"So, after they determined in 1972 that your body was beyond saving, they transferred your mind into these tapes?" Peggy Carter shook her head. "I don't remember ever approving a project like that."
"Of course." Zola spoke in an emotionless voice. "Ms. Carter, you have always maintained a rather harsh attitude toward former Hydra personnel, just as you did with Werner Reinhardt. You refused his request for a deal and cruelly threw him into a black prison to await death."
"He got what he deserved!" Peggy Carter said sternly. Even after all these years, she still could not forget the scenes she had witnessed after leading the Howling Commandos to capture Reinhardt's base.
"Perhaps." Zola's tone remained utterly flat. "But many believed that your harsh attitude stemmed from a narrow-minded desire for revenge after losing Captain America, that you failed to think rationally. In contrast, they believed that with proper control, my talents and knowledge could aid their cause."
Howard... Peggy Carter slowly closed her eyes. Back then, she had been one of the most powerful people in S.H.I.E.L.D. The only person who could have bypassed her authority and made this happen was him.
"I did indeed aid their cause, but I also aided my own. Accessing files..."
Next, Zola gave Captain America and the others a detailed work report in the capacity of Hydra's good brother among its leaders and an exemplary employee who never asked for salary or benefits.
"Hydra was founded on the belief that freedom could not be entrusted to humanity. But what we failed to realize was that if we forcibly seized their freedom, they would resist. The war taught us much. Humanity must abandon freedom of its own accord, willingly."
"For the past seventy years, Hydra has secretly fueled every kind of crisis in