"Church" had his own intelligence channels, but he only knew about information that concerned him...
No one would go out of their way to give him intel that seemed to have nothing to do with Hell's Kitchen.
But the old-timer's experience was undoubtedly top-notch. Faced with Alvin's speculation, "Church" asked just a few simple questions before figuring out the situation.
The Hank Pym who had shown up in Hell's Kitchen, Natasha's family, and the people hunting "Church" were all connected to Hydra.
And Hydra's main goal right now was to secure a "country" of its own.
In Alvin's view, no country but Sokovia fit Hydra's needs.
A nation rebuilding amid the flames of war, in urgent need of outside support, with a small territory and a homogeneous population.
Hydra clearly wanted to use Sokovia to retrace Israel's path.
The only difference was that Israel had the United States backing it, while Sokovia obviously didn't have such a favorable external environment.
So Hydra leaked the Nightshade Plan, which concerned Weapons of Mass Destruction planted in Moscow, hoping to provoke a Second Cold War.
Then they could use the European votes they controlled to bring Sokovia into the mainstream world.
As humanity's exploration of space gradually accelerated, Hydra realized it was starting to fall behind.
And the ticket to joining the space race was having a "country" of its own...
A company, an enterprise—in this rising tide, they could only operate under the power of nations and contribute what they could.
Reaping the benefits would have to wait until after those benefits came into being...
For now, even Norman Osborn could only pursue an indirect route by investing in Alvin's Dark Aster. Stark Industries was the sole exception.
Ordinary companies couldn't withstand the costs of space exploration. Owning a spaceship alone wasn't