Adam entered the room with Rumlow and the agents behind him.
The first thing he noticed was that the place looked expensive. The floor reflected the ceiling lights, and the wide desk made the room feel more important than a normal office.
Alexander Pierce was sitting behind the desk.
When Adam stepped inside, Rumlow and four agents stopped near the door. Two of them stood close to the way out.
Adam glanced back at them.
He did not like it, but he was still in Diamondhead form. His body was hard. If they tried to shoot him suddenly, it would not be like catching his human body.
'At least I am not made of soft meat right now,' Adam thought.
Pierce looked at him for a moment, then smiled and stood up.
"Adam," Pierce said as he walked around the desk, "I wanted to thank you personally. You saved people in New York. You saved people today too."
Adam gave him a small smile while one thought moved through his head.
'What does this man want to sell me now?'
Pierce stopped a few steps away from him.
"After the Battle of New York, the world is not the same anymore," Pierce said. "You understand that better than most. There are gods walking among us now. There are aliens."
He lifted one hand slightly toward Adam, but Adam said nothing.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. has resources," Pierce said. "But resources alone are not enough."
He looked directly at Adam.
"We need soldiers like Captain Rogers. We need people who can stand between the world and things it cannot understand."
"If someone like you stood with us, we could make the world a more peaceful place."
Adam understood it.
He had suspected it, but now he was sure. Pierce was trying to recruit him. He was not using the word Hydra, and he was not going to say anything that direct in this room. But the shape of the offer was clear.
'This man should have been a politician,' Adam thought. 'He is selling poison like medicine.'
The worst part was how clean it sounded. Pierce was hiding the attack behind words like danger and safety.
Adam let out a small breath through his nose.
"That sounds strange coming from you," Adam said.
Pierce's smile did not fully leave his face. "Why is that?"
Adam turned his head slightly toward Rumlow, then looked back at Pierce.
"Because your people have been coming after me again and again," Adam said. "Sometimes to kill me, sometimes to take me. So hearing you talk about peace feels a little weird."
Rumlow's face did not change much, but his eyes moved.
Pierce looked back at him for one second.
Then he smiled again and leaned against the edge of his desk.
"As I said, the world is not what it used to be," Pierce said. "When our people see something that can become a threat, they act. Sometimes they act too quickly. Sometimes they act with incomplete information."
Adam almost laughed.
'Incomplete information? Brother, they shot at me with a weapon made to stop my phasing.'
Pierce kept speaking. "The purpose is still to protect the world."
Adam looked at him and understood that arguing would be useless. If he said Rumlow was a traitor, Pierce would not blink. If Adam said Hydra was inside S.H.I.E.L.D., Pierce would only smile and ask for proof.
'No point saying it here.'
Adam tilted his head a little.
"But I already work with S.H.I.E.L.D.," he said.
"Yes," Pierce said. "For now."
Adam's eyes narrowed slightly.
Pierce's voice stayed soft.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. is what people see," Pierce said. "There are people behind it who decide where it moves."
"What I am talking about is deeper than that," Pierce said. "It is for people who understand what the world is becoming. People willing to go as far as necessary."
Adam stared at him.
'Okay. So he is telling me there is a secret Hydra club without saying Hydra.'
Pierce straightened from the desk.
"It depends on you, Adam. You can stand with people who are ready to make hard choices, or you can stay outside and hope the world treats you kindly."
Adam stayed quiet for two seconds, then smiled.
"I like open air," he said.
The silence became heavier, and the agents near the door did not move.
Pierce watched him for a moment, then nodded as if he had expected that answer. He moved away from the desk and walked back toward his chair.
"As you wish," Pierce said. "But I should tell you one thing."
Adam waited.
Pierce sat down slowly.
"The outside may not be as safe as this room."
Adam's smile stayed on his face, but his mind moved fast.
'Is he warning me, or is he about to arrange the elevator scene early?'
He remembered how Steve had been trapped in the elevator with Rumlow and the STRIKE team in the movie.
Before Adam could answer, a transparent system window appeared near the Omnitrix.
[Negative Emotion Detected]
[Reputation EXP increasing]
Adam looked at the screen for half a second. The numbers were not huge, but they were moving.
'Of course. These people want me gone so badly that even the watch is getting paid.'
Then he turned toward the door.
"You are right," Adam said. "Outside is dangerous. I have gotten used to people like them by now."
Adam took two steps, then stopped.
"Actually, I want to say one more thing."
Pierce looked at him without speaking.
"Until now, I was holding back because I thought they were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents," Adam said. "That is why they are still alive."
"But if they come after me again, I will stop treating it like a misunderstanding," Adam said. "I will follow the line from the man who attacks me to the person who gave the order."
His eyes moved from Rumlow to Pierce.
"After that, everyone involved will face the consequences."
No one answered him.
Adam turned and walked to the door.
The agents outside did not try to stop him. Rumlow stayed inside the room while Adam opened the door and left.
For a few seconds, Pierce said nothing.
Then he looked at Rumlow.
"Start the operation as soon as possible," Pierce said. "We have three obstacles in front of us."