The Malibu villa belongs to Tony's underground laboratory.
"You said that Ina Sandra gave this to you?" Tony Stark, who was taking a break, turned the black USB drive in his hand and asked puzzledly when he saw Pepper Potts, who was wearing a cocktail dress and hurried over to him.
Pepper Potts nodded and handed the USB drive to her. Ina Sandra left the party shortly after. Pepper pondered and expressed her speculation, "She must have known I would be attending the party and had come here specifically with the invitation."
"She said that only I can see it, and only the two of us know about this USB drive?" Tony Stark asked again.
"Yes."
"Is this trying to tell me that someone is watching me?" Tony Stark quickly came up with a guess: "Did anyone approach you after that, Pepper?"
Pepper Potts thought about it carefully again and shook her head affirmatively: "After I got this USB drive, I quickly returned here under Happy's protection. However," Pepper suddenly remembered something and continued: "When I left, I said goodbye to Obadiah. He asked what Ina talked to me about, and I answered casually."
Tony Stark pondered.
After waiting for a while, Pepper looked at Tony Stark who was deep in thought with the USB drive and couldn't help asking, "What's in it?"
"Just take a look and you'll know." Tony was awakened from his thoughts by Pepper's voice. He stood up, took the USB drive to his workbench, inserted the USB drive from an interface, and ordered Jarvis to read the data stored in it.
Inside were records of arms trade orders, particularly those from the Ten Rings gang that kidnapped Tony Stark and had a steady flow of arms orders with Stark Industries in the period immediately before his kidnapping. Of course, the prices listed on those orders were, in Tony's opinion, much lower than their actual value.
"I don't know about this." Pepper Potts covered her mouth in surprise as she looked at the order records that were displayed. Even though she had been Stark's assistant and representative in the company, helping him understand all the company-related information, she was sure that she had never seen this order record.
"You're just an assistant, Pepper. The information you have access to is all publicly available. They certainly won't let you easily know the company's real secrets." Tony Stark's face was calm: "Aren't they hiding things from me too?
"This order record, Luke's trying to tell me, is that someone in my company wants to get rid of me! They're high-ranking and powerful, and at least without me, they're sure they can handle everything and reap the biggest benefits. The turmoil in the boardroom these days might be caused by them."
"Who is the most likely person to be a match for this identity?"
Tony looked at Pepper, and they both said a name: "Obadiah Stane."
After the name was mentioned, shock appeared on Tony and the other man's faces.
"Pah pah pah!"
A burst of applause came from the stairs of the underground laboratory. Tony and the others looked up and saw Obadiah Stane in a black suit walking down with a smile on his face.
"You've finally grown up, Tony." Obadiah sighed at him. Tony and Pepper raised their hands under the guns of their two men, standing there, not daring to move.
"Why?" Tony's eyes were filled with a rare sadness. Ever since his father's death, he had truly considered Obadiah and Jarvis his elders. Jarvis had passed away early, and Tony had created an intelligent system named Jarvis as a memorial. But now, another person he considered a relative and elder seemed to have drifted away from him, to some extent.
"Why?" Obadiah approached, opening a miniature sonic weapon in his hand. He took a step forward and helped Tony Stark, whose nerves were disrupted by the weapon and who could no longer control his limbs, back down to a gentle seat. "You're still so naive, Tony. Why are you asking why?"
You are so smart, couldn't you have thought of it?
Of course, it's for Stark Industries! For profit! I founded this company with your father, Howard. I've been supporting him since his time, and now it's your turn, and I'm supporting you too. I don't think it's fair. Stark Industries should be mine! Without me, it wouldn't be what it is today.
It was me who sold your technology to you and your son, and it was my connections that helped develop Stark Industries. Yet, everyone only remembers Howard and Tony. Is that fair?
Why can't you just die at the hands of the kidnappers?
Why did you run away?
Perhaps, the reason God let you escape was to bring this thing on your chest to me."
As he spoke, Obadiah Stane removed the reactor from Tony's chest while Tony was dazed and Pepper was looking horrified.
Obadiah carefully placed the temporarily paralyzed Tony on the ground, then stood up and looked down at Tony lying on the ground: "I want to thank you for opening the whitelist for me, otherwise it would be a bit troublesome to come in quietly. Don't worry, I won't do anything to you, you just died from your own injuries. As for you," Obadiah pointed at Pepper Potts, "I won't use force against you here, after all, this is not a good place to do it. But you can choose to end your life after Tony's death. Don't worry, my people will help you. Take her away and deal with her somewhere else."
Obadiah waved his hand to his men behind him, and Pepper Potts screamed before someone covered her mouth and dragged her out.
"Goodbye, Tony."
Obadiah raised his finger to Tony Stark's forehead in greeting, then turned and walked away without any reluctance.
…
"Sir, you asked me to monitor Tony. Obadiah brought people into the villa just now, and now he has come out, but things are getting a little troublesome. I think Tony needs some support." In the darkness in the distance, Coulson looked at Pepper Potts who was taken away abnormally by Obadiah, picked up the phone in his hand that was in communication mode, and roughly described the situation.
"Your mission is to check whether Tony Stark is dead or not. You don't need to worry about the other side." Nick Fury's calm voice came through the megaphone, giving orders to Phil Coulson.
…
"I have handed the USB drive to Pepper Potts within Obadiah's sight." Ina Sandra said to Luke after returning to Heberon Technology.
"Well done." Luke was wearing his prototype at this time. Next to him was a projected image showing the kidnapped Pepper Potts and the convoy about to arrive at Stark Industries.
"You deliberately leaked the information about investigating Obadiah and Stark's private arms orders, causing Obadiah's hostility and vigilance, just for today's scene?" Ina Sandra gave Luke a strange look.