Chapter 585

Michael dumped Ward onto the ground, climbed into Skye’s van with his son, and drove off, completely unaware that the pretty hacker sitting beside him had already betrayed him.

Meanwhile, Melinda’s team had returned to the aircraft.

Fitz had combined the security footage recovered from the scene with the audio Skye had sent them, reconstructing the events as a complete holographic projection.

The footage showed a white man with long, disheveled hair screaming at someone dressed like a doctor. The man’s emotions grew more intense with every passing second, and bright flashes of energy occasionally flickered across his body.

Then he grabbed a chair and raised it over his head, clearly intending to smash it into the floor.

The video ended with a deafening boom.

Fitz rewound it and slowed the footage down.

This time, they could see exactly what had happened.

Brilliant fire had erupted from the man’s body, sweeping outward and consuming everything around him.

"So there weren’t any explosives," Coulson said grimly. "The poor guy was the explosive."

Then something caught his attention.

"Fitz, rewind it. There. Stop."

The image froze with the man holding the chair overhead.

His left arm was impossible to miss.

Something strange was wrapped around it from his wrist to his forearm.

"It looks like a centipede," someone said.

"That’s an intravenous blood filter," Simmons explained. "It’s essentially performing a form of reverse dialysis. Every time venous blood passes through the device, it extracts a tiny amount of the drug from his bloodstream."

She continued before anyone could interrupt.

"I analyzed the compounds. They’re remarkably similar to the serum Dr. Erskine developed in the 1940s. The purpose was to—"

"Create a super soldier."

Coulson finished the sentence for her.

He was a Captain America fan, after all. More importantly, as a SHIELD agent, he knew the history behind the world’s first super soldier all too well. Steve Rogers owed his transformation to Dr. Abraham Erskine’s serum.

"And it’s not just that," Simmons added.

Her expression darkened.

"To me, this looks like someone threw alien metals, gamma radiation, super-soldier serum, and every other known source of superhuman energy into a blender."

"There should be Extremis in there too."

Evenson came wandering over.

"Thanks to what happened recently, I’m very familiar with the kind of explosion Extremis produces. And whoever designed this project was definitely crazier than Killian."

He gestured toward the screen.

"The original super-soldier serum was lost after Dr. Erskine was assassinated and the remaining samples were destroyed. The military has spent decades trying to reproduce it, and they’ve all failed. Gamma radiation experiments gave us the Hulk. And Killian’s Extremis has a nasty habit of turning people into walking bombs."

He spread his hands.

"So what you’ve got here is a half-finished experiment mixed with something dangerous, then topped off with something catastrophically unstable."

He tapped the frozen image of the blood filter.

"They’ve managed to control the dosage by filtering the man’s blood, but they clearly don’t have a proper method for stabilizing the combination itself."

Evenson grimaced.

"To me, it’s like someone swallowed a box of antibiotics, chased it with a bucket of high-proof vodka, ate a pound of persimmon cakes for dessert, then decided that wasn’t enough and finished the meal with opium paste."

Coulson stared at him.

"That man really shouldn’t still be alive."

Then something clicked.

He hurried back to the console and brought up the footage of Michael smashing up the factory.

Coulson zoomed in on Michael’s arm.

There it was.

The same device.

"Of course," Coulson muttered. "Michael has one too."

Simmons’ expression turned grim.

"That means he could explode at any moment."

"Any moment?"

Evenson gave a skeptical grunt.

"Honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t exploded already."

"Find Michael. Now."

Coulson made the decision immediately.

If Michael lost control in a crowded area and detonated, the casualties could be horrifying.

Then another piece of bad news arrived.

Ward had regained consciousness in an alley.

He immediately called Coulson.

"It was Michael," Ward reported. "He took Skye."

Coulson’s expression darkened as he ended the call.

Why had Michael taken Skye?

He knew the answer.

Skye was an exceptionally talented hacker. If Michael needed someone who could erase his identity and help him disappear, she was exactly the person he would need.

Which meant finding him had just become considerably harder.

"How much longer?"

Inside Skye’s van, Michael was practically vibrating with anxiety.

Skye’s fingers flew across the keyboard as she worked.

"Almost there. Trust me, this isn’t like deleting a Facebook page."

She didn’t look up.

"I’m stealing highly classified, encrypted data from a federal agency. Give me a minute."

"How do I know you can actually do it?"

The past few days had left Michael suspicious of everyone and everything.

He barely knew this woman. He had no reason to trust her.

But he had nowhere else to go.

Skye’s fingers paused briefly.

"I’ve done this before."

She pressed Enter.

The screen refreshed.

Every record associated with Michael Peterson vanished.

Then an alarm suddenly sounded aboard the aircraft.

Someone had breached SHIELD’s encrypted communications network again.

But this time, the intruder hadn’t stolen files.

There was no malware.

No damaged systems.

The screen simply displayed a string of numbers.

"Coordinates," Coulson said immediately. "Skye is telling us where she is."

He hurried toward the aircraft’s exit.

He was already preparing to deploy.

Evenson watched the numbers flicker across the display and shook his head.

"How many times does this make now?"

He stared at the screen.

"She just hacked SHIELD’s encrypted communications network again with a little laptop."

"She has value," Coulson said.

He opened the vehicle door, then looked at Evenson, who was still standing there.

"You coming with us? Or do you have a faster way to get there?"

"Me?"

Evenson looked genuinely puzzled.

"What am I supposed to do?"

He pointed toward the coordinates.

"You want to make the search more exciting? Sure, I’ll come."

His mouth curled into a grin.

"Honestly, I could make him explode like New Year’s fireworks."

Coulson frowned.

"You don’t have another option?"

Even now, he still viewed Michael as an innocent man who had been deceived.

Coulson wanted to save him if at all possible, not put him down.

"Go read the reports from the last incident," Evenson said.

He raised one finger.

"Then you’ll know how I dealt with those ultimate lifeforms."

He made a tiny flicking motion with it.

"One touch. Instant cremation."

Coulson’s expression remained stubborn.

"There has to be another way. Could you weaken him instead?"

He still remembered their first encounter.

Evenson had barely lifted a finger, and both Coulson and Melinda had collapsed into their chairs, their bodies so weak that even breathing had become difficult.

"And you’ve used that technique on Captain America," Coulson added. "Which means it should work on enhanced humans too."

"That’s right."

Evenson nodded.

"Curse of Weakness works on enhanced humans."

Then his expression became serious.

"But enhanced humans aren’t all the same."

He gestured toward Michael’s image.

"Michael and Captain America are completely different cases."

"Steve’s enhancement is stable. Michael’s isn’t. The energy inside him is wildly unstable, but his body also has regenerative properties."

Evenson sighed.

"So if I weaken Michael too much, his body will react violently to compensate. The energy inside him will surge as it tries to fight off the weakened state."

He looked directly at Coulson.

"And that means Michael wouldn’t become safer."

"He’d explode even more spectacularly."

...