After seeing the two congressmen morphed into monstrous goo and reduced to nothing more than experiment statistics, Chen Chen finally set down the documents in hand and descended into deep thought.
“Boss, this is the final batch.”
Hannibal suddenly appeared behind Chen Chen. He bent down and reported cautiously.
Chen Chen responded with a brisk nod before getting up from his seat. He looked at Watson who was unsettled by this and offered some words of comfort. “There’s no need to fear, Mr. Watson. Incidents like this are entirely unavoidable in biological experiments. Think of it as the drug phasing process during clinical trials. The advancement of Eco Science City must be mounted on top of countless sacrifices in the first place, so wouldn’t you agree that it’s more worthwhile to use people who shouldn’t exist in the first place as the sacrificial lambs?”
“I understand…”
Watson was still uncomfortable with this approach but did not dare to say more than what was necessary. He only provided a firm nod.
Chen Chen turned to the trio of young members. “Hannibal, Li Lei, Neumann, why don’t you guys take this opportunity to learn from Mr. Watson. You guys have established a solid foundation over the last two years. All that’s left now is proper practice and experience. Watson has five to six decades of experience under his belt, there should be a lot for you guys to learn from.”
“Yes.”
The three of them nodded humbly.
With that, Chen Chen turned around and exited the laboratory.
After going through the disinfection protocol that took half an hour and removing his protective suit, Chen Chen emerged from the laboratory feeling refreshed. Little X, who had been waiting for him by the entrance, hopped to his side to greet him.
“How did the operation go?”
Chen Chen asked.
“Everything has been sorted out.”
The obedient Little X assured Chen Chen confidently. “I had the Black Knights manufacture traffic accidents, suicides, and cases of fleeing the country. From here on, nobody will ever suspect you for the disappearance and subsequent death of the congress members.”
“Perfect.”
Chen Chen smiled and no longer pursued the subject.
To be frank, it was impossible to completely rid himself of any suspicions concerning this string of incidents. Anybody who was not completely oblivious to matters of politics would at least have a faint idea of who was behind the disappearance and death of the congress members that were openly against Blacklight Biotechnology.
Still, the fact remained that there was no substantial evidence that could be traced back to Blacklight Biotechnology. Besides, considering Blacklight Biotechnology’s continuously growing influence in Namibia, there was hardly going to be anyone bold enough to challenge the puppet master and investigate the death of the deceased congress members.
After this round of massive purge, most of the ones who remained in congress were either the ones who already sided with Blacklight Biotechnology or the ones who took a neutral stance. Now that they had seen what happened to the naysayers, they should naturally figure out what their options were.
Time went by in a hurry. In the blink of an eye, it was the tenth of January. It was the day where Falcon 12 would be officially launched.
Falcon 12 was the brother of Falcon 9 and just like its sibling, it was one of the most ambitious projects of SpaceX and only recently constructed in 2021. Although Falcon 9 carrier rocket had gone through many design modifications, its rocket and engine technology were still primarily founded in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Now that there was more optimal technology, SpaceX came up with a new solution to substitute the outdated Falcon 9.
This was how Falcon 12 came to be.
Its predecessor Falcon was the world’s first rocket that could reroute back to Earth after entering orbit. When the seventy-meter tall behemoth descended from the skies above and completed its safe landing, the entire world rejoiced.
Since then, humanity had entered the era where rockets could be recalled back to Earth instead of being geared as one-time-use devices that may never return.
Falcon 12 inherited the monumental mission of Falcon 9. Not only could its primary rocket be salvaged, but its payload fairing could also be reused, therefore cutting down the budget significantly.
The cargo that Chen Chen needed to launch was the five Gantz satellites. With a carrier like Falcon 12, all five satellites could be launched in one go.
As far as Chen Chen was concerned, this was Blacklight Biotechnology’s most important mission over recent years. He specifically brought Qian Wenhuan with him and headed over to the aerospace base in person.
When Chen Chen and Qian Wenhuan arrived at the aerospace base, there was already a large crew of project managers and rocket engineers waiting outside for them.
“President Chen! President Qian!”
A short and plump Chinese man shaped like a ball immediately greeted them enthusiastically and shook their hands warmly as he started with the introductions. “Allow me to introduce you to Kevin over here. He’s the senior engineer of SpaceX and he’ll be the primary engineer overseeing today’s launch.”
“Mr. Chen Chen, I’m Blake Kevin, the primary engineer for today’s launch. You can just call me Kevin for short.”
A man in a plaid shirt stepped up to greet and shake hands with Chen Chen enthusiastically.
“Good to see you.”
Chen Chen shook hands with this person courteously. The plump man continued introducing Chen Chen to the rest of the engineers, who all shook hands with Chen Chen as well. After they were finished with the introduction, the group started to head to the launch site.
The plump man was Zhao Guangjie. He was a rocket manufacturing expert that Qian Wenhuan had recruited from the Mainland due to the lack of suitable personnel on Blacklight Biotechnology’s end. This man was put in charge of the aerospace base along with today’s launch operation.
The launch site was already packed with close to forty technicians, each monitoring and charting a large array of data. They were all members of SpaceX. At the front and center of the launch site was an enormous, transparent glass wall.
Through the glass wall, the colossal launch tower that looked like Optimus Prime stood hundreds of meters away white a white round-headed rocket aligned right next to it.
It was Falcon 12.
From this angle, Falcon 12 looked like an enoki mushroom. Its stem appeared extremely thin in comparison to its bulky head. This was the trademarked rocket design of SpaceX.
Zhao Guangjie stood by the observation deck along with Chen Chen and Qian Wenhuan where he declared ceremoniously, “President Chen, President Qian, feast your eyes on Falcon 12, destined to glide across the galaxies and bring mankind into the future!”
“Glide across the galaxies and bring mankind into the future?”
Chen Chen expressed his doubts. “We might be getting a little too ahead of ourselves.”
“President Chen, you might not be aware of this since you’re an outsider, but…”
Zhao Guangjie rubbed his head and continued to fawn over the rocket. “Falcon 12 stands 109.8 meters tall, just slightly below 110 meters, and its diameter is measured at 8.5 meters which makes it size equivalent to another of SpaceX’s creation, the ‘Starship BFR’. The Falcon is the most advanced rocket of its tier and equipped with the Merlin 1DMerlin engine. The force of its thrust reaches up to 240,000 pounds and it can carry cargo weighing up to 150 tons into the orbit…”
“Alright Mr. Zhao, we get that this is a marvelous invention. It’s time you tell us what you learned about it.”
Qian Wenhuan rubbed his eyebrows in irritation and cut Zhao Guangjie off. “You watched them construct this rocket from the ground up, surely you must’ve learned about the technology employed to construct it?”
“Not really, they prohibited me from getting a closer look during the construction process.”
Zhao Guangjie scratched his head and expressed frustratingly, “And they never answered whatever questions I had for them… Then again, this wouldn’t be too surprising considering these are technologies owned by SpaceX themselves. Wouldn’t it be equivalent to forgery if we copy their technology? That would be unethical…”
Zhao Guangjie started to explain his views, not noticing Qian Wenhuan’s face that was slowly turning dark by the second.
Qian Wenhuan specifically sought out Zhao Guangjie since he was not knowledgeable about the workings of this sector. Based on whatever information he could dig up online, he filtered the list down to several individuals such as Zhao Guangjie from the Mainland. He knew that there was no problem with this candidate when it came to academic qualifications.
However, he had never expected this candidate to turn out to be such an imbecile.
“Alright, that’s enough explaining.”
Chen Chen stopped Zhao Guangjie’s rant and pointed at the command center. “Kevin is preparing for the launch.”
They turned to the command center just in time to hear Kevin announcing, “Alright kids, we’ll be commencing the twenty-third launch of our Falcon 12 now. I want to see everyone standing at full attention. I’ll kick your butt if I see you dozing off!”
“Yes!”
Everyone cheered enthusiastically.
Kevin nodded contentedly when he saw the energetic response from his crew. He proceeded to tap on a button which summoned a series of countdown on a large screen everyone could see —
“Preparation for launch operation. Counting down from 30 minutes. All personnel is advised to revise all relevant data…”
A robotic female voice that spoke with a standard accent was broadcasted across the launch site. Upon hearing this prompt, every crew member turned to their respective control panels and started to meticulously conduct their tasks.
Meanwhile, a giant panel of display automatically rose from the center of the hall. Cast on the display was a constant stream of data that flowed like a waterfall. Anyone who was not an aerospace operation professional would have a hard time comprehending what these statistics meant.
A heavy, sinking atmosphere immediately descended onto the launch site.
Qian Wenhuan allowed himself a moment to marvel at the supreme discipline of this group of world-class experts. The level of SpaceX’s rocket launch team was on a completely separate league of their own.
Then he stole a sneaky glance at Chen Chen and noticed that there was not the slightest trace of emotion on Chen Chen’s face. It was impossible to make out what was on his mind.
One thing Qian Wenhuan was certain of was that Chen Chen had extremely ambitious plans in the aerospace industry, otherwise, he would not have invested such an enormous sum into constructing an aerospace base.
“Mr. Chen Chen?”
While Qian Wenhuan was letting his mind run wild with speculations, Kevin suddenly approached. “Mr. Chen Chen, you can bring your subordinates with you to the observation hall. That way, you can get a clear view of the launch from there instead of having to wait here.”
“That’s right, I’ve already had coffee and tea prepared there.”
Zhao Guangjie chimed in. “We can drink merrily while we watch Falcon 12 take flight, isn’t that a wonderful picture?”
Chen Chen darted a glance at Zhao Guangjie and informed, “That’s alright, I like standing here and waiting.”
“Mr. Chen Chen, that is against the regulations.”
In response to this, Kevin frowned and made a gesture. “The nature of the procedures of our launch are largely confidential. I’d appreciate it if the three of you would abide by international protocol and step away for the moment. Our crew will take care of this.”
“That’s right, President Chen. It’ll take another half an hour and it will bore you to have to wait here.”
Zhao Guangjie chimed in as well. Before he could finish his sentence, he felt someone pulling him from behind his back. He instinctively turned around and saw that it was Qian Wenhuan grabbing him with a foul look on his face.
“President Qian, what are you pulling me for?”
Zhao Guangjie asked curiously.
Paying no mind to the imbecile, Chen Chen glared viciously into Kevin’s eyes and declared word by word, “This is my property. I can be wherever I please. Meanwhile, all you need to worry about is to fulfill your duties.”
The temperature of the air around them seemed to have dropped several degrees as Chen Chen said this. Even several research members conducting their pre-launch inspection turned to look in this direction. Kevin was especially startled by this. He did not expect this young, wealthy man to be this stubborn. He maintained his position. “The technology implemented in the Falcon is an officially protected technology belonging to Northern America. We will not be proceeding with the launch if you insist on staying here!”
“How so, we paid for you guys to be here. The dynamic between us should be that of an employer and an employee. We’re the employers.”
Qian Wenhuan suddenly interjected and shouted before Chen Chen had to say anything else, “I want you to conduct the launch now, why aren’t you doing it?”
Qian Wenhuan may appear enraged on the outside, but what he was feeling deep inside was a sharp contrast. He was so frightened that he could feel sweat seeping through his shirt. He had been working for Chen Chen for so long that he had figured out Chen Chen’s personality. On the outside, this young man half a decade younger than him was cool, calm, and collected. What he never let show deep inside was his dark, vile ambitions that would make a Mafia Godfather appear like a saint when put next to him.
Kidnap, assassination, bribing officials, human experiments, smuggling firearms… The hands of this young man had been stained by the blood of countless people. Killing was merely a trivial matter for him. To think that someone would dare talk to Chen Chen like this, was this person trying to rush to his grave?
Qian Wenhuan who was well-versed with his line of work knew that this was not the time to remain silent. He raised his voice and declared, “If you don’t conduct the launch as requested, our company will get in touch with Musk and see what he has to say about his employees!”
“Even if you contact Mr. Musk, I’ll still hold my ground on this decision.”
What Qian Wenhuan had never expected was for Kevin to turn out to be such a stubborn person as well. It was either because this was what Musk had instructed him to do or that he played several roles, one of them being an informant for the Northern American government.
“Clap clap clap…”
It was then when Chen Chen suddenly started to clap. A faint glimmer of beam appeared in his eyes as he softly clapped his hands together. “Excellent, I admire someone with integrity.”
At the drop of his note, the tightly shut entrance was suddenly barged open. A squad of armed soldiers in combat suits charged inside. They were dressed like special forces with the B.S.S. badge strapped in front of their chest.
“B.S.S. Quick Reaction Force!”
Qian Wenhuan was stunned by this sudden turn of events. He immediately spotted Bando’s figure among the squad.
In an instant, the entire launch site was surrounded by B.S.S. force soldiers, driving the crew into a mass of panic.
“Mr. Chen Chen, what are you guys trying to do?”
Kevin froze for a moment when he saw what was happening before he exclaimed, “This isn’t the Namibian government troops but your private military force instead. Military force doesn’t have the authority to arrest us. You’re breaking the law…”
Before he could finish, several B.S.S. members charged in his direction and proceeded to slam the butt of their guns square on Kevin’s head!
“Ah! Stop!
“Ah! Oh my God, you people are demons… What about the law?”
The launch site descended into chaos. Everyone watched in bewilderment as the group of soldiers gave Kevin a horrible beating. It did not take long before Kevin’s screams came to a stop.
“Alright, does anybody still have any objections?”
Chen Chen asked as he looked at Kevin who was lying in a pool of his blood.