After establishing the Kunlun Ruins and making a series of arrangements, Huang Ji left Detroit.
He did not head straight for Egypt. First, he went to England to meet Professor Hawking again.
Hawking had joined the Illuminati the previous year, but they had paid him little attention. He held a nominal post at one of their research institutes in England.
Nor had the Illuminati taken his vision of cosmic civilization and an orderly interstellar society seriously.
Then the Nature Disruptor appeared.
What the Nature Disruptor told them matched Hawking's theory so closely that Carmen took notice. Half a year earlier, shortly after joining the Illuminati and learning what kind of organization it was, Hawking had proposed that order existed among the stars—and where there were enforcers upholding order, there had to be criminals.
The Fermi paradox and the Great Silence existed because those enforcers were protecting Earth's natural development. The Illuminati's dealings with the Little Greys were dealings with criminals.
Their so-called lord forbade the Illuminati from telling the public, threatening a Great Judgment if they did, precisely because disclosure would expose the criminal network and bring a crackdown.
Other researchers had proposed similar theories before, but Hawking's was more complete. He had modeled alien thinking from multiple angles.
Noting that people had been transported off Earth at an ever-increasing rate since the start of the twenty-first century, Hawking had even "predicted" that the criminals were preparing to abandon their interests on Earth, and that Earth might face a disaster.
That prediction matched the Disruptor's warning of an apocalypse in 2045.
Hawking's standing rose accordingly. It was not that his theory was particularly useful; rather, he had shown astonishing talent.
The higher-ups began taking his abilities seriously and reassessed the research capabilities of the theoretical physicist and cosmologist.
By the