What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 541 I Will Become the Grim Reaper
The Weather Bureau and Prism Building have a long history of working closely together for decades and are no strangers to war.

But unlike the previous one, this time it is about creating an unprecedented catastrophe.

At the Meteorological Bureau's EMC Environmental Simulation Center, Jonathan stared at the report document on the screen with a worried expression, unable to type a single word.

“My mentor worked tirelessly for 140 hours in Normandy to buy the Allies the best opportunity, and now I am going to displace millions of people.”

As a senior expert at the simulation center, his current task is to lead a team to conduct accurate simulations of the Prism Building's flood plans.

Previously, feasibility verification relied solely on the expertise of seasoned specialists and rough theoretical calculations. Now, it is necessary to refine the calculations to determine the amount of rain-reducing agent to be used and the timing of its application.

Controlling the weather is an art, and this is not the first time the Empire has used weather weapons.

The last time a rainforest-related event occurred was in Annam, where the Air Force dropped 500 million rain bombs in an attempt to prolong the rainy season and cause massive flooding. However, the attack only triggered the flooding but failed to control it, affecting several neighboring regions and drawing international condemnation.

The military didn't care, but the meteorologists who participated faced considerable exclusion from their colleagues when attending international conferences.

If the deployment of supplies to the Amazon could be somewhat explained as a beautification, then the Amazon rainforest is completely beyond excuse!
The millions living in the northern region are truly innocent, and even the Enrique authorities have been cooperating with the Imperial actions, if they too…

Jonathan frowned and pondered for a long time, when he suddenly saw Chief Cedric walk in, sit down next to him, and ask with concern:
"Joe, you've been sitting here for three hours. Did something happen at home?"

"Director, the Prism Building is far too risky!"

Jonathan finally couldn't hold back:

“The rainforest covers millions of square kilometers. To create a flood, a massive amount of rain bombs would be needed. I know Prism doesn’t care about the money, but the amount deployed is too large… I mean, the variable factor. The more rain bombs deployed, the wider the impact and the more uncertain the consequences.”

Cedric listened patiently; being a professional himself, he immediately added:

"Especially in the Amazon region, where evaporation is astonishing, excessive release could trigger an unstoppable chain reaction, resulting in a super flood that would be recorded in history, and we would be powerless to prepare in advance."

Jonathan immediately became excited and nodded repeatedly:
"That's right. Several neighboring countries will also be affected. At the same time, the Amazon rainforest is an important regulator of the entire Earth's ecosystem. If something goes wrong, it could have a chain reaction. And we are not far from the South Mei."

He tried to prove that the Amazon rainforest floods were uncontrollable and that their impact would be far greater than anticipated. Director Cedric nodded repeatedly, but then said:

"That's precisely why you should do your job well, ensuring that the impact meets the military's requirements without causing too many cascading effects. I also believe that the Federation will definitely evacuate the affected population from the affected areas ahead of schedule."

"If we don't provide a solution, the generals will still execute the plan; who knows what these non-professionals might do?"

Jonathan was stunned, and gradually realized that it was impossible to reverse the decision of the Prism Building. All he could do was try to avoid harming innocent people as much as possible.

He ultimately chose to give in:

"Alright, I will become Death, the most terrifying destroyer of the world."

Cedric smiled:

"No, of course you are not. Death is not you."

Jonathan: "Yes, Prism Building has never fought a war for peace."

……

A few days later

When Cedric arrived at Prism Building with the plan developed by the simulation center, it coincided with a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, so they directly invited him to demonstrate it on the spot.

While Cedric was still connecting the projector, Rams had already flipped to the last few pages of the paper document and exclaimed:
"Why so many!"

The others quickly looked through it as well, and were quite surprised as well:

According to the plan set by EMC, the budget was set at $20 billion.

20 billion!
That much money is enough not only to build one Nimitz-class carrier, but also to equip it with a considerable number of carrier-based aircraft! Johnson carefully counted the number of zeros and directly mocked:
"If it costs $20 billion to execute this, I'd rather convert the USS Missouri into a missile depot and sail it into the Amazon!"

Cedric immediately understood what was going on and quickly explained:

"Gentlemen, please turn to page 26."

The others did the same, and then they found that this page also contained a budget, but magically it had become $13 billion, which was still outrageous.

The next page is the cover of the subsequent content, with the brief introduction titled "Pre-disaster Relocation and Disaster Prevention Plan".

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that the 7 million was humanitarian disaster relief funds, so they didn't need to worry about it.

Cedric then continued speaking with a smug air, but soon someone tapped on the table:

“Hey, we have complete faith in the expert’s plan, but we’d better solve the budget problem first; $13 billion is too much.”

Cedric: "What is the budget for the Prism Building?"

"$1 million, that's the total expenditure for the plan, otherwise Congress won't pass it."

Cedric blinked, then shrugged helplessly:
"That's impossible. You're trying to affect the world's largest rainforest. $1 million isn't even enough to cover the cost of rain bombs."

We plan to use a combination of three types of rain-inducing munitions: silver iodide, dry ice, and salt powder. Theoretically, this would require around 20 munitions. However, considering the extremely large area affected, we need to account for cloud overload attenuation, the rain's self-sufficiency, and redundancy in inducing flooding. Ultimately, we'll need around 110 million munitions, costing $3 million in ammunition alone. The remaining costs are estimated based on the number of aircraft sorties; we also consulted the Air Force Intelligence Office for a quote.

Huai En swallowed hard. He knew his subordinates' character all too well, and quickly asked:
"The plane costs $10 billion?"

塞德里克：“他们按照理论运作能力以及尽量不影响其他部署计算，需要50架B52、30架C15、80架C17以及90架C130运输机共同参与，执飞10到15个架次持续半个月以上，总共约3000架次飞机。

Including personnel and surrounding construction costs, $10 billion isn't much.

This figure truly shocked the Joint Chiefs of Staff for a long time. $13 billion is no small sum in this era; it's almost half the size of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier!

In particular, the cost of ammunition alone is $3 million. If it were missiles, they could bomb the Hans until they were crying for their parents. Even a suicide attack by mosquitoes wouldn't be enough to stop them.

"That's too expensive. Is it possible to reduce it to $5 million?"

Rams couldn't accept this plan, but Cedric seemed to have come prepared, though he looked at the group and hesitated, as if he was worried about something.

Rams noticed his unusual behavior and immediately said:
"You can speak freely. This is the Prism Building's top secret, so there's nothing to worry about."

Cedric: "Actually, the purpose of rain bombs is to condense water vapor and guide rainfall, but when the water vapor is abundant to a certain extent, it will naturally cause heavy rain."

If we can guide water vapor to concentrate from multiple dispersed locations, we can significantly reduce the amount of rain-preparing bombs and the number of aircraft sorties required.

Johnson: "What can we do? Are we supposed to create a gust of wind to blow it over there?"

But Cedric nodded, then tore off a piece of paper in front of everyone, folded it, and used it with a ballpoint pen to make a small windmill. He then took out a lighter and lit it in front of the windmill.

At a specific angle, the windmill began to turn.

"Oh……"

There were no fools present, and they immediately understood Cedric's idea.

Johnson stared at the spinning windmill, then suddenly felt the air conditioning was a bit too cold and awkwardly touched his arm, saying:

"I still remember some geography: high temperatures create hot air currents, and the convection of cold air can produce wind. Cedric, you're a devil!"

(End of this chapter)