With a soft beep, the connection cut off completely.
Simona set down her headset and rubbed her slightly aching temples.
The boss's instructions sounded simple, but carrying them out required painstaking work.
She reached over and pulled up the holographic screen on her desk, bringing up Vought International's current master roster of security and logistics personnel.
The cursor slid rapidly across the screen, and detailed files popped up one after another.
This first batch of personnel to join the company had all been sent over by Pierce.
On paper, they were assigned personnel from S.H.I.E.L.D., but Simona knew perfectly well that there was more to this bunch than met the eye.
There were only a few dozen fanatics among them who knew their true allegiance lay with Hydra. Most of the rest were genuine S.H.I.E.L.D. agents kept in the dark, who had thought they were merely being sent on a routine external security assignment when they received their transfer orders.
Simona tapped her fingertips lightly against the desk, turning things over in her mind.
Those poor bastards from S.H.I.E.L.D. had long since started entertaining other possibilities after arriving at Vought Tower.
Who wouldn't be tempted? At S.H.I.E.L.D., they went out on field assignments through hails of bullets every day for a fixed salary, and might end up dead in some nameless ditch one day. But at Vought? There was hardly any fighting, they worked in a five-star office building, their pay and benefits had tripled outright, and the bonuses just kept coming.
Not to mention the recent word that the company would soon roll out a medical machine that could instantly regrow even missing arms and legs. With such an enormous safeguard for their lives, who would still want to go back and risk their necks for Nick Fury?
People