Chapter 1456: The Short-lived President
The moment the air crash happened, two Aurora-20s took off from the New Moon Island Military Base to the airspace where the plane went missing. Fifty Celestial Marine Corps soldiers were dispatched and boarded helicopters and patrol boats to conduct search and rescue in the target area.
Although Celestial Trade did not enter a state of emergency, the Navy, Land and Air Forces senior officials still put one hundred and twenty percent of their attention on this incident.
The bilateral relationship between Xin and the UA was at a historical turning point. Trump would have brought back the agreement symbolizing friendship back to his country. However, the plane crash happened. The characterization of the accident would directly affect the future diplomatic relation between the two countries and even the global political landscape.
Less than twelve hours after the crash, there were already countless comments and rumors on the Internet that pointed the perpetrator of this incident to be Xin. Although those statements did not possess any value, Celestial Trade had to be vigilant.
The top priority now was to find the crashed plane before the UA. If the people on the plane were still alive, they had to be protected from Morgan’s people. If those people suffered an unfortunate fate, they had to retrieve the black box first.
Not long after Jiang Chen arrived in Celestial Trade to visit the Special Projects Research Institute, he learned about the news. Immediately, he went to the Command Center of the Space Department. He found the Minister of Space, Kelvin, and gave the order for combat deployment.
The clearance work for the Mars species nests would stop immediately, and the Seagull-class starship cruising in the Mas synchronous orbit would immediately set off to return, along with the five orbital airborne brigades to deal with possible emergencies.
After that, Jiang Chen called Ivan on New Moon Island.
“How is the situation?”
“The whereabouts of the missing plane are still unknown. We have sent an additional 30 ships to the target waters to carry out a carpet search. Just now, Malaysia and New Guinea have also sent ships to assist our search. ”
Including the 20 ships that had already set off, the number of search and rescue fleets dispatched by Celestial Trade already reached 50.
The sea territory of Xin was extremely vast; the size was dozens of times bigger than its land area. Without affecting the normal maritime patrol mission, it was already the limit to deploy 50 ships to conduct search and rescue operations. Although Air Force One lost contact in the airspace between the Mariana Islands and Wake Island, it was still impossible to conclude that the aircraft crashed in this area.
After he briefly understood the situation from Ivan, Jiang Chen hung up and was about to call the Xin Presidential Palace when he saw several missed calls popped up on his holographic screen.
When he saw the calls were from Ayesha, he called back immediately.
As soon as the call was connected, Ayesha quickly reported to him.
“There was news from Bernice. At 5:20 in the morning Capital time, the Rainbow House announced that the UA had entered DEFCON 3. Its military command also issued documents to up the level of combat readiness to all levels of the military. Vice President Mike Pence has been put under the protection of the FBA.”
“Let Bernice find out, in the past few days…no, who has been in contact with Mike Pence in the past month,” Jiang Chen said.
“I’ll be on it right away,” Ayesha said solemnly.
“Also, let the Ghost Agents in North America keep an eye on the movements of the military command,” Jiang Chen continued to order, “If the UA troops continue to amass troops in Columbia, report to me immediately.”
“Yes,” Ayesha replied concisely.
…
Three days had passed since Air Force One lost contact.
The entire plane seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, which left people with only endless suspense. The experts had various opinions on whether the passengers on Air Force One survived. However, not a single clue was found in the three days after, and this was with Celestial Trade dispatching a military observation satellite to assist in search and rescue.
The possibility of survival of the crew on board was infinitely close to zero.
Regardless of whether Trump was alive or not, the country could not be without a ruler for another day.
On the fourth day after the Rainbow House announced that the UA entered DEFCON 3, Mike Pence stood on the lawn in front of the Rainbow House.
“Today, with great remorse, I stand here and announce a tragic piece of news to you.” After he turned the first page of the speech, Mike Pence raised his head so that everyone could see clearly his face full of remorse and sorrow, “Our President, unfortunately, encountered an air crash on his way home from a visit to Xin, and his whereabouts are currently unknown.”
“However, life has to go on. For our future, we can’t be knocked down by grief and forced to stand still.”
“From the moment I became Vice President, I have understood my responsibilities. When this country is in the face of danger, my responsibilities and obligations have prompted me to stand up here and shoulder our future… ”
“My fellow citizens, the oath that I took in the presence of you and God does not belong to me alone, but to all of us…”
After Mike Pence delivered his inauguration speech, under the auspices of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he solemnly completed the inauguration ceremony, succeeding Trump, who took office less than a month ago and became the 47th President of the UA.
At this moment, by the road not far from the Rainbow House, two men in suits stood next to a car with its door open. They were smiling at Mike Pence, who was giving his inaugural speech in the middle of the crowd.
“Although it is not Kennedy who is elected, fortunately, we have Johnson,” Morgan said.
Lyndon Johnson, the historical successor after the assassination of President Kennedy, was suspected to be the mastermind behind the Kennedy assassination. In addition to Lyndon Johnson, who became the president of the country, the immediate beneficiaries of Kennedy’s assassination were the Texas oil tycoon and the military-industrial complex that directly benefited from the Vietnam War.
At that time, Jewish members were still part of the military-industrial complex, but since the fall of the Rothschild family, this interest group was now firmly controlled by the Morgan and Rockefeller families.
Wall Street had never been so united.
The fact they made such a statement now was almost equivalent to declaring responsibility for the death of Mr. President.
“There are people from the FBA around here, so we should keep a low profile.” Rockefeller’s smile showed not the slightest anxiety, which seemed to contradict what he said.
Morgan laughed without further comments.
The FBA Director John Corning who sent Mike Pence to the Rainbow House was one of their affiliates, and it was a piece of information not even known to Trump, who promoted John Corning.
The depth of the water in Capital was far beyond imagination.
The people hoped to elect a president who was not within the Capital’s network. Therefore, this president could express their voice on their behalf. However, they had never thought how their choice would fare against a group of old and cunning foxes, who ate people without spitting out their bones, nor the complex network of interests. Trump didn’t even know who he should believe, and it was hard to form a proper leadership team. After all, it was hard for him to find a few allies within his own party.
If he happened to be in the interests of most people, it would have been fine.
Unfortunately, the first thing he did when he took office was to touch the cake of the giant military-industrial complex…
Just as Morgan and Rockefeller looked at each other and smiled for the victory on Wall Street, Vargas in South America was also paying attention to this “sad” inauguration ceremony.
After the original news about Sugar Cube Diplomacy came out, Vargas felt despair for the future of Colombia. Although he didn’t know the agreement reached between the UA and Xin, he was certain that in front of greater interests, no one cared about what the Colombian people, or what Vargas thought.
But things quickly turned.
The death of President Trump allowed Vargas to see the determination of their “allies”.
Unfortunately, this interim president that took over the military and political power of North Colombia obviously misunderstood the situation. Wall Street hoped to see the UA and Xin maintain antagonism, just like the the Cold War, but it did not want to see a direct conflict between the two sides…
But Vargas obviously did not understand this intention.
At the end of Mike Pence’s inauguration ceremony, a speech was delivered in Barranquilla, the capital of North Colombia.
In front of the media, Vargas issued an impassioned war mobilization speech to all the supporters of the presidential republic in Colombia.
The civil war was about to start.