Chapter 612

"Ms. Carter, you’re right on time."

After a brief meeting, the two sides went their separate ways.

As for Stephanie staying at Umbrella to keep an eye on things, Evenson didn’t take the threat particularly seriously. She was on his turf now. There was no chance a single young woman was going to uncover the scheme he’d worked out with the Eredar Twins.

Once the twins had arranged Stephanie’s quarters, they went to inspect the facilities and equipment prepared for the operation.

Evenson, meanwhile, received a rather special visitor in another room.

Peggy Carter.

"On time?" Peggy replied. "I feel like I’m late."

She wore a black trench coat and a large hood that nearly concealed her entire face. She had clearly gone to considerable trouble to reach Umbrella without anyone noticing.

Once she confirmed they were alone, she pulled the hood back and gave him an irritated look.

"After we made our agreement, I didn’t expect to have to wait this long."

"Sorry." Evenson shrugged. "Some things take time to arrange."

"I know."

Peggy took a slow breath. She knew she’d been impatient, but she couldn’t help it. There was too much at stake.

"So, if you’ve called me here today, I assume everything is finally ready?"

Evenson nodded.

A cold smile touched Peggy’s lips.

"Good. I want to see for myself how much of Hydra’s strength has survived."

That was why she’d come.

The last time she’d spoken with Evenson, they’d agreed that he would give her a look at Hydra’s current power. Since then, Peggy had been increasingly restless.

She already knew Hydra had survived and had begun infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. again. Evenson had also painted the situation in particularly grim terms.

Unfortunately, the evidence suggested he hadn’t been exaggerating.

Howard Stark’s death was one example.

And S.H.I.E.L.D.’s behavior in recent months had made Peggy even more uneasy. The organization had allowed Killian to run wild, apparently giving the World Security Council every reason to believe global security couldn’t function without S.H.I.E.L.D. and using the resulting fear to demand greater authority.

It looked disturbingly similar to Hydra’s old strategy: frighten the world badly enough, and people would surrender their freedoms themselves.

How many senior S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were actually loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D.?

And how much influence did Hydra have outside the agency?

Ever since her conversation with Evenson, those questions had been circling endlessly through Peggy’s mind. She’d spent the past several days so preoccupied that even Captain America had been on the receiving end of her bad mood.

As for normal life?

Forget it.

She wasn’t in the mood.

Evenson smiled.

"Tomorrow. The real show starts tomorrow."

He turned toward the television.

"But we can start the overture tonight."

He switched on the screen.

The footage from the secret meeting room appeared immediately.

"The woman sitting across from me," Evenson said, "is Hydra’s team leader for this operation."

The moment Peggy heard the word Hydra, she moved closer to the screen.

The woman’s face was strangely familiar.

"I know her..."

Peggy narrowed her eyes.

"No. I definitely know her. I’ve seen her before."

It took her a moment to place the face.

Evenson supplied the answer.

"Her name is Stephanie."

"Stephanie..."

Peggy’s eyes widened.

"Right. Stephanie. Gideon’s only daughter."

She stared at the screen for another second.

"I held her when she was little. No wonder I didn’t recognize her at first. She’s grown up."

Peggy had been around far longer than most people in S.H.I.E.L.D. Her connections ran deep, and Gideon Malick had been one of her contemporaries in the early days.

In that sense, Stephanie had practically grown up in her orbit.

Peggy’s expression hardened.

"If this girl is Hydra, then her father is definitely still involved too, isn’t he?"

"Absolutely."

Evenson nodded.

"The Malicks are Hydra aristocracy. They’re not like the Red Skull, who clawed his way into the organization. Their family has been part of Hydra’s upper ranks for generations, going all the way back to ancient Egypt."

Peggy said nothing.

She paced across the room several times, thinking.

Then she suddenly spun around, marched straight up to Evenson, and shook a trembling fist in the air.

"The Council!"

The World Security Council.

Peggy knew Gideon Malick had spent years serving on it.

"The entire point of the Council was to oversee S.H.I.E.L.D. and prevent the organization from becoming too powerful to control."

Her laugh came out bitter.

"And one of its five permanent members was a Hydra aristocrat."

She looked at Evenson.

"So S.H.I.E.L.D. has been under Hydra’s influence this whole time?"

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s mid- and senior-level appointments required Council approval.

That meant Malick had spent years using his position to push out capable agents and quietly place Hydra operatives inside the organization.

Peggy’s mind immediately spiraled toward the worst possibility.

At this point, someone could tell her Nick Fury was secretly Hydra, and she’d probably believe them.

Evenson saw where her thoughts were going and answered carefully.

"You’re not wrong. That’s essentially what happened."

Peggy sank back into the nearest chair.

"What the hell did I accomplish all those years ago...?"

For a moment, despite the fact that her body had been restored to youth, she looked ancient again.

The fel fire in her eyes dimmed.

Once, Peggy Carter had believed creating S.H.I.E.L.D. was the greatest achievement of her life. She had believed she’d built an organization capable of protecting the world and preserving peace.

Now she couldn’t help wondering whether she’d built anything at all.

Maybe she’d simply been placed at the front of someone else’s operation.

A public face.

A convenient figurehead.

And the organization she’d helped establish had instead become the very platform Hydra used to expand its power, cultivate recruits, and feed fresh blood into its ranks.

"Don’t get too depressed."

Evenson stepped over and tried to pull her out of the downward spiral.

"Hydra has a lot of influence inside S.H.I.E.L.D., but they haven’t completely taken over."

He paused.

"Well..."

He grimaced.

"They’ve gotten pretty close. But there are still some people standing in the way. Plenty of good agents are still around."

"Plenty?" Peggy asked.

"How many?"

"Uh..."

Evenson started counting mentally.

Fury.

Hill.

Coulson.

May.

Then he realized he’d mentally included Hawkeye and Natasha too.

And Skye.

That was getting embarrassing.

He hadn’t even used all ten fingers yet.

He abruptly stopped counting, folded his hands behind his back, and announced with absolute confidence,

"Quite a lot. I just can’t count them all off the top of my head."

Peggy stared at him.

Then she rubbed her face and stood.

"Fine. We’ll call it plenty."

The brief despair in her eyes was gone.

The fel fire burned brightly once more.

Peggy Carter had never been the type to stay down after a setback. She might take a hit, she might need a moment to process it, but the harder she was struck, the harder she tended to strike back.

"Tell me," she said. "What’s the grand performance you’re putting on tomorrow? And what do you need me to do?"

"Train them."

Peggy blinked.

"Train them?"

She looked genuinely baffled.

"Train who?"

"The Hydra personnel."

"What?"

"They’re Hydra."

"Not for long."

Evenson smiled inwardly.

Once they stepped through his front door, he had every intention of making sure they didn’t walk out unchanged.

"After I finish with them, they won’t be Hydra anymore. So the stronger you make them, the better it is for us."

Peggy nodded slowly.

Now she understood the plan.

Evenson intended to turn them.

Still, she wasn’t entirely convinced it would work.

Peggy had spent a long time fighting Hydra. She knew better than most how difficult it was to break their conditioning and loyalties.

There was another problem.

"They’ll recognize me, won’t they?"

Peggy had been a famous figure for decades, and her name carried particular weight within Hydra’s ranks.

"That’s why you’ll need a disguise."

Evenson didn’t seem concerned.

He walked over to a cabinet and placed his hand against the scanner. After a fingerprint check, the lock clicked open.

Inside hung a black suit of full-body armor.

The helmet was especially elaborate, covering nearly the entire face.

Evenson gestured toward it.

"Put that on, and they shouldn’t recognize you."

Peggy studied the armor in silence.

Then her eyes narrowed with renewed purpose.

"All right."

Tomorrow, she was going to become Hydra’s instructor.

Just not the one they’d expected.