No matter how far the conversation strayed, Solomon and Stephanie continued with their work.
No matter how bleak the future, it would not stop the magus from completing the task at hand.
Though at first glance Stephanie didn't appear particularly special, as Solomon's closest aide she had already begun undergoing a specialized alchemical enhancement process designed specifically for her. She was one of the few in the Immortal City who could keep up with Solomon's work pace. After hanging up the phone, she immediately arranged everything.
A local construction company in Gloucestershire was dispatched to an ancient castle owned by the Malick family for restoration. Gideon Malick had transferred ownership of the land to Stephanie to facilitate her mission. Before planning could begin, all decorations in the castle had to be removed to prevent anyone from tracing the Hebrew word printed on the parchment back to the Malick family.
In truth, the construction company was also owned by the Malicks. They were tasked with dismantling a special room in the castle that contained a late 19th-century hydroelectric system. Scholars in the Malick family had once believed that soundwaves and vibrations were the key to activating or transforming the monolith—this was how Will had accessed its portal. Due to the extreme age of the documents, all of them existed only in paper form. Gideon Malick was currently overseeing their digitization. Once scanned, the documents would be transmitted via the Immortal City's secure satellite network to the sky carrier, ensuring that no one could intercept them.
Note: Stephanie also briefly discussed the Council on Foreign Relations with her father—Gideon Malick's next political promotion was expected to take him there, allowing him to escape bipartisan gridlock.
Meanwhile, another more thoroughly brainwashed assassin was awakened from stasis and secretly deployed to the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. A special operations unit from the intelligence department would cooperate with this assassin to extract the Terrigen crystals from the base. This assassin was one of the biological lab's experimental products, and after his mental state stabilized, he was officially put into service. Honestly, Solomon still wasn't sure how Maya Hansen came up with the idea of modifying assassins using Skrull DNA—but since the results were effective, he didn't bother arguing. After all, none of the assassins had reproductive capability—or desires.
"After this, the Malick family will no longer be connected to Hydra," Solomon stated. It had taken him an hour to process the backlogged reports from the past few days. Stephanie, for her part, suffered in silence, issuing orders one after another without even pausing to sip water. To meet the Immortal City's demand for railway construction expertise (mainly for Mars), she also had to send personnel abroad under the company's name for training, cooperation, and investment.
Few outsiders could imagine just how much wealth this young woman controlled. Even though the assets were operated under the name of the Immortal City, on paper they all belonged to Stephanie. As for why they didn't model after Wakanda, the reason was simple—Wakanda's railway system was indeed advanced, but the total mileage was pitifully small. Moreover, they had no maintenance experience under extreme weather conditions—Wakanda's underground trains didn't face such risks anymore.
"I think your father would agree. I never want to dig through dusty archives again."
"I agree. There's just too much historical crap." The young assistant rubbed her face. Before taking alchemical potions, such intense workloads would have easily caused her to suffer from information overload syndrome—restlessness, nausea, even vomiting. "Let's change the subject. You've never talked about those scars on your abdomen and back," she said. "Those are through-wounds—more than one. Anyone can tell they were made by cold weapons. Who did that to you? You'd better come up with a story, because the Sisterhood girls saw them, and they're already gossiping!"
She was referring to the scene in the decontamination corridor. The girls who had been watching noticed far more than just the abdominal scars. There were also bullet wounds on his calf, and the scorched armor had left large burn marks—though they were healing and hadn't left many scars.
"A madwoman."
"A woman, huh?" As expected, Stephanie responded with a dissatisfied huff and a sharp jab of sarcasm. "Let me guess—some woman wanted to have your child, and you said no? Am I right?"
"At least halfway." Solomon tried to dodge the topic. "I'm starving. Have the chef make something good. I hired a French chef to avoid starving during missions!"
"Give people a break! That whole incident where you told Tita to open fire scared him half to death! His hands are still shaking. Tonight we're eating self-heating rations!"
"All shipboard chefs must undergo military training from now on! I don't care how others run things, but I refuse to eat rations after a battle. Get him back in the kitchen—as long as I don't find one of his fingers in my food, we're fine!"
————————
"This is a Hebrew word," Barbara Morse confirmed during a video call with Daisy Johnson. "It means death," she said. "But that's all I can tell. Send me a scan of the scroll case too—whatever designs are etched into it. I'll show the word and the image to Fitz, see if this is what he was originally looking for. You should also ask Joseph Haddad where he got the parchment—I think his answers might reveal something."
"He's already passed out," Daisy replied. Joseph Haddad was lying on a stretcher; it had taken her considerable effort to stabilize his vitals.
"Isn't Melinda May still with you?" Barbara asked. "She can guide you on how to inject adrenaline."
"I already did, right into the chest cavity," Daisy said. "He passed out right after giving me the safe code. May said if I had used even slightly more, he would've died. And it took everything I had just to stop the bleeding—I'm not doing that again. Oh, and one more thing—we ran into a sniper. Someone else wanted something from Joseph Haddad too."
"Who?"
"No idea. But I doubt a two-bit crook like Haddad could have angered someone with sniper-level firepower." The hacker showed Barbara the contents of an evidence bag. "But we can investigate. A huge warhead—I dug it out from the sniper site. There aren't many arms manufacturers capable of producing or distributing bullets like this, and even fewer who make rifles capable of firing them. We've already narrowed the list down. May and I are en route back—maybe we can trace the bullet to the manufacturer."
"Yes, maybe. But I don't think we'll find much," Barbara said. "Hey, Daisy, you realize we don't have anyone left to follow up on this kind of side mission, right? Hunter just left on his own assignment. Fitz and Simmons are still in quarantine. Coulson just got out of bed—he's undergoing rehab. He had a mechanical arm installed, but he's paranoid it might have a bug or tracking chip. Mike's running diagnostics on it now."
"What about Will?" Daisy asked. "Did Solomon already take the astronaut?"
"Not yet, but they still won't let our people talk to him. They've even tightened the quarantine measures. Simmons doesn't know much either. We're running out of leads. Get back here fast—we need to resolve this and get Fitz and Simmons out."
The assassin listened intently to the entire conversation.
(End of Chapter)
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