Pierce walked around the dining table with a glass of fruit wine in hand.
Surprise crossed his face as he cast a glance over.
"Nick, you actually have the Tesseract?"
Nick Fury nodded without offering any further explanation.
He did not say how he had obtained the Tesseract.
Pierce knew S.H.I.E.L.D.'s rules, so naturally, he did not ask.
But he was already planning to have his undercover agents look into it.
Revealing that he had the Tesseract had been Nick Fury's last resort.
His S.H.I.E.L.D. could, of course, allocate funds and plan their use freely.
In practice, however, any large-scale movement of funds currently required approval from the World Security Council.
If he wanted to use funds obtained through other channels, he naturally needed the support of whoever provided them.
Unfortunately, aside from Nick Fury himself and Pierce, who held considerable standing, S.H.I.E.L.D. currently had almost no one with vast wealth or a prominent social position.
Then there was the impact of the supernatural revival.
S.H.I.E.L.D. was having trouble even staying financially self-sufficient.
After all, Nick Fury himself had diverted who knew how much money.
He had built who knew how many safe houses.
Yet the cost of diverting funds and building safe houses was a drop in the bucket compared with conducting experiments.
Pierce soon caught on. "So, Nick, are you telling me something this classified because you need me to do something?"
Pierce looked at Nick Fury with a deep frown.
"Pierce, you oversaw S.H.I.E.L.D.'s organizational operations before and led the Sea-Air-Space Airship research project. You should know that carrying out a research project takes more than money. More importantly, it takes talent. That's why I need you to provide cover for the Tesseract research project."
"You mean keep it from the World Security Council?" Pierce looked at