Here Is Hell's Kitchen

Here Is Hell's Kitchen

Jessica's strength stunned everyone. Foggy recoiled in alarm.

Thinking about how he was always teasing Jessica, the seemingly harmless young girl, made his neck start to ache. If she ever hit him like that, he'd end up in a coffin, buried in the ground.

Michael, the middle-aged police officer, rubbed his ribs with a wry smile, as if recalling something unpleasant.

Natasha was even more astonished. She hadn't expected a young girl to be so strong. Not just anyone could leave a handprint on such a sturdy table. At the very least, she'd never seen anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. manage something like that with nothing but their bare hands.

The information she'd received hadn't mentioned this absurdly strong girl. In fact, every bit of information about this restaurant had been wrong!

Just then, the restaurant door opened again. A middle-aged man in a suit walked in. His hair was thinning slightly, and he wore a warm smile.

His sincere smile inspired a great deal of goodwill. The middle-aged man walked up to the counter and nodded to Alvin, then said apologetically, "I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you. My name is Phil Coulson, an agent with S.H.I.E.L.D."

Then Coulson turned to Natasha. "Agent Romanoff, I'm sorry our intelligence was wrong. It was almost a year out of date. The Purple Man hasn't been here for a long time.

"I don't know how this happened, but you'll still need to submit a report to headquarters when you get back and explain your conduct today."

Natasha nodded without a word, her face cold, and headed for the restaurant door. She didn't want to stay here a minute longer. She'd wasted so much time over outdated intelligence—how stupid! Someone would pay for this!

Alvin looked at the nice guy in front of him with amusement: Agent Phil Coulson, the glue that held the Avengers together.

"Why do you think you can come here, throw your weight around, and walk away so easily? Let me remind you: this is Hell's Kitchen, Peace Hotel. Nobody gets to do something wrong here and leave without paying the price."

As soon as Alvin finished speaking, Natasha reached the restaurant entrance—then let out a grunt as she was knocked back inside. She landed on the floor, legs splayed in a very undignified position. The black dire wolf Thor bared his teeth and growled at her.

Coulson reacted quickly, turning and drawing his gun on the dire wolf Thor. Another dire wolf, Dom, slipped in through the doorway, circled along the wall, and came up beside Coulson. It bared its teeth at him and gave a low "huffing" growl.

"Mr. Ye, you need to think carefully. Are you planning to attack an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Have you considered the consequences?" The smile had vanished from Coulson's face, but he didn't look particularly afraid. He simply moved his gun between the two dire wolves and calmly challenged Alvin.

Alvin smiled but didn't answer him. "I have security footage and audio recordings. They clearly show how Agent Natasha abused her authority to threaten a law-abiding citizen.

"And you, Agent Coulson, came in, apologized once, and thought that would settle things. You're being far too simplistic."

Then Alvin turned to Matt. "Matt, if I sue them over this, what would happen?"

Matt leisurely took a sip of lemonade. "We could sue them for abuse of authority and threatening and intimidating the public. Oh, and now we can add threatening a citizen's pet with a gun!

"The result would be that these two agents lose their jobs, and S.H.I.E.L.D. would have to explain itself to the public. Why can its agents disregard ordinary people's safety while carrying out missions? And why can they abuse their authority when people refuse to cooperate?

"Hmm... We might even be able to get some financial compensation."

Matt's words made Jessica clap in approval. She was now hostile toward any organization that wanted to recruit a deviant like the Purple Man.

Matt's words made Coulson break out in a sweat. This seasoned agent wasn't afraid of dangerous criminals, but a lawyer like Matt left him helpless—especially when he had neither the moral nor the physical advantage.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had never been popular with U.S. government law-enforcement agencies. And lately, a series of incidents had caused serious friction between S.H.I.E.L.D., the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Even at a disadvantage, Coulson remained calm. He didn't argue with Matt, only saying softly, "Then what would it take, Mr. Ye, for you to forgive my colleague's impulsive behavior? She's bled and been wounded for this country, too. I'm sure you know that."

Alvin waved for Thor and Dom to return to the entrance, poured another beer, and offered it to Coulson. "You're right. Last week, I pulled her out of the water by the shore and called an ambulance for her."

Thinking the tension had eased, Coulson holstered his gun, sat at the counter, and took a sip of beer.

"The ambulance and the medical bills I paid came to two thousand dollars. Matt, write that down. I want them to reimburse me for that, too." As soon as Alvin finished speaking, Coulson nearly spat out his beer. He hadn't expected that opening his mouth would cost him another two thousand dollars.

"Oh, right. Foggy, you told me you know people in the media. Give them a call and get them over here. They'd probably be interested in seeing how S.H.I.E.L.D. operates. And count this as a case. Your law firm can take twenty percent of the compensation as its fee." Alvin smiled and nodded at Foggy, who was eager to get started.

"Twenty percent is too little. How about fifty? Going up against S.H.I.E.L.D. carries some risk for us." Foggy haggled with a cheeky grin.

"Forty percent. Not a penny more. Your efforts will determine the quality of the facilities at the kindergarten on the corner and the caliber of the teachers we hire." Alvin made the final call.

Foggy excitedly gave a Barton-style salute. "Understood. I'll notify the media right now. Alvin, you're a good man. I've decided to donate half the fee from this case to the kindergarten." He took out his phone and made the call.

Coulson irritably scratched his thinning hair. When had they ever encountered a situation like this? An agent was carrying out a mission, and some civilian not only refused to cooperate but wanted to sue S.H.I.E.L.D.? Was there any justice in the world?

Coulson hurriedly stopped Foggy from making the call. The sharp-eyed agent glanced at the number and confirmed it was the FOX Television news tip line.

"Mr. Ye, we can talk this over. Please don't blow this out of proportion. This was one agent's personal conduct; it doesn't represent S.H.I.E.L.D.'s way of doing things.

"We should sit down and talk. Maybe you could name a reasonable price, and we could settle this." Coulson looked at Alvin pleadingly.

By now, Natasha had gotten back to her feet and stood behind Coulson. She was curious; this restaurant owner was unusual.

In her experience, no one had ever handled S.H.I.E.L.D.'s pressure with the same ease he did.

The faulty intelligence had led her to make a lot of bad calls. She'd certainly achieved her goal of ending the mission quickly, but she'd made a fool of herself, and she'd remember the grudge.

She'd wait for Coulson to settle this. Once she found the culprit who had nearly cost her her life, she'd come here often. As an ace agent, if you fell somewhere, you had to get back up in the same place.

Alvin felt a little uneasy under Natasha's gaze. He wasn't scared; he just had a feeling that being targeted by an old monster like her might cause him plenty of trouble later.