Chapter 819 - Two Funerals
Early the next morning, at the cemetery on Coro Island, Jiang Chen attended the funeral of four soldiers who were killed as the President of Celestial Trade.
Celestial reported on the hijacking of the ship and stated that the hostages were all rescued and that all the pirates have been killed on the spot. Four Celestial Trade bodyguards died in service. Jiang Chen attended the funeral of the four soldiers to sending his condolences and personally handed the Medal of Honor and pensions to the families of the fallen soldiers.
At the funeral, after Jiang Chen finished his words of mourning, he briefly addressed the media on the incident of hijacking.
“…Celestial Trade will never compromise to any evil forces. Absolutely never. No matter how many sacrifices are made, no matter what kind of methods are used, whether provocations come from pirates or anyone else, we will protect our people at all costs.”
“… Let us remember these warriors who sacrificed themselves for peace.”
There was applause from the audience.
At the end of the speech, the reporter immediately stepped forward and extended his microphone.
“Mr. Jiang Chen, as the President, what do you think about Mr. Smith, the president of Arrow, and his connection with the Madagascar nuclear explosion and Celestial Trade?”
“I don’t have any opinions on such nonsense. And on this sad day, I don’t want to give any opinion on events unrelated to Celestial Trade. However, if the CEO of Arrow is interested, I recommend he goes to Coro Island’s Institute for Mental Illness to receive treatment.”
There was friendly laughter from the crowd.
Although it was inappropriate to laugh at the funeral, Jiang Chen’s words still amused the foreign journalists.
Obviously, they also didn’t believe there was a linkage between Celestial Trade and the nuclear bomb. After all, Xin only gained control of civil nuclear technology a few months ago. Even if they ignore the gap between commercial nuclear technology and military nuclear technology, and secretly replaces all light-water reactors with heavy water reactors. It was also impossible to get enough of “Plutonium” to make nuclear weapons in such a short period of time.
People were more willing to believe that it was Arrow that deployed nuclear weapons in Madagascar.
The intention behind this move was unknown.
On the bright green lawn, the honor guards raised their guns in front of their chest and shot three times.
Under the ensemble of people, the casket covered with the Xin flag was lowered. The military band played a solemn and passionate national anthem. It was particularly tragic with the cries of the families of the fallen soldiers.
The ceremony was approaching its end. If he continued to stay, he would have to deal with the countless reporters. Jiang Chen nodded to Ayesha, who was next to him and headed to his car. The accompanying bodyguards blocked the reporters for him until the retro black car drove off.
…
Neither the Capitol nor the Pentagon had the precedence to wipe the military contractors’ butts for them.
The Capitol spokesman stated they were unaware of the situation. At the same time, he expressed to the public that the Arrow’s assets in the UA would be strictly audited to ensure that there are no nuclear weapons outside of the control of the government on the UA soil.
As for the follow-up impact of this incident, it was still being escalated under the intentional influence of Future Group online.
Currently, in the manor in the suburbs of of a town in Frankberg, members of the Freemasonry were holding a secret meeting.
Even in this day and age with the highly sophisticated internet infrastructure, they continued to maintain the mystic traditions, relying on ancient dogma to maintain a covenant superior to bloodline.
Sitting in front of a round conference table, the white-haired elder at the head of the table wore a religious robe. With a mourning but solemn tone, he spoke.
“Two days ago, on Madagascar, we lost two brothers.”
“Level three member Mr. Ferrer and level thirty-two member Mr. Evans. Their death is a heavy loss for the Freemasonry. We will never blind our eyes with hatred and we will never spare anyone that killed our brothers.”
“Future Group will pay for their stupidity.”
“As a punishment, I propose to send The Gatekeeper to Asia.”
Here, the old man paused and looked at Carmen who was sitting in the left-hand seat.
“The new head of Rothschild. Do you have any comments?”
Twelve pairs of eyes gazed on him, but Carmen’s expression did not change and he responded with a smile.
“No comments, Mr. Lord.”
The Rothschild family had many friends, but no one could claim to be a friend in front of the most core interests.
The old man nodded and placed his right hand on the table. On that dry finger, the golden ring glittered under the halo of the candle.
“Then, let’s start voting.”
Thirteen hands were placed on the table, representing the thirteen families of the core power of the old world. The vote passed unanimously.
The elder nodded, pleased. He then looked at the door.
The man standing in the doorway slightly bowed and disappeared into the darkness of the doorwy, as if he had never been there.
The elder focused his attention back onto the room.
“Since the war has begun, let us carry out the ceremony to the end.”
Everyone raised their right hand, and in ancient Hebrew, they solemnly repeated the oath repeated countless times.
The candles on the wall flickered.
By that dim light, the thirteen rings pointing up were all engraved with the number thirty-three.
…
Three days had passed since the hijacking. Jiang Chen, as usual, sat in the office of the mansion and turned to an unfinished book.
Natasha knocked on the door.
Jiang Chen knew so clearly because Ayesha’s knocking was always as light as a cat… if a cat could knock on doors.
“Please come in.”
Jiang Chen sighed and put a bookmark into the book and placed in the corner.
Natasha walked in with giant strides and, as Jiang Chen expected, got directly to the point.
“You went overboard.”
“Overboard?” Jiang Chen laughed, got up from his chair and walked to the window. “When they were in Antarctica, they sent an entire battalion to attack me. They didn’t think what they were doing was going overboard?”
The war began long ago, not just in the sense of a war fought with bullets.
If any party naively thought that both sides could co-exist, that would be the definition of naiveness. The new world must be nurtured in the flames of the old world. Whether it was the Freemasonry or the WASP consortium, they would eventually become the enemies of Future Group, except the oldest one should die first.
Hijack a ship? It was just a foolish way to test Future Group. Start from the marginal interests of Future Group and in case Jiang Chen compromises, they would take away the building blocks piece of by piece until they gradually reach for their core interests…
However, Jiang Chen did not intend to compromise. He had made up his mind from the very beginning.
Natasha raised one of her eyebrows.
“Was it really you in Madagascar?”
“I didn’t say anything.” Jiang Chen shrugged and focused on the drone that was fixing up the garden outside his window.
“…”
Natasha silently stared at Jiang Chen’s back, not knowing what to say at the moment.
She didn’t know whether he was confident that the bottom card in his hands would never lose. Or that his achievements were turning him into someone with blind arrogance. There were many people who believed that they could overcome the ancient alliance, but those geniuses who had stood at the crossroads of history all eventually stepped into the abyss of hell.
From Napoleon to Hitler, in terms of war alone, they were undoubtedly geniuses.
“Can you answer a question for me?”
Looking at his reflection beginning to overlap with Natasha’s reflection; Jiang Chen did not turn around and asked abruptly.