At that time, in East America, things had taken a turn for the worse. The Syndicate had lost contact with 3 out of the 13 zones. However, that wasn't all. Even the parties they had deployed to go and investigate the scene had gone missing in action.
These strange and sudden occurrences weren't random and were following a pattern. The Zones were being taken over serially. And if the pattern continued to follow, Arnold's zone would've been the next one the syndicate would lose contact with. They had tried contacting Arnold to notify him about the scenario but for some reason, they couldn't connect with him.
In Arnold's absence, the Syndicate was holding a meeting to decide their next plan of action. They couldn't just sit idly and not do anything. They had already lost a fairly big chunk of their army thanks to these disappearances and now they couldn't afford to lose anything else.