Chapter 925: Trade Off

White House.

President’s office.

After FBI director Mueller entered the office, the president’s assistant sitting outside the door could hear the president yelling.

“You bunch of idiots!”

Mueller stood in front of the president and took a deep breath. He then said, “This is our fault… We expected them to act, but we didn’t expect things to move this fast.”

Even though the White House was happy to see China suffer losses, they didn’t want it to happen this way.

The negotiations on the Lunar Hadron Collider were still underway. They were finally able to recruit some allies through diplomatic means and wanted to put pressure on China in regard to the budget committee.

However, their plan was ruined.

Because of the cyberattacks, most of their allies began doubting them. Many nations began to express their doubts on whether or not America wanted to participate in this project at all.

Maybe the Americans were only here to disrupt this meeting?

After all, China was America’s biggest space competitor…

Suddenly, the phone on the desk began to ring.

The president took a deep breath and picked up the call.

Director Carson’s voice traveled through the phone.

“It’s me.”

President: “I know it’s you, speak!”

Carson knew the President was in a bad mood, but he didn’t dare to ask why.

Carson cleared his throat and spoke.

“The Chinese are putting pressure on us, those f*cking idiots. I drafted a plan for the budget committee last night, and as soon as I took it out at the conference today, the Chinese began questioning me about the cyber attacks. They are using this as a tactic for negotiation.”

He took a deep breath and continued in a stern tone, “Now that we’re at a negotiation disadvantage, even the neutral countries have expressed serious concerns regarding our domestic cybersecurity and terrorist issues.”

The president couldn’t help but say, “Didn’t you tell them that the attacks and the hadron collider are two completely different things?”

“I said that, but they said that the Eagle Hunter was supported by the federal government and that they’ve already obtained enough evidence…” Director Carson paused for a second and said, “Just wondering, is that a possibility…”

The president said, “Of course not! Why would I approve such a stupid plan! What could we possibly gain from destroying some Chinese servers? What do you think, Mr. Mueller?”

Mueller nodded quickly and said, “Of course! I would never approve of such a stupid thing… But just in case, we should contact the CIA and make sure they didn’t do anything.”

“Now is not the time to blame others.” Director Carson said in a tired voice, “The situation is not good for us, so my suggestion is that… we should lie low. Otherwise, China might reconsider our participation in the project…”

The office became quiet.

One could hear a pin drop.

Reconsider our participation in the project…

A hint of bitterness appeared in the president’s eyes.

If this were ten years ago, this would have been a joke.

Back then, the United States was a nation of industry. It was impossible for any country to organize such a large scientific research project without help from the United States.

But now…

China was thinking about kicking them out of the group?

The tables had turned.

The president went silent for a while and sat down at his desk.

He tapped his finger on the desk and said, “We can forgo our other requests, but you must ensure that we have at least three voting seats on the budget committee. That is not up for debate.”

He didn’t want to risk China kicking them out of the project.

China needed America’s cooperation, but America needed China more…

Director Carson sighed in relief.

“I’ll try my best…”

The president slammed his fist on the table and cursed, “These f*cknig idiots!”

Director Mueller looked at the president and held his breath.

Because of the Eagle Hunter group, the United States was now at a huge negotiation disadvantage.

If the Russians couldn’t stand their ground, China would have total control of the budget committee…

The Chinese could easily take over Russia’s voting seats; after all, the Russians only invested a small amount of money in the project…

…

In Lu Zhou’s opinion, what happened online was only a minor disturbance.

Whether or not Eagle Hunter was backed by the White House didn’t matter to him at all.

The source of the attack came from American soil. China could easily use this to gain an “advantage” over the budget committee negotiations.

Of course, the Lunar Orbit Committee had ultimate control over this matter.

The Americans had to prove themselves.

Otherwise, the Americans would just label this as an “accident”.

Over the past few days, Lu Zhou had been working on the Lunar Hadron Collider Research Center, as well as helping Director Li find a list of experts to demonstrate the technical feasibility of quantum computing.

Lu Zhou realized that it was quite difficult to keep this quiet.

Jin Ling University was one of the top five software engineering universities. They had two big names in the field of quantum computing—one was even an academician.

It would be a bit unfair to exclude these quantum computing experts just to avoid suspicion. Therefore, Lu Zhou wrote both of their names down.

Some of the other experts were from Shuimu and Yan Universities, and there were ten people in total. It wasn’t after Lu Zhou finished compiling the list did he realize that he was caring about things outside of academia.

Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head. He made up his mind to never do something like this again. After that, he sent this list to Director Li’s email.

I’m finally done!

Lu Zhou stretched his back and was about to make some coffee.

However, suddenly an email arrived in his inbox.

Lu Zhou looked at the name and paused for a second.

Professor Wu Tianqun?

Speak of the devil?

Lu Zhou curiously opened the email.

The email was short.

There was only one sentence.

[There’s progress on the research of the carbon-based chip!]

…

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