Chapter Summaries

Old Parker found his paranoid old friend Marvin hiding in the family yard and tried to persuade him that he was safe in Hell’s Kitchen. Church appeared, and Marvin aimed a gun at him before the two old agents established that they were still friends.

• Heborong discovered Marvin concealed in a leaf-covered ghillie suit and bounced on him until Old Parker returned home.
• Old Parker invited Marvin inside for dinner, but Marvin insisted that CIA satellites and pursuers had found him and said he planned to flee the country by boat.
• Marvin mistook the school security guard who had driven Old Parker home for an enemy and proposed killing him, while Old Parker tried to reassure him.
• Old Parker mentioned Church, prompting Marvin to ask whether he meant Frank Moses, and Church appeared silently in the yard.
• Marvin drew a pistol on Church, who grabbed it and insisted he had come as a friend; Marvin agreed to let go after moving the knife he had pointed at Church.

Church reunited with Marvin and asked for his help recovering a bomb they had hidden in the Kremlin decades earlier. Marvin enthusiastically agreed, eager to get his “Little Pig,” as the group prepared for an extremely dangerous mission involving Russian agents and a hunt for Dr. Bailey’s kidnappers.

• Old Parker learned that Marvin was a former agent, and Marvin told him that Kennedy’s assassination had been planned.
• Church found Marvin at Old Parker’s home and explained that he needed help with an old mission in Moscow.
• Marvin met Katya and Sarah, while May welcomed everyone to dinner and teased Sarah about her suspicions of Katya.
• Church revealed that he and Marvin had hidden Dr. Bailey’s Red Mercury Bomb in a secret Kremlin room in 1986.
• Church explained that they had to retrieve the bomb, find Dr. Bailey’s kidnappers, and risk a manhunt by the Russian Security Service.
• Marvin eagerly accepted the dangerous mission and celebrated that he would get his “Little Pig.”

Battle Axe School prepared its graduates for the ACT while Alvin promised Robert he would bring in experienced guests to teach etiquette. Alvin then went to Professor Wilson to prepare for his upcoming trip to Moscow, where he planned to join Church and Natasha’s family.

• Old Cage put students in grades seven through eleven under pressure to prepare them for stressful choices, while Alexis organized a protest and received detention.
• Robert criticized Alvin for having Jason Bourne teach etiquette and interview skills, so Alvin offered to ask Albus, Greenwald, and Alfred to give the graduates a final lesson.
• Alvin saw the 110 graduates relaxing in the gym after their classes and preparations, with the June ACT as their next major hurdle.
• Alvin headed to Professor Wilson’s Temporary Office to get help disguising himself for Moscow, where Church had already gone and Natasha’s family had been bailed out by Matt.

Alvin prepared to travel to Moscow under a false identity to find and destroy Hydra’s Red Mercury Bomb and deal with Dr. Bailey. After Benji finished arranging the cover identities, Natasha suggested that Yelena accompany Alvin as his assistant.

• Alvin gathered Natasha’s family and Agent 47 in Professor Wilson’s basement while Benji prepared latex masks and altered passports.
• Benji explained that Alvin would fly to Moscow with Steel Digital employees, then disappear once he arrived.
• Alvin said he planned to destroy the Red Mercury Bomb and capture or kill Dr. Bailey, while Church’s people would draw the Red Room’s attention.
• Benji gave the group their passports and began changing Alvin’s appearance, and Yelena teased Alvin about her first impression of him.
• Natasha proposed that Yelena accompany Alvin in Moscow as his assistant, and Alvin suspected Natasha was trying to set him up.

Alvin prepared for a mission to Moscow by disguising himself, while Agent 47 chose to work independently as support. The group headed through a Space Gate to Avengers Tower to collect Natasha’s weapons before traveling to the airport.

• Alvin rejected Natasha’s implied plan to pair him with Yelena, while recognizing that she was worried about her sister’s safety.
• Benji transformed Alvin’s appearance with a suit, glasses, and styled hair, and Alvin sent a selfie to Fox.
• Agent 47 declined to travel with Alvin, accepted Church’s team as support targets, and warned that Red Room agents were trapped in Hell’s Kitchen.
• Alvin declined Benji’s offer to join him and reminded him that Ethan Hunt was pursuing a dangerous mission in Egypt.
• Natasha said she needed to collect supplies from S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, and Alvin opened a Space Gate to Avengers Tower.
• Yelena asked why Alvin could not send them directly to Moscow, and he explained that he had never been there.

Alvin traveled to Moscow with Natasha, Yelena, and a Steel Digital delegation, enjoying the company’s booming business while an attendant mistook him for an important executive. When Yelena offered him a chance at Red Room wealth, Alvin rejected the illegal money and told her to ask directly if she wanted help rescuing her sisters.

• Alvin and Natasha’s group loaded S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons and gadgets onto carts, then headed to a small airport outside New York.
• Alvin and his companions boarded Steel Digital’s modified Boeing 747 for Moscow, where employees worked through a stream of lucrative international orders.
• A flight attendant tried to learn about Alvin through Yelena and flirted with him, while Alvin enjoyed the attention and the attendant’s assumption that he was wealthy and important.
• Yelena offered to work for Alvin and hinted that she could provide wealth, but Alvin pointed out that Steel Digital was already earning millions from legal business.
• Alvin identified the Red Room as the source of Yelena’s offer and said she should ask plainly for help rescuing her controlled sisters instead of using them as bargaining chips.

Alvin and Natasha’s family settled into a Moscow hotel under cover while preparing to investigate the Red Room. Melina explained why she wanted to check the old training facility, and Natasha assigned Alvin to maintain their cover while the agents began scouting.

• Alvin checked into a luxury Moscow hotel in disguise with Natasha’s family and handed over their gear.
• Natasha and Melina prepared to scout the old Red Room base while Yelena and Alexei stayed behind as Alvin’s secretary and bodyguard.
• Melina told Alvin she wanted to find any girls still at the Red Room facility and determine when its trainees were given the control drug.
• Natasha showed the group a Moscow map and told Yelena to establish temporary safe houses for their operations.
• Natasha asked Alvin to remain at the hotel, keep the Russian Security Service occupied, and maintain their cover.

Alvin coordinated support for Church’s team in Moscow while Natasha and Melina searched for Red Room bases. Yelena revealed that she knew where the Antidote was and asked Alvin to shelter the Black Widows, then proposed that they work for him; a visitor’s knock interrupted their conversation.

• Alvin learned that Church’s team was tracking the Red Mercury Bomb materials and that 47 had arrived in Moscow, so he offered backup and told Natasha to expand the Safe Houses.
• Alvin used his Space Stone ring to teleport Natasha and Melina to a nearby rooftop, while Red Hulk packed weapons and agreed to pose as Alvin’s bodyguard.
• Yelena challenged Alvin over his lack of interest in the Red Room and revealed that its controlled Black Widows needed a home, then said she knew where the Antidote was.
• Alvin agreed he could help free the Black Widows but refused to take control of them, and Yelena proposed that they work for him.
• Yelena teased Alvin about the woman at his door, and Alvin stood to answer the knock, insisting that it was work.

Alvin learned that Yelena needed the Red Room’s Antidote and agreed to help her retrieve it from a safe in the Moscow Central Bank. The chapter left them preparing to rob the bank, with the Antidote potentially helping them uncover the Red Room’s secrets.

• Jinna invited Alvin to a banquet and revealed that Steel Digital’s vice president identity had earned him special treatment.
• Alvin asked Yelena to investigate Steel Digital’s project for the banquet, while she urged him to help her find the Antidote.
• Yelena explained that the Red Room’s Drug had left her with a Second Personality and that she had used her Red Room knowledge to fight back.
• Yelena revealed that her former lover had hidden the Antidote and its formula in a Moscow Central Bank safe, with the code 0876.
• Alvin realized the Antidote could help Yelena and the Red Room prisoners, then agreed to help her rob the bank.

Alvin prepared to attend a Russian banquet and learned that the government wanted Steel Digital to build a factory in Russia, though he could not tell what they really wanted. Yelena introduced him to Alexei Shostakov and discussed the ages of the Red Room operatives before they headed to the banquet.

• Alvin contacted professional acquaintances about Yelena's idea to buy a bank, then prepared for the Russian banquet to support Steel Digital's employees.
• Yelena returned with news that the Russian government had invited Steel Digital to build a factory, but Alvin found the offer suspicious and decided to investigate at the banquet.
• Alvin ended his video call with Fox, who said she would return to Hell's Kitchen the next day, and Yelena helped him get ready.
• Yelena identified the bearded man across the hall as Alexei Shostakov, also called Tarkov, and explained that he was an eighty-year-old Russian super-soldier created to fight Captain America.
• Alvin questioned Yelena about Melina's and Natasha's ages, and Yelena said Natasha had been working before the Soviet Union dissolved.
• Yelena claimed she was born in 1991, but Alvin jokingly refused to believe her before they left for the restaurant.

Alvin attended a Moscow banquet under the identity of Steel Digital Vice President Nick Hammer, where Prime Minister Medvedev warmly courted him and invited him to a private room. Yelena planted a wiretap on one of Medvedev’s bodyguards, but Russian Security Service agents quickly found it and stunned the man.

• Jinna welcomed Alvin and Yelena to the banquet, while she and Yelena quietly maneuvered around each other over Alvin.
• Alvin questioned Jinna about the food, hinted at his influence at Steel Digital, and learned that a powerful guest was waiting to meet him.
• Yelena brought Alvin bread and caviar, then identified the arriving guest as Prime Minister Medvedev and reminded Alvin to act as Nick Hammer.
• Medvedev greeted Alvin warmly, promised to send him caviar, and invited him to a private room for vodka.
• Yelena slipped a wiretap beneath the hem of Medvedev’s bodyguard’s suit, but Russian Security Service agents detected it and shocked the bodyguard.

Alvin used Mason’s arrest to keep the suspicious bodyguard occupied while he spoke with Medvedev, who probed Steel Digital’s plans for expanding into Russia. Mason was revealed as Hydra agent Taskmaster, and as Russian agents tortured him, he realized he had been framed without understanding Yelena’s role.

• Russian Security Service agents arrested Medvedev’s bodyguard, Mason, after finding a wiretap on him, and Medvedev later claimed Mason had been unprofessional with his phone.
• Alvin recognized that Yelena had set Mason up and hoped the arrest would keep him occupied while Alvin finished his business in Moscow.
• Mason recalled that he was a former Hydra agent and S.H.I.E.L.D. experiment whose extraordinary memory and ability to copy movements had made him Taskmaster, leader of the Red Room.
• While being tortured, Mason refused to reveal anything and suspected Medvedev’s deputy, unaware that Yelena had framed him after noticing his interest in Alvin.
• Alvin and Medvedev ended their conversation without an agreement, but Alvin realized Medvedev wanted more than a factory partnership and was testing Steel Digital’s willingness to expand in Russia.

Alvin considered why Russia was pressing Steel Digital to invest and concluded that the country urgently needed Ivan’s Fusion Reactor technology and Steel Digital’s help to compete in space. He saw cooperation as possible but feared Russia’s efforts to bring Ivan home could trigger a confrontation, leaving the story with Alvin worried that the United States and Russia might fight over Steel Digital.

• After returning to his room, Alvin sent Yelena away and reflected on his strange conversation with Medvedev.
• Alvin concluded that Russia was nearing its economic and technological limits and needed a reliable path into spaceship production.
• He realized Russia wanted Ivan’s Fusion Reactor technology and Steel Digital’s support to build spaceships and compete in the extraterrestrial arms market.
• Alvin considered working with Russia but rejected moving Steel Digital’s core operations there and recognized that Ivan would have to decide whether to return home.
• Alvin worried Russia might pressure Ivan so heavily that it provoked a confrontation between the United States and Russia over Steel Digital.

Alvin arranged to attend a gathering at Medvedev's residence while making plans to establish Safe Houses across Moscow. Yelena discovered he was using escort listings to find homes for the network and arranging travel to keep the women who lived there out of danger.

• Jinna brought Alvin breakfast, a Moscow guide, and Medvedev's invitation to a gathering in three days, which Alvin accepted.
• Alvin texted Yelena to help him handle Jinna, then complained when Yelena arrived in her pajamas.
• Yelena urged Alvin to set up four Safe Houses, but found him browsing escort listings instead.
• Alvin explained that he planned to pay the women to use their homes as Safe Houses and send them to the United States with plane tickets and visas.
• Yelena recognized Alvin's concern for the women's safety and felt better about working for him.

Alvin rented a safe deposit box at the Moscow Central Bank and used it to plant documents that could provoke a Russian investigation and strengthen Steel Digital’s negotiating position. Jinna planned to steal the contents, unaware that Alvin had chosen the box as bait.

• Alvin arrived at the Moscow Central Bank with Yelena and learned that Russian agents had arranged his visit; he rented a safe deposit box while asking to see Red Square at dusk.
• Jinna and a driver discussed stealing whatever Alvin stored in the bank, hoping to find leverage over him and learn more about Steel Digital.
• Alvin asked the bank employee for a box near his lucky numbers, then followed him into the vault with Yelena, who memorized the security layout.
• Alvin placed Angel’s investment plans and files on corrupt Russian politicians into the iron box, intending to trigger a purge if Russian agents stole them.
• Yelena warned Alvin about the consequences of exposing the documents, but he said the resulting turmoil could delay Russia and give Steel Digital more leverage.

After a sniper attacked Alvin and Yelena in Moscow, Jinna revealed herself as a Russian agent and tried to keep the Steel Digital vice president in Russia. A second shot struck Alvin's energy shield, and he rushed into the building across the street to pursue the sniper.

• A sniper killed Alvin's driver and fired at Alvin and Yelena, who escaped into a Coffee Shop with help from Jinna and Russian agents.
• A waiter slipped Alvin a note warning him that the Russian Security Service was watching him, then fled as the sniper shot two agents pursuing him.
• Russian Special Forces surrounded the Coffee Shop, and Jinna told Alvin she would protect him and asked him to trust Russia's offer of cooperation.
• Alvin showed Jinna his energy shield, handed her the note, and agreed to return to the hotel while she arranged protection.
• Outside, Alvin blocked another sniper's bullet with his shield, then raced across the street and entered the building where the shot had come from.

Alvin captured the assassin who had tried to kill him, but another attack sent him and Jinna plunging in an elevator. He survived the crash with Jinna badly injured and was left shaken by his fear of weightlessness.

• Alvin followed 47’s directions to the top floor, caught the female assassin, and handed her over to Jinna and the Special Forces.
• Alvin told Jinna he would remain in his hotel until Steel Digital gave him instructions, while Jinna assured him the Russian Security Service meant no harm.
• An explosion severed the elevator cables, and Jinna deployed an air cushion as the elevator plunged.
• Alvin and Jinna were thrown from the wrecked elevator; Alvin broke their fall, while Jinna suffered multiple fractures and passed out.
• Yelena and medics arrived, and Alvin admitted he had been terrified during the fall.

Alvin reunited with Natasha, Melina, and Yelena at the Safe House after a dangerous day in Moscow, then asked them to help interrogate the agent who had tried to shoot him. Their conversation turned to Black Widow methods and the women’s view of their work, while Alvin tried to keep the agents from teasing him.

• Alvin sent Natasha and Melina the address of a nearby Safe House, then brought them through a Space Gate and showed them the captured agent with a pig's head.
• Natasha asked Alvin what had happened with Yelena, and Alvin claimed their trip to the Moscow Central Bank and his acting as a terrified Vice President had made Yelena happy.
• Natasha changed in Alvin's room and teased him about being a gentleman, while Alvin complained that Fox might see her there.
• Natasha, Yelena, and Melina explained how female agents used their appearance and social skills as tools, and Melina condemned organizations that treated women's bodies as shortcuts.
• Alvin apologized for his prejudice and asked the women to stop testing him, but Natasha mocked his resolve before Alvin grumbled about the captured agent's appearance.

Alvin and the others investigated the failed assassination and concluded that the Russian Security Service may have used Jinna and an elevator bomb to manipulate him into turning against the United States. The chapter ended with Alvin arguing that people could resist being treated as expendable by making the cost of crossing them too high.

• Alvin tortured the captured Red Room Agent, but Yelena stopped him and said the woman would not talk without the Antidote.
• Melina questioned whether the elevator bomb had been set by the Red Room and realized someone might have detonated it remotely after the Agent was captured.
• Alvin contacted 47, who said he had seen no evidence of an accomplice but could not rule one out.
• Natasha and Melina reasoned that the Russian Security Service could have planted the bomb to kill Alvin and Jinna, blame the CIA, and drive Alvin away from the United States.
• Yelena said Jinna could have been treated as a sacrifice by Russian intelligence, while Alvin worried about the way Agents were used as tools.
• Yelena gave water to the captive as Alvin said people could make others fear the price of crossing them, then warned Yelena she would have to clean his carpet if the woman wet it.

Yelena and Melina discussed the Red Room’s drug and their plan to find its base, while Natasha warned Alvin that Hydra might be trying to destabilize Russia. Alvin asked Zhang Qiang to get involved, leaving the response to him after Steel Digital’s deal with Russia collapsed.

• Yelena refused to force the pig-faced Agent to drink water, and Melina said the Red Room’s training system remained in place even though its goal had changed.
• Yelena told Melina that she and Alvin would seek the Antidote at the Moscow Central Bank, and Alvin said Dr. Yinsen might be able to reproduce it.
• Natasha warned Alvin that Hydra could benefit from Russia’s political collapse and gain access to its nuclear weapons.
• Alvin called Zhang Qiang, who promised to deliver processed Helium-3 for the Dark Aster after the next shipment.
• Alvin told Zhang Qiang about the attack on his Vice President and the failed Russia deal, then asked the Gun Club to take responsibility for countering Hydra.