Truth Revealed

As Julianne Williams, Henry's secretary, brought coffee into the office, he was debating with Tony Stark about the Moral controversies surrounding Artificial Intelligence, specifically whether and where to draw a line on its capabilities.

This is the topic the two have been talking about most lately, to the point that they almost always argue whenever they meet.

The reason is simple: it's not that Henry is being overly pessimistic, but that Tony Stark recently received his PhD in Artificial Intelligence from MIT and wanted to show it off to someone who didn't even have an elementary school education.

So Henry was there to sabotage things, readily bringing up Cameron's the Terminator or Blade Runner from 1982. Sixteen years later, the impact of this cult science fiction film had begun to take hold.

Don't ask why Tony Stark couldn't convince Henry; it's simply because he was acting like a keyboard warrior. With their combined intelligence, citing academic papers and philosophical arguments, finding each other's weaknesses, and relentlessly attacking them would have been incredibly easy. It's just that neither of them could win the argument.

After the chubby black woman closed the office door, Henry shouted, "I can't be bothered with you." With that, he turned on the large television in the office, switched to CNN, and started playing it loudly.

Tony Stark skillfully placed the signal jammer on the table; the little thing was no smaller than before.

This is certainly not because Tony Stark's miniaturization capabilities are inadequate, but rather because it integrates more and more complex anti-eavesdropping features to counter the latest eavesdropping methods and surveillance techniques. That's why its size has increased rather than decreased.

Henry was preparing the projector and small television to play the videotapes that Jack Reacher had brought.

Tony Stark remained silent, watching Henry work. When the black-and-white surveillance footage appeared on the screen, he even turned his face away at first before turning back to watch intently.

In the scene, on a road with few vehicles, a familiar Chrysler sedan suddenly crashes at high speed into a roadside utility pole. At the same time, an object flashes across the top of the screen.

A moment later, the object that had flashed by turned back; it was a motorcyclist on a heavy Motorcycle who stopped behind the Chrysler that had crashed. It seemed less like he was there to rescue the people and more like he was blocking the road.

At this point, the car driver had already left the vehicle and was crawling on the ground. That white hair and that suit were so familiar and glaring. The Motorcycle did not rush to help immediately, but instead opened the trunk of the Chrysler, checked something, and then walked to the injured car driver.

Instead of saving the person, he punched the old face that Tony thought he would see even in the mirror several times! Then he dragged the person, who was either unconscious or already dead, back to the driver's seat.

The Motorcycle, completely unconcerned that the engine was already on fire, went to the passenger seat and waited for a moment. Although the surveillance footage didn't show what had happened, judging from the driver's experience, the passenger wouldn't fare any better. And even if Tony Stark couldn't confirm the passenger's face from the footage, he knew who it was.

After doing all this, the Motorcycle went in front of the surveillance camera, raised his gun, and shot at the camera, intending to destroy the surveillance equipment.

It's unclear why this wasn't done immediately after the Motorcycle turned around, but rather after it was finished and they were about to leave, which resulted in the footage being damaged.

But because of this behavior, the surveillance camera clearly captured the rider's face. In particular, the obvious metallic sheen on his left arm was not something an ordinary person would wear.

Henry wanted to pause the shot at the moment the Motorcycle raised his gun and fired, but he didn't move, letting the image become meaningless noise.

The crowd remained silent for a long time.

Having already seen the contents, Jack Reacher kept his eyes fixed on this young master, whom he would normally never have had the chance to approach.

The other person's micro-expressions and subtle movements revealed a turbulent inner turmoil. Even amidst the noise, Jack Reacher could almost hear the other person's angry heartbeat. "Thump, thump..."

Unlike their previous heated arguments about Artificial Intelligence, Henry kept his eyes glued to the small television screen, ignoring Tony Stark's expression.

Until Tony Stark asked in his hoarse voice, "Who is the killer?"

Only then did Henry press the replay button, rewinding the footage to the moment when the assassin raised his gun to shoot the monitor, his face most clearly visible, and then pressed the pause button.

Jack Reacher put all the documents from his backpack on the table. He found one of the documents, spread it out, and placed it on Tony.

In front of Stark, they said at the same time:

"Judging from the killer's appearance, he is highly likely to be this man: U.S. Army Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes, nicknamed Bucky Barnes. He was a member of the first generation of Captain America's Howling Commandos and a friend of his from before he joined the army."

Upon hearing the answer, Tony Stark's first emotion wasn't anger, but confusion. "Wait a minute, What If...? that's the case, shouldn't they be friends with the old man? And World War II? How old is he now?"

Born in 1917, he would be 81 years old now. But in fact, in 1945, just days before Nazi Germany's surrender, he was listed as an MIA (Missing in Action) during a mission and was subsequently declared dead.

"What's going on here?" Tony Stark stared at Jack Reacher.

The captain from the Military Police Special Investigations Unit then took out another document, spread it out in front of the young master, and said, "Based on my investigation, the most likely conclusion to fit the current situation is as follows."

"Since World War II, countries have invested in the research of super soldiers. The only known successful examples during the war were Nazi Germany's Red Skull and Captain America."

Even after the war, research on super soldiers did not stop. Countries were still looking for ways to mass-produce super soldiers, rather than simply creating one or two exceptional heroes.

"The Red Empire once proposed a concept: to use prosthetic limbs to compensate experienced wounded veterans for their physical defects, allowing them to return to the battlefield. At the same time, they would be subjected to mental control to strip them of their humanity and turn them into the most perfect soldiers."

"Furthermore, to extend their service life, these special soldiers are cryogenically stored when not on duty, and thawed only when needed. Therefore, this program is known as the 'Winter Soldiers Program.'"

Tony Stark asked, "How do you know all this?"

He took out other documents and spread them out on the table. Jack Reacher made no secret of the fact that "during the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union put forward many novel concepts and tried to convince the other that they were conducting related research."

"The purpose of doing this is either to waste the other party's resources and time, or simply as a strategic blackmail through misleading tactics. There are countless such documents and plans that are merely conceptual. These things are not classified at a high level."

"Once it is confirmed that a plan is actually being implemented or that research is underway, the confidentiality level of the relevant information will be raised."

However, in the early days, records and archives were all kept on paper, which inevitably led to some omissions.

"I only found the Winter Soldier Program in a pile of old papers; it was just a piece of paper stating its concept. This is quite unusual for other projects that are considered strategic deceptions."

"Therefore, I reasonably suspect that the plan has already been executed, and may even have yielded results. And that piece of paper was a loophole that slipped through the net during the upgraded secrecy operation, which is why I found it."