Chapter 1472 Informer?

The former raised his hand to signal him not to speak for now, as he needed to calm down.

After about half a minute, he spoke again and asked:

"First, tell me, how long has this leak channel existed?"

Kiske's tone remained calm: "A retrospective analysis based on communication patterns, at least three years."

Hearing this number, Gates felt dizzy. Fortunately, he kept leaning on the backrest and did not make a fool of himself in front of his two subordinates.

And Kiske's reporting continues.

He pulled up a table on his PDA. "This is a complete timeline. Klinger's first suspicious contact with the Germans even occurred before the first test flight of the X-51A."

Prabhakar adjusted her holographic projector, and a complex network diagram floated in the center of the conference table. "Please pay attention to this time node." She zoomed in on a paragraph, "Two weeks after Klinger met with Professor Brinkmann of RWTH Aachen University, the Chinese Journal of Aerodynamics suddenly published a paper on the shock wave control of scramjet engines."

Gates frowned at the highlighted paragraph flashing in the paper’s abstract: “This looks like basic research.”

"That's true. The author is unknown, and there's no direct connection between him and the other party's hypersonic project." Prabhakar nodded. "But if we compare the mathematical model of this paper with the CFD simulation parameters of the fourth design iteration of the X-51A..." She called up another set of data, and the two sets of equations overlapped in the air. "The similarity is 78%, which is far beyond the normal range of academic overlap."

Chang Haonan, who was thousands of miles away, would never have thought that an article casually published in a domestic journal by an unknown doctoral student in order to graduate could actually become evidence that deepened the United States' suspicions.

All we can say is that investigations with predetermined conclusions are bound to go wrong.

The temperature in the conference room suddenly seemed to drop by several degrees. Gates' fingers slid quickly on the tablet and pulled up Ke Linjie's full profile:

"So...what's the motive?" Gates suddenly asked. "Collinger's family immigrated to the United States seventy years ago. He has worked at Boeing for nearly thirty years and has won the Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal...Why would he betray? And the files here show that he passed the TS/SCI-level security clearance in 2003, and there were no flaws in the background check."

"Things like motives... who can tell? A perfect cover often requires real qualifications." Kiske opened his second file, and the holographic projection switched to a set of financial charts. "Here's the problem. Klinger's son owns 35% of the shares of 'New Horizon Technology Consulting Company'. This company has undertaken 480 small research and development contracts from the Ministry of Defense in the past five years, with a total amount of million US dollars."

Prabhakar cited the contract list: "Nine of them involve auxiliary technologies for hypersonic vehicles, including thermal protection coating testing and sensor calibration. Although they do not involve core secrets, they are enough to build a complete technical puzzle."

Gates suddenly sat up straight: "You mean, he legally obtained some technology through his son's company, and combined it with the secrets he had..."

"We have built a complete technical map of the X-51A." Kiske finished his thoughts. "The most ingenious thing is that this decentralized way of information transmission is almost impossible to be discovered by regular audits... In fact, even if it is discovered, it does not violate any regulations. If it weren't for the abnormal speech of the Chinese in Huairou that attracted our attention..."

"and many more……"

Gates was at a loss at this moment, no longer as calm as he was a few minutes ago:

"What's going on with Huairou?"

"Three days ago, a Russian delegation visited the wind tunnel center in Huairou, Beijing... It was a temporary trip, so some people from the business field with a relatively low level of confidentiality were also involved."

Kisik half-raised the PDA in his hand, on which was China's public report on the incident:

"Of course, the part we visited was just the outermost part, so there was nothing worth paying attention to. However, during the communication process, a technician from the Chinese side accidentally revealed a lot of comments about our X51A project... We basically pieced together the complete content through multiple channels."

Gates' eyes swept across the technical terms on the screen: "'The X51A's inlet design has fundamental flaws... The shock wave-boundary layer interference calculation uses an incorrect turbulence model', resulting in an inevitable loss of control during the dive..."

He looked up at Prabhakar: "Is this information accurate?"

The latter's mouth twitched, as if it was very difficult for her to give this answer.

"Actually..."

The head of DARPA looked embarrassed:

"Because neither the X51A nor the HTV2 has ever actually flown to the end of its trajectory, we don't know whether it will inevitably lose control during the dive. As for the reasons for the failure of the first two tests of the X51A... considering that the investigation was conducted by Collinger himself, the conclusion may not be credible..."

The air in the conference room seemed to freeze.

Prabhakar also felt it was too embarrassing to continue talking about this part, so he quickly skipped to the most critical part:

"However, the description of the X51A's air intake characteristics given by the other party is completely accurate, and this should be top secret information."

"Immediately terminate Collinger's authority." Gates' voice suddenly rose, his face full of exasperation, "Notify the FBI to prepare to take over--"

"With all due respect, Minister." Kiske pressed on the folder. "Based on this alone, the court can only find him in violation of information security regulations. We need to know where the data flows and who is involved." He pointed to a line in the transcript. "Collinger mentioned 'the July batch', implying that this is already a persistent network."

Prabhakar pulled up a project schedule: "We can implant fake parameters in the next test of X51A and reversely confirm the recipient through Collinger's channel."

"And then? Spend another six months fishing?" Gates sneered, "What should I write in the president's daily briefing? 'Your Excellency, the head of our most confidential weapons program is selling state secrets, but please rest assured that we are patiently collecting evidence'?"

There is no way to answer this question.

The optimal technical solution is completely unfeasible politically, so the only concession that should be made is the former.

"Mr. Secretary, perhaps there is a compromise." Prabhakar pulled up a new chart on his computer: "We can maintain the X-51A project on the surface, but secretly transfer most of the resources to the new 'Sea Dragon' project - this is the scramjet engine program proposed by the Office of Naval Research. It uses similar technology, but a completely different design concept."

"Dual tracks in parallel?" Gates frowned.

"Yes. X-51A continues to operate as a bait, but only the basic team is retained. The real research and development power is transferred to 'Sea Dragon', which is led by a brand new and strictly vetted team." Prabhakar explained, "This way, we can continue to monitor the Coringer network without delaying our technological development."

"We can also further increase the funding controlled by DARPA." - Of course, I said this in my heart.

Kiske added: "We have surveillance equipment installed in Collinger's office, home and vehicle. If he is indeed the central node of a spy ring, more will be discovered soon."

Gates walked back to the table and rested his hands on it: "I need to report this to the president, but before that..."

He took a deep breath, stood up and paced back and forth in the conference room, finally walked to the window and looked at the Potomac River not far away: "Collinger's actions must be monitored in all directions, but according to Kiske's plan, they will not be made public for the time being."

"What about the X-51A program?" Prabhakar asked.

"Go ahead, but only keep the minimum number of personnel and funds. Tell Collinger that the project schedule needs to be adjusted due to budget cuts. Let him continue working... and record every action." Gates' eyes turned to the darkening sky outside the window. "As for the air-breathing hypersonic missile, handle it according to your ideas. Start the 'Sea Dragon' project as soon as possible. It is the highest priority. I want to hear progress reports every week!"