Chapter 23: The Truth Revealed! A Nervous Pepper!
"OK, no need to pursue, I'll take responsibility for this matter! Send a helicopter to pick up the pilot!"
"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel!"
After hanging up Tony's call, Rhodes began to order them to stop the pursuit, taking full responsibility himself! He instructed a helicopter to be dispatched to the incident site to pick up the fighter pilot, while he prepared a report for his superiors.
This matter wouldn't be easily resolved; even as a Lieutenant Colonel, he wasn't the head of the entire Air Force Base! He figured he could only contact Tony and borrow some connections from his side. He was also very curious about what that humanoid flying object was, as it could cause a state-of-the-art fighter jet to crash.
It seemed he had to visit Tony's Villa.
Tony and Ethan quickly returned to their Villa without the fighter jet's pursuit or obstruction. After entering the underground workshop, the two approached the robotic arm to begin removing their Iron Man Armor, but due to numerous bullet holes and marks, some internal mechanisms of the Armor were jammed.
The robotic arm couldn't help Tony and Ethan remove their Armor, and its operation even caused them pain. But at that moment, Pepper came down from the first floor and saw Tony and Ethan wearing their Armor, along with the bullet holes!
"Hey! What are you two doing? Are those bullet holes? No, Tony, what did you do?! There are bullet holes, this is too dangerous!"
"Uh, Pepper, listen to me, there are some things I had to do. I promise you I won't get hurt!"
"No, I can't take it. What if something happens to you someday? I'm resigning! This is too terrifying, do you know that if something goes wrong, you could die!"
"OK, OK! Pepper, listen to me, someone at Stark Industries is secretly selling weapons. I'm doing this to destroy those weapons! I already have a suspect, and you'll help me, right?"
"You... Alright, I'll help you!"
"Great, you just need to insert this USB drive into Stan's computer, and it will automatically download the files from his computer. Please, only you can help me now!"
"What! Obadiah! This... Okay!"
After Pepper entered the underground workshop, she saw Tony and Ethan wearing their Armor, along with the bullet holes. She shouted at Tony in disbelief! Seeing this, Tony could only gently explain, telling her about someone at Stark Industries selfishly selling weapons and firearms.
He was doing this to destroy those sold weapons and informed Pepper that he already had a suspect. He wanted Pepper to help him! Moved by Tony's sincerity, Pepper nodded and agreed to help Tony.
Then Tony went to his workbench, took out a special USB drive, and handed it to Pepper. He told her about his suspect! The moment she heard it was Obadiah, Pepper was very surprised, but she finally nodded, took the USB drive, and left, preparing to go to the company to help Tony obtain information and data from Obadiah's computer.
Tony had Pepper go because if he went to the company, Obadiah would likely notice and hide the information! If it was Pepper, he wouldn't. Although he had been kicked off the board, it was normal for Pepper, as his assistant, to enter the company.
Entrusting this matter to Pepper would be less conspicuous. And it wasn't that he hadn't thought of using Jarvis to hack into Obadiah's computer, but after he returned, Obadiah's computer had been offline. Without an internet connection, Jarvis couldn't hack into his computer.
So, he could only use a USB drive to insert it and use the internal program virus to hack into Obadiah's computer to download his hidden files and data! After Pepper left, Tony and Ethan could only manually disassemble the Iron Man Armor.
They were busy all night, finally completing the disassembly of the Iron Man Armor. And then they began to repair the two sets of Iron Man Armor! After a tiring day, the two finally returned to their bedrooms to rest.
At noon, inside the Stark Industries building, Pepper walked towards Obadiah's office, carrying her bag with a hint of nervousness. According to her observation, Obadiah hadn't arrived at the company yet! She only had this moment to enter Obadiah's office to steal data and files for Tony.
Entering Obadiah's office, Pepper went to the computer and inserted the USB drive Tony gave her into the port. The virus program in the USB drive automatically started, beginning to hack into Obadiah's computer. Soon, all the private files were decrypted and began to download automatically.
But seeing these files and information, Pepper couldn't stay calm, because these were all documents of Obadiah's private arms deals with Terrorists! There was even a video of Tony being kidnapped in Afghanistan. Through this information, she discovered that even the route Tony took to Afghanistan to deal with the Military was leaked by Obadiah!
This made a surge of anger rise in Pepper's heart, but she couldn't confront Obadiah herself, so she could only get these things into Tony's hands as quickly as possible! Just as the files and data were 80% downloaded, Obadiah suddenly entered from the office doorway!
"Hey, Pepper. I didn't expect you to be here! Perfect, we should talk."
"Uh, yes! Of course."
"As Tony's assistant, you should advise him more, for example, to use whatever he's researching for the development of Stark Industries. I also didn't want to kick him off the board, but this time he was really too willful. If I hadn't done that, the board members wouldn't have let it go!"
"Okay, I'll persuade him. Indeed, his sudden announcement to close the weapons manufacturing department was too sudden, obviously offending the board members. I also have to thank you for always helping Tony, I will definitely persuade him well."
"Yes, I am his uncle, how could I harm him? Everything I do is to protect him! As long as he comes up with a very promising research project or item, then I will definitely propose to the board to restore his position as Stark Industries CEO! Like that small Arc Reactor on his chest."
"That's a good energy source! If we can use this to enter the energy market, our Stark Industries might reach a new level! You should persuade him well, don't pick a fight with beautiful Franklin."
"Okay! I will definitely persuade him well, but I can't guarantee the final result. OK, Tony is still waiting for me! I'm leaving now!"
Facing the suddenly entering Obadiah, Pepper's heart tightened.
There's some Water ahead, can skip!