Invasion of America

Chapter 120 Counterattack
Not far from Xiao Jinlang, in another courtyard of the 'Amusement Park' shelter, Zhou Qingfeng was fast asleep on his bed.

The 'Wizard of Oz' is quite large, with its own small hotel and dozens of rooms, all decorated in a fairytale theme.

However, after the amusement park fell into disrepair, the once brightly colored mascot statues now have blank faces and missing limbs, making it feel eerie even during the day and even more sinister at night.

Zhou Qingfeng rented the place and renovated it, removing a lot of the decorations, connecting water and electricity, and updating some living facilities, making it habitable.

Not long ago, the original strain of the 'X' virus spread, and four or five hundred people hid in this shelter, each one trembling with fear and unease.

The pandemic seems to be receding now, and some residents have left, but a small number remain, waiting to see how things develop.

Kelly, who had just returned from 'Dongda', settled in this shelter. She was sitting by the bed, looking down at Zhou Qingfeng, and the more she looked at him, the more she liked him.

This kid is really good at creating trouble. Not only did he pull off a scheme to escape from the capital, but he also managed to get into the 'Ministry of Health' and then the 'Ministry of Efficiency'.

He transformed himself from a wanted criminal across the country into a high-ranking official in the nation. This bizarre story thrilled and terrified Kelly.

There was a knock on the door, and someone was calling from outside.

As Kelly went outside, her father, Jeff Connery, stood there anxiously and asked, "How is Victor's injury?"

When Zhou Qingfeng announced that he had been appointed as the head of the "Efficiency Department", Kelly did not relay it to her father.

But Mrs. Jay, being shrewd and experienced, immediately realized that something big was happening when she learned that her eldest daughter was going back to the United States, and that it must be related to Zhou Qingfeng.

When the father and daughter return, the mystery will naturally be revealed.

“Thankfully, Victor is very strong. He has no fractures or internal bleeding, just some minor impacts and a slight muscle tear. He said he'll be fine after a day or two of rest,” Kelly replied.

Jeff felt a little relieved, then looked around to make sure no one was nearby, before lowering his voice to ask, "Did Victor say when he's going back to Washington?"

Kelly rolled her eyes. "Victor is going back to be the head of the 'Efficiency Department'?"

"Of course I want it, of course I want it!" Jeff exclaimed anxiously. "This is the position closest to the core of American power. How can we give it up so easily?"

Public opinion is currently very favorable for Victor; everyone sympathizes with him. If he were to reappear as a hero, it would be a stroke of luck.

With just a few words, Jeff got incredibly excited, rubbing his hands together in agitation. "Our 'real estate' president almost got shot in the head, and afterwards his approval rating skyrocketed."

Voters who hated the gunman berated him for not finding a better weapon and practicing his marksmanship; voters who supported him felt it was God's blessing, and even those who didn't vote had to stand up to defend their imagined saint.

The same applies to Victor now. While others would certainly die in a plane crash, he would emerge unscathed, inevitably causing his fame and popularity to skyrocket.

Kelly asked coldly, "Father, what do you want to gain from this?"

Jeff paused, then sighed, “Son, I don’t want anything, at least not money. I’m already very rich, as are you and Victor.”

We are all rich, but what about power?

Now an opportunity is before us, one that seems to belong only to Victor, but Victor has always been generous and will certainly need us.

It is often said that "a trade is like a mountain to climb".

Kelly had some knowledge of finance, but when it came to power, she was a complete novice. She frowned upon hearing her father's words.

Jeff, however, was lost in thought. "This trip to 'Tokyo University' has completely dispelled my idea of ​​confronting them head-on. So what if 'Tokyo University' rules the East? We can rule the West."

Victor is the Minister of Efficiency today, and in a few years he will be the President.

"I could probably be Secretary of Commerce, or even Secretary of the Treasury; I'd be a million times better than those useless people in the White House right now."

Kelly had to interrupt, saying, "Father, you shouldn't think so much. Victor's position as 'Minister' is not secure right now; he must have been assassinated in this plane crash."

Jeff opened his mouth, unable to refute it, then his face darkened, and he nodded, acknowledging the assessment.

Footsteps came from the darkness in the corner of the room, and someone said, "That's right, it was indeed an assassination, and the kind that's completely unskilled."

The father and daughter turned around and saw that it was Hammer and Lucy, grandfather and granddaughter, coming out. The senile old man added,

“If Victor doesn’t fight back, his position will be unstable. Even if he does it alone, his position will still be unstable.”

Zhou Qingfeng slept for seven or eight hours, and the aching, tearing sensation was greatly relieved. When he woke up, he found a group of people sitting around the room.

Kelly and her father were there, as were Hammer and his grandson, and even Professor Hart, who had given him the disguise and helped him rise to power, was present. He stood up, looked around, and asked, "Is there something you need?"

Old man Hammer said in a deep voice, "Victor, we have devised a revenge plan for you, a roadmap for you to gain a foothold in politics."
-
While Zhou Qingfeng was fast asleep, the Coast Guard searching for 'Harden' was the first to locate the 'Bell' helicopter he was riding in.

Soon, the bodies of the two pilots were recovered, confirming the plane crash.

Hours later, a vehicle passing by the crash site 'accidentally' discovered Shani lying on the shore and quickly took her to the hospital.

Search and rescue personnel told the media, "Her Excellency Harden and his entourage have not yet been found. If they are not found within 24 hours, the chances of their rescue are very slim."

Admiral Alvin, far away on Norfolk, also learned of the news. He frowned symbolically before focusing his anxious energy on the fire engulfing the USS Ford.

Inside the naval port, thick smoke rose like a black curtain, spreading recklessly and obscuring the sky. The air was filled with a pungent, acrid smell and a suffocating sense of oppression.

All the rescue teams present were extremely apprehensive; no one wanted to get involved in a 'fight' that was destined to fail or even cost them their lives.

The U.S. Navy is now in a state of chaos due to this sudden and catastrophic fire.

All of the navy's operational plans and strategic concepts are as closely dependent on those large and expensive warships for execution, like intricate gears.

The loss of an aircraft carrier would be an immeasurable blow to the navy.

As Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Alvin's methods of asking Congress for military funding have always been simple, crude, and effective.

That is, to send aircraft carriers to sensitive waters from time to time to provoke other countries and artificially create tension in order to emphasize the importance of the navy.

Previously, when facing the visiting "Harden", General Alvin kept talking about dealing with the rise of "Todai", but he didn't really want to start a war.

His approach was to send two or three aircraft carriers to loiter around the first island chain in the western Pacific, directly threatening the most economically prosperous southeastern coast of the "Eastern University" and creating a military presence.

Now, this once-successful strategy has completely failed.

Admiral Alvin was no fool; he knew all too well the devastating damage the raging fire would inflict on the state-of-the-art USS Ford. His only hope now was to extinguish the out-of-control blaze as quickly as possible and then announce that the Ford would require lengthy repairs.

As for how many years it will take to repair and how much money it will cost, that's a problem for the future, a mess that the next Chief of Naval Staff will have to deal with.

He had his own plan: to delay as long as possible, and eventually no one would hold him accountable.

Just like the USS Miami nuclear submarine and the USS Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship, which also suffered fires before, weren't they ultimately scrapped?

However, this time, fate did not seem to be on General Alvin's side.

After the fire had been burning for a full twenty-four hours, his adjutant rushed into the command room, his face ashen, his voice trembling with despair:
"General! We're finished! All the rescue personnel who tried to enter the carrier from other decks have been forced to retreat!"

The adjutant's voice trembled with tears: "They said they've done everything they could to save the engine room."

However, the living and quarters have been completely burned through, and the flames have spread into the ammunition storage area! The missiles inside the aircraft carrier are experiencing violent explosions!

Without the adjutant needing to offer any further explanation, Admiral Alvin, in the command center not far from the dock, clearly heard the muffled "thump! thump!" sounds coming from inside the USS Ford.

That was the terrifying sound of a high-energy explosive being detonated by high temperature.

The ammunition storage area has extremely strict isolation and security measures, and it is not easy for ordinary explosive shocks to ignite it.

However, the navy's main munitions are various types of missiles, which are filled not only with high explosives but also with large amounts of solid propellants.

Once exposed to temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius, these propellants will burn violently or even explode without the need for oxygen. This is even more true for the thousands of tons of aviation fuel prepared for carrier-based aircraft.

When he heard that the flames had ignited the missiles in the ammunition storage area, General Alvin felt his hands and feet go cold.

He instantly realized that the Ford was completely beyond saving, and even the last shred of dignity would be lost.

The previous "Miami" nuclear submarine caught fire, and the interior was completely burned, but at least the outer shell remained relatively intact.

The US Navy can still shamelessly claim that the fire has been effectively controlled.

The USS Bonhomme Richard caught fire, and the fire brigade fought the blaze for four days, burning several huge holes in the deck.

The ship's steel also lost its original structural strength due to the high temperature, and the ship's deck, superstructure and mast all collapsed in a horrific manner.

But at least the outer shell was still intact, and the US Navy even pretended to study it before announcing its abandonment.

Now, the fire on the USS Ford is far more destructive than any previous accident!
Admiral Alvin could almost foresee that this supercarrier, which had taken more than a decade to build and represented countless hours of hard work and huge sums of money, would experience a spectacular explosion in full view of everyone!

"Cut open the flight deck, all the way to the fire, and then flood it with water," the admiral came up with as a last resort. "If you can't cut it open, then blow it up."

The adjutant asked blankly, "Should we also cut into the aircraft carrier's combat command center and engine room? If we force it flooded, the 'Ford' will definitely be scrapped."

The general made a tough decision: "It's better than it exploding."
-
The lieutenant colonel's adjutant was extremely anxious and rushed to the command center, desperately relaying General Alvin's latest instructions.
The exhausted rescue teams on site were ordered to spare no effort to forcibly break through the sturdy deck of the USS Ford.
Large amounts of fire-fighting foam were injected directly into the aircraft carrier in an attempt to stop the all-consuming flames.

The faces of all the rescuers who received the order were filled with bitterness and helplessness, and they all said that this was simply an impossible task.

The decks of modern aircraft carriers are constructed with special alloy steel plates, their sturdiness far exceeding expectations and incomparable to ordinary wooden structures. Force it open? With your head, are you going to try?

Just as the lieutenant colonel's lips were about to crack and blister from anxiety, his personal cell phone suddenly rang.

The screen displayed a familiar number—a colleague from his time at the Naval Academy. Without thinking twice, he immediately answered the phone.

The colleague on the other end of the phone spoke with an unusual calm: "Dick, I saw you on the news broadcast."

You should probably start planning for your future. A very important person wants to contact you.

The lieutenant colonel stood there stunned for a full half minute. He looked around blankly at the chaotic and busy firefighting scene, and tentatively asked, "What do you mean? Am I going to be court-martialed?"

"Maybe yes, maybe no, but it will definitely affect your future career. You certainly won't be able to retire peacefully," a colleague advised. "Maybe you should take some time to think about it."

A peaceful retirement? From the moment the fire broke out, Lieutenant Colonel Dick had already given up all hope.

Such a serious accident must require someone to take responsibility.

Those who perished in the fire could not be scapegoats. Therefore, a sufficiently influential figure had to be chosen to quell public anger and the criticism from superiors.

The lieutenant colonel initially thought that he would never be blamed for this, but now he began to waver. Who could guarantee that he could stay out of it?
He couldn't help but ask, "What important person? What does he want?"

"You'll know once you get in touch with them; I can't tell you too much over the phone." The colleague gave a contact number and added coldly:
"This number is only valid for the next half hour; it will expire after that."

Instead of immediately dialing the mysterious number, Lieutenant Colonel Dick quickly contacted his friend in the Naval Intelligence Bureau to help trace the source of the number.

A few minutes later, his friend called back to tell him that it was a newly activated number that was already powered on and connected to a base station right outside the Norfolk Naval Base port!

Right outside the port?
The lieutenant colonel's heart skipped a beat. He instinctively turned his head and cast a complicated look at the USS Ford aircraft carrier, which was still burning fiercely.

Thick smoke billowed, obscuring the sky and the sun, like a wounded beast roaring in despair.

The Norfolk Naval Base, where the aircraft carrier is docked, is not a completely enclosed military port; there are also many public waters nearby.

By this time, news of the aircraft carrier's fire had already spread far and wide.

Countless media reporters with a keen sense of smell, like sharks smelling blood, rented yachts and approached the area to take pictures with their cameras and microphones.

Several news helicopters could be seen circling overhead, their buzzing noises like annoying flies, which was quite irritating.

Lieutenant Colonel Dick's first reaction was that contacting his old classmate was likely a deception, and that the so-called "big shot" might just be a media reporter looking to dig up firsthand news leads.

but……

The lieutenant colonel turned his gaze back to the direction where General Alvin was, and was surprised to find that the usually dignified and solemn general was quietly leaving.

His steps were hurried, and he seemed preoccupied, like a frightened bird that only wanted to escape a powder keg, showing no intention of taking his deputy along.

This scene instantly shattered the last shred of hope in Lieutenant Colonel Dick's heart. He immediately dialed the number his colleague had given him, and the first question on the other end was:
“Tell me where General Alvin is, and I’ll arrange a way out for you afterwards, plus two million dollars.”

Hearing that deep, cold voice, the lieutenant colonel felt a strange sense of familiarity; he must have heard it recently. A jolt of electricity seemed to surge through his mind, and he retorted, "Sir Harden, you're not dead?"

(End of this chapter)