Chapter 627

Evenson’s words had hit Dr. Hall exactly where it hurt.

Every sentence had driven another nail into the man’s pride.

Plenty of brilliant people had expressed regret over their creations after the fact. Einstein had reportedly regretted supporting the development of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer spent his later years haunted by what he had helped create.

But there was an important distinction.

They regretted it afterward.

The war had already ended. The bombs had already fallen. The work had already been completed.

They hadn’t abandoned their research halfway through because they were afraid of what might happen.

Hall was different.

He might have been the world’s foremost authority on gravitonium, but even he didn’t fully understand the substance. His response to that uncertainty was simple: it was dangerous, therefore nobody should touch it.

If he didn’t trust Quinn with it, fine. He could have slowed the project down. He could have waited for an opportunity to transfer the research somewhere safer. He could have sealed the gravitonium away until technology had advanced enough to handle it properly.

Instead, he had decided to get rid of the entire thing.

That wasn’t the behavior of a rational scientist.

Hall had the talent of a scientist.

He lacked the spirit.

The Tesseract incident had clearly frightened him badly enough that he’d begun treating anything with both potential and danger as something that had to be destroyed before it could cause trouble.

If there was even a chance that a robber might come for your valuables, his philosophy was apparently to throw the valuables away first.

Evenson had expected his insults to hit Hall like a killing blow.

Instead, they had apparently transformed into motivational advice for the enemy.

Hall had entered an enraged state.

Perhaps that was what happened when you were cursed with truly terrible luck.

"AAAAH!"

Hall screamed and emptied his little pistol at Evenson.

It accomplished absolutely nothing.

Against Evenson’s Void barrier, a .45-caliber handgun was about as threatening as an angry stapler.

Hall didn’t care.

He continued firing, shouting incoherently as he pulled the trigger again and again. He had completely lost control of himself.

Evenson found the spectacle almost painful to watch.

He raised a hand, intending to cast a Curse of Weakness and simply knock the old man unconscious.

He never got the chance.

Hall suddenly staggered.

Then he collapsed.

Blood poured from his mouth and nose.

Evenson blinked.

Hall was clearly dying.

That one wasn’t exactly Evenson’s fault.

A man who had lost his temper completely was unlikely to notice the environment around him.

The underground laboratory was a sealed, cramped space. Evenson was standing in the middle of it with his barrier spread out around him, making the already confined area even tighter.

And firing a gun in a place like that came with one particularly unpleasant possibility.

Ricochets.

Hall’s first few bullets had merely bounced around the room, missing everything important and leaving Hall with a few very close calls.

The final round was different.

After bouncing off the barrier, walls, and floor at several angles, the bullet struck Hall in the chest from an angle so vicious that the damage was far worse than a normal gunshot.

Coulson’s eyes widened.

"Dr. Hall!"

He rushed over and dropped beside him.

Blood was pouring from Hall’s chest.

Coulson took one look and knew that even with proper medical equipment, there was a good chance they couldn’t save him.

Then he looked toward Evenson.

If anyone could do something miraculous here, it would be the man who could apparently bend reality with magic.

Evenson immediately understood.

He strode forward and extended a hand toward Hall.

A mass of twisted purple energy began pouring out of Hall’s body, gathering in Evenson’s palm.

The energy condensed into a jagged purple crystal.

Evenson looked at it appreciatively.

"He was dying anyway. No sense wasting it."

Hall stopped bleeding.

He stopped shaking.

His eyes remained wide open.

He was dead.

Coulson slowly stood.

He straightened his suit.

Blink.

Blink.

Then realization finally caught up with him.

He pointed at Hall’s corpse with a trembling hand.

"I told you to save him! Not kill him!"

"Save him?" Evenson pointed at the body. "That’s easier said than done."

He gestured toward Hall’s chest.

"That was a ricochet. The bullet got battered around before it went in spinning. The damage is probably comparable to a hollow-point. And it hit him in the chest."

Evenson grimaced.

"At that point, you could probably pull the pieces out without even cutting him open. Add some garlic and you’ve got yourself a very unfortunate dinner."

Coulson’s expression remained completely blank.

He knew how dangerous ricochets could be. A bullet that had struck several surfaces before entering the body could cause much more severe damage than a direct shot, especially when it hit the chest.

There was no realistic way to treat that injury with conventional medicine.

"But you’re a mage."

"Magic has a price!"

Evenson’s voice easily overpowered Coulson’s shouting.

"Saving his life means spending someone else’s life force! Whose should I use? Yours?"

Coulson blinked.

Evenson pointed at him.

"Or yours?"

Coulson stared for a moment.

Then he sighed.

His gaze shifted toward the gravitonium generator, whose effects were continuing to intensify.

"Fine. But what do we do about that?"

That was the real problem.

Coulson had wanted Hall alive for several reasons. He was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and his mission had been to extract Hall.

More importantly, he’d been counting on Hall to shut down the machine.

If the generator continued operating, the island might genuinely sink beneath the ocean.

Coulson rubbed his forehead.

"Why does every mission you go on end with the entire world shaking?"

They had planned for nearly everything.

They had even accounted for Evenson’s tendency to cause trouble.

Somehow, the island was still going to sink.

Evenson looked toward the gravitonium spinning inside the generator, held in place by violent streams of electricity.

Then he smiled.

"I can handle it."

Coulson’s expression brightened immediately.

Hope returned to his eyes.

Evenson stepped forward.

Then he produced a massive book from nowhere.

The thing was nearly half a meter long and thick enough to qualify as a blunt weapon.

He opened it.

The yellowed pages fluttered on their own before finally stopping at a particular passage.

Evenson leaned closer.

"Hmm..."

He traced the words with one finger.

"Yes. That’s it."

He studied the passage carefully.

"So that’s the spell..."

A pause.

"Right. It should be pronounced like this."

He closed the book and made it disappear.

Then he shut his eyes.

His lips began moving.

Coulson watched.

His heart sank.

After a few seconds, he cautiously asked, "What are you doing?"

"Shut up!"

Evenson snapped without opening his eyes.

"Don’t distract me. I’m memorizing the spell."

Coulson’s heart sank all the way to the bottom.

A moment ago, Evenson had sounded completely confident.

Coulson had assumed that meant he had some brilliant solution prepared.

Apparently, he was memorizing the spell five seconds before casting it.

Coulson silently turned away.

He pulled out his phone and brought up Melinda’s number.

For a moment, he wondered whether this was finally the time to tell her everything he’d been keeping to himself.

Then Evenson’s eyes snapped open.

"Got it!"

Coulson turned around.

Evenson placed both hands against the reinforced glass.

Flames erupted from his palms.

The glass softened almost instantly beneath the heat, melting away in a glowing wave.

Evenson stretched both arms outward.

His body slowly lifted from the ground.

He began reciting the spell he’d just memorized.

Green runes appeared around his hands.

They stretched outward like chains, wrapping themselves around the mass of gravitonium.

Evenson’s hands jerked backward.

The rune chains tightened.

He tried to pull the gravitonium free.

It didn’t move.

The electrical currents inside the generator were incredibly powerful. They held the gravitonium firmly in place.

For several seconds, Evenson and the machine simply fought over control of the substance.

It was a magical tug-of-war.

"Come on!"

Evenson pulled harder.

The gravitational distortion intensified.

Coulson suddenly rose from the floor.

The entire room entered a state of weightlessness.

Loose equipment, tools, papers, and anything else that wasn’t secured began drifting through the air.

Coulson floated helplessly nearby.

Evenson gritted his teeth.

"No one can control it?"

A cold smile appeared on his face.

"Wrong."

He tightened his grip on the rune chains.

"It will submit to my will!"

With a roar, he pulled.

The chains snapped taut.

The gravitonium finally tore free of the electrical currents.

It flew toward him.

At that instant, gravity returned to normal.

Everything that had been floating dropped.

Coulson had learned his lesson from the previous incident and was prepared this time. He managed to land safely on his feet.

Unfortunately, several loose objects immediately followed him down.

One struck him in the head.

Then another.

Coulson ignored them.

He looked up.

The gravitonium was shrinking in Evenson’s grasp.

Smaller.

Smaller still.

Then it vanished completely.

Coulson stared.

"Where did it go?"

"I put it away."

Evenson exhaled deeply.

"I’ll bring it back once you’ve found a suitable containment system."

He looked toward Coulson.

"We can leave now, right?"

Coulson let out a long breath.

For the first time in what felt like hours, the knot in his chest finally loosened.

They made it back to the aircraft without further catastrophe.

The moment Evenson stepped through the cabin door, however, a blur of pink came flying straight at him.

Evenson focused.

Skye.

Judging by her expression, she wasn’t coming in for a hug.

Her face was twisted with fury, her arms flailing wildly as she charged him.

"You bastard! You actually threw me out! I’ll kill you! You just wait until I—"

Thunk!

Evenson’s defensive instincts kicked in.

A barrier appeared in front of him.

Skye slammed straight into it.

"Ow!"

She bounced backward and landed hard on the floor.

For several seconds she just sat there, clutching her bright red forehead.

Her eyes watered.

She stared up at Evenson with an expression that promised murder.

Evenson stared back.

Neither of them spoke.