Chapter 18: Panda Burns Incense

  Laim didn't even think of getting any advanced weapons and technology from Orton. China's national defense needs high-tech, but it can't always follow behind developed countries and imitate, let alone learn from their discarded technologies. This kind of learning and imitation, no matter how good, still lags behind others. To create in learning and learn in creation, we must develop cutting-edge, advanced technology. Antimatter research is the pinnacle of today's world science, no, it should be the future world's scientific peak. China wants to stand on this peak, so it must find that scientist - "He Shu".

  He adopted the method of taking chestnuts from the fire.

  Only by igniting the fire can Kolman be brought out. Kolman is the only possibility of finding "his uncle". Even if this "possibility" is only one percent, he will make a hundred percent effort.

  As he watched Alden leave, Lyme smiled slightly, paid the bill, and walked out of the Blue Moon towards the US military headquarters building. The headquarters building was originally Saddam's Republican Palace, although it still bore the scars of war, but this sandstone building still maintained its grandeur and majesty in Arab style. He went to the second floor, had a few green zone passes made for Old Dai at the security office, then went up to the third floor and walked into the office of Jackson, the commander of the US military intelligence agency in Iraq. Jackson was nearly fifty years old, with a robust physique, and when he spoke, his large nose emitted a thick nasal sound. This was a lieutenant general from the army, who had been engaged in military intelligence work for a long time, and since the outbreak of the Iraq War, he had been responsible for coordinating intelligence work throughout Iraq, mainly focusing on military intelligence. After the end of the war, the focus of intelligence work shifted from military to counter-terrorism, with Lyme as the main person in charge.

  Jackson found Lyme to be an insoluble enigma.

  He had always been uncomfortable with Rhyme. Rhyme was only twenty-eight or nine years old and had climbed to the rank of lieutenant general, but he didn't know how he got his military rank. Although this guy graduated from West Point and served in the army for many years, except for being a good shooter and having strong muscles, he was a fool when it came to intelligence work, and his behavior was extremely arrogant and high-handed, even the ambassador and the US military headquarters would occasionally make sarcastic remarks about him. He suspected that the CIA had taken the wrong medicine and absorbed this kind of person? The fact proved that his view was correct, from the beginning of the Iraq War until now, Rhyme's intelligence work has almost achieved nothing, except for developing a batch of local informants, he didn't get much valuable intelligence. It's strange that starting from yesterday, Rhyme seemed to suddenly become extremely intelligent and capable, and even obtained important intelligence about Briza's betrayal, eliminating more than 600 anti-American armed men in one day.

  This couldn't help but make him look at her in a new light.

  As soon as he saw Rhyme come in, General Jackson immediately put down his work and stood up to greet him, shaking his hand tightly and smiling all over his face: "You did a great job yesterday, killing hundreds of terrorists at once, with unprecedented achievements. This is the most enemy-killed battle since our Iraq War ended, and Headquarters has already applied for you to be awarded the Medal of Honor."

  The Distinguished Service Medal is senior to the Legion of Merit and junior to the Distinguished Superior Service Medal.

  "General Jackson, this medal I have half of it and you have the other half. If you hadn't dispatched Apache squadron to bomb Bayezi first, it wouldn't be easy to wipe them out completely."

  Jackson is another faint, when did Lime learn to be so humble?

  Here is the translation:

  "Laim took out a document: 'This is some information obtained from last night's interrogation of terrorist organizations. The anti-terrorism situation is not optimistic, although we have achieved some results, it's just scratching the surface, and cannot comprehensively curb terrorist activities throughout Iraq. The root cause of terrorism lies in the fact that terrorist organizations are taking advantage of the Iraqi people's anti-American sentiment to launch attacks everywhere. These attacks are difficult for us to predict and can't be seen.'"

  It was as if to confirm what Laim had said, when suddenly a loud explosion sounded outside the Republic Palace, smoke billowed out from the building and the smell of gunpowder wafted in through the window gaps.

  A mortar shell exploded more than 400 meters away from the Republican Palace, falling just outside the Green Zone's walls. The blast blew out chunks of the thick, reinforced wall and shredded several branches off a nearby palm tree. Two U.S. soldiers who were walking underneath it dived for cover.

  It's unclear how many times shells have landed in the green zone, fortunately without causing any casualties.

  "Damn terrorists," Jackson cursed, "can't be killed off, can't be exterminated."

  Jackson can be said to be the most difficult officer in the US military, although he successfully occupied Iraq, but roadside bombs, human bombs, and cold guns and cannons were suddenly attacked, endless. More than 100,000 US soldiers are always on guard, like firefighters, extinguishing fires in the east and burning again in the west. The US Military Intelligence Agency is responsible for collecting intelligence to combat terrorist activities, but doing this job is much more difficult than occupying Iraq. When attacking Iraq, Saddam's armed forces were all out in the open, and satellites in the sky and infiltrators on the ground had already figured out the situation clearly. Now, anti-American armed forces are all hidden, lurking in the mountains, corners, and ordinary people of Iraq, suddenly emerging, aiming at the US military with a cold gun and cannon, making it impossible to defend against. Satellites, aircraft, and other high-tech reconnaissance equipment have become mere decorations, unable to exert any force.

  Intelligence! Intelligence! Mastering and understanding terrorist activities, intelligence is key.

  But on this land of Iraq, US troops are in a state of total darkness.

  Never thought this Lime really had some tricks up his sleeve, wanting intelligence, he sent over a copy. Jackson flipped through Lime's materials and exclaimed in surprise: "There are more than 120 anti-American armed organizations?"

  "This is calculated based on the number of people Hashim contacted at terrorist organization meetings. For all of Iraq, anti-American armed organizations are probably far more than this number. If these organizations are not eliminated, Iraq's security issues cannot be resolved."

  "You seem to have another way?"

  "Panda is burning incense, do you know?"

  "Panda... still burn incense? Burn what incense?"

  "It is a computer virus."

  "Computer virus? I've never heard of it!"

  Jackson's words made Laim pause for a moment, "Oh, I read it from a book." Only then did Laim recall that "Panda Burning Incense" was a virus written by a self-taught boy in Wuhan two years later, which infected over a million computers in China. At the time, he thought this kid was too talented, why not put "Panda Burning Incense" into the US CIA's mainframe and make trouble for the US CIA? "We can imagine that terrorist organizations are like many scattered computers around the world. If there is a virus invasion, it won't be too difficult to find these computers?"

  "Are you going to create a 'virus' for terrorist organizations?" Jackson asked.

  "Pandas are endangered wild animals in the world, and China's conservation efforts have been very successful. The Sichuan Giant Panda Protection Base mainly adopts two methods: one is to protect the natural environment of wild pandas; the other is to artificially breed and raise pandas, and then release them into the wild for tracking and observation..."

  Jackson blinked, not understanding what Lyme meant.

  "We can learn from China's approach to protecting the pandas. Currently, the Intelligence Development Center is still holding a group of Iraqi prisoners, these prisoners are our artificially raised 'pandas', releasing these 'pandas' and they will definitely go find their companions, those companions are the original wild 'pandas'. As long as we install satellite tracking devices on the artificially raised 'pandas', where can those wild 'pandas' run to?"

  "Right, anti-American armed forces and terrorist organizations are just wild 'pandas'."

  "This action can be called 'Panda Burning Incense'."

  "Alright, as you said. What do I need to do?"

  "Also set up a special task force."

  "Isn't there a 'big bad wolf'?"

  "Americans can't get close to terrorist organizations. Only local Iraqis can infiltrate the terrorists. To defeat the terrorists, relying solely on US troops won't be enough."

  "What... is the special task force going to do?"

  "Recruit dozens of local Iraqi residents for intensified training, so that this special operations team can work in coordination with 'Lethal Wolves'."

  ……