Red Guardian and Black Widow did not get a second conversation. By the time S.H.I.E.L.D. received news of Alexei Shostakov again, he had already returned to Budapest, Europe.
Unexpectedly, S.H.I.E.L.D. did not follow up on the move. Perhaps it was wary that Red Guardian's actions might be a lure. As long as S.H.I.E.L.D. sent Black Widow to track him, it would unknowingly become entangled in the search for the Red Room.
After all, such things were common in the intelligence world. Information gaps made it easy for those in the dark to fall into the trap of being used. It was not that people were stupid; they simply had never considered it.
Or perhaps they assessed that Red Guardian, having lost his organization, had become little better than a third-rate intelligence broker and was no longer worth watching.
Of course, it was also possible that S.H.I.E.L.D. had moved its operations underground rather than openly dealing with this "defector" and criminal.
After all, the current S.H.I.E.L.D. was an affiliated organization of the United Nations, under the Security Council's jurisdiction. Russia held one of the five permanent seats, so there was no way S.H.I.E.L.D. could openly shelter or contact a wanted fugitive who had escaped from prison in Siberia.
On the West Coast, news of the Hulk had not received the widespread coverage Henry had expected. Perhaps it was because Hulk had appeared far from urban areas, or because it had all happened late at night, leaving few witnesses.
In particular, the scene of Hulk battling the U.S. military in downtown San Francisco, only for Betty Ross to come forward and calm him down, had never happened. Henry had no interest in investigating where that deviation had arisen.
That was the news most likely to have blown up, since the battle would