87: Songbird, Song Zhaomei

As the NCPD began its operation and Carl's team moved into action, Bennett and Gago had already received the series of plans Hansen had finally revealed and understood what they needed to do next. They both understood Hansen's purpose in detonating the reactor.

Colonel Hansen did not merely want to destroy New America's invasion. He also intended to use public opinion to make New America bear responsibility for the reactor's detonation and ride the tide of global outrage to force Rosalind Myles from office.

The logic was simple: the reactor belonged to Hansen. Once it exploded, it would inevitably affect the soldiers and civilians under his command, perhaps even destroy more than half of Dogtown.

In the public eye, Hansen, the "King of Dogtown," had absolutely no reason to destroy his own foundation with his own hands. Therefore, once the stadium exploded, everyone would ask: who had broken in and sabotaged the reactor?

It couldn't possibly be that Hansen had prepared to die with everyone else and modified the reactor himself, could it?

The answer seemed to be only one: to ensure Hansen's elimination, New America had launched a reckless military operation, and its mishandling had caused the reactor to explode.

After all, the reactor had been perfectly stable before New America arrived. They could have come sooner or later, but they just had to come now—and then the reactor malfunctioned and caused a nuclear explosion. How could that be such a coincidence?

By then, Hansen only needed to present a series of forged "evidence" and put on a performance of "a hero's miraculous survival" to easily seize the moral high ground.

More importantly, he would use this to ignite the revenge of the "Hounds of Hell" and truly unite the people's hearts—after all, many soldiers lived around the stadium.