This was not the first time S.H.I.E.L.D. had fallen into danger. The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. possessed the mental resilience to handle a crisis, because their education, training, and combat experience had shown them the strangest things ordinary people could comprehend. But this experience was not among them. They were actually being commanded by a brutal enemy who had killed several armed S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, yet there had been no physical threats such as imprisonment or hunger strikes. Aside from armed personnel, every surrendered agent had been released unharmed. More astonishingly, Agent Coulson had actually obeyed the order.
This was also what Melinda May found hardest to understand.
She had repeatedly avoided surveillance cameras to invite Agent Coulson to secret gatherings of senior agents, but every time he refused and worked overtime in the control room, trying to locate Alfonso Mackenzie and his group. He seemed determined to retrieve as many agents as possible who had been selected by Constantine and the alien android that had been hiding in Lighthouse Base.
Melinda May absolutely did not believe Agent Coulson had defected. But because she had underestimated the enemy's moral depravity, she could only assume they had controlled Agent Coulson's actions through some unspeakable method. In her eyes, the master of the Imperial Guard was evil, a dictator and tyrant who destroyed democracy and freedom. The Imperial Guard that had reached an agreement with the alien android was even more evil. As for Enoch's account of its treaty with Nick Fury, Melinda May merely regarded it as one of countless rules Nick Fury had broken. The agreement had only been possible because the alien android had concealed its true purpose and deceived S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time.
Constantine knew exactly what Melinda May was thinking.
He had read Melinda May's educational records. Through their