Inside the Pentagon, Colonel Lai De was holding a small eting with his team.
"Becker, there's a press conference tomorrow morning. What do you think about this matter?"
Colonel Lai De asked Major Becker, a mber of his team.
Becker was in charge of crisis situation analysis. When sudden situations arose in the military, he would synthesize information from various sources for comprehensive analysis, draw his own conclusions, and prepare reports to provide a basis and reference for the senior officers' decisions.
"I think we don't need to do anything right now, we just need to wait," Becker spread his hands, making a very relaxed expression.
Lai De looked sowhat surprised. When he had asked others, they all suggested maintaining contact with Feier, especially since Feier had been visiting TV stations frequently in the past two days, and the newspapers were also continuously reporting on this matter, creating quite so pressure from public opinion.
Even at yesterday's White House press conference, reporters had already asked about this issue.
Of course, the White House could deflect the question.
But as the spokesperson for the military at the Pentagon, Colonel Lai De couldn't deflect it.
It wouldn't do to claim ignorance of the situation; that would be too obvious an attempt to cover things up.
Yet Becker had said that there was no need to do anything, just wait.
This piqued Lai De's interest.
"Tell your basis for saying this, Becker."
Lai De pointed his pen in Becker's direction.
Becker smiled and said, "Colonel, although we don't know why Feier is so concerned about this matter and stirring up a dia storm, usually in analyzing events, we only need to figure out his objective."
With that, he glanced at his colleagues seated around him.
"To pressure us into abandoning our joint operation in Colombia, that's the objective. Since we know the objective, isn't what we should do straightforward? Just ensure that the operation's objective is t, and that will leave Feier at a disadvantage."
"Of course, opposing a magazine editor doesn't bring much of a sense of achievent, but if soone wants our military operation to fail, then certainly they are our enemy. Hence, achieving the operation's objective is indeed the most critical aspect."
Lai De said, "I understand all that. I'm asking you, what is your basis for saying this? If we keep dragging this out, how should I face the reporters at tomorrow's press conference who will undoubtedly pursue this matter?"
He picked up a few sheets of paper from the table.
"This is a summary outline of the questions submitted by the dia for tomorrow's routine press conference. Take a look, two-thirds of the dia reporters have included this issue in their list of questions. That ans, unless I'm unafraid to be scolded tomorrow, or unafraid that the sentint after the press conference will be even more turbulent, I could indeed ignore their questions as you suggest. But such an action could have serious consequences."
"It won't be serious," Becker said. "Even if you, Colonel, don't answer that question tomorrow, or if you evade it, leading to escalated public sentint, it won't be a problem."
He opened the folder in front of him and pulled out a sheet of paper.
"This is so operation intelligence I just obtained from Colonel Lawrence. Currently, our forces, in conjunction with the Colombian Military and the AUC forces, have achieved very good results in the 'Viper' operation over the past three days. ELN forces have lost sixty percent of their territory. Apart from a portion of their forces deep in the jungle near San Rita, their northern command headquarters has been destroyed by the Air Force; even their radio signals have disappeared. The two ELN combat battalions in the central Ta Region have been squeezed to the border area. Now, they are facing only one choice: run, retreat into Venezuelan territory, or face death."
Colonel Lai De asked, "You an the operation is going very smoothly?"
"Exactly," Becker responded. "In no more than two days, the ELN will collapse completely. Then, the objective of our operation will have been t. The remaining actions can be left to the AUC forces to handle on their own. We can claim that the operation has concluded, creating an impression that we are yielding to public opinion by canceling the operation. In doing so, we will have a very satisfactory resolution both internally and externally, without affecting the operation's objectives in the slightest."
After listening to Becker's analysis, Colonel Lai De did not imdiately respond. Instead, he twirled his pen, reflecting for a good while before sweeping his gaze over the others present.
"What are your opinions on Becker's analysis? You can speak now."
After so discussion, they shook their heads.
A Lieutenant Colonel said, "This approach seems feasible. After all, we just need to hold out for two more days, and we'll win. It's just that the Colonel might feel uncomfortable during tomorrow's press conference."
With that said, everyone burst into laughter.
Lai De laughed as well.
He rembered Feier's blackmailing face in the café and couldn't help but feel secretly pleased.
Damn Feier.
Let him rant for a couple more days.
"Alright, then that's decided..."
Just as Colonel Lai De was about to finalize the content of tomorrow's press conference, his phone on the side began to vibrate.
After glancing at the caller ID, a change ca over Colonel Lai De's face.
"SIR, any instructions?"
He picked up the phone, his deanor turning respectful.
Clearly, soone important was on the other side.
"Lai De, co to my office."
"Now?"
Lai De glanced at his colleagues, uncertain.
The office of the spokesperson was aware of the small eting.
Why was he being asked to go to the office imdiately?
"That's right, imdiately."
"Understood, sir. I'll be there right away."
Lai De hung up the phone. After pondering for a mont, he suddenly rembered that everyone was still there.
"Everyone, the eting is adjourned."
He stood up, picked up his hat and placed it securely on his head, straightened his uniform, then quickly gathered the docunts and left the office.
Soon after, in the office of so General at the DOD, Colonel Lai De sat uneasily across from him.
The General swiftly signed his na on a docunt and then handed it to his secretary to take away.
Before the secretary even closed the door, Lai De asked impatiently, "Sir, what's so urgent?"
The General's fingers intertwined lightly and rubbed together repeatedly before he finally sighed and said, "We've decided to halt 'Operation Viper,' so at the press conference tomorrow morning, you'll just announce it publicly as it is."
"Halt 'Operation Viper'?" Colonel Lai De nearly jumped from his seat. "We just reviewed this matter and concluded there's absolutely no need to halt it because in two days, we should be able to achieve our goal."
"I am more aware of the operation's effectiveness than you are."
The General took a cigar from a box beside him and offered it to Lai De.
It was a reward.
A superior offering a cigar to a subordinate was both a consolation and a mark of approval.
Lai De shook his head.
His aning was clear; he wanted answers.
Answers were more important than this cigar.
"General, what's the problem?"
Seeing that he didn't take the cigar, the General took it back, clipped the end, then lit it with a ZIPPO lighter and took an easy draw before saying, "You might not have received the latest battlefield intelligence yet, but I have."
He gently patted a report on the desk.
"Soone must have told you that within two days, the ELN would collapse, right?"
Then, he slid the report in front of Colonel Lai De.
"Unfortunately, that's not the case..."
Colonel Lai De picked up the report and began to read through it carefully.
It was the latest frontline battle report from 'Operation Viper,' sent just an hour ago.
Clearly more recent than the intelligence Becker had received.
Like the General, such high-ranking individuals always received the fastest and most accurate intelligence.
"What..."
Lai De couldn't believe his eyes.
According to the report, the ELN hadn't shown signs of collapse, and the bodies of leaders, including Morins, weren't found at the command post.
What's more crucial is that electronic surveillance aircraft later detected that ELN communications hadn't ceased but had switched to radio silence, periodically coming online to communicate and evade bombardnt.
Although sowhat primitive, the thod was effective.
Remaining silent for long periods then becoming active at set tis to give commands before cutting communications and returning to silence.
Before a reconnaissance plane could lock onto the signal source, they would have moved, and even if locked on, by the ti bombers reached the area, the targets were long gone.
The last part of the battle report was particularly shocking to Lai De.
After bombing the ELN command post, an assault team sent to clear the area had all perished, their bodies now in the jungle of the Tbilisi Mountain Range.
"The entire assault team is dead?" Colonel Lai De couldn't trust his eyes. "The site had been bombed; how could there still be forces capable of annihilating an airborne unit?!"
He knew the n who parachuted in were Colombian Special Forces, trained by Arican forces.
The remaining forces at the command post should have been a panic-stricken ss after the bombardnt, dispersing in terror. How could they possibly annihilate an assault team?
"This isn't surprising."
The General picked up another docunt and threw it over.
"Rember the ODA team that was killed in the Ta Region a few months back? The investigative report concluded it was the deed of one man. An entire ODA team wiped out by one person, and he's an ELN person — of course, the report doesn't suggest he's a mber of the ELN forces, but soone supporting them. Who exactly it is, we don't yet know. However, the intelligence departnt now believes he's in the Tbilisi Mountain Range and that he's also the one who killed the airborne team."
"We should send more troops, then! We need reinforcents, deploy the best of Delta Force to catch this damned person!"
Colonel Lai De spoke with a steely face to his superior, "We cannot let this person get away."
"Of course, why else do you think we would risk cooperating with a force like AUC to fight ELN? It's because of that incident."
"So... Why did you have co here, sir? Are you planning how we'll deal with the journalists?"
Lai De thought the General had called him to prepare the deploynt of Special Forces deep into the Tbilisi Mountain Range, to pursue the mysterious supporter of the ELN, so he would be well-prepared for tomorrow's press conference, with the military not intending to break the cooperation, not planning to cancel the operation.
"No."
The General shook his head, resigned, "I called you here to announce at tomorrow's press conference that we are going to halt 'Operation Viper.' Our forces will withdraw from Colombia."
His words struck like lightning across the night sky, directly hitting Colonel Lai De on the head.
"Why?!"
He raised his voice sowhat uncontrollably.
"Halt the operation!? We're two days from victory!"
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