Aldrich Killian's Shadow

Lin Xiao gently set the technical analysis report, still warm from the printer, on the workbench. The edges of the paper gleamed faintly beneath the warehouse's dim yellow lights. He looked at Su Ying without directly answering her question, then walked to a storage cabinet in the corner, opened it, and revealed several sets of brand-new communication equipment and encrypted terminals neatly arranged inside. He took out a tablet and powered it on. The screen lit up, displaying the backend interface of a Cayman Islands shell company account—the balance had just refreshed: $1,200,000.00. His finger swiped across the screen, bringing up a procurement list: high-performance servers, satellite communication modules, disguised surveillance equipment... Each item was marked with an estimated price and supplier code. Then he raised his head, his gaze passing through the warehouse's high windows toward the gradually sharpening outline of the distant city. "Targets won't just jump out on their own," he said, his voice producing a faint echo in the empty warehouse. "But now that the money is here and the report is ready, some people... should come into view."

Three days later, the temporary safehouse outside Riga had been completely cleared out, and all equipment was packed up and transported to a new base.

Lin Xiao's team returned to their main base in a border town in an Eastern European country. It was a run-down four-story apartment building, with a closed-down grocery store on the ground floor. The three floors above had been converted into a safehouse, technical room, and living quarters. Every window was covered with one-way privacy film, surveillance cameras disguised as old wiring were installed on the exterior walls, and a cleverly concealed satellite dish stood on the roof.

At seven in the morning, Lin Xiao sat in his third-floor office.

Sunlight slanted in through the eastern window, casting diamond-shaped patches of light across the dark wooden floor. The air carried a faint scent of coffee and old paper—the smell of old account books moved up from the grocery store's warehouse below. Lin Xiao had deliberately kept it as part of the environmental disguise.

Three documents lay spread across the desk in front of him.

On the left was the funding utilization plan submitted by Nightingale: the procurement list had been refined down to specific models and delivery dates, and the first batch of equipment would arrive within forty-eight hours through three different intermediaries; channels for recruiting peripheral personnel had been established, and Grey Falcon had selected seven candidates, each skilled in intelligence gathering, electronic countermeasures, or close protection.

In the middle was the final version of the Arc Reactor Technical Analysis Report. Lin Xiao had revised three more paragraphs the previous night, adding technical details about thermal management for energy output interfaces—details that Tony Stark had mentioned in a technical presentation in his previous life, but which were still top secret now.

On the right was a blank note card.

Lin Xiao held a black fountain pen in his hand, its tip hovering over the note card without falling.

He was considering his next target.

Ivan Vanko's team was surely frantically tracing the stolen data, but Nightingale had erased all digital traces, and the surveillance along the evacuation route had either been disrupted or replaced. In the short term, it would be difficult for them to find this place.

As for Hammer Industries, a loss of 1.2 million dollars was not a large sum to Justin Hammer, but the severed flow of funds would definitely trigger an internal review. Still, according to Lin Xiao's memories, Hammer Industries' financial system was riddled with loopholes to begin with. Justin cared more about making a splash at the Stark Expo than investigating a "missing" advance payment.

So next...

There was a soft knock on the office door.

Three knocks, steady and measured.

Lin Xiao set down his pen. "Come in."

The door opened, and Su Ying entered carrying a cup of coffee. She had changed into a dark gray tracksuit, her hair tied into a neat ponytail, her face flushed from morning exercise. She placed the coffee on the edge of the desk, and the bottom of the cup struck the wooden surface with a crisp sound. "The Doctor is here," she said. "She's downstairs in the lab. She says she has an urgent discovery."

Lin Xiao picked up the coffee, its warmth passing through the ceramic cup into his palm. He smelled it—Su Ying knew he liked medium-roast beans, no sugar, just a little milk. "What discovery?"

"About the residue from those blue reagents." Su Ying leaned against the doorframe. "She says the results are out, but... something isn't right."

Lin Xiao took a sip. Bitterness and a nutty fragrance spread across his tongue. "Send her up."

Five minutes later, Anna Koch, the Doctor, entered the office.

She wore a white lab coat and carried a tablet. Her eyes behind her glasses were bloodshot—she had clearly stayed up all night again. Her steps were somewhat hurried, and the hem of her lab coat swayed with each stride, bringing with it the distinctive smell of laboratory disinfectant.

"Mr. Lin." Anna's voice was tense. "I need to report a... disturbing discovery."

"Sit." Lin Xiao pointed to the chair across from his desk.

Anna did not sit. She immediately opened the tablet and brought up a complex molecular structure diagram. Two 3D models appeared side by side on the screen: on the left was a blue molecular chain with a complex structure, labeled "Exogenous Catalytic Substance, Sample S-07"; on the right was a red molecular chain of similar form, labeled "Cross-Species Gene Bridge Enzyme, Theoretical Model."

"This is the complete molecular structure of the 'exogenous catalytic substance' I isolated from the residue of those blue reagents." Anna pointed to the model on the left. "For the past three days, I have been trying to determine its function. At first, I thought it was merely a highly efficient energy catalyst, but last night I conducted deeper protein-folding simulations and enzyme activity tests..."

She swiped the screen and brought up a comparative analysis report.

"Then I found this." Her finger tapped the similar regions of the two models. "Look here—the distortion angle of the alpha-helical structure, the arrangement of the beta-pleated sheets, the amino acid sequence of the active sites... The similarity is 87.3 percent. That is beyond coincidence."

Lin Xiao set down his coffee and leaned forward.

His gaze remained fixed on the screen for ten seconds.

Then he asked, "Where did you get the model on the right?"

"From A.I.M.'s public papers." Anna pulled up another document, titled <The Theoretical Foundation of the Extremis Virus: A Preliminary Study of the Enzymatic Mechanisms of Cross-Species Genetic Compatibility>. The author was listed as Dr. Aldrich Killian, and it had been published six months ago. "Advanced Idea Mechanics—A.I.M.—has published at least seven theoretical papers on the Extremis Virus over the past two years. Although the core portions were deliberately obscured, the basic theoretical framework is public. The most critical link is the need for an 'enzyme' capable of bridging human genes with genes from other species."

She drew a deep breath.

"And according to Dr. Killian's theory, this 'cross-species gene bridge enzyme' should possess the following characteristics: it can recognize and sever specific gene sequences, remain active under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, and possess a self-repairing protein structure... Every one of these traits matches the 'exogenous catalytic substance' in our sample."

The office fell silent.

The sunlight outside shifted another inch, and the patch of light crawled onto the edge of the desk.

Lin Xiao stared at the two molecular models on the screen, rapidly retrieving fragments of memories from his previous life—

The Extremis Virus.

Aldrich Killian.

The man Tony Stark had left waiting on a rooftop all night during a New Year's party in Bern, Switzerland, in 1999. The scientist who had borne a grudge for more than a decade over Stark's casual "See you on the roof," eventually developing the Extremis Virus. The mastermind who used disabled veterans as test subjects, created dozens of unstable super soldiers, and ultimately instigated the Mandarin terrorist attacks.

In the timeline of his previous life, the Extremis Virus incident had occurred in 2013.

But now...

"What is your conclusion?" Lin Xiao asked, his voice perfectly calm.

Anna adjusted her glasses. "I believe A.I.M. may have already come into contact with a similar extraterrestrial substance and begun applying it to Extremis Virus research. The activity of this 'exogenous catalytic substance' far exceeds that of any enzyme known on Earth. If it is truly being used as a catalyst for genetic modification..."

She did not finish.

But Lin Xiao knew what she meant.

If Killian had truly acquired this extraterrestrial substance, then the development of the Extremis Virus might be drastically accelerated. And based on the outcome in his previous life, the virus's instability would cause test subjects to explode with the force of a small bomb. In the film, Killian's subordinate Coldblood had caused an explosion at Stark's Malibu mansion, nearly killing Tony Stark and Pepper Potts.

Even more terrifyingly, Killian would use the fictional terrorist leader known as the Mandarin as a cover to launch a series of terrorist attacks against the United States, causing massive civilian casualties.

"How much of the sample remains?" Lin Xiao asked.

"Less than five milliliters." Anna said, "And its activity is declining. This substance does not seem well adapted to Earth's environment. Its half-life after leaving the original carrier is only seventy-two hours."

"Can it be replicated?"

"Not for now." Anna shook her head. "Its molecular structure is too complex, and it contains at least three elemental isotopes that do not exist on Earth. Without the original sample and production process, reverse engineering it is almost impossible."

Lin Xiao leaned back in his chair.

His fingers lightly tapped the edge of the desk, producing a rhythmic clicking sound.

Su Ying stood by the door, watching Lin Xiao's expression. She noticed his pupils constrict slightly—that was a sign that he had fallen into deep thought. She also noticed the rhythm of his tapping changing: at first, it was a steady twice per second, then it gradually accelerated before suddenly stopping at a certain moment.

"Anna," Lin Xiao said, "go back and continue the analysis. Extract as much complete data from this substance as possible and establish a molecular model database. Also... look into A.I.M.'s public activities over the past six months, especially personnel recruitment, funding flows, and laboratory procurement records."

"Understood." Anna put away her tablet and turned to leave the office.

The door closed.

Her footsteps faded down the corridor.

Su Ying walked to the desk, braced both hands against it, leaned forward, and looked directly into Lin Xiao's eyes. "You know this Killian, don't you?"

Lin Xiao did not deny it.

He picked up the blank note card and wrote down a name:

Aldrich Killian

Then he drew a line beneath it.

"In my previous life, he created the Extremis Virus." Lin Xiao's voice was low, as though he were talking to himself, yet also explaining it to Su Ying. "He used disabled veterans as test subjects and created dozens of unstable super soldiers. Then he disguised himself as the Mandarin and launched terrorist attacks. His target was Tony Stark, but countless civilians were caught up in it. In the end... Stark and Colonel Rhodes defeated him together, but the casualties could no longer be undone."

Su Ying frowned.

"Now he may have encountered extraterrestrial matter ahead of schedule," she said. "What does that mean?"

"It means development of the Extremis Virus may be accelerated." Lin Xiao put down his pen. "Maybe by a year, maybe two. It also means the virus may become more powerful—that extraterrestrial catalytic substance is too active. If Killian has not fully mastered how to control it..."

He did not finish.

But Su Ying understood.

"So we deal with him ahead of time," she said, with the decisiveness unique to an operations commander. "Before he causes a disaster."

Lin Xiao looked up at Su Ying.

His expression was complicated.

There was resolve, calculation, deliberation, and something Su Ying had never seen in him before... hesitation.

"Assassinate Killian directly?" Lin Xiao asked, as if asking Su Ying, and also himself. "How great is the risk?"

Su Ying considered it for several seconds.

"A.I.M. isn't a loose peripheral organization like Hydra," she said. "Killian himself is a scientist, but according to S.H.I.E.L.D. files, he has a private security team made up entirely of former special forces. And A.I.M.'s laboratories are spread across at least six countries. We don't know which one he is in. Even if we find him, the cost of a direct assault would be high."

"And there's the butterfly effect," Lin Xiao added. "If we kill Killian now, A.I.M. will fall into chaos, but the Extremis Virus research materials could be acquired by other forces—Hydra's Radical Faction, for example, or ambitious figures within A.I.M. It could even give rise to a more uncontrollable variant of the virus."

He stood and walked to the window.

Outside lay the town's streets. There were few pedestrians in the early morning. An old man slowly walked past with a dog on a leash. The bakery on the corner had just opened, and the fragrance of fresh bread drifted up, mingling with the smell of coffee.

It was a peaceful morning.

But Lin Xiao knew that somewhere in the world, Aldrich Killian might be in a laboratory conducting dangerous genetic experiments with that extraterrestrial catalyst. Those recruited veterans, those people desperate because of their disabilities, were becoming test subjects for the Extremis Virus. They did not know what awaited them—strength beyond human limits, or an uncontrollable explosion.

Lin Xiao remembered his previous life.

He remembered the blaze when Extremis Virus test subjects exploded, the destroyed theater, the civilians killed in terrorist attacks. He remembered Tony Stark crawling from the ruins of his Malibu mansion, and Pepper Potts's agony when she was injected with the Extremis Virus.

He remembered other things, too.

In his previous life, Killian had been able to cause such immense destruction largely because Tony Stark had not taken him seriously at first. Stark had been immersed in post-traumatic stress after the Battle of New York, busy building the Iron Legion, and had overlooked the scientist he had hurt back in 1999.

What if...

What if Stark learned of Killian's threat in advance?

What if Stark intervened during the early stages of Extremis Virus development?

Lin Xiao turned around.

His gaze had changed.

The hesitation was gone, replaced by clear, cold resolve.

"We won't act directly," he said.

Su Ying raised an eyebrow. "We'll just let him do as he pleases?"

"No." Lin Xiao returned to the desk and picked up the Arc Reactor Technical Analysis Report. "We'll have someone more suitable, and more effective, 'take an interest' in him."

Su Ying understood.

"Stark."

"That's right." Lin Xiao opened the report to its final page—where he had deliberately left a blank section. "Can the one-way communication channel we established before still be used?"

Nightingale had said that channel was one-time use, but it had left behind a backdoor.

"It should be possible," Su Ying said. "But using it again will increase the risk of reverse tracing exponentially."

"It's worth the risk." Lin Xiao pulled a red marker from the pen holder and began writing in the blank portion of the report.

His handwriting was fast and steady.

Aldrich Killian, actual controller of A.I.M.

Research objective: Extremis Virus—creating unstable super soldiers through extreme genetic modification.

Potential threat level: City-level.

Key weakness: Desire for recognition and revenge, specifically against Tony Stark.

Recent activity: Actively recruiting disabled veterans as test subjects.

Evidence leads: Malibu mansion party footage, 1999; Mandarin as a cover.

After writing those lines, Lin Xiao put down the marker.

He stared at the words for three seconds, then said to Su Ying, "Bring Nightingale here. Also, assemble the core team—Wolf, Grey Falcon, and Dr. Anna. We need to hold a meeting."

Half an hour later, in the team conference room.

It was a small room of less than twenty square meters, its walls covered in soundproofing material. A rectangular conference table stood in the middle, with six encrypted communicators placed on it. The LED lights overhead cast a cold white glow over everyone's faces.

Lin Xiao sat at the head of the table.

Su Ying and Wolf sat on his left, Nightingale and Dr. Anna on his right. Grey Falcon attended through an encrypted video connection, his image displayed on the projection screen on the wall, with a crude safehouse in the background.

Lin Xiao placed the modified technical report in the center of the table.

"The plan has changed," he said without preamble. "We've discovered a new threat—Aldrich Killian and the Extremis Virus. Dr. Anna's analysis indicates that Killian may have already come into contact with extraterrestrial catalytic matter, and the development process may be drastically accelerated."

He briefly explained Killian, the Extremis Virus, and the destruction they might cause based on his previous life.

Wolf was the first to speak after hearing it. "So we're eliminating him ahead of time?"

"No," Lin Xiao said. "We're going to have Tony Stark deal with him."

The conference room fell silent for a moment.

Nightingale adjusted her glasses. "Send a warning through that one-way channel?"

"Yes." Lin Xiao pushed the report toward her. "Send this report and Killian's information to Stark together. The report is our 'good faith,' and Killian's information is our 'warning.' We need Stark to believe that whoever sent the message not only possesses technical details about the Arc Reactor, but also intelligence on broader security threats."

"What about the risk?" Grey Falcon's voice came through the speaker with a faint electronic buzz. "Stark may trace it back. We all know what JARVIS is capable of."

"That's why this transmission has to be more careful." Lin Xiao looked at Nightingale. "Use multilayer encryption, route it through at least five relay servers, and send it from a public Wi-Fi node at the end. Immediately erase every trace after sending it, shut down the channel, and even... abandon that shell company account for the time being."

Nightingale's fingers flew over the keyboard, bringing up a complex network topology map.

"I can do it," she said. "But I need time to prepare. At least twelve hours."

"You have eight," Lin Xiao said. "It must be sent by ten tonight."

Nightingale nodded. "Understood."

Dr. Anna raised a hand. "I have a question. If we tell Stark about Killian and Stark intervenes, the Extremis Virus incident may be prevented ahead of time. But won't that... change too much?"

She was asking about the butterfly effect.

Lin Xiao understood what she meant.

In his previous life, although the Extremis Virus incident had caused devastation, it had also forced Tony Stark to confront his responsibilities, driven upgrades to Iron Man technology, and even affected the later formation of the Avengers. If they prevented Extremis now, those "positive effects" might disappear as well.

But Lin Xiao had already thought it through.

"The butterfly effect is unavoidable," he said. "From the moment we were reborn, we were already changing the timeline. We cannot allow disasters to happen just because we fear change. Our purpose is to protect, not to preserve some 'correct' course of history."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across every face.

"Besides, Killian's case has a key point—it exposes one of Stark's weaknesses: he tends to overlook the people he has hurt. If we warn him now, perhaps he will realize that sooner. That itself is a kind of... correction."

The conference room fell silent again.

Only the crisp, steady sound of Nightingale typing on her keyboard remained.

Su Ying looked at Lin Xiao and suddenly spoke. "Are you sure Stark will believe it? An anonymous source sends a technical report and a warning about a potential threat—he might think it's a prank."

"He'll believe it," Lin Xiao said. "Because the technical details in the report are real. Stark is a genius. He'll see the value of this report at a glance. And intelligence about a threat from someone capable of writing such a report... he won't dismiss it lightly."

He picked up the red marker and circled Killian's name.

"Besides, I mentioned the '1999 Malibu mansion party' in the message. That's a private memory of Stark's, known by very few people. That alone will be enough to make him take it seriously."

Wolf rubbed his chin. "Then what do we do next? Wait for Stark's response?"

"No." Lin Xiao stood. "We continue advancing the construction of the Continental Hotel. The funding is already in place, equipment procurement proceeds according to plan, and recruitment of peripheral personnel will be accelerated. Also..."

He looked at Dr. Anna.

"Continue analyzing that extraterrestrial catalytic substance. Try to find its weakness—if Killian really is using that thing, we may need to face enemies modified by the Extremis Virus. Only by understanding the enemy's weapon can we find a way to defeat it."

Anna nodded. "I'll do my best."

"Meeting adjourned," Lin Xiao said. "Nightingale stays. Everyone else, get back to your work."

One after another, they left the conference room.

In the end, only Lin Xiao and Nightingale remained.

Nightingale turned the laptop toward Lin Xiao. The screen displayed the interface of an encrypted transmission program. "Eight layers of encryption, seven relay servers, and finally, it'll be sent through the public Wi-Fi at Berlin Central Station. Within thirty seconds after transmission, all intermediary nodes will automatically format themselves, and the channel will be permanently closed."

Lin Xiao looked at the complex code.

He knew that once he pressed the send button, there would be no turning back.

Stark would receive the information.

Then... the world would begin to change.

"Set the transmission time for 9:55 tonight," he said. "Before sending it, check all trace-cleanup programs one more time."

Nightingale nodded. "Understood."

Lin Xiao left the conference room and returned to his office.

He closed the door and drew the curtains, plunging the room into half-darkness.

Then he sat at his desk and closed his eyes.

Fragments of memories from his previous life surfaced in his mind once more—

The blaze of Extremis Virus test subjects exploding in the streets.

The thunderous collapse of the theater.

The sight of Tony Stark emerging from the ruins with Pepper Potts in his arms.

And... the look in Aldrich Killian's eyes before he died, a look mixed with madness, resentment, and unwillingness.

Lin Xiao opened his eyes.

He opened a drawer and took out a photograph.

It was a photo of him and Su Ying from his previous life, taken beside the window of some safe house. Su Ying was smiling in the photo, sunlight falling across her profile, her eyelashes casting tiny shadows on her cheeks. On the back of the photo, he had written a line in pen:

"This time, I won't let you disappear."

He pressed the photograph against his chest, feeling the texture of the paper and the beat of his heart.

Then he said softly:

"Killian, I'm sorry."

"But this time, I won't let you hurt anyone."

Outside the window, the sky gradually darkened.

One by one, the lights of the small town came on, joining into warm ribbons of light amid the twilight.

And in another corner of the world, Aldrich Killian had just finished a day of experiments. He stood before the observation window of the laboratory, looking at the cells in the culture dishes that had been altered by extraterrestrial catalytic substances, a satisfied smile appearing on his lips.

He did not know that a message destined to change his fate was moving through the encrypted network.

Eight hours later, it would reach Tony Stark's server.

Then, everything would be different.