At the suspicious look in Steve's eyes, the corner of Zarathos's mouth twitched, but he stubbornly insisted, "I said it was an accident, and that's what it was."
"All right, then. I'll have someone take you somewhere to rest." Steve shrugged indifferently and stopped pressing him.
Zarathos clearly didn't want to talk, and Steve wasn't about to waste his breath.
Of course, more importantly, he already had a pretty good idea of who had done it.
Although he had never seen Zarathos's strength firsthand, he knew perfectly well how powerful Doctor Doom was. Anyone Doctor Doom summoned couldn't possibly be a weakling.
That meant there were very few people on Blue Planet who could defeat Zarathos-almost none, in fact. And this was New York. Of everyone Steve knew in New York, Tony was the only one with that kind of power.
So, by his reckoning, there was only one possible truth: Tony must have taught this fellow a lesson.
As he thought this over, Steve watched Zarathos leave his office. Once Zarathos was outside, he couldn't help letting a smile curl across his lips.
There was a hint of schadenfreude in that smile. Strictly speaking, he shouldn't have felt that way. After all, Zarathos was on his side.
But whenever he remembered how arrogant the fellow had been when he first arrived, he couldn't help wanting to laugh.
Of course, this was only a minor diversion, and his attention soon returned to more serious matters.
Zarathos was no weakling. Even if he couldn't take Tony on alone, he should have been able to escape easily.
Yet judging by his appearance, Tony had clearly beaten him into submission.
And it must have been a beating he had been utterly powerless to resist. Otherwise, a mighty demon wouldn't have become so meek.