Traitors Hidden in the Military

This whole thing just blew up.

Lake had originally planned to spend almost a year out in the field. Last year, he hadn’t done any of his official work, instead focusing on this lead, wanting to play around a bit and see if he could catch a big fish.

But…

The fish was big enough, alright, but it was a mutated bighead carp.

After disconnecting from Mandy, Lake directly called Secretary Kelly.

Immediately after.

The Department of Homeland Security, the CIA’s counter-terrorism operations department, the FBI’s counter-terrorism center, and even S.H.I.E.L.D. all learned about the incident in an instant.

Following that.

The Port of Los Angeles was in chaos.

Including Afghanistan.

Hassan Raham was dragged out of prison again, packed up overnight, and flew back to the Federation with Mandy and SEAL Team B on the first available flight.

Not long ago, Nick Fury, who had just replaced the retired Alexander Pierce and successfully risen to power through European S.H.I.E.L.D., personally led a large force to Los Angeles.

Lake was quite unhappy about S.H.I.E.L.D.’s involvement, but the case was too significant. The more people involved, the more scapegoats there would be later.

Besides.

Lake also had his own matters to attend to.

For example…

He first bought three plane tickets to Paris. If anything seemed wrong, he’d immediately have Karen take Betty and Skye to Paris to seek refuge.

Lake himself was still in New York, observing the situation. If there was still time, he wouldn’t run. If there wasn’t enough time, well, of all strategies, fleeing was the best.

However…

The situation did not develop into the worst-case scenario.

Three days later, with the cooperation of the Federation’s major counter-terrorism departments, a cargo ship, which looked like it had been ravaged by a storm and was only a day’s journey away from arriving at the Port of Los Angeles, was intercepted.

S.H.I.E.L.D. descended from the sky.

The FBI launched a surprise attack from the sea.

After a shootout, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, still shaken, loaded three densely protected crates onto a Kwon Fighter Jet and then sped off towards a secret base.

It seemed like a false alarm.

When Lake heard the news, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

It was too outrageous.

Planning to conduct nuclear tests on Federation soil?

It had to be said that the insane Divine Kingdom had thoroughly angered the Federation this time, and even Hydra.

Yes.

Hydra.

After all, Hydra was like a parasite on the Federation. Perhaps Hydra still harbored ambitions of ruling the world, and most Hydra agents had families in the Federation. If they themselves messed with the Federation, it was called freedom, but if others came to mess with the Federation, it meant they weren’t taking Hydra seriously.

To put it this way.

Hydra had contributed significantly this time. The intelligence about that cargo ship was intercepted from secret communications by Dr. Zola, who was parasitically embedded in the network, and then a Hydra agent overheard it by chance and reported it to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Lake’s taut nerves relaxed. He glanced at Brick Street behind him, shook his head, got back into the car, and returned to the Department of Homeland Security Building.

The nuclear test crisis was averted.

But…

There was still a terrorist lurking within the country who could craft nuclear bombs with raw materials.

Investigate!

Investigate them to death!

However, Hassan Haram’s position was limited. The only intelligence confirmed was that this terrorist was one of their people, and he was only responsible for organizing logistics. The specific contacts were handled by others.

And unfortunately, when the Afghan base once again found clues about the organization "Freedom Glory," and SEAL Team D launched a surprise raid overnight, they were met with ruins and corpses all over the ground.

According to Hassan Haram’s identification, those corpses were all members of the organization, including the organization’s leaders numbered one through five, who were ahead of him in the hierarchy.

Silenced?

The satellite from the Afghan base reconstructed how the incident occurred, and their local informants provided some intelligence. It seemed that a terrorist who had established his organization in a remote mountain area had some unpleasantness with "Freedom Glory" during a transaction. Then, the leader of that organization led his subordinates to wipe out "Freedom Glory" in one fell swoop.

It seemed like a coincidence.

At the joint meeting of the Homeland Building’s operations center.

Lake frowned as he reviewed the intelligence from Afghanistan provided by Langley. "Infighting. What’s the name of this new organization?"

The person in charge at Langley shook his head. "We don’t know. It’s a newly emerged organization, and it’s always been in the mountains. Currently, we have no leads, but our people are trying to obtain intelligence."

Director Carmen next to him looked up, examining weapon fragments left at the ruins. "Stark Industries weapons?"

Lake turned his head to look.

Director Carmen handed several photos to Lake.

Lake looked at the photos. The bodies scattered in the ruins did not cause Lake the slightest discomfort. He had seen more terrifying scenes than this, and he had experienced them firsthand. These photos were just minor incidents.

What caught Lake’s attention were the fragments of weapon wreckage in the photos. The Stark Industries logo was very prominent.

The head of the military’s counter-terrorism department said, "It’s possible that weapons were leaked before September of ’01."

Before the 9/11 incident, federal arms dealers sold to whoever paid, and it was impossible for the federal government to track their sales through weapons or other companies.

But after 9/11, the Patriot Act was enacted, giving the federal government the right to do so when necessary. Not to mention, Stark Industries was a major arms manufacturer. All heavy weapons sold by Stark were monitored by the federal government, although under normal circumstances, the federal government did not interfere with Stark Industries’ normal business transactions.

Just then.

After the head of Langley hung up the phone, they reconnected and said to the attendees, "An informant in Afghanistan just provided information that the leader of this newly emerged organization is named Laza."

Lake raised his eyebrows.

Laza?

That name… sounded a bit familiar.

But Lake couldn’t recall it immediately. Langley only had a name as intelligence; there was no other information.

The meeting lasted for nearly a day.

If nothing unexpected happened, such meetings would continue for a long time. When they would end depended on when that damned local terrorist was caught.

However, for a whole month, no new clues had been unearthed.

Hassan had confessed everything he could. The members of Freedom Glory were all wiped out by the organization led by their leader, Laza, in a black-and-black operation. As for the interrogation after raiding the cargo ship, all they got was a number from a so-called disposable phone, which was also turned off.

After the successful raid on the cargo ship, the California FBI, in their haste to claim credit, held a press conference, which effectively caused the disposable phone, which was already turned off, to lose all its leads.

During a joint investigation meeting, as they were preparing to disband and let the Department of Homeland Security take over the case for slow investigation, Lake directly proposed a very old method.

Manual investigation.

The number of people in the federal homeland who could build a nuclear bomb with raw materials wasn’t large. There were only a few of them. They could simply list them and investigate them one by one. Anyone suspected, even if they had only traveled to certain countries, would be apprehended without question.

This was a terrorist act, and a very serious one that would turn the federal government into a laughingstock if successful.

Secretary Kelly and the Attorney General exchanged a glance and agreed with Lake’s method.

Immediately after.

Once the federal government compiled the list, professors from all universities in the federal homeland were invited for questioning. The same applied to society at large.

When the federal media learned the reason for these "chats," they completely abandoned their usual stance of hoping the federal government would be blown up. Apart from reporting on the dangers of nuclear testing within the homeland, they remained silent about the blunt and crude enforcement actions by the law enforcement agencies.

But…

There was still no useful information.

Although the federal government claimed to offer education to all and championed the federal dream, many people had access to this knowledge, but only a few had the qualifications to access it and build it themselves. Moreover, ever since some individuals of this type had escaped, the federal government had been extremely strict in controlling such talent.

After two months of searching, they couldn’t find anyone with the motive for such an act. The only one whose wife was of that faith had died six months prior. He had then found a new wife, a beautiful blonde with blue eyes and a voluptuous figure.

He hadn’t even had a chance to enjoy his new wife yet, so why would he go and build a nuclear bomb? Not to mention, he was over seventy years old; even if he tried, he wouldn’t have the energy.

Seeing this lead once again hit a dead end.

At the final meeting.

Director Langley said, "Actually, there’s one place we haven’t investigated."

Secretary Kelly and the Attorney General exchanged a glance. "Is there anywhere we’ve overlooked?"

Director Langley’s gaze fell upon an empty seat, which had been vacant since the fifth joint meeting.

Everyone followed Director Langley’s gaze.

Lake raised his eyebrows, his eyes filled with admiration and respect for Director Langley.

Good heavens.

He was directly targeting the military?

However…

It was true.

For the past two months, their investigations had focused on university professors and social researchers. As for the military, they hadn’t forgotten about them, but due to the military’s special nature, they had only asked the military to conduct their own internal checks.

But, just like the fruitless investigations here, the military’s report stated that they had checked and found nothing.

Although the military claimed to have investigated.

But…

They had no way of knowing if they actually had. Anyway, they had investigated; they had almost turned the entire federal government upside down in these two months. The military, on the other hand, had shown no signs of investigation.

Moreover.

Director Langley then threw out a file on a military personnel.