In the White House, Washington, DC!
The sun had yet to rise from the east: it was the darkest moment before dawn! Apart from the people on night shifts, most people were deep in their dreams!
Nobody could have imagined that the President of the United States and a group of government officials were already neatly dressed in the conference room. There were also some military generals in their uniforms, their hairs already whitening.
More than a dozen people sat on the large conference chair, divided between the government officials on one side and the military officers on the other. Sitting on the head of the table was their highest leader, Mr. President of the United States!
The dozen or so people that gathered in the conference room looked like they hadn't had a good night sleep for a while, and some even looked angry. But despite their appearances, they were all big shots that wielded great power!
The atmosphere in the conference room was extremely heavy. Everyone was staring at the big screen in front of the President. None of them had the same expression, yet they were all equally indecipherable!
The silence lasted for quite a while, as if time itself had stopped!
...
"What is he doing? Why did he suddenly stop moving? And why did he fly all the way to our country? What did he want? Is he a threat to our security?"
A hoarse voice finally broke through the silence. The voice seemed to be lacking sleep!
It was Mr. President's voice, the man sitting at the head of the table in an elegant suit and tired face—but his eyes were wide open as he stared at the screen in front of him and asked a bunch of questions.
On the big screen was a human wearing a silver battle suit and a bright red cloak, standing quietly! The picture was taken from an overhead angle, with occasional interference!
The figure's mannerism was so unremarkably mundane that it was easy to almost forgot that he was standing above the clouds, with winds fluttering his cloak!
Yes: the person on the screen was floating ten thousand meters in the air without any support.
It was a scene straight out of Hollywood, yet it was displayed in the heart of the White House, in front of the President, government officials, and military officers!
A thought slipped into everyone's mind: it would be great if this really was just a fantasy movie!
If it was just an extremely well-made CGI, they wouldn't have to be dragged out of their bed and dream into a secret meeting about a reality that's weirder than fiction!
The person on the screen had flew from central Africa to the American airspace within less than half an hour! The hypersonic interloper had unknown motives, and it was unknown whether he was a friend or foe!
...
"Mr. President, we don't know what he might do next! We have no idea why he headed to our country! And we don't have anything on his identity!"
A man in a suit answered the President's question with a sour expression—he was representing the most prestigious intelligence agency in the world, the CIA, so it pains him to say that his agency had been unable to discover any useful information on the unknown figure in the video!
"What about the other agencies? Is there anyone that know about this person?"
The President proceeded to scan the other government officials in the room, hoping that one of them would have better news!
However, they all silently lowered their head!
"What's going on? That person appeared almost an hour ago! And you're telling me the best intelligence agencies on the planet had nothing on him?
"I gave you so much budget every year! And you're telling me you can't find information on a single person? What's the point of all those taxpayer money wasted on you? I might as well defund you to build pig farms!"
The President's voice welled with anger, but he was able to restrain himself and keep using his words.
"Mr. President, sir, this is not a matter of our competence. That person just appeared too suddenly. He appeared without warning above an agrarian country in Africa. He was already flying when our satellite found him!
"There was no way to know how he took to the sky, or what devices he used!
"Moreover, despite his immature and childish behavior while flying, his speed is incredible. He easily surpassed Mach 5 shortly after he appeared! That speed was beyond the capability of our fastest fighters!
"Our analysis suggests that it is very likely that this is his first time flying, which caused him to have such a childish behavior.
"But we have no way of knowing why he flew towards our country!"
Another intelligence agency representative explained what they knew about the person in the video!
"Then why don't you go find out about him? Also, which African country did he appear from?"
The President's face lightened a little, but his voice was still rumbling!
"We have deployed all of our country's world-class surveillance satellites! No ordinary flying objects would've escaped our sensors, but we have been unable to discern his body feature and appearance!
"It seems that an unknown factor is deliberately distorting his image! Thus, our database and analysts had been unable to find a match for him. Further detailed information would not be available within foreseeable future!
"It was almost like someone had hacked and took over our satellites, but that's too ridiculous. It's unimaginable that there is a hacker group capable of doing that! At least not without leaving any traces!
"Doing that would require computer technology so far beyond our country's! There's no known organization or nation with that capability!
"Oh, and the country he appeared from was called Wakanda, a poor backwater nation that barely sustained itself through agriculture!
"It's incredibly baffling that the king of that country was so isolationist. He even refused all offers from the United Nations!"
The intelligence representative continued to bring the President up to speed!
"So, you're saying that we have no way of knowing who this person is? No way of knowing which country or factions he belongs to? We can't predict what he's going to do next. What about risk assessment, we don't even know if he might or might not be hostile?
"What you're saying is, we have no countermeasures whatsoever if he decided to invade our country? Is that right?"
The President raised his voice!
...
"Mr. President,I suggest that you send the order to scramble our Air Force to eliminate this person immediately. We must nip this threat in the bud and give him no chance to invade our nation!"
A man in military uniform stood up and loudly suggested to the President. However, his extreme proposal was met with opposition by the more conservative officials!
"Mr. President, you must not approve that order! We don't even know if this person was a threat! We can't recklessly attack him and give him a reason to retaliate against our country!"