You Sold Me, and I Still Helped Count the Money

Quill's gaze lingered on Shendu for a long time, as if he were reassessing this partner who called himself Valmont. "Fine."

Quill finally spoke, his tone complicated. "Even if you set me up, given the current situation, we're tied to the same rope. If my mom gets taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. and that talisman is discovered, neither of us will come out of this well."

The corner of Shendu's mouth curled up. "So you're willing to cooperate?"

"Do I have another choice?" Quill gave a bitter smile. "Tell me. What do we do?"

Shendu fell silent for a few seconds, rapidly running through the plan again in his mind.

Originally, he had intended to have Quill distract his mother while he sneaked into Quill's home and took the talisman.

But S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surveillance was tighter than he had expected. Coulson's appearance meant the house was likely already surrounded by watchful eyes.

"The plan needs adjusting," Shendu said. "Your mother is wearing the talisman now. She's currently the only one who can actively trigger its power."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to take her away. Aside from investigating the agent mutation incident, it's more likely that they've already detected the talisman's energy fluctuations."

Quill frowned. "So?"

"So we need to make her hand over the talisman herself."

"Herself?" Quill shook his head. "Impossible. It was a gift from her son. She treasures it."

Shendu narrowed his eyes. "Then make her believe that wearing that pendant is a deadly threat to her son."

Early the next morning, Coulson's car arrived at Quill's mother's house right on time.

The woman who opened the door looked better than she had the night before, though dark circles still ringed her eyes.

"Hello, ma'am."

Coulson's smile remained gentle. "Sorry to disturb you. We need your cooperation for a brief interview."

The woman nodded and was about to speak when a voice came from behind her.

"Mom, I'm coming with you."

Quill walked out of the house, carrying a jacket in one hand.

Coulson raised his brows slightly. "Mr. Peter Quill? When did you get back?"

"At dawn."

Quill's expression did not change. "I heard you wanted to question my mom. I wasn't comfortable letting her go alone."

The smile on Coulson's face remained unchanged. His informants had reported Quill's return long ago. "Of course. Please."

As the black SUV drove away, an ordinary stray cat sat beside a trash can around the corner, staring in the direction the vehicle had gone. A plain pendant hung around its neck.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s temporary command center.

Coulson personally led Quill and his mother into an interview room.

The room was not as stern as they had imagined. It even felt welcoming, with warm lighting, soft couches, and steaming coffee on the table.

"Please, sit. Don't be nervous. We just have a few questions." Coulson gestured for them to sit before taking a seat across from them.

He opened a folder and began. "Ma'am, at around eight o'clock last night, did you notice anything unusual outside your house?"

The woman instinctively glanced at her son. Quill gave a slight nod.

"I... I saw someone hiding outside my fence, looking into the house through binoculars."

Her voice was somewhat tense. "I was scared, so... so I wanted him to leave."

"And then?"

"Then..."

The woman paused. "Then he suddenly disappeared."

Coulson's pen paused over the paper for a moment. "Disappeared? What exactly do you mean by disappeared?"

The woman shook her head. "I don't know. I was too scared to see clearly. When I looked again, there was only... a rooster outside."

Coulson's smile was still gentle, but there was an added trace of scrutiny in his eyes. "A rooster wearing a tactical vest?"

"Y-yes."

"Did you do anything unusual at the time? For example, were you holding something, or thinking about something specific?"

The question made the woman's hand tremble slightly.

Noticing it, Quill spoke up. "Agent Coulson, my mom has already told you everything she knows. She's just an ordinary person. What does that agent mutation incident have to do with her?"

Coulson looked at him, his smile unchanged. "Mr. Peter Quill, your mother was a direct witness to the incident. We have an obligation to uncover the truth. Besides..."

He paused, his gaze returning to the woman. "I noticed that your neck seems to be missing something."

"In the last footage sent back by the surveillance agent yesterday, you were wearing a pendant. May I ask where that pendant is now?"

The woman's expression changed slightly.

At that moment, someone knocked on the interview room door. An agent entered and whispered a few words into Coulson's ear.

Coulson's brow furrowed slightly, and the smile at his lips faded.

He rose to his feet. "I'm sorry. There's an urgent matter I need to handle. Please rest here for a while, both of you."

Quill and his mother exchanged glances. Both saw the confusion in the other's eyes.

The command center's main control room.

Tony Stark lounged lazily in a chair, a holographic screen before him displaying surveillance footage.

"Mr. Stark," Coulson said as he entered. "You said you had an important discovery?"

"Not me. My drone."

Tony casually waved a hand, enlarging the image. "Guess what I found near that house?"

The image froze on a stray cat.

Coulson narrowed his eyes slightly. "This is..."

"In the area where one of your agents mutated, a cat wearing jewelry showed up."

Tony stood. "And after you took that mother and son away, this cat strutted into the house through the back door. Five minutes ago, it jumped out a window and ran east."

He turned to Coulson, his tone openly mocking. "Isn't surveillance what S.H.I.E.L.D. does best? How did you fail to keep an eye on a cat?"

Coulson ignored the jab and swiftly gave the order. "Track that cat's location. Immediately!"

"Too late."

Tony spread his hands. "My drone lost it. The cat seemed to vanish out of nowhere."

Tony paused, his tone turning meaningful. "Coulson, don't you think this is getting more and more interesting?"

Twenty minutes later.

At an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the Chitauri ruins processing zone in Lower Manhattan, New York.

Quill crouched behind a pile of clutter, his expression complicated as he looked at the figure before him. "You sure nobody followed you?"

Shendu stepped out of the shadows. "I'm sure."

A pendant rested in his claw.

"My mom's necklace..." Quill stared at it. "How did you do it?"

"Before your mother left, she put the talisman on that cat as planned. All I had to do was take the cat away and retrieve the talisman before S.H.I.E.L.D. reacted."

Shendu put away the talisman. "That cat is safe now, somewhere it won't be found. Or rather, it isn't a cat anymore."

Quill was silent for a few seconds. "You had this planned from the start, didn't you? You had me persuade my mom to cooperate, make her believe that the pendant was what S.H.I.E.L.D. was tracking, that wearing it would only bring me trouble..."

"It was the most reasonable plan at the time," Shendu said calmly. "And it worked."

"It worked..."

Quill repeated the words, then suddenly laughed with a touch of self-mockery. "You know, even now, I'm not sure whether you set me up, or whether I helped you set myself up."

"It feels like you sold me, and I'd still help you count the money."