The top-floor suite at the Werner Hotel had no fewer than nine rooms, with floor-to-ceiling glass walls on all sides, offering a 360-degree view of New York's nightscape. The walls were adorned with cashmere drapes decorated with mother-of-Pearl, gold, and platinum.
"Wow!" x 2.
Mike and Skye were like two country bumpkins, exclaiming in awe.
Next, it was time for business.
Mike asked Black Widow about the three kidnappers.
Black Widow simply handed Mike a stack of documents and interrogation records.
"Aleksey Sisyevich."
Seeing the name, coupled with his bald head and simple, honest face, Mike remembered—wasn't this the future Rhino?
"You know him?"
"I know him. He's a somewhat famous Russian thug. He has some intellectual issues, a bad temper, acts recklessly, and combined with his powerful firepower, ordinary gang members don't dare to provoke them."
Flipping through the interrogation records, there was almost no information related to the current incident, but some old cases were uncovered.
Mike couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth, concluding, "Three brave Russian villagers, physically disabled but strong-willed, an inspiring story of dedicating themselves to a life of crime."
"You could say that." Black Widow found Mike's words amusing and laughed. "Your little lover is jealous."
Mike glanced over and saw Skye touring the room while occasionally looking warily in their direction, so he straightened his face, making himself appear more professional.
"She really is your little lover," Black Widow said. "Bringing personal feelings into work is a very dangerous behavior."
"Don't underestimate her. She's not a burden," Mike replied casually, pulling out a form: "Is this Pepper's itinerary for the next three days?"
"Yes."
"Can't it be canceled?"
"Miss Pepper is unwilling. She said that if she backed down now, all her previous efforts would be in vain, and that might even be the attacker's goal."
"Oh."
"Just 'oh'? Aren't you going to try to persuade her?"
"I'm a bodyguard, only responsible for protecting Pepper, not for telling her what to do. My only requirement is that in public, no matter the situation or who she meets, Miss Pepper cannot be more than five meters away from me. You all will arrange the specifics."
After thinking about it, Mike's request was very normal, and Black Widow agreed, sizing Mike up and down.
"What's wrong?" Mike felt as if he was being seen through.
He had always been the one to look at others that way; it was his first time being looked at like this.
It was quite awkward.
"Nice physique," Black Widow said with a smile, then told the private butler, "Please prepare a few sets of shirts, suits, shoes, socks, and sunglasses for him. Oh, and for her too."
"As you wish, madam." The butler bowed slightly and turned to attend to the matter.
Black Widow explained, "The places Pepper frequents usually have certain dress code requirements."
"Understood." Mike was dressed very casually right now, and he didn't have a habit of dressing shabbily at banquets and then showing off or causing trouble.
After a while, the butler brought two female employees to measure Mike and Skye for their clothes.
After the measurements, the female employee discreetly slipped a note into Mike's hand.
Mike: "…"
There are too many temptations, so boys must protect themselves when they are out.
However, the female employee's subtle action might have escaped Skye's notice, but it couldn't escape Black Widow's discerning eyes.
Black Widow whispered, "Quite the ladies' man, aren't we?"
In a high-end hotel like the Four Seasons, the female employees, if not up to model standards, at least weren't unattractive. The female employee who slipped the note was comparable to the flight attendants on Stark's private jet.
"Hehe~" Mike handed the note to Black Widow; he wasn't a man who lost his mind in the face of beauty: "Check this woman out."
Taking the note, Black Widow gave Mike a deep look and immediately called to instruct her subordinates to handle the matter.
After a while, two subordinates returned to report, one of whom had a shallow knife wound on his arm.
"A female assassin," Black Widow stated the female employee's identity. "Nano-disguise techniques are very difficult to identify with the naked eye. How did you figure it out?"
The female assassin had mistaken Mike for an ordinary bodyguard. Her attempt to seduce Mike was clearly to gain information.
"I didn't see it; I heard it."
"Hmm?"
"Her heartbeat," Mike explained. "Although she deliberately acted flushed, her heartbeat was too steady, not at all like someone lusting after another's body."
"What about my heartbeat, right now?" Black Widow stared intently at Mike.
This heartbeat… Mike swallowed, and then… Black Widow's heartbeat instantly returned to normal.
Mike: "…"
As expected of a seasoned spy, as expected of Black Widow, she was acting from the inside out.
Skye was typing code on her laptop.
"How's it going?"
"Done!" Skye hit the Enter key one last time. She had planted "bombs" in the surveillance systems of the nearby traffic and hotel. If anyone tried to invade the surveillance, an alarm would be immediately triggered. At that point, Skye could detonate the "bombs" at any time.
"You worked hard."
"It's fine. I haven't had a real combat situation in a while, so I've regressed quite a bit; it took me a few extra minutes. By the way, what were you and that female secretary mumbling about for so long?"
"You mean her? Her true identity is a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent." Mike quickly diverted Skye's attention. "Be careful when you talk to her; don't let her figure out all your secrets in just a few sentences. She's a seasoned spy."
"Really?"
"Really, the kind who can take on ten people at once."
"That powerful?"
"Yes! Super powerful." Even the Hulk fell victim to her; how many beings in the Universe could do that? She's more than just super powerful. This is a woman who can sort all the male Avengers by their… assets.
Mike took out a black automatic pistol from his space, a Glock G17, a relatively compact pistol, small in size, light in weight, with low recoil, but a magazine capacity of 15 rounds, making it very suitable for women and beginners.
Skye had handled firearms before, but had almost no live-fire experience. Mike removed the bullets, let Skye disassemble and assemble the gun herself, and then taught Skye the basics of shooting.
In the room, Black Widow opened S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal website to search for Mike's information.
She was surprised to find that Mike's data access level had been adjusted to Level 10, while she was only a Level 7 Agent (in the comics, it's Level 10).
Well, as expected.
After thinking for a moment, Black Widow turned to search for Skye. She found that S.H.I.E.L.D. actually had a document on Skye, and she discovered that Skye was a member of the hacker organization "Tide."
On the other side.
Obadiah, who was on a video call with Justin Hammer, suppressed his anger, "Why did you use those three idiots?!"
Justin was very wronged: "I just gave the money to the middleman; what the middleman did has nothing to do with me. But don't worry, it won't implicate me."
"I don't care if it implicates you, you good-for-nothing! No wonder Stark always rubs you into the ground, you deserve it!" Obadiah cursed wildly in his mind for a minute. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was on the verge of losing his sanity: "Plan changed!"