Although the million-dollar fighter jet fell into the water and was wrecked, Zhang Heng's safe return made NASA breathe a sigh of relief.
Two serious accidents happened one after another on the same day. If two more astronaut candidates were to encounter accidents, even if they didn't affect the moon landing program, the general public wouldn't care. In fact, ever since Congress approved the Apollo program, the voices of opposition from the public had never stopped.
More and more people were questioning whether this expensive expenditure was reasonable. The so-called space race and landing on the moon were just for show, and the political significance was far greater than the practical significance. After all, this money could have been used to improve people's livelihood, education, or medical care, so that more poor people could eat their fill, the unemployed could receive more subsidies, and people of color could receive more respect.
The media would definitely seize the opportunity to attack Zhang Heng. Fortunately, unlike Anthony, Zhang Heng miraculously survived the accident.
However, when he returned to the shore, he didn't meet up with the other players. Instead, he was taken directly to the infirmary. Although he didn't seem to be injured in the accident, the medical team gave him a full body checkup just to be safe. After confirming that he was fine, Zhang Heng was taken to a conference room to be questioned by the accident investigation team.
They asked about the cause of the engine failure, Zhang Heng's countermeasures, the state of the fighter jet, and a series of other questions.
Because of the cruise ship, Zhang Heng didn't hide anything. He basically told them everything, including how the fighter jet lost power and was sucked into the tornado. Then, he made a forced landing on the water. He only hid the details of how he used Betty's Shell to control the tornado.
The accident investigation team felt like they were listening to a fairy tale. Although they couldn't rule out the possibility of what Zhang Heng said in theory, their rich professional experience told them that the probability of such a thing happening was too small.
The probability of the left and right engines stopping in the air at the same time was very small, and it happened to be caught in a tornado. Even the novels wouldn't dare to write such a scenario. However, they did do a lot of homework before coming here. The waterspout wasn't far from the coast, and many people saw it. Coupled with the witnesses on the cruise ship, their statements were exactly the same as Zhang Heng's.
So even though it was hard to believe emotionally, they could only accept this explanation in the end.
In addition, the accident investigation team also paid special attention to the ejection system. The tragedy in the morning was related to the failure of the ejection system of the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle. It had only been a few hours, and now the ejection system of the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle had malfunctioned again. It was easy to suspect that the two incidents were related.
NASA had already sent a salvage team to retrieve the downed fighter jet, intending to conduct a detailed investigation. Other than that, the investigation team also asked Zhang Heng about the possibility of sabotage.
…
By the time all the investigations were over, it was already night time. The investigation team informed Zhang Heng that he was not allowed to fly until the final investigation report was out. Zhang Heng had no objection to this decision, as it was tantamount to protecting him. Before the murderer was found, he didn't want to repeat what happened before.
After lunch, Zhang Heng returned to the aerodynamics class.
However, not long after he sat down, he received a small note. The content was very simple, with only one sentence.
You suspect Bruno, too. See you in the hallway at three.
Bruno was the name of the listless young man in the quest. The note was from Zhen Xiong, but the person who wrote it was a middle-aged man who looked like an intellectual.
The latter nodded at Zhang Heng discreetly after he received the note.
Zhang Heng wasn't too surprised. After two consecutive accidents, one successful and one failed, the other players would definitely be worried about their safety. They would try their best to find the murderer and figure out how he managed to cause so many accidents.
So far, it seemed that all the players except for Bruno had joined forces and reached a consensus. They believed that Bruno was the biggest suspect, and they didn't want to let him decide the fate of other players. Hence, they decided to take the initiative.
This basically meant that Bruno was out of the game early. It didn't matter if he was the real murderer or not. After all, the other players would no longer be a threat to him. Besides, many people were eyeing his position. Now that Zhang Heng survived, Bruno was no longer of much use.
If the four of them worked together, Bruno had almost no chance of winning. The reason why the middle-aged man invited Zhang Heng to join them was not because he valued Zhang Heng's strength, but to prevent him from telling NASA about this.
This was undoubtedly a wise move.
Two consecutive accidents happened in one day. Judging from the previous questions from the accident investigation team, it was obvious that they suspected the culprit.
Even if they could disguise it as an accident, it would still be a huge risk. Only by being an accomplice could they keep the secret as much as possible.
Zhang Heng didn't hesitate for long before agreeing to the middle-aged man's proposal.
Whether or not Bruno was the murderer, killing Bruno was undoubtedly beneficial to him. Even if the other four didn't make a move, Zhang Heng would find a way to eliminate Bruno to ensure his own safety. Since both parties had the same goal, Zhang Heng had no reason to refuse.
This outcome was within the middle-aged man's expectations.
After the physical training, the middle-aged man found an opportunity to come to Zhang Heng's side and briefly explained the plan for the night's operation. However, to not arouse Bruno's suspicions, the two quickly parted ways. The middle-aged man even deliberately gathered everyone, expressing the hope that they would hold another meeting at noon tomorrow to continue the discussion that they had not been able to finish.
Bruno didn't seem to care about this. Even so, he came to Zhang Heng after the physical training, stating that he had nothing to do with what happened on the fighter jet in the afternoon. At the same time, he expressed his desire to form an alliance with Zhang Heng. Bruno knew that he wasn't on good terms with the other players, and he desperately needed the support of an alliance.
According to him, he and Zhang Heng were the two players with the best training results. If they worked together, they could further increase the success rate of the moon landing.
Zhang Heng replied that he would consider it. When the clock pointed to three in the morning, Zhang Heng opened the door as promised.
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