Chapter 772

Pierce had arrived in high spirits.

After all, Gideon Malick—who normally looked down on him, regarded his faction as a deviation from Hydra’s "true" traditions, and carried himself like the undisputed patriarch of Hydra’s old guard—had actually swallowed his pride and asked Pierce for a favor.

Not only that, Malick had asked politely.

Very politely.

And his request?

Come watch his daughter star in a little movie.

Pierce had to admit, that had been unexpectedly exciting.

He just hadn’t expected to get quite that much excitement out of it.

The movie’s cast had all been fully clothed, which was not what he’d expected when he heard "little movie."

More importantly, he’d never expected the footage to contain the bombshell that was Peggy Carter.

That revelation had left him thoroughly stunned.

Unfortunately, the recording had now reached the point where there was little left worth watching. The rest was mostly Evenson’s report on his trip to Asgard, all of which was already included in the official report he’d submitted to S.H.I.E.L.D.

The only difference was that the official report had mercifully omitted Evenson’s enthusiastic self-congratulation.

Pierce finally remembered why he’d come in the first place.

He reached for the remote and switched off the recording.

"That’s enough. You’re not to investigate this any further."

Even Pierce felt a little guilty saying it.

His feelings on the matter were complicated.

If this had only involved Umbrella, he would have loved nothing more than for Nick Fury to follow the trail. Pierce would have cooperated wholeheartedly.

Because, frankly, Umbrella terrified him.

From everything he’d learned so far, the mysterious corporation was technologically advanced, enormously wealthy, and possessed of a global network of facilities.

Too many unexplained incidents around the world seemed suspiciously convenient.

Maybe Umbrella had purchased an old Soviet submarine base and converted it into a research facility.

Why were there so many terrifying diseases emerging from Africa?

Ancient viruses reawakening?

Please.

Umbrella was probably conducting biological experiments.

And why did people keep venturing into remote rainforests to catch insects and ants? Someone would find a rare queen ant and be ecstatic for years.

Maybe they were collecting unusual genetic samples for Umbrella.

Even the dramatic rise in cancer rates over the past several decades could potentially be explained by some massive Umbrella experiment.

Pierce didn’t know how much of it was true.

But one thing was certain.

A corporation with that kind of reach had to have ambitions.

And if Umbrella ever decided to act on them, who would take the first hit?

Hydra.

And Pierce was certain his own faction would be among the first targets.

His branch represented Hydra’s newer generation, while its founding icon was the Red Skull.

Who hated the Red Skull most?

The Allies?

That hardly counted.

They’d been enemies from the beginning. Trying to kill each other during a war was simply how wars worked.

Besides, nine out of ten of the Red Skull’s plans against the Allies had been foiled by Captain America. The remaining one had been so impractical that even the Red Skull had eventually abandoned it.

He’d accomplished almost nothing against the Allies.

If anything, the man had been more effective at ruining his own side’s day.

The Red Skull had drained Germany of money, soldiers, and resources with one scheme after another. There were even rumors that Hitler had redirected funding from the Tiger tank program to support one of the Red Skull’s projects.

Then, once the project succeeded, the Red Skull promptly sold the equipment for his own benefit.

And the Red Skull’s greatest—indeed, only genuinely successful—military operation had been the bombing of Berlin.

Betrayal hurts more than any enemy.

The Red Skull betrayed me.

—Hitler’s final words.

The problem was that current intelligence suggested Umbrella might have evolved from that same organization.

Or perhaps it had been built with the backing of the old regime.

Either way, Umbrella and the old Hydra had deep connections.

So once Umbrella had recovered from its long period of inactivity, why wouldn’t it settle old scores?

Look at what had happened with Whitehall.

Umbrella had previously conducted a couple of mutually exploitative deals with him. Whitehall had gotten almost nothing out of them, yet the entire affair had caused considerable trouble and left him taking a massive loss.

And now?

Umbrella had simply stopped dealing with him.

Instead, they were working closely with Malick, one of the most prominent representatives of Hydra’s old families.

And why had Malick sent his own precious daughter to work with them?

Pierce’s expression darkened.

Was this the beginning of a Hydra-Umbrella political marriage?

Those old families had always been fond of using marriage as a political tool.

The evidence was practically screaming at him.

And Umbrella wasn’t merely cooperating with Malick anymore.

They’d already stuck their hands into Pierce’s territory and started taking pieces for themselves.

S.H.I.E.L.D. was his domain.

Yet Umbrella had quietly inserted Evenson Richter into the organization, and if not for today’s revelation, Pierce would have had no idea what the man’s true identity was.

Then another memory surfaced.

Wait.

Evenson had been involved in the incident that had nearly exposed Pierce’s own Hydra branch.

So that was what had happened.

Back then, Pierce had wondered how a handful of gangsters had somehow managed to create such a serious problem for Hydra.

Now he knew.

Umbrella had been behind it.

And then there was Peggy Carter.

That woman was a bomb buried beneath the entire organization.

If Peggy and Umbrella were working together, then the Avengers—the organization Pierce had spent years watching from the sidelines, desperately wanting to get his hands on—might already be under their control.

Hydra-Umbrella had one hand inside S.H.I.E.L.D. and the other inside the Avengers.

They were practically conquering the world through a corporate merger.

And Peggy wasn’t just anyone.

She was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D., a woman with decades of connections and an army of former protégés.

The agents Pierce had previously classified as impossible to corrupt?

There was a good chance Peggy had already recruited them.

Like Ghost.

She had been personally recruited by Peggy.

Pierce and Fury had both foolishly believed they held Ghost’s leash.

Meanwhile, Ghost had apparently become one of Umbrella’s people.

And that was exactly the kind of agent Pierce couldn’t afford to ignore.

He suddenly remembered his Insight Project proposal.

I need to hide that thing somewhere.

Then he reconsidered.

Where?

There probably wasn’t anywhere safe.

Maybe he should memorize the entire thing.

No.

That sounded even more exhausting.

Then there was Coulson’s special operations team, the group Nick Fury relied on most heavily.

Pierce suspected that team was already half red and white.

First, there was Phil Coulson himself.

Coulson had been close to Evenson for a long time. And according to Rumlow’s report, Evenson had personally retrieved Coulson’s soul from Mephisto after his death.

Then there was Melinda May.

Rumor had it she was also quite close to Evenson.

And she was one of Peggy Carter’s direct protégés.

Really, determining where she stood didn’t require much detective work.

Then there was the one person Pierce had never been able to figure out.

The hacker named Skye.

A woman practically pulled out of a dumpster, somehow recruited into one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s most sensitive special teams.

Evenson had been involved in her recruitment and placement from beginning to end, while Coulson had fought off every objection to keep her on the team.

At first, Pierce had never understood why.

Was it her looks?

Now he knew.

It really was her looks.

That beautiful mixed-race woman was a natural-born seductress.

It hadn’t taken her long to start exchanging meaningful glances with one of the people he’d spent so much effort placing inside the team.

They were practically halfway to becoming a couple.

Pierce’s expression darkened.

What an underhanded strategy.

This was espionage through seduction.

Umbrella was using attractive women to infiltrate and corrupt his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

No.

Enough was enough.

John Garrett and Grant Ward were no longer trustworthy.

And if they’d already been compromised, who knew how many people they’d recruited beneath them?

That was why Pierce was caught between two impossible choices.

On one hand, he desperately wanted Fury to eliminate the Umbrella threat for him.

On the other, Umbrella was deeply involved with Malick, who was technically part of Hydra, while also having connections to Pierce’s own faction.

The whole thing had become an impossible knot.

If Fury started pulling on that thread, everything would unravel.

And the people whose identities could actually be confirmed as Umbrella operatives were still few.

But following the trail through Hydra?

That could expose dozens—possibly hundreds—of people.

There was no scenario in which Pierce came out ahead.

Even mutual destruction wasn’t an option.

So the best course was obvious.

Cover everything up.

Buy time.

Once the Insight Project succeeded, it wouldn’t matter whether they were Hydra’s ancient families or Umbrella’s mysterious operatives.

They could all prepare to disappear.

For now, however, Nick Fury was staring at the blank screen.

He looked at Pierce with some confusion.

Sure, the rest of the recording hadn’t contained anything particularly useful.

But who knew what might have appeared if they’d kept watching?

Why had Pierce shut it down so quickly?

Pierce had prepared for that question long before he’d entered the room.

He simply hadn’t gotten the opportunity to use his speech until now.

"The World Security Council exists to supervise and regulate S.H.I.E.L.D. Our authority has expanded to the point where it can no longer be left unchecked."

He spoke firmly.

"That means their investigation and oversight are entirely legitimate. And frankly, even watching this recording is already crossing a line."

"If you continue investigating them, or deliberately conceal information from their investigation, then you’re the one exceeding your authority."

Nick Fury wasn’t impressed.

"So what? I just stand here while a bunch of bureaucrats strip away the authority I need to do my job?"

"You’re already surrendering some of that authority yourself."

Pierce stood and put his hands on his hips.

"Your self-restraint is admirable. So why not continue?"

"I can surrender my own authority."

Nick rose as well.

"But I won’t let them quietly take it from me."

He snorted.

"You know what those bureaucrats are like. They talk endlessly about checks and balances."

"I’m not saying checks and balances are bad. They’re necessary."

"But if that’s all you care about, you forget why those powers exist in the first place."

Nick’s expression hardened.

"I can already imagine what happens after they finish ’balancing’ everything."

"We get a dangerous situation somewhere in the world, and instead of responding, we spend a month arguing over which department has jurisdiction. By the time the paperwork gets approved, the stack will be thicker than the damn operation plan."

Everything had a limit.

Checks and balances sounded wonderful in theory.

Push them too far, and they became an excuse for everyone to avoid responsibility.

If a flood hit a city, they’d hold a meeting to decide whether to respond.

Then another meeting to decide how to respond.

Another to determine whether the military should be deployed.

Another to decide which military unit to send.

Another to decide how many troops.

By the time they finished debating it, the flood might have receded on its own.

Pierce looked at him.

"Then what exactly do you want?"

"I don’t want anything."

Nick’s answer came immediately.

"When they take away one of my powers, shouldn’t I at least have the right to appeal?"

"Of course you do."

Pierce nodded.

"But only when they’re actually deciding to take that authority away."

"The Council may be bureaucratic, but they’re not unreasonable. Anyone sitting in that position has earned it for a reason. They will listen to your arguments."

His expression hardened.

"But if you keep playing with fire..."

He pointed toward the storage device Ghost had brought back.

"If you keep doing things like this, they won’t give you an opportunity to appeal."

There was a difference between challenging a decision through established procedures and deliberately obstructing an investigation.

The first was normal.

The second was a serious abuse of authority.

If Nick wanted to fight the Council after that, he might want to find a lawyer first—not to defend his authority, but to defend his freedom.

Nick remained silent for a long time.

Eventually, he nodded.

"Fine."

The investigation had started for one reason: to determine whether Evenson could be trusted.

The World Security Council had only entered the equation because of an unexpected development.

Nick had never intended to openly oppose them.

Now that he’d understood the situation, there was little reason to continue the investigation.

Pierce reached over and pulled the storage device free.

"This should probably be destroyed."

He held it over the rim of the glass he’d been drinking from and produced a lighter.

"Wait."

Nick immediately raised a hand.

Pierce ignored him.

"What? Worried about the storage device?"

He flicked the lighter.

"Or the drink?"

The liquor was strong enough to burn.

A blue flame immediately bloomed across the surface, turning the glass into a miniature alcohol burner.

Pierce held the device over the flames.

It didn’t take long before the heat began to melt the casing.

Then—

Beep.

Both men froze.

An alarm sounded somewhere in the office.

Pierce looked up.

A moment later—

Pssshhh!

Water exploded from the sprinklers.

Several minutes later, an agent waiting outside the director’s office witnessed one of the strangest sights of his career.

Director Nick Fury and Secretary Pierce emerged from the office looking like they’d just lost a fight with a fire hydrant.

Pierce threw off his soaked coat, wiped water from his face and hair, and glared back at the office.

"Why the hell is your fire alarm so sensitive?"

Fury, by comparison, barely looked inconvenienced.

His leather coat was waterproof.

And his bald head wasn’t exactly capable of holding much water.

"It’s the director’s office."

He gestured toward the room.

"There are classified documents in there. The fire system is supposed to be sensitive."

Pierce stared through the doorway.

Water was still raining down over computers, electronics, and other expensive equipment.

He couldn’t help thinking that whoever designed this fire system was an absolute idiot.