At Hydra Base, Whitehall looked at the blood-soaked grounds, his eyes filled with rage. Although John Garrett had already been killed, the fury in his heart would not subside.
"Sir, we've finished tallying the losses. We lost one hundred and fifty-nine soldiers, sixty percent of the buildings were damaged, and our weapons and supplies are completely depleted." A soldier approached Whitehall and reported the losses.
"Damn John Garrett, costing us this much! And whoever was controlling John Garrett from behind the scenes had better hope I never find them, or I'll skin them alive!"
Whitehall spoke viciously, his eyes filled with venom. Although he had initially felt a flicker of fear toward the power that controlled John Garrett, anger had followed!
Who was he? He was one of Hydra's heads, leading one of its forces. How could he not be furious when an unknown enemy was threatening him like this?
"Sir, what should we do next?" The soldier looked at Whitehall fearfully, hoping for orders.
"Take everything we need to pack up. The Homeland Logistics Bureau will probably be here soon. Oh, and leave behind the clues to this incident."
Whitehall narrowed his eyes slightly, a glint reflecting off his gold-rimmed glasses. With such a commotion, S.H.I.E.L.D. had probably already been alerted and would arrive soon, so they had to evacuate immediately.
As for deliberately leaving some clues behind, although he was furious, that bizarre ability to control John Garrett still made him deeply wary, so he decided to have S.H.I.E.L.D. investigate this incident for him.
He hoped to use S.H.I.E.L.D. to search for that bizarre opponent, allowing them to root out the mysterious person without expending their own strength.
"Yes, sir!"
The soldier answered quickly and immediately went to make arrangements. A little while later, Hydra's people swiftly evacuated the ruined base. Not long afterward, an armed unit arrived and instantly surrounded the entire base, sealing it off completely!
"Captain, according to our surveillance, an intense gunfight took place here not long ago. There were even signs of bombs going off."
"Search every inch of it. Don't miss so much as a fly!" the armed unit's captain ordered. Countless soldiers instantly poured into the ruined base and began a search.
Half a day later, a report lay on the desk in the office of the director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
"This base was actually a Hydra base? Damn it, those rats hiding in their holes! And Agent Garrett's body was found at the scene? What exactly happened here?"
The bald Nick Fury looked grave, his one eye fixed on the report. He felt certain that something had happened here that he knew nothing about, and a cloud of mystery had also settled over Agent Garrett's identity.
"Director, we found something important. Fragments of videotapes that weren't completely burned!" Natasha hurried in and handed the important evidence they had discovered to Nick Fury. What they did not know was that Whitehall had left this supposed discovery for them.
"Quick, restore the footage on those tapes!" Nick Fury said at once.
After some work, they finally restored the footage on the tapes. They could see clips of Agent Garrett speaking with Hydra's people, a discussion of the robbery, and the final battle.
"We can confirm it now. Garrett was a Hydra spy. I never thought a Hydra spy would have infiltrated us," Natasha said with a frown. She had not expected this situation either.
"There are a lot of secrets here. Perhaps negotiations between the two sides broke down, leading to the final battle. But I'm more concerned about one thing: the robbery they mentioned. From the look of it now, that robbery wasn't simple!"
Nick Fury murmured with a frown. He increasingly felt that there were secrets here unknown to anyone, yet they were being kept in the dark, unable to part the fog. Nick Fury loathed this feeling of not knowing, because it could threaten national security. He wanted to get to the bottom of this, and their only available lead now was the robbery from several days earlier.
"Natasha, put all your current work aside. Follow up on that robbery from several days ago from start to finish. I keep feeling there's more to it."
Nick Fury spoke to Natasha. He had made his judgment and hoped that giving the robbery greater attention would let them get to the bottom of it. More importantly, he wanted to know what Hydra was doing.
Natasha nodded solemnly without saying anything more, then quickly left to begin preparing for the matter.
Xia Zuo knew little about the struggle between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra or what they were doing. Nor did he have much time to concern himself with it now, because he had an even bigger headache to resolve.
That was the little girl standing in front of him, two or three years old and looking somewhat shy around strangers!
"Little Asta, you're the only one in your room, so from now on, I'm leaving this little girl who just joined our big family in your care. Remember, you mustn't bully her, understand?"
Xia Zuo still remembered the scene just now: Director Mary had brought a soft-looking little girl with twin ponytails to his room by the hand, said those words to him, then left the little girl behind and hurried away.
"What is going on?"
Xia Zuo roared weakly. He had only just resolved a major problem two days ago and had finally been able to settle down and study his abilities properly, only for Director Mary to bring a little burden right in front of him.
Xia Zuo immediately felt there was no love left in the world!
But there was nothing to be done about it. The orphanage did not have many rooms. Previously, because he had been physically weak, he had been allowed to recuperate alone. Now that another child had arrived, she would naturally share his room.
As for distinctions between boys and girls, come on-was there any difference between a two- or three-year-old girl and a five- or six-year-old boy in adults' eyes? So Mary was quite at ease.
"All right, what's your name?" Xia Zuo helplessly asked the little girl Mary had brought.
"S... Skye. My name is Skye," the little girl said softly.
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