Chapter 618

"Whatever. Let them merge the cases."

Evenson hung up and sighed. As long as the operation didn’t go off the rails, he really didn’t care how the paperwork was arranged. Besides, judging from Moira’s report, Luke Cage sounded like quite a character.

The man ran a bar his late wife had left behind, yet somehow he still found time to get tangled up with married women and single ones alike. His taste in romantic partners might have been questionable, but in terms of sheer success with women, he was starting to rival Tony Stark.

And now he was mixed up with Jessica Jones, too.

Evenson shook his head.

The man certainly had a way with women.

Peggy Carter had watched him sigh and shake his head twice in quick succession. She couldn’t help asking, "What happened? Is something wrong?"

"No. Nothing important."

Evenson turned to leave, but Peggy followed.

"There is something I want to ask you. Do you really trust the people I’m training?"

Evenson glanced back at her without answering.

Peggy’s expression was troubled.

"I can more or less guess what your plan is, even though you haven’t explained it outright. You want these people to eventually work for you. Maybe even use them as a weapon to infiltrate Hydra from the inside."

She paused.

"Honestly, I think it’s a very good plan."

Hydra had infiltrated SHIELD. Turning the tables and sending agents into Hydra in return was certainly satisfying.

"But there’s something I’m worried about." Peggy’s eyes drifted toward the training ground. "Can you really make this work?"

Evenson smiled.

"You think I’m going to fail?"

"I know you’re confident."

Peggy sighed.

"But these people aren’t ordinary Hydra recruits. The fact that they were selected for this program means they were carefully chosen. They’re stronger than normal people, better trained, and, more importantly, their loyalty to Hydra is absolute."

She looked him directly in the eye.

"Breaking that kind of loyalty is extremely difficult. Breaking it across five hundred people is even harder. All it takes is one person to betray the rest, and the whole operation could collapse. Worse, that person could turn everything we’ve built against us."

"Absolute loyalty?"

Evenson smiled.

"That’s exactly why it’s valuable."

He wasn’t worried in the slightest. As a Warlock, he was rather more familiar with betrayal than Peggy might have guessed. More importantly, he knew that loyalty could be redirected.

"Peggy, where do you think their absolute loyalty came from?" he asked. "Do you really think Hydra just taped their eyes open and sat them in front of some flashing screen until their brains melted?"

"That would be the crude approach." Peggy glanced uneasily toward the training area. "They probably used something more sophisticated."

She hesitated before giving it a name.

"Belief."

"Exactly."

Evenson nodded.

"These people are Hydra’s middle ranks. Some of them have been with Hydra practically from birth. They grew up hearing the same ideas over and over until those ideas became their worldview."

He gestured toward the trainees.

"They genuinely believe Hydra isn’t poisoning the world. They believe Hydra is saving it. They think Hydra will eventually rebuild the world into a utopia."

"They’ve spent their entire lives wrapped in that grand mission. Their secret identities and covert activities only make it stronger. Living ordinary lives on the surface while serving a hidden cause gives them that sense of mystery."

He smiled thinly.

"And when people condemn Hydra, they don’t see themselves as villains. They see everyone else as fools and cowards. In their minds, ordinary people simply lack the wisdom to understand the actions of truly enlightened men."

His tone became more amused.

"That also gives them a powerful sense of martyrdom. They believe they’re suffering on behalf of humanity, carrying a burden no one else is noble enough to bear."

"For them, power is secondary. Money is meaningless. They believe they’re serving an ideal greater than either."

"That’s exactly the problem." Peggy waved a hand impatiently. "I understand all that. What I want to know is how you’re going to change them."

"Change them?"

Evenson raised an eyebrow.

"I’m not."

Peggy stared at him.

"Loyalty and noble ideals are wonderful things. Destroying them would be a shame."

His grin widened.

"All I have to do is make those ideals bloom even more brilliantly."

"I’m going to give them something greater. A higher purpose."

His hand came to rest against his chest, and his expression grew strangely solemn.

"Something that gives them an even stronger sense of mission. More mystery. More sacrifice."

He spread his arms.

"I want them to hear it and realize that Hydra’s so-called great ideals were nothing more than childish games."

He snorted.

"Two tiny insects trapped in a jar, tearing each other apart over a single scrap of food and imagining their little struggle means something."

Peggy opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

The idea sounded ridiculous.

It also made an uncomfortable amount of sense.

"But can you really do it?"

"Of course."

Evenson shrugged.

"I planned for this from the beginning."

What’s so difficult about ideals?

He had spent his life fighting those who wanted to tear the world apart. He had sacrificed everything to keep it standing.

Hydra wanted to talk about noble causes?

Fine.

He would give them one.

I am the last line of defense standing between this world and the people who want to destroy it.

I have spent my entire life fighting those enemies.

I sacrificed everything to protect this world.

What have you sacrificed?

Just imagining the speech made Evenson grin.

There was no way those people wouldn’t be hooked.

"You can stop worrying about it," he told Peggy, giving her shoulder a reassuring pat.

"Besides, I never intended to convert all five hundred."

Peggy raised an eyebrow.

"In fact, I’ll consider it a success if one in five of them makes it to the end."

His smile didn’t change.

"Some of them probably won’t even know what killed them."

"I see."

Peggy felt a little less concerned.

With casualties expected to be that high, there was no point obsessing over whether every single trainee could be converted. The difficult ones could simply be written off.

Still, she found herself studying Evenson.

The man usually looked like he took nothing seriously. Yet when he casually decided that four hundred people might die, he didn’t even blink.

That was a disturbing contrast.

"Starting today, divide them into categories," Evenson said. "Figure out which ones can be useful and which ones have no value."

He patted her shoulder again.

"But before you do that, I need you to find one person for me."

"Who?"

"Anyone."

Evenson narrowed his eyes.

"I need someone who’s afraid of death, but also volatile and prone to explosive anger. Ideally, someone with a history of severe psychological stress."

He smiled.

"Find whichever trainee fits those requirements best."

"I’ll take care of everything after that."

After giving Peggy her instructions, Evenson went to find the Eredar Twins.

He discovered that they had gone to the science division, which was actually convenient. He had intended to inspect the department himself and see whether Gennos had developed anything interesting lately.

Instead, the moment he walked through the door, he nearly had a heart attack.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

At one of the laboratory workstations, Gennos and his assistants stood in a circle with the Eredar Twins.

In the center of that circle was a piece of amber Stephanie had recently delivered.

Not ordinary amber.

Cretaceous amber.

And, preserved inside it, a mosquito.

The amber had been secured to a stand, and Gennos was holding a probe over it, preparing to pierce the specimen.

Evenson’s eyes nearly bulged out of his skull.

He had already accepted that any gift received in front of the Twins was probably going to be surrendered to the science division before he got a chance to enjoy it.

But there were limits.

He shot across the room, shoved the others aside, and planted himself between Gennos and the amber.

"Have you lost your minds? That’s Cretaceous amber! Insect amber! You have any idea how rare this thing is?"

He hugged the specimen protectively.

"Forget keeping it as a collectible. You could put that thing up for auction and get seven figures for it! And you’re just going to cut it open?"

"Seven figures?" Alythess scoffed.

"That’s not exactly pocket change, but its real value is much greater than that. Putting something like this in some nouveau riche collector’s display case would be the real waste."

Evenson stared at her.

How is keeping it in a display case wasteful, but drilling into it with a probe isn’t?

Sacrolash reached out to pull him aside.

She expected him to move.

He didn’t.

Evenson stood there like he’d been nailed to the floor.

"Honestly..."

Sacrolash sighed and pulled harder.

There was a sharp crack.

"AAAH!"

Evenson clutched his arm.

"My shoulder! You dislocated it!"

He glared at her in disbelief.

"Why does every conversation with you two end with someone getting dismantled?"

"Fine. Fine. I know."

Sacrolash grabbed his arm again, shoved the joint back into place, and another crack echoed through the lab.

Evenson screamed even louder.

"What are you two trying to do to me?!"

"What are we trying to do?" Sacrolash pushed him aside. "What are you trying to do?"

She pointed at the amber.

"You know what this is. Cretaceous amber containing a blood-fed mosquito. That means there’s a chance the mosquito still contains dinosaur blood."

"And if we can extract usable genetic material..."

She smiled.

"We can bring dinosaurs back."

Evenson rubbed his shoulder and stared at her.

"Bring dinosaurs back? Why?"

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead.

"Don’t tell me you’re planning to build a dinosaur park. Then one day, when the place is packed with tourists, the dinosaurs escape, people get eaten, the company gets sued into oblivion, and we file for bankruptcy after paying out a mountain of settlements."

"Of course."

Alythess and Sacrolash rolled their eyes in perfect unison.

"Why wouldn’t we?"

Alythess shook her head.

"Even by your standards, that is an astonishingly terrible business plan."

"My standards?"

Evenson scratched his head indignantly.

"Fine. Then what are you planning?"

"First, successfully reviving a dinosaur would allow us to demonstrate the technological capabilities of our company to the entire world," Alythess said.

"And then we could use that technology to expand into livestock, luxury goods, and the food industry."

Evenson blinked.

Alythess became more animated.

"Look at people now. They wear otter coats, crocodile belts, calfskin shoes. Once dinosaurs are back, all of that will look cheap."

She spread her hands grandly.

"The wealthy should be wearing Brontosaurus belts, Velociraptor shoes, and Mosasaurus coats."

Sacrolash picked up the thread.

"And fur products currently attract the attention of environmental groups. Dinosaurs are different. They would have been resurrected artificially. They wouldn’t be native wild animals, and they wouldn’t be endangered species protected by law."

She smiled.

"So aside from maintaining proper sanitation and paying our taxes, there would be very little legal oversight stopping us from farming and slaughtering them."

"And dinosaurs are valuable from head to tail," Alythess added. "The skin is only the beginning. There’s meat."

She looked genuinely excited.

"How much meat does one pig produce? Now compare that with a large dinosaur."

"Think about it. Humanity has dreamed about eating dragon meat for thousands of years. We could finally give people the chance."

She leaned forward.

"And it would become a luxury status symbol."

Sacrolash nodded.

"Exactly. After that, Kobe beef wouldn’t even be considered premium anymore."

She scoffed.

"That would be peasant food."

"The wealthy would eat Tyrannosaurus steaks. They’d gnaw on Diplodocus neck. They’d order New Orleans-style roasted pterosaur wings."

She shrugged.

"Whether the meat actually tastes good wouldn’t even matter. We could fix that with seasoning and cooking techniques."

Her smile widened.

"The appeal would be saying, ’I eat dinosaur.’"

Evenson rubbed his chin.

He could see the business model now.

At this rate, Kobe beef really would collapse in value.

Which meant steak might become considerably cheaper.

"There’s more," Evenson said.

"Skin and meat aren’t the only valuable parts. Bones, too. We could donate some to museums, grind the rest into powder, and market it as a calcium supplement."

He paused.

"As long as it isn’t poisonous, we can claim it prevents osteoporosis."

Sacrolash raised an eyebrow.

"And?"

Evenson looked away.

"We could probably throw in some kind of virility claim."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Want to try some?"

"I have no need for it."

Evenson immediately looked somewhere else.

"Just save me a couple of dinosaur kidneys."

Alythess let out a low, mocking laugh.

"And there’s another possibility."

She folded her arms.

"Modern paleontologists believe Velociraptors may have been highly effective pack hunters. If that turns out to be accurate, we could modify them into weapons and sell them to the military."

Another profitable market.

Evenson nodded repeatedly.

"That’s actually pretty good."

At this point, reviving the dinosaur could potentially make them far more money than selling the amber.

He turned toward Gennos.

"Why are you still standing there? Extract the DNA already."

He pointed at the amber.

"When Moira gets back, I’ll have her help you. Let’s get these dinosaurs revived as quickly as possible."

"Right away, boss."

Gennos plunged the probe into the amber without another word.

He carefully extracted the preserved blood from the mosquito’s abdomen.

Then Evenson’s phone rang.

He immediately pulled two phones from his pocket.

One was his personal phone.

The other was the one he used for company business.

He checked the screens.

The personal phone was ringing.

He held up a finger, signaling everyone to keep quiet, then answered.

"Coulson. What’s up?"

He sighed.

"Look, I meant you should call me when your team runs into something you genuinely can’t handle. You don’t have to drag me in every time something mildly inconvenient happens."

His expression changed.

"What? You want to know if there’s a spell that can make someone invisible?"

Evenson blinked.

"There is, yes. But I don’t know how to use it. That’s mage magic."

He sighed.

"For the last time, Coulson, I’m a Warlock. Warlock. Mage. Completely different classes."

Another pause.

"Something that can manipulate gravity?"

Evenson froze.

His mind briefly returned to an unpleasant memory of being dragged helplessly into the air and beaten bloody aboard a certain spacecraft.

"That exists too."

He scratched his cheek.

"But that’s still mage magic. I think it’s called an arcane field."

His brow furrowed.

"You think SHIELD ran into something like that?"

No way.

Unless that prince somehow crossed over too.

"What? You want me to come take a look?"

He sighed.

"All right. But I’ll warn you now, I doubt this has much to do with magic."

"If your people actually ran into a mage capable of doing that, they probably wouldn’t have survived long enough to call you."

He listened for another moment.

"Got it. I’ll put down what I’m doing and head over."

Evenson ended the call.

The Eredar Twins immediately started laughing.

"What?" Sacrolash asked. "The master’s calling?"

Alythess smirked.

"And you’re off running the moment he calls."

She shook her head.

"You really are such a..."

She stopped herself.

"Never mind. I don’t feel like saying it."

Alythess suddenly realized that whatever insult she’d intended to use might have applied to her as well.

"Enough."

Evenson rolled his eyes and pocketed his personal phone. Then he handed his company phone to one of the others.

"You two know perfectly well what I’m actually doing."

He turned toward them.

"SHIELD is already in the process of collapsing. Leave it alone long enough and it’ll bring itself down."

His expression hardened.

"All I have to do is make sure it collapses when the timing is most advantageous to us."

"And make sure the fallout hits exactly where I want it to."

"Hmph. Warlock..."

Alythess smiled and clicked her tongue.

"Don’t use that as an insult. We’re all Warlocks."

Evenson shrugged.

"We only owe loyalty to ourselves."

He paused.

"And to profit."

Then he snapped his fingers.

Nothing happened.

Silence filled the room.

Evenson stared ahead.

Sacrolash cleared her throat.

"Um..."

She looked almost embarrassed on his behalf.

"We’ve anchored the building so heavily with spatial anchors that you can’t teleport from here."

Evenson’s expression darkened.

"Try the reception hall. We left a teleportation point there specifically for you."

"Oh."

He nodded.

"Right."

He turned and practically fled the room.

Alythess watched him go.

"He even runs..."

She shook her head.

"Sometimes I seriously question my judgment."

Sacrolash glanced at her sister.

"But seriously..."

She looked toward the amber.

"We should still build the park."

Alythess nodded.

"Absolutely."

Evenson reached the reception hall and slipped into a secluded bathroom.

A moment later, demonic magic flared.

He teleported directly into the demonic circle he’d established aboard the airborne bus.

But when he arrived, there was no welcoming committee.

Coulson and the others weren’t even on the aircraft.

Only a low-ranking SHIELD agent was waiting outside beside a black Jeep.

Evenson stepped off the aircraft.

"Before we do anything else, answer one question for me."

The agent straightened.

"Where are we?"

He looked around.

"Are we still in the United States?"

Evenson frowned.

"You know international travel paperwork is a nightmare."

Normally, he knew exactly where he was going when he teleported because he knew where he’d placed his magic circles.

The problem was that he’d placed this one on a moving aircraft.

He had no idea where the aircraft itself might end up.

"We’re still in the United States, sir," the agent replied politely.

"This is a southern Colorado airport."

"Okay."

Evenson climbed into the passenger seat of the Jeep.

"Where’s the scene? What happened?"

He glanced at the agent.

"Or do I have to wait until we arrive and I meet someone with a sufficiently high clearance?"

"I’m authorized to give you the basic details."

The agent fastened his seat belt and started the engine.

"The incident occurred in southern Colorado, along Route 66."

"Route 66."

Evenson nodded thoughtfully.

"Great name."

He opened the window slightly.

"Makes me think of coffee."

He lit a cigarette.

"Coffee that tastes like hot mud."

"That’s a very funny joke, sir."

The agent gave him a strained, professionally polite laugh.

He quickly moved on.

"At noon today, a disguised SHIELD convoy was transporting an important cargo when it was ambushed."

"What kind of attack?"

Evenson took a drag from his cigarette.

"If Coulson called me all the way out here, I’m guessing it wasn’t exactly conventional."

"No, sir."

The agent nodded.

"Two escort vehicles were struck by an unknown force and thrown into the air."

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

"The cargo truck was hit afterward. According to the investigation, there were no cables, cranes, or other external devices involved."

"They experienced a brief period of weightlessness after leaving the ground."

The agent glanced at him.

"It was as though the direction of Earth’s gravity had suddenly reversed."

Evenson rubbed his chin.

"That’s interesting."

When he’d first answered Coulson’s questions, he’d told him that Warlocks didn’t have invisibility magic.

That part was true.

Gravity manipulation was another matter.

The Legion had countless fortresses suspended in the void, many of them nothing more than fragments of shattered worlds. Their mass was tiny compared to an ordinary planet, yet the gravity on those fragments functioned normally.

Why?

Because Warlocks had built enormous gravity arrays to maintain it.

The difference between that and a mage’s techniques was similar to the difference between establishing a permanent teleportation network and casting a single teleportation spell.

Warlocks specialized in large-scale, stable gravity arrays.

What they couldn’t do was manipulate gravity freely on the fly, changing its direction or intensity whenever they pleased.

Mages were better at that.

Their fields, however, were generally smaller and didn’t last nearly as long.

Which left Evenson genuinely curious about whatever had attacked the SHIELD convoy.

Whatever it was, he wanted to see it for himself.

Could he learn to use it?

Could he find some way to incorporate it into his own magic?

The possibilities alone were intriguing.

And if he could master genuine gravity manipulation, there was one particularly appealing benefit.

For once, taking to the air himself might not be an impossible dream.