What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 337 Broadcast
Off the coast of the Bahamas.

Calvin frowned as he watched helicopter after helicopter fly overhead.

As a true aviation superpower, the United States has a large number of helicopters owned by civilian media, television stations, search and rescue organizations, and even individuals.

Although most of them are small helicopters, quite a few are still able to fly to the open sea.

Upon hearing that a cruise ship full of students and professors had sunk, Florida spontaneously dispatched more than a dozen helicopters within hours to conduct search and rescue operations before nightfall.

As night fell, civilian passenger ships and cargo ships joined the search and rescue efforts, heading to the sunken area according to directions.

The "Clover" is a large cruise ship of more than 9000 tons, and it was actually hit by only three light aerial torpedoes.

However, she lacked the watertight compartments and carefully optimized shock-resistant structure of a warship. Three torpedoes arrived one after another, easily tearing a terrifying hole in the midships.

The entire Clover was almost broken in half, and within just 15 minutes it began to sink after taking on a large amount of water. By the time the helicopter arrived, only passengers and wreckage remained floating at sea.

When Calvin arrived in a military helicopter, most of the floating survivors had already been taken away by boats and helicopters, with only a few search and rescue vessels recovering bodies.

Whether professional or amateur, divers would dive until their oxygen was almost depleted before stopping. After a short rest on the boat, they would continue diving to bring back the pale bodies.

On this tranquil sea, lies the empire's last vestige of kindness.

Although he wasn't involved in Johnson's plans, how could someone of Calvin's caliber not know about their underhanded tactics?

However... the minister's ruthlessness was far beyond imagination.

His "Seahawk" didn't stay there for long, but flew towards the sea area more than ten kilometers away, the last place where ESD-24 was last seen.

If the Clover could still be seen as a faint, blurry shadow underwater under the sunlight, ESD-24 seemed to have never been there.

After hovering for a while, a Seawolf-class destroyer approached the water and raised its antenna to transmit the detection results.

After that, Seawolf dived again, attempting to follow up on the mysterious submarine that sank ESD-24.

"No metallic reflection was detected!"

When the assistant read out the results sent back by Seawolf in astonishment, Calvin's face did not show much emotion.

The Battle of Antigua was only partially publicized, but it caused a major upheaval within the empire.

While the technology that could suddenly move the wreckage of a warship is inexplicable, its existence can certainly be confirmed.

The fact that the wreckage of those submarines hasn't disappeared is probably just because the Second Fleet doesn't bother to salvage a pile of junk.

Now, they are simply using this mysterious technique again.

Calvin's eyes were unfathomable, leaving his assistant momentarily unsure of what his superior was thinking.

But at that moment, the helicopter pilot suddenly noticed something unusual.

"...We are a lost empire, an immortal high seas fleet, gentlemen who never target ordinary people."

I swear by the blood of the Elmans, the Second Fleet has never attacked any civilian ships, and the Clover and Coral Princess were not…

"Report! There's a public broadcast! They're covering almost every frequency from shortwave to medium wave! They're claiming to be from the Second Fleet, announcing that the Clover wasn't sunk by them, and that it was all a staged event by the Empire!"

The entire Atlantic Ocean is now a broadcasting source… no, it’s just a few hundred kilometers away from us. There must be many submarines surfacing and broadcasting at the same time!”

"This is suicide!"

The assistant cried out in disbelief.

It's clear that this broadcast was aimed at the US. Since the signal was strong enough to be received even by the Seahawk, it can only mean that the source of the transmission was within a few hundred kilometers.

With such a dense signal, only the simplest triangulation is needed to lock onto the trail, and once those underwater tractors are locked on, they will never be able to escape.

"Immediately launch all anti-submarine helicopters, and quickly contact the submarine we just encountered and give them guidance!"

Calvin also realized that this was a huge opportunity, but deep down he felt an even greater sense of dread:
Is it possible that the organization sacrificed dozens of submarines and at least hundreds of lives to clear their name? Are the people in this organization just machines that obey orders?

……

The reality was even more outrageous than Calvin had imagined.

Beginning at 9 a.m. on April 12, radio waves across the entire transatlantic, from Maine to the Bahamas, from Iceland in the far north to the Strait of Gibraltar, were filled with life-affirming announcements in seven common languages.

Such blatant wireless power was immediately detected by radar and aircraft in the area, and an investigation into its source began immediately.

The U-boats that participated in the broadcast did not begin to sink until they were detected by aircraft or ships, which triggered dozens of anti-submarine operations.

The entire Atlantic Rim is now in complete chaos, with navies from various countries rushing to make contact with the Second Fleet.

... Maryland.

Dirich Biological Laboratory.

In the spacious basement, there were rows of human-shaped objects covered with drapes, neatly arranged.

Victor Ambrose, hands in his coat pockets, stared at the speechless strangers like a freak.

261 men—that's all the Second Fleet sailors the Imperial Navy got from the submarines.

They were all sent to the Dirichlet Biological Laboratory to check for any abnormalities.

The laboratory test results were clear: they were all dead.

They were just ordinary, normal people with nothing special about them; they came in all shapes and sizes, and all had typical Hans features.

"Hey Victor, didn't you really find any mysterious chips or something?"

Victor glanced sideways at the BPRD director, who always wore a tactical vest filled with pistols, making him look more like a berserker.

“York, I think Marin is a better fit for you than working for the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations.”

"In fact, I am Marun."

York didn't care at all and joined the ranks of the perverts who stared.

If anyone is more interested in these sailors, it's definitely the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation.

In the 1950s and 60s, because they suspected that Mao Zedong had mind control technology to develop so many agents, the BPRD invested a lot of research in the manipulation of minds and wills.

Although they didn't get the secret to manipulating people's minds, they did create a lot of interrogation drugs, and they were surprisingly effective.

But with the emergence of the Second Fleet, BPRD began to re-examine this area:
Sending thousands of elites to their deaths suggests nothing more than brainwashing and mind control.

York was overjoyed to have these sailors, hoping to find a way to manipulate minds, and even persuaded many Nobel laureates to study them.

Victor is not a Nobel laureate, but a well-known genetic biologist; he was just an assistant in the lab.

After an unknown amount of time, Victor suddenly stood up straight, looking at the rows of white cloths with a strange expression. He then strode forward and lifted one of the cloths, revealing a grayish-white face underneath.

Then came the second, the third, the fourth, one by one the white sheets were lifted.

York watched his movements closely and followed suit.

"what have you found?"

"Quick, help me... just do it like me!"

Victor was somewhat incoherent, but York didn't ask any further questions. The two of them began to lift the white sheet one by one.

Every now and then Victor would pause to jot something down, until more than two hours later when the two of them sat down in chairs, exhausted and panting.

"I... I've figured it out, I understand, haha."

"Can I understand?"

"Of course, this has nothing to do with medical expertise."

Victor pulled out his notebook, which contained rows of separate numbers, easily understood as serial numbers.

York looked at the owner of the number according to the record above, and soon his eyes widened.

These people all have one thing in common: they look very similar.

Although they have very noticeable differences in appearance, they are like twin brothers:
Even though their hairstyles and skin tones may differ, they always share common characteristics in their eyes and brows, indicating a kinship relationship.

What's even more shocking is that... almost every number can be matched with similar objects, just to varying degrees!

The longest column has a total of 14 numbers.

York: "Are they inbreeding and then brainwashing the mentally challenged?"

No, I don't think so.

Victor: "I prefer:
clone."

"Is this even possible? Even if it were, what would be the point?"

York knew what cloning was, but it couldn't change a person's mind.

(End of this chapter)