The Wolf of Los Angeles.

The Birdball Project, launched by West Coast Technologies in partnership with Claire's Clean Water Foundation and Caltech, ended last November. The project spanned multiple states, including California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona, and generated over $11 billion in revenue.

Even though more than ten companies share the profits, with the lion's share going to West Coast tech companies, Claire's Clean Water Foundation still benefits greatly.

It is even more than ten times the total amount of donations received by the foundation in the more than ten years since its establishment.

Claire smiled broadly at Hawke: "When will the follow-up to Project Birdball begin? We've launched so many black balls; it has to be finished."

"This plan is destined to make money twice," Hawke said softly. "Don't rush. We'll clean up the sphere after the public outcry has died down."

Claire, the First Lady, wanted both to make money and to maintain a good reputation, and replied, "You've thought things through very well."

She asked, "If there are similar environmental protection projects in the future, we will continue to cooperate."

Hawke was prepared: "I'm currently working with the United Nations Environment Programme to develop a water conservation plan for Africa. If you're interested, you can talk to Pierce Madden."

Claire was more than interested; she said, "I'll arrange to meet Pierce later."

She won't be able to stay in the position of First Lady for many more years. Her relationship with Tom Emmer has actually broken down, and she must seize the opportunity to gain benefits for herself.

What's the point of being First Lady if you can't reap the benefits?
Claire had just left when Kevin McCarthy, another leader of the California Elephant Party and a key ally of Brian, approached her.

This person defeated Barbara Berxer in last year's election to become a California senator.

His family business is also a supplier for the AI ​​Manhattan Project: "Our AI project has achieved a lot. Should we launch another proposal to apply for more federal subsidies?"

The so-called achievements are merely some online search functions and optimized automatic recognition functions.

In a year or two at most, even without the AI ​​Manhattan Project, other companies will release their latest achievements.

But Twitter capitalized on a relatively short time lag, which naturally became part of its research findings, and also demonstrated to the entire United States and the federal government that every penny of the money they invested was used effectively.

Hawke said directly, "We've exhausted our connections with the White House, and Twitter can no longer use the White House's channels. How about this, we join forces with several members of Congress to launch another proposal."

This directly affects the profits of many suppliers, and McCarthy replied without hesitation, "I'll take charge of the joint team."

Hawke ordered two glasses of champagne, drank one with him, and said, "The early preparation stage depends on you."

McCarthy readily agreed: "Don't worry, leave this to me."

After a night of socializing, even though Hawke was already used to this kind of life, he was still dizzy and overwhelmed.

The guests left one after another. Erica saw off the ladies and returned home with Jennifer.

“This kind of socializing is harder than catching a hundred criminals.” With no one else in the banquet hall, Jennifer complained, “It’s so mentally and physically exhausting, I feel like I’ve aged ten years in an instant.”

Erica deliberately said, "Do you know why it's so difficult?"

Jennifer shrugged: "Why?"

Erica said in a serious tone, "Because you're dealing with some of the top criminals in the entire country."

That was so true that Jennifer couldn't refute it and could only say, "Including us?"

Hawke chimed in, "That's right, including us."

Jennifer thought for a moment and said, "No wonder, dealing with the most high-level criminals is really mentally taxing."

Hawke looked at Brian: "The governor and his wife have immunity."

The four of them left the banquet hall together. As they walked, Brian said, "The law is meant to serve wealth and power. We all have immunity."

Jennifer took his arm and reminded him, "Don't forget Seraphim. Sometimes, the desperate struggle of a small person can have very serious consequences."

Erica asked, "Has the federal government begun its counterterrorism operations in northern Iraq?"

Brian, who was more familiar with the dynamics at the government level, explained in detail: "Although Hillary is one of the most serious political opponents, she is, after all, the former First Lady. The Tom Emer government must show a tough stance to the outside world. Many warplanes from the Air Force and Army have been transferred to Iraq. Israel's Mossad has provided a lot of intelligence, and supplies have been transported. The attack should be officially launched next week."

Hawke added, "The all-terrain transport vehicles urgently purchased by the Pentagon have already been delivered to the Middle East by West Coast Logistics."

Brian added, "Even if it's just to give the American people an explanation and to show the world that a superpower is inviolable, this operation must be pushed forward."

Erica asked a crucial question: "Any news from Zipperton?"

“Aside from issuing public statements and angrily condemning him, he has remained very calm,” Jennifer continued. “Currently, he is using the excuse of healing to hide on his farm in Little Rock, Arkansas, avoiding contact with the outside world and refusing to see even his daughter Chelsea.”

Brian's gossip instincts were piqued: "Could it be that Chelsea really isn't Richard Lambton's daughter?"

Jennifer rolled her eyes at him: "You can go ask them."

Hawke cautioned, "Keep an eye on Zipperton's situation."

Erica had a feeling: "I don't know why, but I don't feel that Zipperton is very sad."

The two got into their respective cars and left the Beverly Business Club.

Back at the hilltop estate, Erica asked Hawke, "Have you cleaned up the mess over there?"

Hawke said, "Everyone has been evacuated; they faked their deaths to escape."

“You can be very soft-hearted sometimes.” Erica, however, was far more ruthless than Hawke: “People and things like this…”

Hawke shook his head slightly: "Many times, we can't just consider reason, we also have emotions. Hurricane Company and Butterfly together have thousands of people."

Erica said, "I'm not as good as you in this respect."

The Ferguson family owns a security company in Los Angeles and maintains armed personnel overseas, but these are all traditional models, and they never considered something like Hawke's.

But so far, the results are very good. Those people have no worries about the future and are really willing to risk their lives.

Erica had no doubt that if Hawke sent someone to assassinate the current president, someone would do it.

…………

The Middle East, northwestern Iraq.

A piercing air raid siren blared in the border town of Qaim. The militiamen of Shamddu, who had received some air defense training, found nearby hiding places to avoid the impending attack.

Zhu Lani, along with his confidants, quickly fled the military camp through the secret passage of the air-raid shelter and hid in an underground bunker far away from the camp.

The bunkers displayed in the open are all for show.

He had dealt with the Americans before; seemingly sturdy reinforced concrete bunkers couldn't withstand the Americans' heavy bombs. Chaos reigned in Qaim, because Shamdo's air defenses were virtually nonexistent, lacking even basic radar. By the time the anti-aircraft blasts sounded, the missiles had already begun to fall.

The continuous rumbling of explosions made the Shamdu military camp virtually transparent, thanks to Mossad's intelligence support.

The vehicle parking area, weapons depot, and defensive positions were all engulfed in smoke and dust from the violent explosions.

The buildings that served as military camps collapsed one by one.

Shamdo's only anti-aircraft machine guns were all blown up and smashed into pieces.

The only remaining air defense system collapsed.

The F-15s that served as the first wave of ground attack missions returned to base, while the F-16s carrying precision-guided bombs began dropping bombs.

Guided bombs rained down from the sky and crashed into the city of Qaim.

Inevitably, many civilians and buildings in the city were also affected.

After the air defenses completely collapsed, the ground-licking maniac Warthog attack aircraft made its appearance. This aircraft, designed specifically for machine guns, flew around Gaim City, and any car that tried to escape the city would be blown into a pile of metal fragments by the Warthog's 30mm machine guns.

The Ghost Gunship, specifically designed to deal with small countries and guerrillas, also appeared over Gaim, unleashing a barrage of fire from its 105mm howitzers at ground targets.

The Shamdo organization, with its thousands of armed men, was now powerless to fight back except to hide and take the beating.

The entire military camp was almost completely destroyed by US airstrikes.

A second batch of three F-15s arrived, all carrying bunker buster bombs specifically designed to target underground fortifications.

Guided by maps and coordinates provided by Mossad, F-15s dropped bunker-buster bombs that landed one after another on top of the bunker.

Muffled explosions rang out one after another, as if a major earthquake had struck the military camp. The ground shook violently, and the houses and walls remaining from the air raid continued to collapse. Irregular cracks, centered on the bunker, carried shockwaves invisible to the naked eye, wildly sweeping outwards.

The structure of this land is collapsing, the bunkers are rumbling and collapsing, and a deep pit is gradually forming amidst the flying dust and debris.

Under repeated bombing by bunker buster bombs, the core command bunker of the Shamdo organization collapsed, leaving a crater several meters in diameter on the ground.

In the explosion at the bottom of the crater, the personnel inside the bunker, along with most of the structure, were torn to pieces by the shockwave.

But the US attack was not over yet, and a new batch of Warthog attack aircraft and F-16s arrived.

Qaim is a grand stage, and the U.S. military is the leading actor, because of the tragedy that occurred in London, they must perform well in this play.

The air raids, which started with precision and clarity, quickly escalated into indiscriminate bombing.

One of the Warthog attack aircraft pilots contacted command: "Base, base, this is Falcon. The city is in complete disarray, and it's impossible to distinguish between civilians and armed personnel."

The base commander calmly stated, "It's easy to tell. Those who fled during your attack are definitely terrorists, those who didn't are well-trained terrorists, the older ones are aging terrorists, and the younger ones are immature terrorists..."

"Understood!" The pilot circled back, turning the nose of the plane towards the crowd.

He pressed the fire button on the 30mm cannon.

The so-called terrorists below were scattered in different places.

With no air force and virtually no air defense, the Sharmtu organization was routed by US airstrikes.

In a low-rise building far from the military camp, Julani hid in a dark basement, waiting for the air raid to end.

The American army won't be able to arrive anytime soon, and he'll have a chance to escape once the air raids end.

As the sounds of explosions from the ground gradually subsided, Julani opened the wardrobe in the basement, took out ordinary, worn-out clothes, and put them on with the help of his two wives. He then ordered all the women and bodyguards around him to change into civilian clothes.

Once the explosion had completely subsided, the three men split up to investigate. Soon, one of them returned to report: "General, the military camp has been destroyed, the bunkers have collapsed, and the casualties are heavy. The brothers are in terrible shape..."

Having experienced war, Julani could imagine the tragic scenes without even seeing them.

But the American bombing did not break his will. Julani led the way outside: "Let's go rescue people."

The Shamddu group suffered heavy casualties in the airstrikes, with many abandoning their weapons and fleeing for fear of further bombing.

But some people also chose to take up arms and continue fighting.

Caution is advised. Many young and middle-aged men in the city who were not fond of the Shamdo organization took the initiative to come and ask to join.

Because their loved ones died in the air raid.

Julani quickly arranged a series of matters, recalling the arrangements and training that Walid had done when he was alive. He swiftly adjusted personnel and tactics, instructing the survivors to break up into smaller groups and evacuate Qaim separately, crossing the northwestern border of Iraq into Syria to avoid the next attack by the US military.

He also brought his confidants and mingled among the ordinary people fleeing Qaim, crossing the Syrian border that very night and entering the densely populated Deir ez-Zor.

Here is a safe house that Julani prepared early in the morning.

Hidden in the safe house, Julani looked at the world map on the wall by the bright light.

“America, the world’s largest terrorist organization!” Julani thought of his meticulously built army, which had been bombed to pieces by the American forces. He slapped the map with his hand on the location of the United States and said to his subordinates, “Our brothers and sisters, too many of them have died in the American bombings. It was the same more than ten years ago, it was the same a few years ago, and it is the same now.”

Those subordinates who followed Zhu Lani revealed a deep-seated hatred in their eyes.

The biggest reason they are so determined is that Jurani has always used anti-Americanism as a banner to form Sharmtu.

From the Gulf War to the Iraq War, and then to the subsequent counterinsurgency wars, too many of their relatives died in the wars.

Julani continued, “We are all in debt, in debt to our deceased relatives and brothers!”

The flames of revenge burned fiercely in their hearts, and one of them said in a low voice, "General, we must take revenge!"

Others followed suit.

"Revenge! Revenge!"

"Let's die together with the Americans!"

Julani raised his hand to interrupt them, saying, "Don't talk about death so easily. You... and I, each of you owes a debt of ten lives, ten American lives!"

He said viciously, "No one is allowed to die until each of you kills ten Americans! We are going to take revenge on the world's biggest terrorist organization!"

Shamdu was not defeated by the air raids.

As in the past, anti-American terrorist organizations are basically created by Americans themselves. (End of Chapter)