its most advanced attack submarines in service, and the U.S. Navy has not collected reliable data on these three nuclear submarines. Russia has a special forces unit that participated in the Chechen war with Georgia and has rich experience and strong combat effectiveness. China's special forces have also been fighting terrorist groups in the Pamirs and Central Asia, and their strength should not be underestimated.

As a last resort, the CIA can only target these two countries that have the strength to cause trouble for the United States.

Less than five days after the sinking of the Houston, the U.S. Navy blocked several major sea lanes in the eastern Indian Ocean and subsequently stepped up surveillance in Australia's southern waters.

According to Wesley's analysis, if that submarine comes from China, it will definitely return to China's naval base as soon as possible; If that submarine came from Russia, it would have to return to its naval bases in the Far East, and it would not be possible to go around the world and venture through the submarine exploration network established by the United States during the Cold War in the North Atlantic Ocean to go to Russian naval bases in the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, or the Arctic Ocean.

All of a sudden, the US Pacific Fleet was fully mobilized, and hundreds of warships gathered in the western Pacific region.

In order to strengthen the blockade, the CIA, through an order issued by the president, mobilized hundreds of long-range patrol aircraft to closely monitor every shipping lane in the name of the Rim of the Pacific Naval Joint Exercise. At the same time, dozens of reconnaissance satellites closely monitor the Chinese mainland, as well as every port in the Russian Far East, and even some major inland ports.

As head of intelligence, Wesley knew that the longer the time dragged on, the slimmer the hope.

More than a month has passed, the Rim of the Pacific naval joint exercise has long ended, and the "2010 Maritime Presence" military exercise organized by the US Navy has also reached its final stage. However, there is still no news of the mysterious submarine, not even a single satellite photo of it.

With a sigh of relief, Wesley picked up his icy coffee cup.

If there is no harvest in these days, the operation will be a complete failure. He even thought that in 50 years, or even 20 years, the United States would be reduced to a third-rate country.

At that point, if we look back at what is happening now, the century-old history of American prosperity has come to an end.

Just as he was thinking, there was a few knocks on the door. When Wesley looked up, his chief assistant, Jackson, hurried in with a few freshly developed photos.

"My latest discovery." Jackson didn't say hello and laid the photo on Wesley's desk. "This was taken by our reconnaissance satellite more than ten days ago, and it went unnoticed at the time, and today I found a problem when I re-evaluated."

"What's the problem?"

"Look at this track." Jackson pointed to the white line on the photo in the middle and said, "This is the track left by a large merchant ship, and from the course, it should be left behind by a freighter from Peru to China, most likely a bulk carrier carrying copper ore." Because of the angle, I couldn't take a picture of the merchant ship's name. Looking at these photos, there is a noticeable change in the course, and when the ship arrives here, the course has deviated about fifteen nautical miles to the south, and it has already left the international route. This area is just outside the search area of our shore-based patrol aircraft. In addition, after analyzing the wake of the merchant ship, it was determined that between the two passes of our reconnaissance satellite, its speed was reduced to about four knots. I checked the timetable if the submarine left the Somali basin and dived at a speed of four knots, passed through the Mozambique Strait to the Cape of Good Hope, and then went straight to the Drake Strait, and then headed directly to the area, where it met the freighter. ”

"Why are you telling me now?"

"That's what I just discovered." Jackson felt a little aggrieved.

Reconnaissance satellites take hundreds of thousands of photos every day, so they can only be sifted by computers to pick out high-value or suspicious photos that can then be analyzed by intelligence analysts. Obviously, freighters far away in the eastern Pacific Ocean are neither "high value" nor "suspicious targets".

"Now, where is this freighter?"

"It should be about to pass through the Okinawa Islands and enter the waters of the East China Sea."

"What?" Wesley stood up suddenly, "Contact Hubert immediately and ask him to tell General Sullivan right away to intercept this freighter at all costs!" ”。