Yakushi Kabuto looked at Coulson in front of him, smiled, and said, "I knew you couldn't die so easily."
Coulson smiled and said, "That's what I thought too, that's why I came back to life."
"But at that moment, my breathing stopped for 50 seconds."
Yakushi Kabuto remained noncommittal. "Fifty seconds? That's a very short time."
Coulson thought to himself: I've miscalculated. Maybe stopping breathing for a moment is nothing to a ninja.
He then asked, "Can I still trust ninjas?"
"Or rather, if Missing-nin appears, can I still recruit them?"
Yakushi Kabuto thought to himself: Could it be that Lord Charlotte has brought yet another Missing-nin into this world?
What I say isn't important; what matters is what you think, isn't it?
"More importantly, how do you retain them?"
Coulson nodded thoughtfully. Indeed, it depended on their own thinking and how they decided to Genin.
Furthermore, Coulson considered that if given the opportunity to recruit ninjas again, given S.H.I.E.L.D..'s nature, they would indeed recruit them again.
Even if the other party is a spy, they will still recruit them and try to extract some knowledge from them.
The mere rudiments of training they gained from Yakushi Kabuto were already incredibly beneficial to S.H.I.E.L.D..
Coulson pulled a stack of documents from his pocket. These documents were none other than Yakushi Kabuto's intelligence files, which contained information that S.H.I.E.L.D.. had purchased from Charlotte.
"Considering our professional relationship, can you tell me if this information is genuine?"
Yakushi Kabuto the documents and flipped through them. They were all information related to himself. Although they were all wrong, he still read them all.
Yakushi Kabuto closed the document, placed it on the table, and nodded, saying, "It is indeed the information I gathered in the Ninja World; there are no errors."
Coulson said softly, "Thank you!"
Yakushi Kabuto wiped his mouth with a tissue and said softly, "Thank you for the meal."
After saying that, he got up and left the restaurant.
After Yakushi Kabuto left, Coulson looked at the documents in front of him.
When Coulson met with Yakushi Kabuto, he really wanted to confirm one thing: whether Charlotte Agency had provided false information regarding their intelligence request.
If they receive false information, can they still trust each other?
How will they distinguish between true and false information in future commissions, or should they simply abandon this intelligence channel?
Unexpectedly, Yakushi Kabuto told him that the information was true. If Yakushi Kabuto wasn't lying, then it meant that the other party must have been secretly recruited by Konoha ninjas.
If Yakushi Kabuto lied, then it means that Charlotte Agency's information is also unreliable.
So, whether Yakushi Kabuto lied or not, Coulson pondered for a moment. He believed it to some extent, but not entirely.
However, the fact that the other party was willing to meet with him indicates that future cooperation is still possible.
After confirming a few things, Coulson left the bill on the table and turned to leave the restaurant.
······
S.H.I.E.L.D..
A black Helicarrier was parked in the hangar, and Grant Ward walked over with his luggage.
As the cabin door on the belly of the Helicarrier opened, Grant Ward took off his sunglasses and went inside, where he saw two team members tidying up their luggage.
And soon the two began arguing over some issues, and seeing this, Grant Ward simply let go of the duffel bag he was holding.
The sound of the duffel bag landing drew their attention. Grant Ward asked, "Fitz, Simmons?"
Simmons pointed to his male companion and said, "Fitz."
Fitz pointed to the other person and introduced, "Simmons."
Fitz then continued, "I specialized in mechanical engineering, and she specialized in biochemistry."
Are you Agent Grant Ward?
Grant Ward took the communication receiver out of his pocket and said, "Coulson said my communication receiver needs to be coded."
"I don't know if you've used this type of receiver before, it is..."
Fitz stepped forward, took Grant Ward's communication receiver, and smashed it to pieces with a hammer before Grant Ward could finish speaking.
Upon seeing this, Grant Ward paused for a second, then said, "New."
Simmons, standing nearby, said, "He will reset the intrusion detection and identification system chip."
Fitz used clips to remove the chip inside and then said, "The in-ear communicator no longer needs an external receiver."
Grant Ward removed the headset from his ear and asked, "Then how...?"
Before he could finish speaking, Simmons approached him with a cotton swab, shoved it into Simmons' mouth, and said, "Embedded sensory nerve silicone resin that matches your DNA, very trendy."
Grant Ward was aware of Simmons's sneak attack and the act of spitting, but he controlled his body and did not dodge.
Simmons, having collected the saliva, placed the cotton swab into the test tube and said with a smile, "You're about to join our exploration! Are you excited?"
Grant Ward cleared his throat and looked at the other person, saying, "It feels just like Christmas."
Just then, Coulson saw his beloved car approaching, and Fitz, who was standing nearby, said upon seeing the car:
"One of Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. SHIELD collection items: a flamethrower, the world's first Tracking System. He absolutely loves this junk."
Coulson got out of the car and said to a ground crew member who was about to approach the vehicle, "Don't touch Laufey."
Fitz chuckled beside Grant Ward, "He even gave it a female name."
Coulson led Grant Ward into the plane and said, "Laufey isn't just a collectible. Everyone always thinks the new version is an upgraded version."
"This mobile command center operated at full capacity throughout the 1990s, but then we got Helicarrier."
"Have you heard the jokes about that guy who's afraid of flying?"
Grant Ward replied, "I successfully night-jumped into the landing zone under heavy fire, Coulson."
"I can handle it."
Coulson laughed and said, "I was just joking."
Melinda came out at this moment and said to Grant Ward, "If you want to pack your luggage, you'd better hurry, we're taking off in five minutes."
May then handed a document to Coulson and said, "We may have found a waypoint for the Rising Tide."
Coulson took the document and nodded, saying, "Very good, we need to keep up with the latest developments."
Seeing that Coulson had obtained the documents, Melinda turned and walked towards the driver's seat.
Grant Ward was intrigued by Melinda's sudden appearance, then looked at Coulson and asked, "Is she... the one I'm thinking of?"
Coulson glanced up at Grant Ward, then looked back down at the documents and said, "She's just a pilot."
Grant Ward sighed, "Melinda May is just a pilot..."
"Coulson, what kind of game are you playing?"
Coulson had already finished reading the document, closed it, and looked at Grant Ward, saying, "Go and put your luggage away."
Soon the Helicarrier's cabin belly closed, Melinda piloted the plane out of the Warehouse, and after gliding along the runway for a short distance, it took off smoothly.
······
Meanwhile, Skye continued creating videos inside her truck.
"How are they going to capture us? By airdropping us?"
"An attack along the road?"
How will you keep us silent this time?
How could you do that?
"The truth is already known to everyone, and no one is unaware of it."
"You can't stop the Rising Tide."
"You won't find us, and you'll never know who we are."
"But believe me, we will rise up against those who are hiding the truth from us."
"Nothing, nothing can stop me..."
Just as Skye was working on the audio for the video, the truck door was suddenly pulled open, and Coulson stood to the side with a professional smile, while Grant Ward, dressed in a suit, stood beside him.
Skye turned to look at the two people who had opened the car door, a bad feeling creeping over her, but she still greeted them, "Hey, how are you?"
However, she was met with a hood and the other person was taken to the airport along with their car.
Skye was taken into the Interrogation Room by Grant Ward, where Grant Ward removed her hood.
Skye sat in her chair and looked at Grant Ward, saying, "You've made a big mistake."
Grant Ward scoffed, "You don't look that big."
Coulson, standing to the side, said, "Sorry, I have no chivalry towards women."
"Agent Grant Ward has some connections with your organization."
"The Rising Tide."
Skye protested, "I don't know what you're talking about."
Grant Ward stood opposite him, his voice icy as he said, "There are two ways to resolve this."
Skye asked curiously, "Are there any simpler ones among them?"
"No."
Skye awkwardly chuckled self-deprecatingly, "No..."
Grant Ward asked, "What's your name?"
"Skye."
What is your real name?
At this point, Coulson spoke up, "We can talk about that later."
"What we need now is another name, a hero."
Skye shook her head. "Why do you think I would know?"
Coulson laughed, "Wow, you made a small mistake."
At this moment, Coulson sat down opposite Skye and said, "The phone you used to film the Hooded Hero has the same coded signature as some of the Rising Tide's posts."
As he spoke, Coulson threw the file in front of Skye.
Wow, really?
Was that a mistake?
"Because I'm sitting right now in your secret headquarters, aren't I?"
"What is that, an airplane?"
"I'm in, and now you've discovered you can't crack the encryption on my device."
So you got nothing.
Coulson pointed to the document and said, "There's a rather coincidental thing: you happened to be there right before the explosion."
"Would you like to tell me what my team might discover?"
Meanwhile, Melinda drove Fitz and Simmons to the explosion site with their equipment, and the three began examining the traces left behind.
Coulson continued, "How did you know the hooded man was in that building?"
Grant Ward, standing nearby, chimed in, "Did you blow up the building to lure him out?"
Skye looked at Grant Ward and said directly, "You're the one who would do that."
Coulson shook his head and said, "That's not our style."
Skye replied, "I was just drawn here by your style."
"S.H.I.E.L.D.. covered up what happened in New Mexico, Project Pegasus, and the Africa events."
"Of course you still want to cover up the Centipede thing."
Grant Ward looked at Coulson with surprise and asked, "What's the Centipede Incident?"
Seeing Grant Ward's reaction, Skye laughed, "Impossible! You guys don't even know what Centipede is."
"You have equipment worth billions, do you think I can beat you with a laptop I won by betting?"
Coulson, maintaining his professional composure, said, "You should think about your friend."
"We're not the only ones interested in superpowers."
"We want to recruit him, that's right."
"And the next person to approach him will want to take advantage of him."
"The next person to come looking for him will want to dissect him."
No sooner had Coulson finished speaking than Grant Ward leaned down and asked Skye with a menacing tone, "What is Centipede?"
Clearly, Coulson was playing the bad cop, while Grant Ward was playing the good cop.
At the same time that the two were interrogating Skye, Michael Peter, looking at the deportation order in his hand, received a phone call informing him of the Centipede Serum he would receive.
"Yes, I understand, but..."
"Doctor, people saw me, they saw my skills."
"If I go public, it might be a good thing."
"This shows that your medicine is effective, very effective, and..."
The doctor on the other end of the phone then brought up the contract they had signed. Michael Peter glanced at the Centipede on his arm and said, "Yes, I know what I signed."
"However, if we control the situation, that's also possible..."
"And then what? You want me to go back to the factory and beg for help?"
"Those swindlers won't even give me compensation, I doubt it..."
"Yes, doctor, I just wanted to..."
"All right!"
Michael Peter hung up the phone in frustration. Apparently, the doctor wouldn't allow him to expose himself and wanted him to return to work as usual, now that he had recovered.
However, having been fired from the factory, he couldn't find a decent job, let alone go back. And because of his unemployment, the immigration bureau even issued him a deportation order.
This infuriates Michael Peter, and perhaps he should follow the doctor's advice and try to find the factory manager to see if he can get his job back.
······
On the other side.
Simmons and Fitz brought the equipment to the room where the explosion occurred. Looking at everything inside, Simmons exclaimed in surprise, "This is a Laboratory!"
Is it a rented Laboratory?
Melinda May looked at the sign on the Room Door and said, "Self-Recovery Center."
"It is also equipped with a top-of-the-line motion-sensing security system."
Simmons looked around and exclaimed, "A secret Laboratory."
"It's no coincidence that another superhero is here," May exclaimed.
Was this explosion a deliberate act of sabotage?
"Is it targeting him, or have they gone too far?"
······
P. S.: It's almost the end of the month, please give me some double monthly votes!