Chapter 597

The Slingshot Facility marked the end of their journey.

After Camilla had been subdued, the plane had flown straight here. The 0-8-4 they had recovered had been classified as hazardous, so it was being sent to Slingshot for disposal.

Of course, this was no ordinary launch facility.

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Slingshot could put more than aircraft into the sky. It could launch things at the sun.

The 0-8-4 was loaded into a rocket and sent into space. After roughly 180 days, the rocket would approach the sun, where its trajectory would be captured by the star’s gravity. The rocket—and everything inside it—would disappear for good.

Around the launch site, Fitz had even brought out a crate of beer. Everyone sat on the boarding stairs of the plane, watching the launch as a little downtime after a particularly stressful mission.

Evenson was there too.

Partly because free beer was free beer.

Mostly because this was his first time watching a rocket launch with his own eyes.

He sighed internally.

Compared with the sort of reincarnated lunatics who were apparently flying through the cosmos a few months after crossing worlds, he was really falling behind.

Then the horizon erupted.

A brilliant column of fire burst into view, followed by a towering plume of smoke as the rocket climbed straight into the sky.

A heartbeat later, the thunder arrived.

"That really is something," Evenson said, taking a drink.

He possessed powers most ordinary people could barely imagine, but even so, there was something awe-inspiring about humanity using science to reach for space.

"Hm?"

Coulson glanced sideways at him.

"Didn’t expect you to be the type who’d get sentimental about something like this."

"Why not?" Evenson smiled. "The power I possess—magic—I have no idea what it will look like in the future. But right now, it’s something only a tiny fraction of people can use. No matter how far I take it, that achievement belongs to me. Maybe a handful of people at most."

He lifted his cup toward the rocket, now little more than a bright speck overhead.

"But this? This belongs to all of humanity."

The rocket eventually vanished from sight.

Evenson went back inside.

It really had been spectacular.

But spectacular was all it was.

The launch had no practical purpose beyond creating a convincing illusion.

Evenson knew Nick Fury well enough to bet on it. There was no way Fury would actually throw a valuable 0-8-4 into the sun without a backup plan. The real artifact had almost certainly been transported somewhere else for secure containment.

Coulson, however, seemed none the wiser. He remained outside with the rest of his team, laughing and relaxing now that the mission was over.

Evenson clicked his tongue.

You were personally recruited by the man. You’ve worked with him for years. How have you still not figured out what your boss is like?

Then again...

Maybe Coulson had figured it out.

Maybe he simply knew better than to ask questions he didn’t want answered.

The peaceful afternoon didn’t last.

"Really? You mean that? Six days, Coulson!"

Nick Fury arrived before long and summoned Coulson into the aircraft.

Then the shouting started.

"Six days! It took you six days to let the most advanced aircraft we’ve got get hijacked?!"

Coulson stood there like an obedient schoolboy while Fury’s temper crashed over him.

The plane had been hijacked by a group of Peruvian military police who had barely been carrying anything in their hands.

It was embarrassing.

Coulson knew perfectly well that he deserved the lecture.

"My team’s actions were all carried out under my authorization."

He said it without hesitation, taking responsibility for his people.

"Don’t give me that authorization nonsense!"

Fury shook his head, apparently nowhere near finished.

"Do you have any idea how much this plane costs?"

He paced across the cabin—and then stopped.

His gaze landed on one corner of the floor.

His expression twisted.

"What the hell is that?"

A large smear of disgusting pus-like residue covered part of the deck.

"You even left this disgusting mess all over the floor. Oh, God."

He waved toward one of the technicians cleaning the aircraft.

"Forget cleaning it. Cut that section of flooring out and replace the whole thing."

Coulson took a slow breath and stepped forward.

"My team acted under my authorization."

Loyalty.

Pure, beautiful loyalty.

From behind the bar, Evenson quietly raised his glass toward Coulson in salute before draining it.

People willing to take the fall for their subordinates were getting rarer these days.

Coulson was a man of principle.

Evenson almost felt moved.

Then Coulson continued.

"But I never authorized that particular incident. And that person isn’t actually one of my team members."

"Pfft!"

Evenson sprayed his drink across the bar.

He doubled over coughing.

"Cough—cough... You—give me a second to breathe before I come over there and argue with you."

Coulson glanced at him.

Then, with complete seriousness, gave a solemn nod.

"Although it was an individual action, he did it to save my team and this aircraft. So... he shouldn’t have to pay for the section of floor that was cut out. I’ll cover the cost."

Evenson patted his chest as he tried to recover.

You thought that speech would—

Fine.

I’ll let it go.

"None of that matters!"

Fury threw up a hand. He clearly still had plenty of anger left.

"Can one of you explain what the hell happened in Peru? Shortly after you pulled out of the area where you were operating, there was a sudden, violent earthquake and a volcanic eruption!"

He looked like he was about to explode all over again.

"I’m sick of dealing with this!"

Fury’s nostrils flared.

"The World Security Council has been calling me nonstop, asking whether S.H.I.E.L.D. secretly developed some kind of—what was it called? Right. A ground-based weapon!"

He stared incredulously.

"Good grief. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that term."

"Something like a continental plate oscillator?" Evenson offered helpfully.

"Shut up!"

Fury pointed straight at him.

Evenson immediately looked satisfied.

"All right. I’ll shut up."

He picked up his full glass and walked away.

Fury’s complaint wasn’t because he truly had no idea what had caused the earthquake and volcanic eruption.

He knew perfectly well what Evenson was capable of.

The problem was scale.

Evenson had a bad habit of responding to threats with enough force to make everyone else regret having sent him.

S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t a peacekeeping organization. If someone attacked them, retaliation was reasonable. A little strategic defense was hardly a crime.

But did the kid have to go that far?

The forest fires caused by the volcanic eruption still hadn’t been put out.

The Peruvian government was already watching the situation closely, lodging formal protests and issuing increasingly furious condemnations.

Evenson slipped away while Fury was still ranting.

Once his target disappeared, Fury’s anger seemed to lose some of its momentum.

He exhaled sharply and turned back to Coulson.

"I don’t want this happening again."

"I guarantee it, Director."

Coulson nodded immediately.

"I’ll take good care of the plane."

"Love it."

Fury glared at him with his one good eye.

"And don’t let your people keep modifying it. Especially Fitz and Simmons. I heard they want to install some ridiculous fish tank."

"Yes, Director."

"And one more thing..."

Fury turned as if to leave, then paused.

"The new girl. She’s a risk factor."

He was talking about Skye.

A man as suspicious as Nick Fury wasn’t going to trust someone whose history was almost completely blank.

With that, he stalked out of the room.

The moment he was gone, Coulson touched his earpiece.

"Yeah. Looks like the fish tank has to come out."

Outside the aircraft, Fury had barely taken a few steps when he spotted Evenson sitting alone on the landing gear.

He was staring into the distance, sipping his drink like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Fury’s temper flared again.

He waved sharply.

Come here.

Evenson glanced over.

Then looked away.

He remained exactly where he was.

Fury’s face twitched.

Fine.

I’ll come to you.

He walked over.

"So," Fury said sourly, stopping beside him. "What was inside that pyramid?"

Evenson kept his eyes on the horizon.

"I know you were interested in it. You stayed behind even during the retreat. Then you destroyed the entire thing with rather extreme force. I’m guessing you found something unusual."

Fury had been thinking it over ever since the mission.

Evenson hadn’t unleashed that much destruction simply to deal with the rebels.

The pyramid itself had been his real target.

Evenson stared at Fury for several seconds.

Then slapped a hand against his forehead.

"Melinda..."

Of course.

He didn’t need long to figure out who had passed those details along.

"You understand how this team really works," Fury said calmly. "She was simply doing her job."

On the surface, Coulson was the leader of the team.

In reality, Melinda May was one of its most important pieces.

She had a special assignment: maintaining a direct, secret line to Fury and reporting everything that happened within the group.

"I know. I’m not blaming her."

Evenson shook his head.

"As for the pyramid... it contained some magic I was interested in."

"Then why destroy it?"

Fury couldn’t understand the logic.

If the pyramid really contained magical knowledge, Evenson should have preserved it and returned whenever he wanted to study it.

Evenson shrugged.

"I’ve seen it. I understand it. There’s no reason to leave the place standing anymore."

Fury gave him a long look.

"Heh. I think I finally understand why you’re the only warlock in the world."

He shook his head.

Evenson had apparently adopted the philosophy of finishing dinner and smashing the plate afterward.

"I’ve told you more than once," Evenson said with a faint scoff. "My magic isn’t merely evil."

He paused.

"Which is precisely why fewer people knowing that particular kind of magic is probably better."

He had no intention of telling S.H.I.E.L.D. what the pyramid had actually revealed.

S.H.I.E.L.D. existed partly to keep dangerous truths away from ordinary people who weren’t prepared for them.

At the moment, Evenson thought the truth inside that pyramid was something S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t prepared to handle either.

Knowing Fury, telling him the whole truth would probably result in a hundred submarines sweeping the South Pacific from end to end.

Evenson quickly changed the subject.

"I think you should be paying attention to something else. The biggest thing you gained from this mission."

His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Something far more valuable than the 0-8-4."

He smiled.

"The woman."

"Camilla Reyes..."

At the mention of her name, Fury finally smiled.

"Hydra finally showed us the tip of the snake’s tail."

He folded his arms.

"Maybe they’re only remnants that fled after World War II. But there’s no telling whether they have any connection to the Hydra that’s starting to emerge again."

Evenson took another drink.

The mission was over.

But apparently, something much bigger had just begun.