Somewhere in Eastern Europe, at a top-secret S.W.O.R.D. branch.
A gray-haired old man stood tall on an elevated platform in the command room, dressed in a neat suit with his hands casually clasped behind his back. Without showing anger, he exuded authority as he surveyed the busy scene below. Communications officers worked tirelessly at their stations, keyboards clattering nonstop, while a massive display divided into nine sections hung above the command room, casting an eerie blue glow.
The old man was named Lauren Beard, a former high-ranking Hydra official and now the senior commander of S.W.O.R.D.'s Eastern European branch—though those were merely his hidden identities. To most people who knew him, he was a billionaire, a financial tycoon, one of the top fifty wealthiest people in the world, and one of the most influential figures in all of Eastern Europe.
In this region alone, people might not know who Tony Stark was, or even recognize their own president. But if you stopped ten random people on the street, nine of them could tell you who Lauren Beard was.
But unlike Tony Stark, the old man's vast fortune had not come from ancestral wealth. Everyone knew he had started from nothing and built his company with his own hands. He had begun his entrepreneurial ventures before turning twenty, striking out on his own and building an empire through a fearsome drive and extraordinary courage.
Beard's immense influence came not only from his massive corporation and inexhaustible wealth, but also from his connections throughout Eastern Europe. He had powerful backing and personal relationships with officials and even presidents of several nearby countries. Those friends in politics ensured that almost nothing could stand in his way in this region.
But to his subordinates and employees, he was absolutely not the kind of Boss