In the spacious director's office, a middle-aged white man was leaning on a computer chair, frowning and staring at the documents in his hand.
"Space program? What exactly is the Ming Group planning?" Naomi couldn't help but said, leaning on her desk as she stared at the documents in her hand.
Due to the heavy losses in the Tang Dynasty espionage operation some time ago, former CIA Director John finally could not withstand the pressure of public opinion and resigned. Only then did he, Naomi Madden, have the opportunity to take over. Although due to various reasons, the authorities adjusted their plans to target the Ming Group.
strategy, but the name Zhu Tian has always been on the CIA's list of key concerns.
From the overthrow of the Palau regime, to the Philippine fishing boat incident, to the recent immersive virtual reality technology, and the deep-sea mining technology that has caused topics in the mining industry...
Behind this series of hot events, the man's name can be faintly seen. More intelligence shows that Zhu Tian is probably the mastermind behind the civil war in the Philippines, but because there is no evidence, the CIA cannot do anything against them.
Instinct tells Naomi that this guy is a dangerous person. Not because his existence harms the national interests of the United States, but because of his ability to always create miracles. There are so many mysteries about him that
It reminded him of a long-dusted document...
"It's not clear. The only thing that can be determined is that they have now spent 5 billion US dollars to acquire all the shares of two domestic private aerospace technology companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy, and held a board meeting to reorganize and merge the two companies into Daming Trading Company.
The Space Project Department and relocated to Palau." The agent standing next to the man said calmly with his hands behind his back.
"Customs?" Naomi didn't take her eyes away from the document in her hand.
"Eleven pieces of equipment among the assets of the two aerospace technology companies were listed in the export restricted items. However, they did not go through customs, but directly sold the equipment to SpaceX at a low price. It seems that they did not intend to get the equipment at all, but only wanted to
We need those technicians.”
Naomi sneered.
"Oh? Do they think they can create a rocket from scratch by just bringing in a group of MIT graduates?"
Without that industrial production capacity, even a single screw on the rocket would be impossible to manufacture. This is not a problem that a few scientists could solve in the past. The more high-end the industry, the higher the requirements for the industrial base.
It often takes decades to establish this industrial base.
"Don't know. Just like we don't know where they got that deep-sea mining equipment from." The agent shrugged.
Naomi fell silent.
Although he is not a technician, he is familiar with the problems of deep-sea mining as he was born in science. The first one is the material problem. Very few materials can withstand the pressure of 7,000 meters of water for a long time, let alone mining with such terrifying pressure.
Already.
For a while it was virtual reality, and for a while it was deep-sea mining. Now they have reached out to aerospace. It seems that they have been deploying the most cutting-edge fields regardless of cost. The frontier means risk, but on the other hand, it also means risk.
High return.
The major shareholder of Daming Group is a complete gambler, and he is not stingy.
There is almost a consensus among Wall Street investors that they are gamblers with chips.
"Can you find a way to find out the source of their technology?" Naomi asked in a deep voice.
"I have been arranging people to do this work, but so far there has been no success." The agent showed a helpless expression: "At present, we can only speculate that they have a secret research institute, which may be underground.
, or disguised as other agencies and hidden somewhere in Palau. I have to say that although they are somewhat informal in their intelligence work, they are extremely cautious in their confidentiality work. I can apply for the dispatch of additional manpower to Palau.
?"
"It's difficult." Naomi shook her head: "There are too many places that need to use people. Although Daming Group is interesting, it is only a private company after all. Although some people in Congress are interested in the technology they have, the White House
The Chinese side hopes to win over Palau and requires us to exercise a certain degree of restraint."
"Isn't the president interested?" the agent asked.
"Let's put it this way, it is the energy giants that provide campaign funds for the president, not Nasdaq listed companies." Naomi said calmly: "Our focus is still on the Middle East and Eastern Europe. As for those new things.
As long as it's not a weapon of mass destruction, it's better to leave it to the businessmen to use their own brains."
Generally speaking, the CIA, which keeps its budget secret, does not need to lose face with the president. The one who is loyal to the White House should be their old enemy, the FBI. But because it was "set up by the General Staff" in Tang Dynasty last time, the CIA is now facing Congress.
I didn't have much confidence when I was in the White House.
The reason why former Director John retired early was because he was unpopular with both Congress and the White House. The espionage operation that was good at making claims almost dragged the White House into a diplomatic quagmire. Fortunately, Tang State did not protest against the previous incident, otherwise the United States would be trapped in the Bay of Pigs.
The second largest diplomatic scandal after the incident.
Although Congress has no power to interfere with the CIA's budget, it does have the power to cut funding for it, and in fact they have already done so. Even if Naomi doesn't want to side with the president, he has to make certain decisions about the budget.
degree of compromise.
"Well, this is damn politics... But what I want to say is that Palau has established a national security department, and our work may be affected to a certain extent. If we cannot get support, I cannot guarantee that we will be as stable in the future.
To provide information." The agent sighed, spread his hands and said helplessly.
"Then just show off and keep an eye on their launch projects... What worries me more is not the Daming Group opposite, but the little mice we raise, who seem to be a little disobedient recently." Naomi said.
"Europe?" the agent asked tentatively.
"Yes, intelligence shows that they seem to have received donations from unknown sources. Not satisfied with being a small place like Ukraine, they have extended their tentacles to our other children. Recently, there is intelligence that they seem to have had an affair with Zhu Tian
Some degree of contact." Naomi picked up another document and said calmly.
"You mean...Zhu Tian has contact with them."
"Probably not. There should be no focus of interest between the two parties. No...if I insist on saying so, it's not that there is none." Naomi frowned, biting her thumb and muttered to herself.
A word suddenly came to his mind.
To be honest, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, collecting intelligence on black technology has always been one of the CIA's work projects.
But with the end of the Cold War, this work, which had been without clues, was gradually shelved.
But does that thing really exist? It is a legendary item that can communicate with the future.
Then Naomi's brows relaxed, and she shook her head with a self-deprecating smile.
How could such a thing exist? It's just like the Nazi's Arctic military base.
Reality is not fiction.
...
The booming development of private spaceflight has a big background, that is, the failure of the early space shuttle and the end of the space race caused by the end of the Cold War. This turmoil led to the cancellation of a large number of important projects in the United States starting in the 1980s, and the investment of aerospace giants was in vain.
, enthusiasm was greatly affected.·
After the disarmament in the 1990s and the great consolidation of the aerospace industry, giants such as Pratt & Whitney, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin are no longer as monopolistic as they were in the 1960s, and they are more sensitive to risks. Therefore, they are half-hearted about commercial launches and only favor the defense business.
Not to mention the high price, their engines were originally invested by Americans, but because the manufacturers were unwilling to spend money to build new factories, they ended up completely relying on Russian production.
This is why Russia can stiffen its neck in the face of sanctions. Threats to terminate cooperation and "break out of food" for the International Space Station have been staged more than once, and have been tried and true. Until the rise of private space companies in recent years, this kind of discord has
The threat of pain gradually became less effective.
Facts have proved that industries dominated by bureaucrats have no future after all, and this is also vividly reflected in the aerospace industry.
Take the famous private aerospace company SPABSP, its launch price has reached an almost ridiculous level, only a fraction of the market price. No country or company in the world can compete with it. These emerging companies have inherited a lot of old era
The research results of the aerospace giant, but the debts have not been inherited at all.
Speaking of Musk, the boss of Space-X, he is also a legendary figure, but his popularity in China is far less than that of Steve Jobs. However, if you mention the several earth-shattering things he has done, many people should still be interested.
I have heard about it. For example, he co-founded an online payment mechanism, which is the most successful online payment method to date. It was later acquired by eBay, and he earned his first pot of gold from this.
Another example is the most popular car in the past year. No doubt, he is also the boss of Tesla!
Not only that, he invited three well-known entrepreneurs to co-found Space-X. and set the ambitious strategic goal of "taking space tourism as a starting point, opening an era of privatization of space resources, and ultimately realizing the settlement of Mars."
And facts have proven that they are indeed at the forefront of the world in the field of aerospace.
The Falcon rocket was born. Its push-to-value ratio reached a terrifying 1:150! It replaced Russia’s best score of 1:120 and became the most advanced rocket in the world. What makes people even more envious and jealous is that such a rocket not only
The launch cost is low and it can be reused! The first-stage rocket can hover at an altitude of 200 meters and then fall vertically without damage.
Finally, its motive is 3D printed.
With so many advantages combined, its market competitiveness is unparalleled. At the same time, its relationship with NASA and the U.S. Air Force can almost be described as iron buddies. The orders that came in like snowflakes made Musk a lot of money.