The lawsuit lingering over Locke Technologies was turning into a serious headache.
Nolan had gone to Kamar-Taj in the first place to avoid getting dragged into this mess. Yet after the Hydra incident, he was inevitably pulled right back in.
Matt had been handling everything in Nolan's absence, but the moment Nolan returned, Matt hurried over to report the status of the case.
Overall, things were progressing well. Just as Nolan expected, Hydra did not have solid evidence. Everything they held was vague or circumstantial. They only succeeded because people at the top gave them the green light.
Pierce had certainly thrown his weight around, but nothing would have passed without multiple high-level approvals.
Nolan understood very clearly what those politicians thought of him. In their eyes, he was trouble stacked on top of more trouble.
But so what? In the world of business, if politicians ever started viewing you as a good person, that was when the real tragedy began.
"Boss, we have a new problem," Matt said as he rushed in again.
"I just found out a terrorist group used one of our products to attack an agency called S.H.I.E.L.D."
Matt rubbed his temples in frustration.
Before all this, he had never even heard of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now he knew everything about them, but he still had no idea who was behind the attack.
Nolan raised an eyebrow.
"They're using that as an excuse to cause trouble for us?"
"Yes. I don't know the details yet, but it looks serious."
Nolan chuckled softly.
"I see. Don't worry. I know exactly what is going on. If they want to make trouble with this, then I will make sure they feel the consequences."
Even so, Nolan did not take action immediately.
Right now, he had something more important to do. He intended to bleed S.H.I.E.L.D. dry.
"Red Queen, have you finished calculating our losses?" Nolan asked.
The Red Queen's holographic figure appeared.
"Yes. Based on preliminary estimates, the direct loss is approximately 10.3 billion. There are also several damages that cannot be quantified."
"That little?"
Nolan was genuinely surprised.
Then it hit him. Locke Technologies did not have much foundation left. Most of its accumulated resources had been traded by Nolan for tech points. If Locke Technologies had truly unleashed all of its capital, Hydra would never have been able to build that Iron Legion in the first place.
After a moment of thought, Nolan said, "Recalculate everything. Include every possible loss. I want the total to exceed 50 billion at the very least."
"Understood, sir," the Red Queen replied before disappearing.
Ten billion was too small and made no sense. Fifty billion sounded far more reasonable.
The next day, Nick Fury showed up in person.
He brought a team of more than a dozen specialists with him. These were the people assigned to verify Locke Technologies' losses.
When everyone was seated in the conference room, Fury began.
"Based on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s assessment, the damage to Locke Technologies is approximately fifteen billion."
He struck first. Nolan Locke might be young, but Fury knew he was not dealing with someone inexperienced. Setting a number up front made it harder for Nolan to inflate the price later.
"Fifteen billion?"
Nolan gave him a glance of disbelief, then slammed his palm onto the table.
The massive conference table cracked under the impact.
Fury's eye twitched violently. Inside, he was cursing every word he knew. His intel said Nolan was like Tony Stark, someone who gained power from a suit. So why did this kid have raw, superhuman strength?
This was completely outside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s understanding.
"Mr. Locke seems surprised," Fury said as he tried not to stare at the crack spreading across the floor.
He managed to look away. The others could not. Their shock and fear were impossible to hide.
"Of course I'm surprised," Nolan said coldly.
"Fury, you really know how to do math. Red Queen, tell Director Fury how much we actually lost."
The Red Queen reappeared.
"Director Fury, after repeated calculations, Locke Technologies suffered a total loss of 83.7285 billion."
"Motherfu "
Nick Fury almost exploded.
He had intentionally overestimated to leave room to negotiate and build goodwill. Yet Nolan was now telling him their number was not even one fifth of the real loss?
Impossible.
Everyone behind Fury was stunned. How could the number be so high?
Seeing their disbelief, Nolan said, "Red Queen, give them the breakdown."
He sat calmly, confident in the Red Queen's ability to cook the perfect set of books.
As item after item appeared, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team felt their worldview crumble.
Every entry sounded reasonable. Even when individual numbers looked inflated, the logic behind them held up. There were no obvious flaws. Somehow, the eighty billion figure felt… plausible.
Fury glanced at his team. The look on their faces made his stomach sink.
Nolan might not be bluffing.
He had thought fifteen billion would pacify Nolan. At worst, maybe twenty. But now Nolan was asking for nearly a hundred?
He shot a death glare at his accountants.
The message in his eyes was simple. Lower it. I do not care how. Lower it.
Sweating bullets, the specialists began recalculating at top speed.
Nolan waited patiently for a while, then casually got up to make himself a cup of coffee.
As Fury prepared to accept the cup, believing it was meant for him, Nolan took a sip instead, walked right past him, and stood over the accountants.
"Finished? Do you need a break?" he asked with a friendly smile.
Everything the Red Queen provided had verifiable data.
Only when Nolan's patience was nearly gone did the accountants finally complete their work.
They did not speak to Nolan. One of them simply handed Fury a laptop.
6.78 billion.
That was the lowest number they could justify.
"This is all you have?" Fury growled.
"We tried everything," the exhausted accountant whispered.
Fury's face tightened. This was going to hurt.
"Mr. Locke," Fury said, "S.H.I.E.L.D. is willing to compensate five billion."
He stared directly at Nolan.
He did not believe Locke Technologies had truly lost that much. But five billion was the absolute limit.
Nolan caught the look in Fury's eyes.
Interesting.
So S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal number must have been far higher than five billion.
"Numbers do not lie," Nolan replied.
Today, he was going to make money.
A lot of it.
Everyone knew money translated into tech points, and tech points meant strength. Strength meant having a chance to stop Thanos.
He was one of Earth's only real defenders. The Ancient One herself had acknowledged this fact.
Nolan met Fury's gaze head-on.
This money was for saving the world.
I advise you not to push your luck.