Forget it.
William couldn't be bothered to dwell too much on the truth.
Just like that meme circulating online before he transmigrated: 'This is the empire I conquered for you.'
Anyway, thanks to Grandpa's efforts in the last century, most countries had granted him a green channel, making the containment operation go much more smoothly. What was there to complain about?
After thinking it through.
William nodded at Mike beside him and smiled, 'Thank you for clearing that up, Lieutenant General.'
'Hahaha.'
Mike laughed heartily, patted William's shoulder firmly, and said with deep satisfaction:
'What are you thanking me for? I'm just conveying My Lord Russell's intentions. On the contrary, I should be thanking you, William!'
'A veteran over fifty who has been grinding in the military for over thirty years—isn't it all for this moment?'
'Just thinking about the Russell Family standing at the pinnacle of the World again fills me with motivation!'
'Great, another Andre.'
Seeing Mike's expression, William immediately retorted in his heart, and even gave him a half-second deadpan stare.
What he didn't know was...
While Mike was speaking somewhat crazily, Halsey, standing behind him, had made the exact same deadpan expression.
'Ahem.'
William coughed lightly to remind Mike, who had become abnormal because of 'My Lord Russell': 'Lieutenant General.'
'Let's prepare to discuss the situation in Manhattan. We can catch up another time. After all, there is an anomaly on the island that could threaten the safety of all humanity.'
'Oh? Right, you're correct. Containing the anomaly is the priority.'
Hearing William's reminder, Mike gradually calmed his excited emotions.
Just then, the group arrived at the wartime Command Center that Umbrella had set up at Kennedy Airport.
It was called a setup.
In reality, they had just requisitioned the lobby on the first floor of Terminal 6. Walking inside, a large number of Marines were moving various equipment crates.
Even the flight status boards at the information desk all displayed 'CANCELLED' in large, red letters.
At the start of the Manhattan virus outbreak, Umbrella's Long Island branch had dispatched Technicians, escorted by armed Agents, to Kennedy Airport.
In coordination with Mike's Marine Corps, they completely requisitioned this airport—one of the World's major aviation hubs—and transformed it into a military fortress for the containment operation.
As for the stranded tourists, they had long since been escorted out by the Marine Corps, with various attitudes.
...
They arrived at the huge, circular information processing center, which was equipped with numerous devices and staffed by a large number of Umbrella Technicians handling operations and communications.
Everyone stopped.
Hank, Alpha, and Mike's Marine Corps elites consciously dispersed to stand guard on the perimeter of the processing center.
William walked into the center, scanned the room, and said calmly: 'Report the situation.'
'Yes, Boss.'
A supervisor approached William, while also bowing slightly to Halsey and Mike to show respect.
He said: 'Boss, as soon as our processing center was set up, we began purging any online keyword links related to Manhattan, the virus, and zombies.'
'However...'
'Discussions about the Manhattan incident are only increasing, not decreasing. Countless videos and photos have already been crazily reposted; it's simply not something our current manpower and resources can control.'
'So, Boss, we have determined that this anomaly cannot be concealed from the general public and society.'
'Don't worry about that.' William waved his hand.
He had previously contacted Troy and had Kent escort Cortana and the Spartans here precisely to handle this issue.
According to the original plan.
Cortana was only supposed to exist on the local area network on Minos, commanding Umbrella's Engineering Team to execute the God-Making Project and taking Halsey's place to teach the young Spartans.
Only when the five paris-class heavy frigates launched would Cortana enter the wide area network to control all social discourse.
But the appearance of Elizabeth Green forced Cortana to be deployed early to erase any information about Manhattan from the internet.
Seeing William's calm and composed demeanor, the supervisor stopped worrying about the public opinion issue and continued his report:
'Boss, thanks to the full support of Lieutenant General ODonahue, we have deployed four Marine Corps drones.'
'Based on the real-time footage transmitted back, we have mapped a rough infection zone map of the Manhattan urban area.'
As he spoke.
The supervisor instructed a Technician to turn on the projector screen hanging at the top of the hall, displaying the infection zone map.
Central Park was completely red, radiating outwards, gradually turning light red, dark yellow, and light yellow.
The area Elizabeth Green had chosen effectively cut off the connection between the north and south of Manhattan, leaving even less room for the survivors in the city to move around.
On the far right of the image was a string of data;
Note: The specific values are subject to significant discrepancies.
City: Manhattan.
Unit: 10,000.
Total Population: 201.2
Number of Infected: 24.7 / ≈ 12%
Number of Potential Infected: 32.3 / ≈ 16%
Number of Normal People: 144.2 / ≈ 72%.
Seeing the image and the glaring numbers, William's heart sank.
The Empire 25 Theater they had just escaped from was already marked as light red on the infection zone map, indicating that the virus was spreading extremely fast.
At this moment, the supervisor said to William seriously:
'Boss, through drone observation, we discovered a strange phenomenon. Please look.'
The supervisor sat down at a computer himself to operate it.
The projector screen displayed three diagrams.
The first one on the left, dated 20:37.
It was the situation in Manhattan before the outbreak, without any red or yellow.
The second one was dated 20:47.
This was ten minutes after the red mist rose at the Plaza Hotel.
The third one was dated 21:17.
This was the exact infection zone map that William and his group had just seen.
'Eh?'
The moment she saw the three images, Halsey discovered the anomaly and asked the supervisor:
'What is the approximate accuracy of this data?'
'Seventy-five percent, Dr.,' the supervisor replied respectfully.
'Good, I understand.'
Halsey nodded with a grave expression. She turned around and explained to William on behalf of the supervisor:
'Boss (raising both hands to point at the first and second images).'
'That Patient Zero was able to cause such a large red area in just ten minutes, which means she has the ability to assimilate the entire Manhattan within an hour.'
'But (gesturing with both hands to the second and third images).'
'The red area remained stable for the next thirty minutes, with only some yellow areas added.'
'This suggests...' Halsey did not continue explaining, but just locked eyes with William.
Hearing this, William immediately understood what she meant, frowned, and said in a deep voice:
'Are you saying that Elizabeth Green is deliberately slowing down the spread of the virus, using the 1.4 million Manhattan citizens as her hostages'
'to prevent a nuclear missile attack?'
'It is very possible.'
-------------------------------
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