Chapter 541

"So that settles it. His target is the President of the United States."

Dottie had already briefed Evenson on the situation. The transport aircraft was undergoing emergency repairs, and it would take another two hours before it was airworthy again. Sitting around and waiting in silence for that long would have been unbearable, so she also brought him up to speed on the latest developments.

The Mandarin had released another terrorist broadcast.

This time, his message was remarkably straightforward.

The Mandarin sat atop a throne with a man at his feet, supposedly the manager of some oil company. He announced that the man was about to be executed by firing squad. There was, however, one way to save him.

If the President of the United States called personally and pleaded for his life, the Mandarin would show mercy.

The President saw the broadcast, of course.

His advisers unanimously urged him not to make the call, but he ignored them and dialed the number that had somehow appeared in his phone’s contacts.

A telephone beside the Mandarin began to ring.

Across the country, people watching the broadcast breathed a collective sigh of relief. The hostage would be saved.

The Mandarin didn’t even look at the phone.

He simply raised his gun and shot the man at his feet.

Then he stared directly into the camera.

"Your agents, your army, even that tin dog of yours won’t be able to save you. I’m coming for you, Mr. President!"

Most terrorists in the world probably dreamed of killing the American president. It was practically the final boss of terrorism.

But despite all those attempts, nobody had actually managed it.

This time, however, the odds seemed disturbingly good.

"According to our intelligence, Killian appears to have a very close relationship with the Vice President," Dottie continued, her expression troubled. "If we combine that with what you’ve discovered, and the Mandarin is really nothing more than a puppet Killian keeps around, then..."

"What a beautiful little scheme."

Evenson ran his tongue across his teeth.

If the Vice President was working with Killian, and Killian had access to the volatile Extremis soldiers, assassinating the President suddenly didn’t seem all that difficult.

And under American law, if the President died in office, the Vice President would assume the presidency.

Killian could therefore help the Vice President seize the highest office in the country while keeping the ultimate leverage over him: proof that he’d participated in the assassination of the President.

The new President would have no choice but to remain under Killian’s control.

That would leave Killian with influence over both the leader of the most powerful nation in the Western world and the terrorist organization commanded by the Mandarin.

It was an astonishingly deep trap.

If it succeeded, Killian would effectively become one of the most powerful men on the planet.

Evenson fell silent for a moment, biting down on the thumbnail of his left hand.

Perhaps this was why SHIELD had chosen to stay out of the matter.

There were simply too many political complications. This wasn’t merely a terrorist plot. It involved the transfer of power within the American government, SHIELD’s former employer and one of the organization’s most important political stakeholders.

After all, President Kennedy had once been assassinated by a single bullet, and the full truth of what happened had never been satisfactorily resolved.

Evenson spat out the piece of nail he’d bitten off.

If someone else were running SHIELD, perhaps they would allow themselves to be paralyzed by the political implications.

But Nick Fury wasn’t someone who put politics above everything else.

That didn’t mean Fury ignored politics. He understood perfectly well how useful political power could be.

But politics was a tool.

His goal was world peace.

If something like this happened, Fury might publicly insist that SHIELD wasn’t involved because of the organization’s international status. Privately, however, he’d almost certainly assign trusted agents to investigate.

That was the Fury Evenson knew.

Yet this time, Fury had done nothing.

Not only had SHIELD avoided the investigation, Fury hadn’t even provided Evenson with the slightest bit of intelligence, despite Evenson becoming involved in the affair almost by accident.

"That is seriously strange..."

Evenson frowned.

There had to be something else going on.

He decided to leave that question alone for now. Once everything was over, he’d ask Fury directly.

Besides, Evenson couldn’t shake the feeling that Killian’s plan was doomed anyway.

Those two people were supposed to meet with the President around this time.

"Sometimes," Evenson muttered, "I almost feel bad for Killian. The man has put so much work into this."

By then, the transport aircraft had finally been repaired.

It lifted off with an alarming amount of shaking and rattling, but at least it was airborne.

Dottie had used her own intelligence network during the repairs and finally located Pepper.

"Traffic cameras show Killian arriving here with three hostages."

She handed Evenson a tablet displaying a map, then pointed to a location on the eastern seaboard.

An abandoned shipyard.

"Three hostages?"

Evenson scratched his head.

Why three?

Dottie pulled up one of the traffic recordings and zoomed in.

Evenson stared at the two figures sitting in the back seat.

"Sherlock and Watson."

He studied the footage for another second.

"Huh."

He paused.

"This might sound terrible, but I genuinely forgot those two existed."

The aircraft had barely regained its flight capability before they took off. Evenson was dropped off some distance from the shipyard, while the transport immediately changed course and headed for Killian’s headquarters.

Unfortunately, the repairs had taken too long.

Tony Stark arrived five minutes before them.

Killian’s headquarters was a luxurious estate surrounded by armed guards.

Tony wasn’t impressed.

Wearing his third-tier gear, he slipped onto the grounds without hesitation.

What followed was an absolutely ridiculous display of competence.

First, he used his fully customized suppressed M416 to pick off the guards stationed around the perimeter.

Then he switched to his fully equipped Skorpion, taking advantage of its high rate of fire and stability to mow down the estate’s bodyguards in close-quarters combat with almost insulting ease.

Finally, armed with a red-dot, quick-draw, extended-magazine, suppressed P18C, he stormed into the main building.

And there he was.

The Mandarin.

Tony had finally reached his target.

After a brief conversation, however, Tony discovered something that made his expression change.

The Mandarin wasn’t the Mandarin.

He was an actor.

The terrorist attacks had been fabricated.

Even the supposed terrorist mastermind himself was fake.

Tony immediately understood what that meant.

He understood far more than Killian would have wanted.

Unfortunately, he never got the chance to act on it.

Someone suddenly appeared behind him.

Tony spun around.

He didn’t even have time to raise his weapon.

A blow struck him across the head.

The world went black.

Tony Stark had fought his way through the entire compound, reached the final room, and finally found the boss waiting right in front of him.

Then an enemy he’d never even noticed knocked him unconscious.

It was the kind of defeat that made an MMO player stare blankly at the screen.

He’d reached the final circle.

The prize was practically within arm’s reach.

And then someone had apparently brought a cheat engine.

Tony Stark had been captured.

Fortunately, his luck wasn’t quite bad enough to end there.

After searching for their allies, Peggy Carter and Captain America had also managed to determine the location of Killian’s estate. They arrived shortly afterward and took up positions outside the grounds, preparing to breach the compound and rescue Tony.

"This has to be the place."

Captain America had changed into his combat uniform and secured his shield.

"I can practically smell the gunpowder. Let’s get in there and get Stark out."

"Right..."

Peggy was about to agree when she suddenly stopped him.

"Wait."

Something had caught her attention.

An ice cream truck was approaching the estate.

It stopped some distance away from the property.

A bald man in a black suit climbed out.

Instead of approaching the estate directly, he slipped into the nearby woods.

Peggy narrowed her eyes.

Captain America followed her gaze.

Neither of them said a word.

Something had just changed.