Obelisk

"Who are you? I don't know any Whitehall. You've got the wrong person." Wearing thick-rimmed glasses and a sharp suit, Sitwell cut the figure of a successful professional. Though he handled administrative work, he was still an agent. He did not lack the vigilance an agent should have, and he rejected Daisy without a second thought.

Daisy had expected this. She recited, as if reading from a file, "In 1945, after Mr. Whitehall was captured in Austria, the Obelisk he had spent his life researching fell into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s hands. He needs you to use your authority to remove the Obelisk from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s classified storage."

Inside the Obelisk was a Terrigen Crystal, but it could only be opened in a special location. Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D., unaware of the truth, had studied it for fifty years without gaining anything. It had now been completely shelved.

"The Obelisk?" Sitwell truly did not know what it was, but he had confirmed the other party's identity. She was a member of Hydra—or, even if he had guessed wrong, someone connected to Whitehall.

"Consider it Mr. Whitehall owing you a favor. I'll call again later. Hail Hydra!" With that, Daisy hung up and swiftly erased her online traces.

By reflex, Sitwell hurriedly stood at attention and softly replied to the phone, "Hail Hydra." Only after speaking did he realize the other party had already hung up.

As an Indian-American who had risen to become a mid-level operative in both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, Baldy did not lack insight or intelligence.

Among Hydra personnel who came from loyal families and swallowed poison the moment they were caught, he was a rare exception. In the original timeline, Captain America threatened him once, and he spilled everything he knew without reserve. His integrity score was terrifyingly low.

Unlike Hydra's upper ranks who wanted to conquer the world, unlike the middle ranks dissatisfied with agents' political status, and unlike the lower ranks who had been deceived and brainwashed, he cherished his life, feared death, and had a strong opportunistic streak. That was the intelligence Daisy had analyzed.

Hydra's internal factions were complicated. Sitwell belonged to Alexander Pierce, the former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., while Whitehall, whom Daisy had mentioned, belonged to a different faction.

As a small pawn under a powerful figure, he certainly possessed a sense of crisis, especially since his identity could not bear the light of day. As a smart man, he would not switch sides, but having another route available was still extremely important to him.

Over the next few days, Daisy secretly monitored and tracked his phone signal, roughly mapping out his range of activity. From bits and pieces of information online, she concluded that Baldy really was searching for information about the Obelisk.

As for whether he would notify his own superior, former Director Pierce, Daisy believed there was a seventy percent chance he would not.

If the big shots spoke to each other and resolved the issue in the end, then the favor would belong to the big shots and have nothing to do with him. Any way she looked at it, that would be stupid.

As a not particularly competent double agent, Baldy had ambitions too.

Daisy's Black roommate, Angela, had noticed Daisy acting strangely lately. Today, Daisy seemed to spot something before suddenly sprinting out.

Three minutes earlier, Daisy had observed Sitwell's phone signal leaving a signal-blocked area. She had a feeling—well, a woman's intuition—that he had gotten results.

Avoiding her roommate and taking proper precautions, she called him.

"You work fast, Agent Sitwell." She praised him first.

She could not see a live feed this time, but she could hear the pride in his voice. Baldy said somewhat arrogantly, "Accessing and moving the Obelisk requires Level Ten authorization."

Daisy sneered. If it didn't require Level Ten authorization, why would I need you? He had already tacitly accepted her identity as Hydra. He was claiming credit.

She raised her tone by two notches. Hydra did not care for gentleness, humility, courtesy, or restraint. Sounding too soft would only arouse suspicion.

"This task isn't difficult. There are hundreds of similarly unidentified objects with unknown purposes. Borrowing Minister Pierce's authorization shouldn't be hard for you, should it?"

Hearing the name Pierce suddenly come from her mouth, Sitwell became even more certain of her identity. She might even be a prospective high-ranking member. His tone immediately turned somewhat ingratiating.

"Yes, sir. How should I deliver the Obelisk to you? Will I have the honor of meeting Mr. Whitehall?"

"Heh heh." Through the voice changer, Daisy let out a somewhat sinister laugh. Switching to a formal mode of address, she said, "Jasper Sitwell, do you really want to meet Mr. Whitehall?"

To deepen the impression, she continued, "You looked into the Obelisk's history, didn't you? Do you know what happened to everyone who touched it? How many S.H.I.E.L.D. researchers turned to stone because of it?" After a pause, she asked, "Are you still sure you want to bring the Obelisk to meet Mr. Whitehall? You should know that after being imprisoned for so many years, his emotions have remained rather unstable..."

Her words were evasive and vague, leaving plenty of room for him to fill in the blanks himself.

Baldy immediately imagined Whitehall asking him to try picking up the Obelisk. Treating subordinates as tools was Hydra's consistent policy; it was nothing new. So many people had tried one after another to pick up that unknown metal, and without exception, they had turned to stone. Sitwell did not believe he would be the exception.

Between his life and wealth and glory, he automatically chose life.

At the same time, he imagined that the person on the other end of the phone intended to steal the credit for this matter, perhaps even refusing to mention him before Whitehall in the end.

Sinister enough. Cunning enough. Very Hydra.

Believing he had seen through her true face, his tone became less respectful. "The credit is all yours. What can I gain from this incident?"

"A guarantee of safety, steady advancement, and a way out when it matters. You don't think Minister Pierce's faction is the only one inside S.H.I.E.L.D., do you? Remember, S.H.I.E.L.D. is one of Hydra's important assets."

Daisy remembered that Baldy would survive for several more years anyway, so she could hand out empty promises as freely as she liked.

She continued to entice him. "We can mobilize some resources to help you get promoted. Walking on two legs is the only stable way forward."

Baldy, who feared death and loved vanity, ultimately accepted the proposal.

The call ended quickly. Daisy told him to place the item in a trash can she specified, then hired a homeless man to retrieve it after he left.

In an alley, Daisy, wearing a hood, stunned the homeless man with a stun gun. She quickly looked it over. It was a rectangular metal case, marked S.S.R.084 on the cover.

She had no way of knowing whether the case had a tracker on it. Putting on gloves, she pried it open.

Inside was a polygonal metal spire more than thirty centimeters tall. From a distance, it looked a little like the Hercules Cup.

Pressed for time, she could not inspect it closely. Using pliers, she grabbed the Obelisk and placed it in her backpack. Then she carried the case into a chemical plant and threw the metal case into a sulfuric acid tank.

No matter how capable the agents were, they would never find that case.

There was even less need to worry about the Obelisk. This technological artifact inherited from the Kree was seamless on the outside. It could disable electronic devices and turn intelligent life without Inhuman bloodlines into stone. With Earth's current technological level, it was impossible to install a tracker on it.

Under the cover of night, Daisy erased the footage from nearby cameras that had captured her. Then she hailed a taxi and left the scene.