[2009 – October – Saturday]
[Alaska – Hub – SHIELD Headquarters]
"Among the 29 confirmed locations, our men have managed to take over 13 while the rest are currently being supervised and controlled by various government agencies or other organizations with differing origins. There are also still incoming requests to open up four of the locations that we have secured by local law enforcement.", Agent Victoria Louise Hand reported succinctly, her expression calm before she continued.
"We have confirmed these locations to be large-sized HYDRA bases but clearing them out and recovering the stored data is a slow process given the … 'unfortunate' state of the bases.", Hand added, her expression paling slightly when she mentioned the state of the discovered bases while well-concealed fear flashed in her eyes.
Fury listened quietly to the report, an eternal frown on his face. To be honest, he didn't blame his Agent for almost losing composure since he had personally inspected more than three of the sights before returning to the Hub to take over the central command.
Agent Hand might be a woman but she was one of SHIELD's best, her brusqueness and strict character unable to overshadow her professionalism and great self-discipline. Her gruff personality was widely known among the different ranks but she was also very respected as one of the most reliable senior Field Officers.
And yet, the fact that even she could not help but react like this when mentioning the state of the hidden HYDRA bases, which they had found after last night's disturbances had been discovered by their scanning equipment and other multiple Field Agents, spoke volumes of the gruesomeness that had welcomed them.
Fury had seen many bloody sights in his long career but even he hadn't been able to stop himself from being taken aback after he had seen the aftermath of 'his' bloodbath, feeling as is an icy hand had gripped his heart.
He had known for some time that HYDRA was still around, though conclusive evidence had always been hard to find, especially since he was sure that some of his agents had been turned, which meant that the people he could trust with the investigations were very very few.
Still, the aged spy could never have imagined being presented with such solid evidence for HYDRA's existence out of nowhere.
Even more unfortunate though was the fact that he wasn't one bit happy about this 'discovery', he couldn't be, given that it was Elijah Frost who had made this possible.
Ever since Fury had met the young mutant, a seed of primal fear had sprouted in his heart, and with every additional confirmation of his monstrous nature this seed had grown. At this point, the old spymaster almost wished that he could forget that such a being existed amongst mutantkind.
Fury had seen multiple recordings of what Elijah Frost could do but none of them had been able to reveal even a hint of the younger man's limits. Though worse than his unfathomable power was the fact that the young mutant had turned out to be the worst kind of killer, one with absolutely no mercy.
As the Director of SHIELD, his wish to see HYDRA destroyed to its roots was undeniable, but even he could hardly stomach what the young Frost had done to those men and women.
The partially recovered recordings and the scenes that he had left behind were of such a horrific nature that Fury felt his blood run cold and his heart skip a beat even now. He was sure that the memories of what he had seen would not leave him anytime soon, and he was sure his agents did not fare any better.
Without a doubt, Elijah Frost had become a taboo existence for all those knowing his true colours.
The thought of finding him for answers had not even crossed the Director's mind, Fury truly dared not think in that direction. Ashamed, he could only admit to himself that he simply wished to stay far away from this demonic mutant.
Fortunately, his musings were cut short as Agent Hand continued: "I am not sure that we can continue to deny access to law enforcement long enough to extract all the data and secure all the important evidence and assets."
Fury wasn't too surprised with this development despite SHIELD being an extra-governmental agency that tasked itself with national and global security. In the end, SHIELD was an organization with American roots, and even with the World Security Council backing them, other nations would not let them do as they wished.
It didn't take a genius to understand that the destroyed HYDRA bases represented incredibly valuable research data and advanced technologies. No government would give these up without at least some kind of protest or resistance.
Thinking about this for a moment, Fury replied in a deep and commanding voice: "Buy as much time as you can with the different law enforcement agencies and prioritize the extraction of the data. If necessary, ignore the securing of physical material and assets."
"We must get access to HYDRA's internal database, so we can find those of them that have not been killed during this attack, especially those high-ranking officers that hide in plain sight. Nothing is more important than this, understood?", he ended sternly.
Fury wasn't naive enough to think that Elijah Frost had managed to wipe out the whole organization. The mutant singularity had merely decimated most of their ranks but he didn't seem to have touched those sleeper agents and high-ranking members.
The spymaster wasn't sure why that was the case, even if he had his guesses.
Also, he had been after HYDRA for so long that he knew that no research data or advanced piece of technology was more important than digging up the roots of this terrorist organization.
"Understood, Sir!", Agent Hand acknowledged while straightening her back.
"Good.", Fury added before instructing indifferently, "Let some of the teams place some small explosive devices in laboratories, arsenals, and command centers. If we are forced to retreat, we won't leave anything behind, not if we can't be certain that isn't HYDRA reclaiming their bases with their sleepers."
Nodding but hesitating for a moment, Hand questioned: "Won't this backfire, Sir? It isn't just one agency pressuring us. Even if we tell them that those were traps left behind by HYDRA, it's impossible to shrug off all responsibility for this."
"Who can blame us if there are losses on our side?", Fury questioned back, his words utterly callous while his gaze was ruthless and indifferent.
Swallowing hard, the Agent saluted before turning around to carry out her orders and throwing the office into a short and cold silence as Fury continued to study the salvaged recordings and other data.
The silence was only broken when the line in his office rang sometime later. Still frowning, the old spymaster answered with a curt: "Yes?"
"Director Fury, we received a call request from the White House. The Holographic Projection Room has already been activated and the line is ready to be activated at your orders, Sir.", one of the operatives responsible for communications reported.
His expression turning even darker, Fury still understood that this was not a call request that he could so easily ignore even if SHIELD was not officially under the jurisdiction of the American government but existed as an organization under the authority of the World Security Council.
SHIELD still had to operate on American soil since their headquarters were all located in the United States and without the consent and cooperation of the government, the organization's foundation might very well be severely impacted.
"Understood. Accept the request and open the line, I will be there shortly.", the Director replied after a momentary pause before hanging up, not bothering to wait for a response.
Rising from his seat, Fury left his office and moved along the corridor towards the projection room of the base, pondering who in the White House wanted what from him.
Entering the room, he saw an agent on the controls, who told him that everything was ready and the connection was on standby. Dismissing the agent and stepping up to the controls himself, Fury noticed that this wasn't just a two-directional call.
An unknown signal was also connected to the terminal, which had been authorized by the White House, turning this call into a conference call between three parties.
Unsure which unknown party could have a direct line to the White House and deserved to be included in a call between himself and whoever had requested this call, Fury initiated the holograms while also wondering why their equipment couldn't decipher the origin of this unknown signal.
The next moment though, Fury's confusion was cleared as he saw a hologram of Matthew Ellis, the current president of the United States of America, and Professor Charles Xavier, one of the mutant leaders, appearing in front of him.
"Mister President, Professor, what an unexpected surprise.", the old spymaster greeted the two men, his eyebrows jumping for an instant before his expression turned more grim as a guess appeared in his heart.
"Director.", Charles voiced out lightly, his voice calm as always.
"Director Fury.", the other man greeted back sternly, his expression mostly stoic as he continued, "Gentlemen, I am sure that have your own guesses as to why I have arranged for this call, so let's get right to it."
"I have an office full of generals, a Vice President, and various ministers urging me to declare a national emergency and deploy troops and special forces to take down a single rogue mutant by the name of Elijah Frost."
"Even if his targets until now had been members of underground syndicates like the Facility or paramilitary organizations like HYDRA, he has killed thousands of people, blatantly violating the laws of this nation."
"Many of my advisors are of the opinion that we cannot let him continue to trample on this nation's authority like that. He has already proven himself the greatest threat amongst mutantkind just months after his awakening, and many are concerned about what he might do in the future if we do not act now and stop him."
"Personally, I am still hesitant as failure in this proposed operation could not only have grave consequences, but our understanding of this particular mutant is also lacking.", Ellis paused for a moment, almost sighing as a shadow of worry laid itself over his eyes before he addressed them again.
"Director, your agents had direct contact with him and you have been closely following his movements, not to mention that amongst all the intelligence organization's leaders, I trust your judgement the most.", the President stated before turning to the Professor.
"And you, Charles. For decades you have been advising my predecessors in matters concerning mutantkind, doing your best to facilitate cooperation whenever possible. Of the three of us, you have undoubtedly the best understanding of Elijah Frost."
"My question for you two is simple: Should we, or should we not, seek conflict with this particular mutant, and most importantly, what are our chances of success?", Ellis ended, his tone heavy.