"From now on, for every tenfold increase in gravity your research achieves, I'll give you a new pair of Portkeys. If you can increase it by twentyfold at a time, I'll give you two pairs, and so on. There's no upper limit."
Hawking smiled as he laid out those highly tempting terms.
He was not lying. If Nick Fury could raise the Gravity Chamber to over ten thousand times normal gravity, he would happily hand over more than a thousand Portkeys with both hands.
The Gravity Chamber was worth far more to him than a few Portkeys.
"Also, although the ability I added to these Portkeys allows them to teleport, they are still wineglasses at their core.
You'd better... not drop them on the ground. If they break, I won't make you another pair."
Nick Fury's mouth twitched. You did that on purpose, didn't you?
He knew perfectly well that S.H.I.E.L.D. would use the Portkeys for agents carrying out dangerous missions, yet Hawking had given him a pair of wineglasses that could easily shatter.
Judging by how Hawking had made the Portkeys just now, he could probably turn anything into one. He might as well have used bullets as Portkeys—they would be harder to damage and easier to carry.
Still, Nick Fury was not foolish enough to ask Hawking to replace them, because he knew Hawking had done this deliberately.
Although Hawking had offered a pair of Portkeys as a show of good faith, they came with a flaw. They could only be carefully stored and used for safe teleportation. It was a reminder for him to improve the Gravity Chamber technology sooner, so that Hawking would give him more suitable Portkeys.
Carefully placing the two wineglasses on the table, Nick Fury pressed his earpiece and ordered, "Agent Hill, immediately