"Your nerves are wound too tight."
"Tony, the Secret Service agents assigned to protect you are dead!" After seeing the intelligence, Colonel Rhodes ignored Tony Stark's resistance and forcibly dragged him toward the safe room. Two soldiers armed with assault rifles and wearing desert-camouflage body armor stood outside its door. "That means someone intended to make a move against you. They just didn't know you would be coming to Houston, so their plan fell through. We can't be sure whether they've learned this news or whether they'll raid your residence, so we'll help you contact Pepper while strengthening security at Stark Industries."
"Don't joke with me. What does the death of Secret Service agents three kilometers away have to do with me?"
"There's only one village within roughly ten kilometers of your residence, Tony. The safe room's location is classified. Ordinary terrorists wouldn't know where the Department of Homeland Security had set up its surveillance posts and agent teams. The Secret Service spends a huge sum every year on your safety. Don't forget, the communications security between your residence, Stark Industries, and the Pentagon has been given the highest level of protection. Special encryptors, jammers, and telephone systems are all serving you."
"I guarantee those expenses aren't nearly as much as what congressmen have taken from me. From the looks of it, the Pentagon's money has been well spent. After all, many of those products came from Stark Industries."
Ever since Stark Industries withdrew from the weapons manufacturing business and joined the Avengers, which was not constrained by the government, media opinion of him had become sharply polarized. Even conservative and liberal media outlets held completely different attitudes toward him after he became a so-called "superhero." Clearly, the two soldiers also disagreed about him. Tony Stark could plainly see that