Jenny on the side cast a look, and Jack understood and signaled for someone to take Sarayev back.
After Sarayev was taken away, Jenny said again, "The results of the voice comparison are out..."
"Who is it?"
"He is not from Chechnya. The speaker is Naji Harvey, Amir's second-in-command..."
"Amir? Amir Liberal Party?"
A bunch of people looked at each other in confusion, why did the Amir Liberal Party want to save Chechen people, and why did they pretend to be Chechen people.
"Dududu~~~"
The landline phone on the table rang. One of Jenny's men answered the phone and said a few words, then looked at Jack, "Director, the White House wants to set up a video conference with you about this hijacking..."
Jack nodded, and then the scene in the White House appeared on the big screen. A table of people gathered together. Owen knew people including the Secretary of Defense, senior officials of the Air Force and Navy, the President's staff, etc. Among them, the one sitting in the center
None other than President David Palmer.
"Jack, what is going on?"
President Palmer got straight to the point.
"Your Excellency, ten minutes ago we received a hijacking recording from Chechen terrorists who claimed to have controlled Flight 343 from Athens to Washington, with more than 200 hostages. They asked us to release Sarayev..."
"Then what countermeasures do we have?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. President, there are not many situations that can be dealt with in the hijacking. We can't intervene while the plane is in the sky, we can only wait for them to land. They promised that as long as we release Sarayev, they will release half of the hostages in Bogota. I think
That was the best time to take anti-hijacking measures..."
"Do we have any experience in counter-hijacking?"
"Of course, but there are some things we haven't figured out yet. The party who hijacked the plane claimed to be Chechnya, and the person they wanted to rescue was also an important figure in Chechnya. But according to our system analysis, the commander this time was someone from Amir's Freedom Party. This
Illogical…”
There was silence at the White House. Apparently the situation was more complicated than they expected. Could it be that the two organizations were cooperating?
Just when everyone's minds were spinning, a sudden voice suddenly came from the CTU, "No, no, it's not that simple."
Everyone turned to look at Irving who was speaking. The Secretary of Defense at the White House asked dissatisfiedly, "Who is this person?"
Unexpectedly, the president blocked him and said, "No, let him say, any idea is valuable at this time, and we must listen to more professional opinions..."
Irving also realized that he had just lost his composure. He leaned into Jack's ear and roughly told him what he had just thought. President Palmer was already urging him dissatisfiedly, "Agent Irving, please tell me what you have in mind."
, we need to brainstorm ideas..."
Seeing Jack nod, Owen said to the big screen, "I just thought of it. Last week we traced a batch of VX nerve gas from the former Soviet Union to Chechnya, but in the end the whereabouts of this batch of gas were unknown.
The intelligence we have is that Chechnya is preparing to sell this batch of nerve gas to the Persian Gulf Will, and the Persian Gulf Will has long had close ties with the Amir Freedom Party, so I suspect that the batch of nerve gas has already reached the hands of the Amir Freedom Party.
They pretended to be Chechnya, and even offered to rescue Sarayev, but it was just smoke. Their real purpose was revenge. Do you remember that two months ago, SEALs killed Tarabuji, the number one figure in their organization, in the Persian Gulf?
Farha, and our voice comparison system just revealed that the identity of the speaker is Naji Harvey, Amir’s second-in-command, who is a loyal follower of Farha..."
After Irving finished speaking, there was silence both at the White House and here at CTU. If the truth is really what Irving said, it would be terrible.
"Agent Owen, do you have any evidence for saying that?"
President Palmer asked after a long time.
"I'm sorry, President, this is all just speculation on my part, but I think we'd better prepare for the worst."
Owen really has no evidence. He has deduced all this based on the available intelligence. Maybe he is just overthinking, but if it is true, no one can guarantee that terrorists will not do this.
"If this is really the case, then Your Excellency, I suggest that the Air Force directly shoot down Flight 343 offshore and never allow it to enter the United States."
The Secretary of Defense's proposal is very cold-blooded, but it is the safest. Sacrificing the interests of a small number of people to safeguard the interests of the majority seems understandable.
It’s just that President Palmer has been reluctant to make this decision. This is a loss of more than 200 lives, not only Americans, but also foreigners. Once the military plane is destroyed, his political career will basically be over.
The international community will not consider it from the perspective of the United States. They will only say that the people in power this time are executioners, and even domestically they may not all support him. People from the opposition parties will definitely jump out to make trouble, even if they feel that the president has done something wrong.
Yes, I will never let go of such an opportunity.
It is absolutely impossible to destroy the passenger plane, at least not now. President Palmer has made a decision.
"No, that's 200 lives..."
"But President, if there is really VX gas up there, then the other party's target is probably Washington. By then, nearly a million people will lose their lives..."
President Palmer's face was uncertain. It was a difficult decision to make. If he tried, he might save the lives of the 200 people and his future, but it might cost him a million people to be buried with him.
"Jack, how toxic is VX gas?"
President Palmer decided to confirm again.
"VX gas is a kind of nerve gas. If a teaspoon of poison gas falls on the ground, all humans and animals will be forgotten within a hundred feet. If a teaspoon of poison gas explodes in the air, there will be no living creatures within eight streets."
"No, I still decided we shouldn't do that, we didn't even try..."
The president finally rejected the Secretary of Defense's opinion, and then looked hopefully at Jack Bauer.
"How much time do we have?"
"One hour and forty-three minutes, Your Excellency."
Jack knew that the president was not asking about time, but whether there was any other way. CTU and Pamo were tied together. If Pamo was finished, CTU would be finished too.
After a few minutes of silence, Jack slowly said, "There is another way..."
Palmer's eyes lit up, hoping that Jack could perfectly solve this crisis for him.
Jack looked around and then said, "I know that the Air Force has an experimental aircraft that was modified from the 'Blackbird'. It was originally designed to dock with the space shuttle in low-altitude orbits. After the project was terminated, the aircraft was used by the Air Force and improved for use at high altitudes."
Transfer the bomber members, maybe we can try that..."
After Jack finished speaking, the group all looked at the only Air Force General in the conference room. The Air Force General nodded and said, "He is right. The Air Force does have this experimental aircraft, the Flying Fish, but it is still in the experimental stage..."
"What's the result of the experiment?"
"All six connections were normal, but we were docking with bombers and had a dedicated docking interface. The Boeing 747 is only for civil aviation..."
The air force colonel hesitated to speak, but everyone understood what he meant.
President Palmer's eyes were firm: "Then we can only give it a try this time!"
…
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