Chapter 498: Direct Physical Salvation

"What's the situation?! Has any news come through?"
In the meeting room, Anthony Watson's roar almost lifted the ceiling.
The usually composed and collected man, the head of wildfire security, was now completely gone, looking like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Boss, the news just came in... the vast majority of our headquarters staff are basically confirmed safe."
"I'm asking about headquarters! What about our base?!"
"Headquarters..." The subordinate swallowed hard.
"Headquarters... is gone. Our headquarters building... was located right in the epicenter of the earthquake's most severe impact.
The entire building... has completely collapsed, swallowed whole by the earth."
Swallowed by the earth!
Anthony staggered back, his eyes filled with horror and disbelief.
"Doesn't that mean..."
"Yes, boss." The subordinate gave the only, and most brutal, conclusion.
"Everyone who entered the building... wiped out, not a single one survived, all... buried alive."
"How can you be so sure?! What if... what if there's a miracle?"
"There are no 'what ifs'." The subordinate answered decisively.
"Have you forgotten? To prevent any accidents from happening to the 'Wildfire' database, we pre-installed high explosives in the underground core area.
When the brothers outside saw the devastating force of the earthquake, they didn't hesitate and detonated all the explosives remotely.
Their idea was simple—to ensure that every 'living' and 'dead' thing inside was gone, all gone!"
This action was decisive and ruthless.
It was all to eliminate any possibility of a miracle.
What if some unlucky soul were to stumble upon a miracle and survive the cataclysmic event, still clutching a document or two… that would be a disaster.
So, let's go all the way and physically exterminate them, scattering their ashes!
Another adjutant added:
“Boss, your decision to have some men on standby outside beforehand was a stroke of genius!
Thanks to them, all the evidence at the scene was completely destroyed, leaving not a trace!”
A stroke of genius?
Anthony gave a bitter laugh. Was it really?
He knew very well that even without that order, without that damned explosive, anyone who stormed into that building was doomed.
That was a 7.8 magnitude earthquake!
Comparable to a nuclear bomb detonating in the ground!
What's worse, it seemed like fate wasn't satisfied with the force, and then delivered a follow-up blow—a 7.7 magnitude aftershock!
The entire country of Turkey was ravaged by these two devastating blows; the earth's crust was nearly torn apart.
Faced with such catastrophic destruction, how insignificant is humanity?
Forget those who venture deep into underground facilities; even a cockroach made of steel, crawling into the deepest vault, would be crushed into a two-dimensional cartoon.
Therefore, detonating explosives and destroying evidence, while sounding impressive, are merely icing on the cake—
No, it should be described as elegantly sprinkling a pinch of scallions into a pot of soup already boiling to the point of explosion.
The real executioner, the invisible giant hand that buried all enemies and all evidence underground;
It wasn't explosives, nor a natural disaster, but that name that haunted like a nightmare—Fang Huan Investment!
“Boss, there’s something else I need to report.”
“Go ahead.”
“Didn’t headquarters say they were going to leave a few people behind to guide the other side during this operation?
And immediately, several local employees volunteered to personally lead the team from the US.”
“Hmm, and then?”
“Actually, we’d felt something was off for a while. The Americans, like flies drawn to fish, suddenly set their sights on our hideout in Turkey!
And the precision of their operation was as if they had our internal organizational structure and personnel lists…
This whole thing is just unsettling.”
In fact, this thought had also flashed through Anthony’s mind.
The opposing side, so aggressive and confident in their direct assault, coupled with their arrogant "we've got you today" attitude, clearly held a trump card.
"We have... a mole within our ranks?"
"Yes." The subordinate's eyes turned icy.
"The brothers have been secretly investigating for a long time, and they've discovered that the five guys who volunteered to stay at headquarters to 'receive' the VIPs are all traitors!
The evidence of their covert collusion with the US is irrefutable!"
"!?" Anthony's pupils contracted sharply.
After all, he had never bothered with any internal investigations.
Because he firmly believed that everyone in the "Wildfire" organization was an elite handpicked and implanted by Fang Huan's investment.
Loyalty was never an issue!
But now, reality had delivered a resounding slap in the face.
Five moles had suddenly appeared!
So the question arises: did Fang Huan Investment's screening system malfunction, misjudging the situation?
"No..." Anthony muttered to himself, a more chilling thought surfacing,
"Or...or perhaps...they knew from the beginning, but deliberately left these moles alive?
A clever scheme, a grander plan?"
"I guess the latter, boss," the subordinate's voice was filled with awe,
"Think about it, using this opportunity, not only did they wipe out these lurking moles in one fell swoop, but they also conveniently wiped out the US action team they lured in!
Two birds with one stone, clean and efficient, a huge profit!"
But for this terrifying deduction to hold true, an almost supernatural precondition must be met.
"Tell me, with today's technology, can anyone predict earthquakes?
I mean, precisely to the year, month, day, hour, and minute?"
"No... Boss, that's impossible." The subordinate answered decisively.
"Even if technology advances another hundred years, accurately predicting earthquakes...
is still a forbidden zone for God, a realm inaccessible to humanity."
"Then... what about artificially creating an earthquake?"
"A miniature one, perhaps. But to create a 7.8 magnitude cataclysmic earthquake...
Forgive my bluntness, but that's no longer science, it's theology."
That's right, artificially manipulating the weather, humans can do it.
Artificially inducing small-scale earthquakes is not entirely impossible under certain conditions.
For example, nuclear tests can trigger crustal tremors, and drilling and high-pressure water injection at some geothermal power plants can occasionally induce geological activity.
There's even a claim that the 5.7 magnitude earthquake in Pohang, South Korea, years ago was caused by a nearby geothermal power plant.
However, that was only 5.7!
The energy of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake is more than 11,000 times that of a 5.7!
This is beyond the reach of human technology.
Even if you bundled hundreds of nuclear warheads together and held a grand party deep within the Earth, you might not be able to create such a cataclysmic event.