Natasha Romanoff had just loaded the sniper rifle magazine and packed it into her gym bag when the indicator on the satellite phone resting on the pillow began to flash. She tucked her red hair behind her ear and answered it. A bland electronic synthesized voice came from the other end. Agent Romanoff immediately stopped what she was doing, pulled out the small notebook she carried in her jeans pocket, and flipped through it. Silently, she matched the code announced by the synthesized voice against the numbers she had memorized, then performed the calculations.
It was an extremely complicated encryption system. Only intelligence operatives familiar with the formula, which was encoded according to the zodiac cycle, could use it to verify identities. This was a low-security verification method. Senior officials in the City of Immortals Intelligence Department had to undergo online comparisons of voiceprints, irises, fingerprints, genes, and even Mental Power. But when providing information to off-the-books intelligence operatives, a security procedure involving hundreds of dynamically generated digits after calculation was sufficient.
After confirming that the call had come from the City of Immortals Intelligence Department, Agent Romanoff gave her own code. She then received the message relayed by the Intelligence Department—Steve Rogers and Pietro Maximoff would arrive at the mission site in three hours, while Wanda Maximoff would take a Quinjet to Romania and arrive in six hours. The City of Immortals armed forces would not intervene in this mission and would provide no support apart from the safe house. What followed was the local restaurant Pietro Maximoff had reserved, as well as Steve Rogers's Ship's Log. Wanda Maximoff joining the mission did surprise her somewhat, since she knew about the arguments and disagreements between the Maximoff siblings. Now that there were signs of reconciliation between them, she naturally