After listening, Romand Willy looked up, and his gaze became even more probing as he faced the representatives of the experts.
Not a single piece of good news.
The fools had not only unwittingly turned on the big screen in the restaurant, causing their secret plan to be leaked to those high-ranking officials, hence many had already begun to express their displeasure...
But in truth, this wasn't such a big deal.
After all, their interests were already tied together; even disgruntled, they understood the rules and wouldn't create a mess.
At most, it was just another disappointment.
What was worse was the media reporters...
Having made a big deal inviting everyone over, they now had to request the deletion of unfavorable information. Of course, all this was meaningless, "king without a crown" was just an empty title. But many media outlets on their side had already hyped it up beforehand, and if they ended up with nothing to show, it would be an embarrassing affair.
In tomorrow's debate, it might become ammunition for the opposition.
The whole thing, originally a golden opportunity, had become a mess that already left Romand Willy feeling like he was riding a tiger that was hard to dismount.
From this perspective, since these so-called experts were completely useless, purchasing an activation code seemed like the only viable solution now.
What frustrated him even more was the pressing time that left no room for a detailed plan.
Even the Chief of Staff from the President's Office, who had just been ready to celebrate with champagne here, left under the pretext of needing to report to the President immediately, resulting in all the burden falling onto his shoulders suddenly.
"Right, Mr. Willy, according to reliable intelligence, Professor Roth Dugan from Princeton Mathematics Institute has a good personal relationship with Qiao Ze. They have never stopped corresponding and often engage in academic discussions,"
So-called reliable intelligence was also provided by software.
Back in 2018, an American business data analysis company won a three-year contract worth 20 billion dollars from Langley.
The objective of the contract was to analyze the communication links between top academics in the domestic academic and high-tech sectors and world-class tech companies and scholars from other countries around the world, through artificial intelligence and big data machine learning algorithms, by cross-referencing hundreds of thousands of data sources.
To precisely grasp the pain points of the science and technology frontiers of the world and take targeted measures.
This was also one of many sources of Langley's top-secret intelligence.
The world was developing too fast, and everyone was keeping up.
The only pity was that the data were too complex; the machines could only give conclusions while the human reaction inevitably fell behind.
Romand Willy thought for two seconds and then made up his mind.
United States, Princeton.
At 7:10 PM, Roth Dugan was quietly enjoying his dinner in the restaurant.
Until his phone rang abruptly.
"There, I just said your work will always come first in this life, not family, but you wouldn't admit it," his wife complained gracefully.
"All right, Emily, it doesn't have to be work," Roth Dugan said helplessly as he wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin, then checked the caller ID on his phone, and his brows unfurled: "See, not work, an unfamiliar number."
"Oh, maybe," his wife shrugged indifferently.
When a woman doesn't want to be reasonable, it's almost unsolvable.
Roth Dugan sighed inwardly, then answered the phone.
"Hello, may I know who's speaking?"
"Professor Dugan, this is Langley, there's a very important matter that requires your assistance. We know you have a good relationship with Qiao Ze from the Huaxia Xilin Mathematical Research Institute. Right now, we need an activation for a material model..."
"Hello, hello, damn telecom company, what kind of signal is this? These people only know how to take money but can't improve the service..." Holding his complaint, Roth Dugan pulled the phone away from his ear, then hung up and swiftly turned off the device.
To get him to ask Qiao Ze for an activation code for such a trifling matter?
It wasn't even clear where the claimed material model came from; did they really think everyone was a fool?
The message quickly got back to Romand Willy.
Which infuriated the Langley bigwig: "What do you mean 'the other party said the signal might be bad'?!"
But seeing the helpless look of his assistant, he immediately understood what had happened, and he just felt an overwhelming sense of helplessness.
When these highly renowned intellectuals want to be elusive and refuse to cooperate, he really had no good solutions. He couldn't just go to Princeton and arrest the man, but who could say what kind of backlash would follow?
The subsequent reaction was like Schrödinger's cat, possibly benign, or it could cause his downfall.
The most crucial point was that remote strategies couldn't quench the immediate thirst, and there was simply no time left.
Even if someone was arranged to persuade Roth Dugan to change his mind now, besides bringing unpredictable trouble upon himself, it would be completely useless.
Many of the prominent guests in the restaurant were already subtly showing impatience.
They couldn't possibly keep people there indefinitely.
Now he was left with only the last hour. If he couldn't fix it, whatever the consequences, his position, neither big nor small, was just right to take the fall.
In fact, in those few short minutes, Romand Willy had come to realize.
It was nothing more than a resignation letter, after all.