Spy Among Spies

By comparing the electricity bills of the various workshops, Carter quickly discovered that the extra thirty percent of electricity consumption had no identifiable source, as if someone had stolen that amount of power.

But Carter knew very well that with the factory's security measures, it was impossible for someone else to steal electricity. Besides, thirty percent was no small amount—converted into electricity costs, it came to over a hundred thousand USD.

"There's definitely a problem, but I can't act rashly. I especially can't contact Coulson."

Carter knew very well that if her suspicions were true, then given Umbrella Corporation's demonstrated network capabilities and the factory's environment, where surveillance was everywhere, suspicious personnel would easily be discovered.

If she contacted Coulson, he would definitely activate other agents within the company to investigate. If that happened, there was a strong chance they would be exposed.

"I have to verify this personally. The more people who know, the greater the chance of exposure. I need to come up with a reasonable excuse."

While Carter began putting her skills as an agent to use, Wang Khan was staring blankly at the three large shipping containers before him.

"I'm telling you, Red Queen, I asked you to buy raw materials for manufacturing aircraft. How did you end up buying me three planes instead?"

Wang Khan speechlessly walked into one of the containers. Inside lay an American F22 fighter jet. Although it had been decommissioned and still bore traces of explosions and fire, it was a fighter jet currently in service with the U.S. military. The fact that Red Queen had managed to get her hands on one left Wang Khan impressed by her abilities.

At the same time, he was dumbfounded by the United States' clandestine weapons trade. They even dared to sell something like this. It was utterly insane. No wonder the Americans kept exposing their own scandals later on. Even without an alien invasion, they could still end up fighting among themselves. There was a reason for that.

"Guardian, I placed this order after thoroughly analyzing your requirements. If you only purchase raw materials and start manufacturing the Quinjet from scratch, it will take at least half a year to complete."

"But if we use active-duty fighter jets as the framework and carry out a secondary modification and upgrade, the construction time should be cut by more than half."

Wang Khan walked into the other two shipping containers. They also contained aircraft wreckage, though not military fighter jets. They were civilian private planes. One of them was almost completely intact apart from its wings and tail assembly. It could practically be used as-is.

"You've got a point. Fine, have someone move all of this into the secret processing workshop. Don't let those company moles notice."

"Understood."

That very night, the three decommissioned aircraft were delivered to the secret processing workshop. The people hired for the job were not from Umbrella Corporation. They were paid and sent away afterward, and they did not even know they had been transporting aircraft, much less that one of them was an F22. There were no problems with confidentiality.

Once the three aircraft arrived, Wang Khan immediately began his grand aircraft-manufacturing project.

Umbrella Corporation was extremely busy these days, but he, the Chairman and chief scientific officer, was quite idle.

The manufacture of the Smart Spider already had dedicated processing machinery. The workers only needed to handle miscellaneous tasks, while everything else was left to the fully automated production line.

As for the software, with Red Queen acting as the network watchdog, no one could steal it. Thus, Wang Khan had been taking things easy lately.

While Wang Khan used this rare free time to hole up in the secret workshop and build aircraft, Sharon Carter began to act.

Maria Mason, an administrative secretary at Umbrella Corporation, was effectively Sharon Carter's direct subordinate.

She had a sexy, hot figure, the kind of woman who clearly intended to use her looks and body to fight her way to the top.

Judging from her bold behavior since joining the company, she certainly fit the type. But Carter knew that Maria was a highly skilled corporate spy. Her job was to steal core technologies from high-tech companies and then resell them at high prices for enormous profits.

In a world like Marvel, where cutting-edge technologies emerged from time to time, corporate spies like this were in considerable demand.

Of course, if they were caught, the consequences were also extremely serious.

At best, they would spend several decades in prison. At worst, they might be beaten to death on the spot. It was a high-risk, high-reward profession.

Maria Mason had joined Umbrella Corporation, so there was no doubt that her target was the Smart Spider's Spider-Sense System.

Through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence network, Carter had learned that the current black-market price of the Spider-Sense System had already been driven up to 200 million USD.

What made it even more enticing was that it was merely a computer program. Once stolen, most weapons and robot manufacturers on the market would be able to produce Smart Spider robots of comparable quality in a short time. That made people even more eager to get their hands on it.

Core technology that was easy to carry and guaranteed to sell was the favorite of corporate spies.

However, after several months on the job, Maria had not found a single opportunity. Whether she tried selling her body or using various espionage techniques, she could not get past Red Queen. After all, with Ultron not yet born, Red Queen was the god of the online world. Even Tony Stark's Jarvis was no match for her.

Just as Maria was preparing for a prolonged battle, Carter called her into the office shortly before the end of the workday and assigned her some unimportant tasks.

Halfway through giving her instructions, Carter suddenly had something to attend to and was allowed to wait in the office without having to leave in a hurry.

Normally, this would have been nothing special. But as Maria boredly surveyed the general secretary's office, she unexpectedly noticed a file on the computer that had not been closed.

As a professional spy, Maria had excellent basic skills. With only one glance, she grasped the general contents of the file.

"Electricity costs increasing for no reason? Someone stealing power? Impossible, right? Wait... this is a great opportunity for me!"

Maria instantly came up with a plan. She then read through the file from beginning to end and even used the miniature camera hidden in her watch to photograph it.

Cautious as she was, she did not directly operate the computer to make a copy.

After finishing all this, Maria returned to her original position, picked up a fashion magazine, and began reading it with a calm expression.

Another three to five minutes passed before Carter hurried back. After giving Maria a few more instructions, she sent her away.

After Maria left, Carter took out another laptop and opened a video file on it. It showed the scene of Maria peeking at the computer file and taking photographs moments earlier.

"The fish has taken the bait. Don't disappoint me now. Make good use of your physical talents, my beautiful spy."

There will be three updates today. An extra chapter will be posted this afternoon. Thanks for the tips, brothers.