"Utter nonsense!"
Steve Rogers slammed both hands onto the desk, his blue eyes fixed on Yang Ming as the veins on his forehead throbbed.
"I buried Hydra with my own hands long ago!"
Steve's voice was low and furious, like an enraged lion's.
"Red Skull vanished the moment he touched the Tesseract! The Howling Commandos wiped out every one of their secret bases! I watched their superweapon sink into the ocean!" Steve gritted his teeth, biting out every word.
"There can't be any survivors! And they certainly couldn't have infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.!"
"Hah."
Yang Ming scoffed without a shred of restraint. He didn't even shift in his seat, remaining comfortably sprawled in his executive chair.
"Captain, did you spend so long frozen in the Arctic Ocean that the water in your head turned to ice?" Yang Ming lifted his insulated mug and leisurely blew on the goji berries floating on top.
"You only heard the broadcast announcing victory in World War II as a recording in a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital room. What makes you so sure Hydra was completely wiped out?"
Steve's breath caught. He gripped the corners of the desk so tightly that two cracks formed in the solid wood.
"Damage to the desk. Two thousand dollars in depreciation, added to your tab." Yang Ming glanced at the corners and adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses.
"What exactly are you trying to say?" Steve drew a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
He knew the man before him wasn't making baseless accusations.
The woman in the cheongsam still stood quietly to one side. Though she had withdrawn her killing intent, Steve's instincts told him that if he tried anything, his head would leave his shoulders the very next second.
"Want a story? Sure."
Yang Ming set down his mug and tapped