/
Chapter 14 Promotion
Headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D, Triskelion.
The weather at the Potomac River was always pleasant. The sun rose from the east and the sky was clear and blue. After a long eight minutes of traveling, the sunlight finally shone onto an office and brightened it up.
On the desk in the office, there was a pair of scrapped Lightweight Power Arms laying on it. In the office, three people were discussing something.
Besides Black Widow and Hawkeye, there was another strong black man. He was S.H.I.E.L.D.’s high-ranking agent, Nick Fury. At the moment, Fury still had both of his eyes and was still full of hair.
Natasha who had recuperated for some time was reporting back to Fury on what she had seen and heard in the H.Y.D.R.A. base.
“To sum it up, this H.Y.D.R.A. base definitely was one of their crucial spots.”
“Besides Sinthea “Sin” Schidmt and the robot Zola, you said there was a serum-modified soldier with a mechanical left arm? Do you know who he is?”, Fury did not know Natasha recognized the Winter Soldier and Natasha also did not want to tell him. Thus she chose to hide it.
“I don’t know him but his combat ability is extremely skillful. We fought with each other and were equal.”
Fury rubbed his forehead seemingly remembering something. He asked, “You said you were imprisoned by H.Y.D.R.A. but how did you escape in the end?”
Natasha did not hide it and honestly explained the deal she had with Leo. She emphasized the deal’s second condition.
After listening to Natasha, Fury remained silent for a while. He rubbed his forehead again and asked, “Agent Romanoff, according to your words, you want S.H.I.E.L.D. to pay these one million dollars?”
“I’m a person who keeps her word. Since I promised him, I will naturally strive for it.”
“Impossible, S.H.I.E.L.D. absolutely will not pay this huge sum of money and we don’t have that much either. Moreover, S.H.I.E.L.D. will not help their enemies!”
Fury put his hand on his back and said, “On top of that, I had prepared a rescue unit. By the second morning, they would have occupied the base and saved you. That so-called price is an absolute joke.”
“Joke? You don’t even care about my life or death, just rashly sending out the troops. Yet you still say it was to rescue me, is this not a joke? You just want to destroy the enemy.”, Natasha’s words were sharp and straight on point.
“Because S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t know whether you are alive or not.”, Natasha’s words choked Fury and he told her the truth.
Soon after, Fury used a gentle voice to console her, “Natasha, you have to understand my difficulties. This is the way S.H.I.E.L.D. carries out its mission, unable to sacrifice the country’s interests for personal matters.”
“I’m sick of heartless organization. That was why I betrayed my country! From the looks of it, S.H.I.E.L.D. is the same as others. What more reason is there for me to agree with your recruitment and work for you?”
“If not for you working for S.H.I.E.L.D., you will be imprisoned for life without any freedom.”, Fury coldly stated the harsh truth.
Natasha snorted coldly, choosing not to reply, and remained silent.
“Agent Romanoff, S.H.I.E.L.D. is not as terrible as you thought. The moment you went missing, Senior Officer Fury sent a scout team including me to scout the cotton production factory. Besides…”
“Hawkeye, that’s enough. I did that not because of affection and loyalty. We all know that.”, Fury raised his hand and interrupted Barton.
“Agent Romanoff, you can only continue to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. . You have no other choice! Alright, due to the high risk of your mission and helping America in eradicating a huge hidden threat. The organization has decided to directly raise your level from Level 4 to Level 6. If you do not wish to be used by others, perform well in your missions. When your agent level is high enough, no one can control you anymore.”
He continued, “In addition, Hawkeye, after being reviewed by the bureau. Your agent level has been raised by one level to Level 7. This mission has been evaluated as a Level 6 mission. Make sure not to leak any news to agents with insufficient levels. That’s all for today, both of you return and have a rest.”
With that, Fury grabbed the two Lightweight Power Arms with his hand and left the office.
……
“Hello everyone, this is New York’s TV station, News in 30…”
Recently, an explosion occurred at a cotton production factory and caused a forest fire. But fortunately, the fire in the forest had been controlled. The surrounding area of the cotton production factory had been sealed off by the police. Unrelated personnel please don’t stay too close to prevent accidents.
According to the intel released, this cotton production factory had violated fire regulations by illegally building a large-scale processing station. It caused the circuit to overload which led to this disaster. The surviving person-in-charge of this production factory had been arrested by the police…”
“En~ah~”
Leo, who was sitting on the leather sofa with his legs curled up, stood up and stretched his body.
“Looks like the U.S. government is really great at suppressing the news! Such a big explosion and nuclear leakage yet the U.S. officials even found a reason to cover it in the end. They even lit up every forest within a five-mile radius. Tsk, tsk, tsk…”, Leo sighed.
He picked up the remote controller to switch off the television and he sat on the sofa in a daze.
Three days had passed since Leo and the others had left the cotton production factory. The place he was staying right now was another H.Y.D.R.A. secret base which was in America’s famous Boston.
Leo also did not know how many bases H.Y.D.R.A. had but he knew he could not stay here forever. The current base was an eighteen-story building, and right now Leo was living on the tenth floor’s deluxe suite.
He had such a first-rate residence thanks to Sinthea mind controlling him last time. Sinthea thought she had successfully controlled Leo, so she decided to nurture Leo as a future chief scientist.
Of course, this was due to Dr. Zola’s constant nagging on Sinthea’s sides. In the end, when Dr. Zola did not see Leo’s intelligence level decrease, he was relieved and let Sinthea off the hook.
These past three days, Leo had used “recuperating” as an excuse to stay in his room. Occasionally, he watched the news but most of the time he was arranging his thoughts.
Leo remembered something all of a sudden. He jumped off the sofa and picked up the laptop next to his bed. He hacked into a certain bank website. After entering the verification details, Leo looked at his account number which still remained at 0.00 as he expected.
S.H.I.E.L.D. did not pay the price to buy Natasha’s life as he imagined. But this made Leo neither disappointed, regretted nor angry because all of this was within his expectations.
One million dollars was not a cabbage if S.H.I.E.L.D. could save the money then they would. But S.H.I.E.L.D. had not understood the seriousness of the situation. How could they owe Leo money?
He left the website and deleted all of his traces. He changed his clothes preparing to leave. It was getting late and Leo was hungry. He heard that the cafeteria prepared a limited amount of Boston lobsters today. So he had to go there early.
After having dinner, he still needed to attend the meeting in the base.