Chapter 206: Endless Murderous Intent

Director Sandy pressed further, “If such a behemoth truly exists, how should our United States handle it?”

Before the two could respond, Sandy added, “Gentlemen, take some time to think it over. I must report this matter to the President immediately.”

Having said this, she instructed Clark to stay and monitor the situation, while she herself quickly left the Department of Defense building.

“General, we just received a message from a fishing vessel: the fleet from Asan country has retreated,” a staff officer came to report.

“Contact the Telahua ship immediately and inquire about the situation that just occurred,” Vandiatte promptly ordered.

It took over half an hour before they received a reply to the telegram.

Apparently, after the Asan country fleet pulled back, the Telahua did not surface immediately but waited for a while, which caused it not to receive the headquarters’ telegram in time.

It was only after they confirmed safety did they surface to communication depth and got in touch with the headquarters to report on the recent encounter.

After reading through the lengthy telegram, Vandiatte passed it to General Hunte and briefly summarized the contents to Clark.

“According to your intelligence, that Dr. Du’s forces shouldn’t possess such sea behemoths, right?”

Clark had been puzzled from the night before until now; he simply couldn’t imagine how that force could possess the ability to take down U.S. Burke-class warships and B2 combat aircraft.

If that organization had such strength, Du Qiu would have returned to his country long ago after being rescued by them; there would be no need for him to change his appearance and hide in Africa.

If they needed Du Qiu for some research, he would not have to hide in Africa. After all, before the Dream Technology investment in the Tanga Federation, there wasn’t any industry of significance there.

To suggest that there was already a base for that force in Africa, it’s very clear from the existing intelligence that the industrial park in the Tanga Federation was previously owned by the Tanga Federation military; it definitely couldn’t have been a base.

Since there is no base, how can Du Qiu participate in research by staying there?

He would be better off returning home and conducting research at the research center of Dream Technology, which is equipped with complete facilities.

Now, as all the frontline information had been gathered, a new course of thought finally formed in his mind.

“General, I don’t think that force possesses such power to shoot down our aircraft and warship so accurately and in such a short time after we launched our attack.”

Vandiatte looked at Clark and said, “Explain in detail.”

Clark answered, “I’m analyzing from the existing intelligence; that force cannot possibly have such astonishing strength. Otherwise, our aerial bombardment would not have obtained the expected results.

As to why all the aircraft and warships involved in the bombardment met accidents, I personally think it was a coincidence.

First, consider the aircraft; it happened to fly close to the Asan country fleet. It’s unclear how the Asan country warships discovered the B2, but they launched a missile and then shot down the B2.

Now look at the warship; it happened to encounter a sea behemoth and got eaten.

The most important issue is that before the plane and warship encountered trouble, there were incidents of communication cuts. I am inclined to think that it was caused by the sea behemoth.”

General Hunte raised objections, “I disagree. If it was a sea behemoth, how could it first affect the B2’s communication and then appear at the location of the Graveley only two hours later?

The key point is, if it desired to eat steel warships, why didn’t it go for the numerous warships of Asan country close by but instead travel a thousand kilometers to eat the Graveley?”

Clark calmly smiled and offered his theory, “My guess is that the vicinity of where the B2 went down may house a den of the sea behemoth.

That area should have the electromagnetic shielding zones affecting communication that you mentioned before.

As for the sea behemoth, it had just eaten the Graveley and was on its way back to its den when it consumed Asan country’s Aegis ship.

This led Asan country to mistakenly believe that it was our submarine that sank their Aegis ship.

The telegram from the Telahua indicates that the behemoth suddenly vanished in that sea area. If it was a human-operated submarine, moving at high speed, our sonar would not have lost the target.”

Vandiatte stroked his chin and said, “It sounds like the entire train of thought also seems logical, but the issue is that prior to this, there has never been an incident of ships being devoured by a behemoth in that sea region. How do we explain that?”

Clark shook his head and said, “I can’t think of a reason for now. My personal speculation is that it must have been provoked by some special reason to suddenly attack human vessels.”

Hunte remained unconvinced of the existence of such sea behemoths and asked, “According to the descriptions by Donald and others, the sea behemoth is at least a kilometer long and a hundred meters high.

Why would such a massive creature show itself above the water when devouring the Graveley but remain silent and undetectable, akin to a submarine attacking a warship, when targeting the Aegis ship of Asan country?”

Clark helplessly said, “It is indeed somewhat inexplicable. Maybe there was something in the area where the Graveley passed that caused the sea behemoth to suddenly change.

And perhaps, after consuming the Graveley, it underwent another change. In any case, what we know is that there’s now a massive sea creature in the Indian Ocean.”

Hunte said, “I still find it hard to believe. I think we should directly share information with Asan country; we might be able to further clarify why they fired the anti-air missile that brought down our B2, especially how they detected it.”

Clark immediately objected, “It’s better not to. Only we are aware of the existence of the sea behemoth for now. If we can capture and study it, that would be of the greatest benefit to the United States.

If we tell Asan country, it’s as good as telling the whole world. Do we really want to mobilize all nations to hunt monsters in the Indian Ocean?”

Vandiatte agreed, “Director Clark is right. This matter must remain known only to us Americans. If we can capture or kill the sea beast, perhaps we’ll obtain something valuable.”

General Hunte asked, “Then how do we explain to Asan country that we sank their Aegis ship?”

Vandiatte arrogantly declared, “It’s simple. Since they fired on our B2 by mistake first, it was only fair that we did the same to their warship. We’re even-steven, I suppose.”

While they continued their discussion, Director Sandy was rushing by car to the President’s residence.

As the Director-General of GIA, Sandy came into contact with an array of intelligence. Even if she had her doubts about the appearance of the sea behemoth, she dared not treat it lightly.

This kind of matter must be reported to the President. If there really is a sea behemoth in the Indian Ocean, how it grew up and why it suddenly attacks ships are questions to ponder.

According to information from Asan country, they had dropped a batch of deep-water bombs, but they did not seem to harm the behemoth.

So, how strong is its defense, and how did it acquire it? If the U.S. military could capture it, could they gain a lot of valuable information?

While Sandy was contemplating this, a black spot slowly enlarged on the front left tire of Sandy’s car before the tire deflated.

As Sandy was in a hurry and had instructed the driver to speed, the car’s control was lost instantly when the tire deflated, and the driver was too late to correct the direction.

The car had already collided with the traffic in the opposite lane.

Coincidentally, a fuel tanker was approaching from the opposite direction at that moment.

In a panic, the tanker driver slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel sharply, causing the vehicle to skid sideways. Just when it seemed about to collide with Sandy’s suddenly stopped car, it appeared to stop.

Sandy heaved a sigh of relief as the massive tanker halted mere inches away.

Suddenly, a sound of metal breaking tore through the air!

Through the car window, Sandy saw the massive tank of the fuel tanker quite abruptly roll off.

With a loud bang, the huge tank smashed onto Sandy’s car, instantly flattening the sedan.

However, the situation did not end there; following this, a massive explosion sounded, and flames shot into the sky.

The scene was engulfed in a sea of fire!

From the electrical wires above, the iron tower by the river, and atop a stopped truck, several drones identified as “Prowlers II” were capturing all of it, sending the footage in real-time back to distant Africa.

As Du Qiu watched the scene unfold on the screen, there wasn’t much of a ripple in his heart.

They first used missiles to bomb, then tried to burn him alive with incendiaries; it was only right to return the favor ‘eye for an eye’ and let Sandy taste death by an oil tanker’s crush followed by a raging inferno.

“Star Ocean, order the dragon to consume the B2 wreckage and then make a cave on the seafloor there, arranging the respective electromagnetic isolation zone to occasionally appear and disappear,” Du Qiu instructed while looking at another screen portraying the conversation between Clark and Vandiatte.

Clark’s words led him to believe it was time to set up a trap so that the Americans would be further convinced of the sea behemoth’s existence.

“Yes, sir. I think we should make a mobile electromagnetic wave shielding device, let a few of these devices roam that sea area. It would be quite difficult for anyone to identify the cause then,” came the response.

“Good idea, let’s do that,” agreed Du Qiu.

After expressing his approval, Du Qiu turned his attention back to the screen showing Clark and the others, stating, “Next, it will be this Director Clark’s turn.”

“Sir, shouldn’t we also take out that General Vandiatte?” an inquiry came.

“If all the commanders involved in this operation die obscurely, it would raise the Americans’ suspicions. Now that these two real instigators from the GIA are gone, that will suffice.”