"Reporting, sir."
The head of intelligence, a lean-faced middle-aged man with piercing eyes, broke the silence with his hoarse voice.
"Cross-checking multiple sources has confirmed that America's claim of a 'general committing treason' is a complete lie."
"At the time of the incident, their command system was functioning normally. The order came from America's leader himself."
"He was forced to make that decision under some kind of... irresistible pressure."
The man in overall charge tapped his fingers lightly against the table.
The tapping sounded especially clear in the silent conference room, each beat striking at everyone's heart.
"In other words."
He spoke slowly, his tone level, yet carrying a deeply unsettling implication.
"The world's foremost power had a gun held to its head and was forced to bomb its own most important pawn."
He paused.
"Interesting."
Everyone present felt a chill.
They all understood the enormous shock and unease behind that single word.
"Most importantly..."
The intelligence chief brought up an encrypted file.
A blurry transcript of an English-language communication appeared on the screen.
"An asset we've planted at the highest level of their intelligence agency risked exposure to send back a fragment of information."
"During the hours Washington was plunged into chaos, one name was repeated frantically throughout all of America's high-level encrypted communications-"
"Chen Lin."
"Chen Lin?"
An old military general, burly and dark-complexioned, frowned.
"A Huaxian name?"
"But according to the video analysis, the person wreaking havoc in Washington, America, and slaughtering people with a Vulcan Cannon was a blond, blue-eyed white man."
"Could this be a smokescreen deliberately released by the Americans to pin the blame on us?"
"That was our initial assessment as well."
Looking grave, the intelligence chief brought up another file.
Xu Tiannan's report appeared prominently on the screen.
"Until we reviewed the