Chapter 709 - 688: That Night

"Is this all?"

John held Sullivan’s handwritten notes in his trembling hand, gripping the printer paper slightly.

The latter stood beside him, slightly bowed, without a word, accepting John’s somewhat indignant questioning:

"We voluntarily cut 1,500 nuclear weapons, directly abolished the Wolf Clause, and even agreed to lift trade restrictions. So many conditions only got us an elusive promise?"

"Translate Xu’s exact words for me. What does ’only for the defense needs of the country, limited use of lasers as defense’ mean?"

John, of course, understood the real meaning behind this vague statement, for it was precisely because he understood it that he was so angry.

Starting from the national defense needs only meant that the laser satellites launched into space would also operate only above their own country’s territory.

Doesn’t this mean that they had initially planned to deploy globally, but simply scaled down a little?

Thinking more radically, the deployment of laser weapons has always been a process; it should first complete national defense before expanding influence. Doesn’t this show that Xu Rang didn’t show any real sincerity and was simply putting a spin on something that was bound to happen in the future to fool others?

John’s normally ruddy face was somewhat darkened with anger, He thought that such shameless acts were only capable of the UK or Russia; had this burly and big-eyed man also gone bad?

Meanwhile, Sullivan, who was being criticized, was internally commenting that the "generous" conditions they offered didn’t touch the core interests and were just slightly ahead of the world’s general trend. What Xu truly wanted, John had deliberately ignored.

The modern international interest disputes all belong to geopolitical entanglements, which is why geographic issues receive the most attention. Additionally, there is the issue of super "termites" still under strict investigation domestically.

Xu had hinted more than once that he was willing to use the "big termites" as a bargaining chip. However, there were no such high-level moles in the intelligence agency, and due to the overly subtle communications, they mistook it as a need to hand over the entire intelligence network of the continent, which of course could not be agreed upon.

America had misestimated the progress of the laser satellites and made demands that even their own country, which had not yet started space trials, could not accept.

As a result, both parties stubbornly argued on the wrong issues, and in the end, they only produced a messy outcome.

The private negotiation ended discontentedly; other than cursing, John had no choice but to keep urging the domestic military contractors and continue to find ways to slow down the Chinese people’s progress.

Only after finishing his lengthy admonishment of this matter did John change the subject:

"What about my artificial sun? How is that large mirror that can provide eight times the moon’s light in space doing? Robert said this thing was simple; is he ready to launch it?"

The artificial sun was at the top of John’s space project list, and although its significance couldn’t compare to landing on Mars or Jupiter, or any other probe, it was big and bright, and the American public could see it just by looking up.

Imagine the new generation bathing in the sunlight during the day and under the artificial sun at night; whenever they looked up at the sky, they’d remember a great president named John who changed America and brought brightness to the moon...

Sullivan, observing John’s sparkling eyes, knew what he was thinking, but the artificial sun, seemingly simple, was complicated in reality.

It was mainly the problem of light pressure. The artificial sun had a deploying diameter of nearly 1100 meters, and the light pressure from sunlight was enough to reach Mars in just a few months. It either had to be attached to a large spacecraft or require a flexible ion orbit adjustment system.

Yet, the calculated data showed that to maintain it in a geostationary orbit, it would need fuel replenishment every six months, and its cost-effectiveness needed to be carefully considered.

The material for the artificial sun itself had already been successfully tested; it could be quickly produced once the project was confirmed.

"Find a way to launch it within the third quarter."

John knocked on the table; his demand implied another agenda—the solar power station project for chasing the sun was also set to start in the second half of the year; the artificial sun needed to be completed before that.

By now, the Presidential Palace had been completely enveloped in darkness. John stretched his body slightly, involuntarily looking in the direction of the Pacific Ocean.

Time zones are a strange thing; as one side of Earth slipped into sleep, the other was just waking up.

...

Bang, bang, bang...

The guards at Zhongyuan heard the hasty sound of shoe heels hitting the ground once again, and instinctively straightened their posture a bit more.

It was now 7 o’clock, and the northern sun had already risen. It was normal for people to be around.

But since last midnight, such sounds had not ceased, making the guards involuntarily feel alarmed.

At first, it was people in casual clothes who went inside, followed a while later by several in formal attire, then those in various uniforms, and afterwards, there were mostly civilians again.

The guards could not tell how many people had entered the courtyard, but they were certain it had been a sleepless night.

What could it be?

The young guard couldn’t stop his imagination from running wild. He had never encountered such a situation during his service. What kind of urgent matter could involve so many people?

A major earthquake, a massive explosion, or a sudden local conflict?

He carefully recalled the latest hot topics, and then under the warm sunshine, he couldn’t help but feel sleepy.

Snap!

The sudden appearance of a figure in his field of vision immediately woke him, and he tried to stand as straight as possible.

It was time to change shifts and he naturally completed the handover process. As he was leaving, he heard his relief mutter quietly:

"Grab something to eat first, the captain wants to have a talk."

"What talk?"

"Tighten security, get going."

The guard quickly departed, and half a minute later, Zhong Cheng, his eyes bloodshot, swept past the guards like a gust of wind, leaving behind a choking trail of cigarette smoke.

Then came the other nocturnal visitors, one by one entering with that unmistakable acrid tobacco scent clinging to them, causing the guard to tense his muscles to suppress the urge to sneeze.

He squinted slightly and tilted his head to distract himself, allowing the sunlight to hit his face just right.

Just another ordinary day.

...

Seated in the car heading to the airport, Zhong Cheng blinked his eyes vigorously, red and teary from the irritation of cigarette smoke.

An Shenduo’s calming effect was too short, and given that it was "alien technology", yesterday he could only resort to the old method to keep himself alert, though it was more about soothing the mind. Everyone who knew the situation hadn’t been able to sleep at all.

After four expert teams had finished their analyses, and confirmation had come from abroad, the atmosphere at Zhongyuan momentarily dropped to freezing point, and it almost escalated to a war state right there.

He was only leaving for a short while now, and he estimated he would be spending the next month in such secret meetings, which was the least that could be done to honor the significance of alien civilization.

Those four words had taken just one minute to put the Space Force into preparation mode, and the space agency was directly burdened with the heaviest of military purposes.

He recalled the scene after he had briefed the Everlasting Base on the situation: an entire ten minutes of silence, and the floor almost covered with cigarette butts.