List

After they had shared their thoughts, Alexander Pierce and Nick Fury drank half a bottle of liquor, then leaned back on the sofa and dozed for a while before Pierce finally left Fury's office. Pierce looked much more relaxed now, and as he walked, he seemed ten years younger. It was clear how much of a toll a psychological burden could take on someone.

In truth, Pierce had regained some of his energy through a brief nap. Ever since learning about the Shocker organization, which alluded to Hydra, he had been staying up late to organize information. During the day, he had to deal with various factions, which took a great deal of effort, and he had no chance to slack off or kill time. Even a young man full of energy might not have been able to take it, let alone an old man like him, who had been in decline for some time.

After returning to his office, Alexander Pierce used Hydra's internal line to summon his trusted subordinate, S.H.I.E.L.D. Level Six agent Jarvis Shilvert.

Like Pierce, Shilvert had several layers to his identity. He was a staff member of a department under the World Security Council, a department head at S.H.I.E.L.D., and a Hydra mole.

That common ground made Shilvert Pierce's capable right-hand man no matter which position he held. Even the task of planting Hydra spies in S.H.I.E.L.D. had been entrusted to Shilvert.

Pierce said, "Nick Fury has discovered signs of our people in the organization."

At that, Shilvert's face twitched. The glasses perched on his nose nearly fell off. He quickly pushed them back into place with a finger, then asked quietly, "When?"

"It started a long time ago. He's already followed the trail and uncovered a lot of people." Unlike S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system of hierarchical management, Hydra was organized like a tree. Even two people who belonged to Hydra wouldn't know each other until their identities were exposed.

This had its pros and cons. If something went wrong, the upper ranks of that branch could be cut off in time to limit the damage. But if someone high-ranking was caught, an investigation could implicate an entire group.

Pierce pulled a sheet of paper from his desk and began scribbling on it with a fountain pen. "If Nick Fury hadn't trusted me so completely as his former superior, I wouldn't even have known about this. If he keeps investigating, I'm afraid all of Hydra will be uprooted."

Shilvert's hands trembled at those words. If there was anyone in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Hydra network most likely to be exposed, it was undoubtedly Jarvis Shilvert. Both at S.H.I.E.L.D. and within Hydra, he handled personnel matters. He had led recruitment and the placement of agents, among other tasks, so he had access to a great many names. That was one of the reasons he had become Pierce's trusted subordinate.

But that also meant that while Hydra members inside S.H.I.E.L.D. might not know Alexander Pierce, they might know him, Shilvert. Who knew which one of them might break under torture or truth serum and give him up?

At the thought, Shilvert gritted his teeth in bitter resentment. You bunch of captured fools! Why hadn't you followed the example of your predecessors and poisoned yourselves before you were caught?!

As Pierce continued writing on the paper, he said, "Just now, I went to discuss with Nick Fury the World Security Council's decision on dealing with the vampires. But before I left, he showed me a file. It went into painstaking detail about Hydra's development after our defeat in World War II. The list of names in it was enough to make my blood run cold."

He looked up at his trusted subordinate and saw the bald agent, who was of a higher caste, trembling as he took off his glasses and tried to put them in his breast pocket. His expression was resolute, but he failed at the simple task several times in a row, revealing just how unsettled he was.

"Don't worry. I examined the list carefully. Your name wasn't on it." Of course it wasn't. He had fabricated the entire file himself. Why would he put his own trusted subordinate on it?

After a moment's thought, Pierce continued, "I don't know what Nick Fury will do with the people who've already been exposed. Given how aggressive he is, I doubt he'll be gentle about it. I wrote down as many names as I could remember. They're the high-ranking people from the various branches who've been exposed. You know what to do."

Then he pushed the sheet of paper, now covered in writing, across the desk to Shilvert.

Pierce's words were a reassuring dose of certainty for Shilvert. The bald man was still trembling, but his expression had returned to normal. He stepped forward and took the handwritten list. "Understood."

What he had to do was silence them. And the people who died wouldn't be limited to those on the list; their Hydra subordinates would be purged as well.

As for how to do it—S.H.I.E.L.D. handled countless incidents of every size around the world each day. Some even went unknown to Nick Fury himself, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. They could send the exposed agents on field assignments, then have them die of food poisoning, get bitten by a venomous snake or insect, or be killed in a traffic accident. There were plenty of ways to make someone disappear.

Hydra handled personnel transfers, and Hydra carried out the killings. Their own people handled the records, too. All they had to do afterward was change the dates, and even if Nick Fury investigated, he wouldn't find anything amiss.

In a S.H.I.E.L.D. that Hydra had infiltrated so thoroughly, it couldn't have been easier to make all this happen.

But that list... After handling personnel affairs for so long, Shilvert knew the relationships between people very well. Most of the names Pierce had given him belonged to later recruits—people who had joined Hydra halfway through their lives and didn't have much influence, even if they tried to build connections.

The rest were members from other Hydra branches who had been planted inside S.H.I.E.L.D. as part of deals made for mutual benefit. They weren't part of Pierce's own faction. John Garrett, for instance.

If they cleared out everyone on the list, Hydra's S.H.I.E.L.D. branch would become Pierce's alone to command... But Shilvert was a smart man. At least when his life was on the line, he was quick to catch on. He immediately cast aside his suspicions and pretended he knew nothing.

Pierce rubbed his brow and activated a Shielding Device like the one in Nick Fury's office. He said with heartfelt indignation, "They're a bunch of cowards! A bunch of useless fools! They're a disgrace to Hydra!"

"All this time, I've devoted so much effort to Hydra's growth. I even put Nick Fury, that dangerous man, in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D., just so Hydra could ride the wave of his success!"

"But what about them? One of them does nothing but pay lip service to me. He's forgotten every bit of the discipline expected of an agent and a soldier, and all he does is draw two paychecks—from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra—and live like a parasite. I should have put them through stricter training long ago, like Red Skull did during the Third Reich, so they'd be loyal to Hydra and have the courage to kill themselves in front of the enemy."

"Especially the Hydra groups outside S.H.I.E.L.D. They saw how quickly we were growing and kept planting their people among ours. And the ones exposed this time were theirs. Traitors! They don't follow orders and use Hydra's resources to line their own pockets. They're a bunch of traitors!"

After venting, Pierce looked much more tired. "Notify our people: if anyone is exposed, they should kill themselves before they're captured... even if that person is me. If we get through this safely, we'll need to start the corresponding training as soon as possible. You'll be in charge of the details."