Alexander Takes the Blame

"New York's going to be quite lively now." Looking at the news on his computer, Shen Fei couldn't help but smile. Having borrowed so many high-tech instruments in succession, all tied to major arms companies, there was no way to keep things quiet.

For a time, S.H.I.E.L.D., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Military all mobilized. In the hacker world, someone even put out a hefty bounty—anyone providing relevant intel would be rewarded.

At the same time, New York's underground forces were thrown into chaos, repeatedly swept clean by various factions, which actually improved order in the city quite a bit.

Shen Fei had anticipated this. He had always held a healthy respect for state power. If not for the Sling Ring, he would never have stirred up such a commotion—it would have been suicide. If state power truly wanted to investigate something, they could absolutely find the relevant leads.

But with the Sling Ring, the outcome was different. Unless a mage from Kamar-Taj was involved in the investigation, there was no way they'd suspect him.

And even if a mage did get involved, Shen Fei wasn't afraid. Mages had no need for such things.

It was precisely because he had no worries about the aftermath that Shen Fei grabbed everything in one go. No one would suspect a single person was behind this worldwide event; they'd point fingers at major organizations. After all, with so much gear and the tight security of those arms companies, an ordinary person couldn't possibly pull this off.

In fact, Shen Fei had even considered leaving Hydra's insignia at the scene. While it wouldn't deal a major blow to Hydra, it would definitely give them a scare.

As it happened, what Shen Fei did had already given Alexander Pierce at S.H.I.E.L.D. a huge shock. In his mind, the only organization capable of such a feat seemed to be Hydra.

So Alexander quickly contacted the leaders of other Hydra branches, terrified that their own people were behind it. Hydra was in a dormant phase; any exposure would mean big trouble.

Alexander knew Nick Fury's abilities all too well. S.H.I.E.L.D. had grown so powerful only after Fury took charge. If Hydra were exposed now, facing this old adversary, Fury would never let up.

Thus, to keep the word "Hydra" from appearing before Nick Fury and triggering him, Hydra had secretly eliminated many fake Hydra organizations over the years.

After all, Hydra was a very powerful organization; imposters were only natural.

"Director." At the Triskelion Headquarters, in Fury's office, Hill and Black Widow walked in together. After entering, Hill immediately placed a file in front of Fury.

"Any leads?" Fury asked while signing documents.

"None at all." Natasha, with her red hair, shook her head.

"Are you sure?" Fury asked again.

"I've contacted all my informants. Nothing." Natasha repeated.

"Strange." Fury fell into thought.

For Fury, tracking down the missing instruments wasn't the priority. He needed to know who did this and how.

"The FBI and CIA have no intel either." When Fury's gaze turned to her, Hill spoke up.

"We've used all our satellites, tracked every vehicle at the time of the incidents, and still found nothing."

"Interesting. There aren't many organizations in the world capable of this." Fury said meaningfully.

To Fury, finding the missing instruments wasn't crucial. What mattered was how it was done. Without figuring that out, he wouldn't rest easy.

Hill and Natasha said nothing. They understood Fury's implication, but such things couldn't be spoken carelessly. For instance, S.H.I.E.L.D. itself could make those instruments vanish without a trace.

So could the CIA, FBI, Military, and some foreign organizations.

"Keep investigating." After a moment of thought, Fury dismissed Hill and Natasha. Alone in his office, he dialed a number.

"What made you call me?" A virtual avatar appeared on the computer screen behind Fury—Alexander Pierce.

"You've heard about the recent events, right?" Fury got straight to the point.

"Of course. Found any leads?" Alexander nodded immediately. Of course he knew—he'd urgently contacted others to confirm it wasn't their own people, and was relieved to find it wasn't.

"Not a single clue." Fury said.

"How is that possible?" Alexander's surprise was genuine, not feigned.

"That's the reality. So I'm thinking of an internal investigation."

"Internal investigation? Is that necessary? Don't we have one every year?" Fury's words nearly made Alexander jump. "You know how big a stir that would cause."

"I know. But this incident has yielded no leads at all. I suspect someone inside might be cooperating with them, otherwise we'd have found something." Fury trusted Alexander deeply at this point, so he laid out his thoughts directly.

"I see. A self-check does seem necessary." Though he desperately wanted to refuse, Alexander outwardly showed full support for Fury.

He had no choice. He knew Fury well. If he opposed something so obvious, it would look suspicious. Fury was highly paranoid; despite his usual respect for Alexander, he wouldn't hesitate to suspect him when needed.

"A self-check is fine, but don't make too much noise. I'll have trouble justifying it on my end. Take it slow." Alexander said this to buy himself time.

At this stage, Hydra within S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't as powerful as it would later become. If Fury launched a large-scale self-check, Hydra would definitely be exposed.

Killing Fury was out of the question. Without him, S.H.I.E.L.D. would be safe for Hydra, but then expanding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s authority would be impossible.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had gone through several directors, including Alexander himself. But under those leaders, its scope of power had only shrunk, not grown.

No one liked having an overseer above them, even if S.H.I.E.L.D. was a UN creation. The FBI and CIA under the U.S. were deeply resentful of S.H.I.E.L.D. for taking too much of their authority.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s current scale was largely Fury's doing.

The stronger S.H.I.E.L.D. was, the stronger Hydra was. Killing Fury now would only cut off Hydra's path to revival.

"Damn it." After hanging up on Fury, Alexander immediately started contacting others. Since no leads could be found, he'd give Fury a lead to end this matter.

"For the glory of Hydra." Soon, Alexander found a scapegoat among his subordinates—a Level 7 S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. At this point, completely distancing this incident from S.H.I.E.L.D. was impossible. He had to give Fury a scapegoat with enough weight.

And it had to be a Hydra member. Alexander would have preferred to use a high-level agent not in Hydra as the scapegoat, possibly even recruiting them to his side.

But Fury wasn't easy to fool. Choosing another scapegoat meant Alexander lacked enough blackmail material. If something went wrong, it would be even more troublesome.

Choosing someone from his own camp was simpler. The person commits suicide, the blackmail material is released, and everything's settled.

With so many high-level agents inside S.H.I.E.L.D., and Hydra's numerous peripheral organizations, there was no shortage of candidates to pick from.

After Alexander made his arrangements, sure enough, within just a few days, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents happened to discover someone in South Africa selling missing high-tech equipment. As S.H.I.E.L.D. launched a raid, the enemy fought desperately and detonated a bomb in an attempt to take everyone down with them.

Although there were plenty of holes in this story, who could blame them when S.H.I.E.L.D. had so many Hydra agents embedded within? Under their manipulation, the gaps were quickly patched up.

Fury had his suspicions, but since everything appeared to proceed logically, he didn't pursue it further. After all, S.H.I.E.L.D. had far too many matters to handle to waste time on a single theft case—even one involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

In fact, if the case hadn't involved the Stark Group, and if they hadn't failed to find even a single clue afterward, S.H.I.E.L.D. would have long since dropped it. Strictly speaking, this was supposed to fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Even Shen Fei had no idea that Alexander had taken the fall for him, sacrificing a Senior Agent, an entire action team, and hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.