Chapter 613

By now, Peggy Carter had changed into the armor Evenson had prepared for her.

The suit was predominantly black. Its upper half was unmistakably medieval plate armor, while the lower half combined greaves with a skirt of segmented armor. Crimson lining showed beneath the armored hem, and a long cloak hung from her shoulders nearly to her ankles.

It was, in other words, excellent for concealing her identity.

Once the armor was on, it even obscured her gender.

Armor had a way of making everyone’s proportions look roughly the same unless someone had been blessed with truly extraordinary dimensions. Unfortunately, Peggy Carter didn’t have that particular advantage.

She was still missing one rather important feature compared to her husband.

Not that she was about to complain about that.

Swish.

Swish.

The fully enclosed helmet concealed Peggy’s face as she repeatedly snapped her cloak behind her.

She wasn’t trying to get rid of it.

She was practicing.

After decades as an intelligence operative, Peggy understood that hiding your face and body was only the first step in concealing your identity. Anyone could wear a mask. The difficult part was becoming someone else.

That meant changing her mannerisms, movements, posture, and even the way she spoke.

Fortunately, Evenson had prepared a persona for her.

Evenson sat sprawled across the sofa, watching Peggy practice dramatic cloak movements in front of him.

He scratched his cheek.

"I have to admit..."

Peggy stopped.

The armor shifted with a metallic scrape as she turned toward him.

"What?"

Her voice came out deep and muffled through the helmet. Clearly annoyed, she removed it.

"What is it?"

Evenson suppressed his embarrassment.

"You’re going to be here for quite a while. Have you figured out what you’re going to tell Steve?"

Peggy shrugged.

"I told him I was handling a S.H.I.E.L.D. assignment."

"That all?"

"Nick Fury personally gave me a classified mission."

Evenson stared at her.

"Do you really think that’ll work?"

This was Peggy Carter, veteran spy and one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s founders. Surely she could come up with a better cover than that.

"What happens if Steve checks with Fury and Fury says no such mission exists?"

The situation practically wrote the joke itself.

Honey’s been staying late at work for weeks.

Really? I called her boss. He says she isn’t working late.

That was the kind of conversation that could turn a marriage into a crime scene.

Evenson narrowed his eyes.

"Wait. You didn’t tell Fury about any of this, did you?"

"Of course not."

Peggy’s answer was immediate.

"Given the state of S.H.I.E.L.D., I’m not telling anyone anything until I know exactly which agents I can trust."

Evenson nodded.

He understood the reasoning.

But that still left one rather important problem.

If Fury didn’t know, how was he supposed to maintain the cover?

"You don’t need to worry about it."

Peggy sounded completely confident.

"Steve has been a soldier for most of his life. He won’t pry into a mission I’m not authorized to discuss."

She paused.

"And even if he does ask Fury, does Fury saying there was no such assignment actually mean there wasn’t one?"

Evenson blinked.

Then it clicked.

Of course.

Nick Fury practically ran S.H.I.E.L.D. on layers of need-to-know restrictions. Missions had sub-missions. Secrets had secrets buried underneath them. A team could be sent into the field with every member receiving different orders, none of them knowing what the others had been told.

So if Fury flatly denied Peggy had been given a mission, Steve would probably interpret that as:

There was a mission. You’re simply not cleared to know about it.

Evenson rubbed his forehead.

"Let me put it this way. If Fury keeps running S.H.I.E.L.D. like this, something is going to go horribly wrong."

Peggy sighed.

"I think we’re already past that point."

She clearly didn’t want to dwell on the subject.

Instead, she knocked a fist against the armor covering her chest.

"This stuff is surprisingly good."

She had initially assumed the suit was mostly for intimidation and concealment, but she could already feel the difference. Something about the armor seemed to amplify the strength within her body.

"Of course it is."

Evenson’s expression brightened immediately.

"I had it custom-built. The armor uses high-strength alloys mixed with Chitauri metal. Reinforcement runes are engraved throughout the interior, and there’s a specialized focusing amplifier built into the system."

Peggy flexed her shoulders and rolled her waist.

"So this isn’t just a costume."

"Not even close."

She glanced down at herself.

"I’m almost reluctant to take it off."

Then she looked back at Evenson.

"You’ve been hiding quite a lot yourself, haven’t you? You usually look like you’re one bad paycheck away from sleeping in a broom closet, and the only thing people seem to know about you on Twitter is that you keep asking for gift money."

She gave him a skeptical look.

"Yet somehow you have a company like this."

"This company isn’t mine."

Evenson immediately waved the accusation away.

"I’m just helping out."

Strictly speaking, that wasn’t a lie.

Every dollar used to establish Umbrella had ultimately come from money he’d acquired through highly questionable methods, and that technically made him the company’s primary investor.

But did he actually own stock?

No.

Did he have a contract proving ownership?

No.

Did the company even have him listed as an employee?

Not even remotely.

At this point, there wasn’t even a place for him on the financial roster.

The personnel roster wasn’t any better.

So, legally speaking, Evenson was remarkably uninvolved with his own company.

"I understand."

Peggy nodded twice.

"Just like you told me the first time we met. You can’t see the darkness clearly while standing in the middle of the light."

She looked at him thoughtfully.

"You’ve uncovered an extraordinary amount about Hydra, and somehow managed to make them trust you while doing it. That was never going to happen without using certain... methods."

Her expression softened.

"And with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the state it’s in, keeping your own secrets makes sense."

"Sure. Whatever you say."

Evenson gave an indifferent shrug.

He didn’t bother correcting her.

Being mistaken for some mysterious billionaire hiding his true wealth had a certain appeal.

"You keep practicing. The Hydra people should be arriving around now, so I’m going to check on them."

Today was the day the five hundred Hydra candidates were supposed to arrive.

A group that size couldn’t exactly roll up to Umbrella in a convoy of buses without attracting attention.

So they came in pieces.

Three here.

Two there.

At different times.

Under different identities.

Some arrived on bicycles. Some walked. Others took a taxi, transferred between three subway lines and two buses, then jogged the final block.

Their stories were just as varied.

Job applicants.

Sales representatives.

Potential business partners.

Visitors interested in the company.

One particularly committed individual even claimed his wife had run off with someone from Umbrella and had come to make a scene.

By the time the entire group had assembled, an entire day had passed.

By evening, all five hundred were standing in formation inside Umbrella’s underground facility.

The underground level contained little beyond what the operation required.

Five hundred men and women stood shoulder to shoulder in orderly ranks.

The atmosphere was grim and disciplined.

Judging from their bearing, Gideon Malick had indeed selected his best people.

At minimum, every one of them had received some degree of military training.

Stephanie stepped forward.

"My brothers and sisters."

Her voice carried through the chamber.

"I’m glad you’ve answered the call. Today, you have been given the opportunity to surrender everything in service to Hydra’s highest purpose."

She raised one hand.

"Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra!"

"Hail Hydra!"

Stephanie’s speech had barely begun before the people below were roaring the words back at her.

The fervor in the room was immediate.

Peggy hated it.

She had hoped she’d never have to see a sight like this again.

Apparently, the universe had other plans.

She gave a cold snort.

Then she moved.

A streak of black crossed the chamber.

In an instant, she was beside Stephanie.

As Peggy turned slowly to face the assembled crowd, enormous black wings briefly flashed into existence behind her before vanishing again.

She raised her head.

Beneath the helmet’s featureless mask, only her eyes remained visible.

Fel-green fire roared inside them.

A lick of green flame escaped the corner of one eye.

The effect was so absurdly theatrical that it looked like someone had just dumped a ridiculous amount of money into the special-effects budget.

It was also terrifying.

Her altered armor made her voice impossible to identify as male or female.

And everyone in the room heard her clearly.

"My name is Caterina. High Lord of the Demonheart Council. First of the Ascendant Chain."

She let the words settle.

"From this day forward, I will be your instructor, your examiner, and your executioner."

Silence.

Then someone in the crowd raised a hand.

"The first?"

The young man’s expression was genuinely confused.

"If you’re the first, then where does Peggy Carter rank?"

Despite being on opposite sides, Hydra’s operatives had witnessed Peggy’s power before.

They respected it.

Apparently, someone was curious whether this mysterious self-proclaimed "First" was actually stronger than the woman they already knew.

Peggy gave a contemptuous snort.

Her cloak snapped outward.

She vanished.

The next instant, she stood directly in front of the questioner.

Before he could react, one armored hand clamped around his throat and lifted him clean off the floor.

At the same time, Peggy raised her right arm and clenched her fist.

A blade of pure fel energy, more than half a meter long, shot from the armor along her forearm.

The fire in her eyes intensified until it looked as though she could burn the man’s soul straight through his body.

"I think I’m a little stronger than her."

Her grip tightened.

"Do you understand now?"

The man could barely breathe.

But the strength crushing his throat wasn’t what terrified him most.

It was the eyes staring directly into his own.

He desperately grabbed at the hand around his neck and managed to nod.

Peggy released him and casually threw him aside.

She hated Hydra.

Every instinct in her screamed to put these people in the ground.

But the operation required them alive, so she had deliberately held back.

Even so, the man’s body slammed into several others and sent them tumbling across the floor.

Cries of pain rose from the pile.

Peggy ignored them.

She slowly surveyed the room.

"Do you understand now?"

Nobody hesitated.

The oppressive force radiating from her was almost tangible.

Five hundred people nodded at once.

"Good."

Peggy crossed her arms and turned away, walking slowly back toward Stephanie.

"For the duration of your stay here, you will undergo training, enhancement, and evaluation."

Her voice was cold and absolute.

"I will operate according to my standards. Your only responsibility is to meet them."

She paused.

"As for whether you live or die, that’s your problem."

No one spoke.

"If anyone already regrets coming here, I suggest you kill yourself now."

Peggy’s voice hardened.

"A coward has no right to survive."