Eye of Insight

The Quinjet slipped silently through the clouds in stealth mode. Below stretched the vast Pacific Ocean, glittering like crushed diamonds in the morning light.

The cabin was tense. Aside from the pilot, there were only Coulson, Natasha Romanoff, and Xiao Han, who sat with his eyes closed, resting as if he had merely changed locations for a nap.

Natasha wore a black tactical suit, her red hair tied back, her gaze as sharp as ever. Yet whenever she glanced at Xiao Han, a trace of complicated emotion lurked deep in her eyes, something even she had not noticed—the mark left by the sight of Lava Man being vaporized in an instant at the Coast Guard base.

"Target: Offshore Outpost No. 13. It was once used to monitor abnormal weather conditions in the Pacific Ocean and... certain special projects. It was mothballed seven years ago due to budget cuts and strategic adjustments."

Coulson pointed at the rusted steel behemoth growing closer on the tactical screen. "But over the past three months, its backup power system has been activated frequently and covertly. The data streams returned by its internal sensors show obvious signs of tampering.

"Twenty-four hours ago, a highly encrypted shortwave signal was sent from this location. Its recipient... points to a backdoor terminal at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters that has been flagged as suspicious."

Natasha checked the pulse pistol in her hand. "A.I.M.'s Extremis Virus requires massive amounts of energy and biological laboratories. An abandoned platform this far from the mainland really is an ideal hideout. But colluding with someone inside S.H.I.E.L.D... Killian's reach extends farther than we thought."

"Or he is merely a pawn being used," Coulson said heavily. "Fury fears that the shadow of Operation Paperclip may run deeper than we imagined."

The Quinjet began to descend, circling the massive platform. The platform was deathly quiet. Only the roar of waves striking the rusted pilings and the moan of wind passing through gaps in the steel could be heard, like a sleeping steel beast. On the surface, there was no sign of activity.

"Thermal scans show multiple active heat sources inside the platform. Their distribution matches laboratory and personnel living areas. External defenses... appear lax, but key entrances are giving off energy readings," the pilot reported.

"Standard infiltration route." Natasha pointed at an inconspicuous maintenance entrance near the base of the platform. "Approach underwater and avoid the main surveillance zones."

Coulson nodded and was about to give the order when Xiao Han, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly spoke.

"Too slow." His eyes remained shut, and his voice carried the laziness of someone who had just woken up. "And there is too much moisture in the air. It affects light refraction."

Coulson and Natasha both froze.

"Mr. Xiao, what do you mean?" Coulson asked cautiously.

Xiao Han opened his eyes. There was no emotion in his black pupils as he glanced at the massive platform on the tactical screen, then looked through the porthole at the shimmering sea below and the sun hanging high overhead.

"The sunlight is just right," he remarked. Then, as if he had made a decision, he rose and walked toward the rear airdrop hatch.

"Wait! Mr. Xiao! What are you doing?" Coulson cried out in alarm, a bad feeling rising in him.

Natasha also stood up warily.

Xiao Han did not look back. He merely waved a hand casually. "Open the hatch. The sooner this is done, the sooner we can go back and sunbathe. The UV index here is nowhere near as good as Malibu's."

The pilot looked helplessly at Coulson.

Coulson looked at Xiao Han's unquestionable back, then remembered Fury's order to "secure his cooperation at any cost." He gritted his teeth. "Open the hatch!"

Hiss—!

The hatch slid open, and violent airflow instantly surged into the cabin!

Xiao Han stood at the hatch. The powerful wind whipped his hoodie wildly, yet he did not move an inch. He looked down at the enormous platform below, seemingly measuring the distance and angle.

Then, before Coulson and Natasha's stunned eyes, he took one step forward and simply... jumped!

No parachute! No cushioning device! He fell straight toward the steel platform thousands of meters below!

"Has he lost his mind?!" Natasha cried out, rushing to the hatch and looking down!

The gray figure plummeted like a meteor, astonishingly fast!

But when he was about a hundred meters above the platform, his descent suddenly slowed!

It was not deceleration or cushioning. It was more like... the density of space around him had been forcibly altered. The air became like viscous gel, allowing him to drift down as lightly and silently as a feather, landing on the radar antenna base at the highest point in the center of the platform!

When he landed, he did not make the slightest sound, as if he had been standing there all along.

The platform remained silent, with only the wind and waves audible. It was as though nothing had happened.

Inside the Quinjet, Coulson and Natasha stared at each other, cold sweat seeping from their temples. That entrance... was far too direct!

Standing high above the platform, Xiao Han swept his gaze around. His super vision easily pierced through the rusted steel plates, revealing the busy personnel inside, the laboratories flickering with energy—

—and deeper within... the hidden, far more massive mechanical structures and energy conduits. The direction and specifications of those conduits far exceeded what a biological laboratory would require. They looked more like... the power supply system for some kind of large-scale energy weapon?

"Tsk, a front for something else." He muttered under his breath, completely losing interest in A.I.M. and the Extremis Virus. His gaze locked onto the area deep inside the platform with the most abnormal energy readings and the strongest structure.

He could not be bothered to look for an entrance. Raising a foot, he gave the thick alloy deck beneath him, sturdy enough to withstand storms, a light stomp.

Thud.

The sound was so dull it was like striking a gigantic solid steel ingot.

Centered on the point where his toe landed, the heavy deck within a ten-meter radius instantly caved in and warped like a cookie struck by an invisible sledgehammer!

There was no explosion, no tearing. Instead, it underwent an incredibly bizarre, uniform plastic deformation! A perfect circular passage with smooth edges instantly formed, leading directly to the platform's next level!

Below the passage was the core area of the platform—a laboratory filled with computer terminals, energy displays, and several culture tanks containing unstable orange-red liquid!

Several researchers in A.I.M. uniforms looked up in terror, their faces filled with expressions as if they had seen a ghost!

Xiao Han drifted down like a feather through the shortcut he had just created.

The moment he landed, a shrill alarm finally blared across the entire platform as if belatedly realizing what had happened! Heavy isolation doors began sliding shut in an attempt to seal off the area! A squad of A.I.M. guards clad in exoskeleton armor and carrying energy weapons charged in from both sides of the corridor!

"Intruder! Open fire!" the guard captain roared, raising his weapon.

Xiao Han did not even look at them. His attention had been drawn to the rapidly scrolling data streams and structural diagrams on the laboratory's central screen.

They were not files on the Extremis Virus, but blueprints for a far larger and more familiar project—the construction progress of three massive Helicarriers, the status of their weapons systems, and... the final test countdown for something called the "Insight Algorithm"!

In one corner of the screen, a clear double-headed eagle emblem flashed. Beside it was a line of small text: "S.H.I.E.L.D. Top Secret Project—Project Insight."

Xiao Han's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. S.H.I.E.L.D... was building such a huge toy itself? And hiding it in an A.I.M. hideout for testing?

At that moment, beams from the energy weapons and solid ammunition rained down on him like a storm!

Buzz—!

Every attack, less than an inch from his body, seemed to strike an absolutely smooth, absolutely hard wall, instantly bouncing away, deflecting, or simply vanishing!

Ricochets flew through the cramped laboratory, blasting expensive equipment into showers of sparks. The A.I.M. researchers screamed and scattered in panic!

The noise was beginning to irritate Xiao Han. He turned his head and looked at the guards, who were still firing wildly, their faces filled with terror and madness.

He raised a hand toward the direction from which they were charging, spread his fingers, and then... gently pressed down.

There was no sound, no shockwave.

But the charging A.I.M. guards, along with their exoskeleton armor, seemed to be crushed beneath an invisible mountain! Their movements instantly froze!

The next second, everyone collapsed to the floor without a sound as if their bones had been removed, completely losing consciousness! They had not been killed. Their nervous systems had merely been temporarily shut down through force-field control precise to the millimeter.

The laboratory instantly fell quiet, leaving only the alarm and the black smoke rising from short-circuited equipment.

Xiao Han walked to the main console and casually tapped a few keys. Data scrolled rapidly across the screen. Detailed information about Project Insight, including its preset target list, real-time surveillance network, and the exact locations and statuses of the three Helicarriers equipped with strategic-grade particle cannons, was all laid bare.

"Oh?" Xiao Han looked at the familiar names and photographs on the screen, including Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, and even a blurry candid shot of himself atop the Empire State Building. The corner of his mouth lifted into a faint, almost mocking curve. "So that is it. A cleanup list?"

He understood instantly. This was not an independent A.I.M. operation, and its primary purpose might not even have been the Extremis Virus. Something inside S.H.I.E.L.D.—or rather, something parasitizing S.H.I.E.L.D.—

—was using A.I.M.'s facilities and personnel as cover while conducting the final testing and warm-up for Project Insight! The Extremis Virus was perhaps merely a side project, or a smokescreen used to create chaos!

At that moment, a man in a senior researcher's white coat stepped out from the shadows at the deepest part of the laboratory. His eyes were sinister and vicious as he slammed a red button on the console and shrieked, "Initiate final protocol! Erase all data! Detonate—"

He did not get to finish.

Xiao Han did not even turn around. He merely flicked a finger behind him.

Pfft!

A soft sound rang out.

A tiny red dot appeared on the man's forehead. The light in his eyes instantly went out, and his body crumpled limply to the floor. The button he had pressed seemed to have taken effect. The console screen instantly turned red, and a piercing self-destruct alarm sounded!

"Data deletion in progress... 10%..."

Xiao Han watched the countdown and deletion bar on the screen, growing slightly impatient. He extended a finger and inserted it directly into the console's mainframe port!

Buzz!

A faint electrical current crackled.

The deletion bar on the screen abruptly froze, then rapidly rolled backward like a video playing in reverse! All the deleted data was restored at an astonishing speed!

More than that, every encrypted firewall in the entire Project Insight database was instantly pierced and dismantled like butter meeting a hot knife! All the core code, backdoor directives, personnel lists, and weapon schematics...

...were displayed on the screen without reservation like an open book, and even began automatically packaging themselves for copying!

Only after finishing all this did Xiao Han slowly withdraw his finger, without so much as a scorch mark on his fingertip. He casually took an ice cream cone from his pocket, tore open the wrapper, and took a bite, as though he had merely fixed a lagging computer.

Only then did Coulson and Natasha descend through the violently created "entrance" with a team of elite agents, panting heavily.

When they saw the unconscious guards strewn across the laboratory, the smoking equipment, and the complete Project Insight files displayed on the main screen, everyone sucked in a sharp breath!

"My God... Project Insight... They were actually doing this here..." Coulson's voice trembled, his face deathly pale. He finally understood what Fury had been worried about!

Natasha stared fixedly at the long "elimination list" on the screen, her eyes icy to the bone.

Xiao Han finished his ice cream cone and flicked the wrapper precisely into the wreckage of a sparking instrument nearby. He clapped his hands and looked at Coulson and Natasha.

"Your internal affairs." He pointed at the screen, his tone flat. "See for yourselves. It is so noisy. Your efficiency is terrible."

With that, he ignored the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, who had fallen into tremendous shock and fury, and walked toward a corner of the laboratory. There stood a massive observation window for what appeared to be a backup fusion reactor that powered the platform.

The reactor had clearly been modified. Its energy output far exceeded the platform's needs, with most of its power being sent through thick conduits to the lower levels, undoubtedly to test the weapons systems of the three Helicarriers.

But what Xiao Han had his eye on was the reactor core's incomparably fierce glow, like a miniature sun.

He walked to the observation window, found a relatively clean spot, and sat against the wall. Adjusting his posture, he let the intense light, still powerful even after being filtered through thick lead glass, shine more directly on him.

"Mm, this spotlight is not bad." He muttered with satisfaction, closed his eyes, and began enjoying this unexpected time to recharge. As for the S.H.I.E.L.D. troubles behind him, the conspiracy of betrayal, and the plan to destroy the world?

Heh. None of that was as real as the glow of this artificial sun before him.