The steady, faint background noise seemed to have been abruptly cut off. Even Pierce's breathing was inaudible.
Simona felt utterly satisfied, but she pretended not to notice and continued with a smile, "The boss's exact words were a little crude, but I have to relay them faithfully. He said: spending all those precious materials and effort building those big coffins floating in the sky serves absolutely no purpose except to give people live targets to shoot down for a bang. It's nothing but a waste of his manpower and resources."
"Big coffins... live targets?"
Pierce's voice finally changed pitch.
However hard he tried to restrain himself, his fury at having Lucian trample all his painstaking work underfoot still seeped through the line. "Simona, do you understand what you're saying? Project Insight is the foundation of an absolute order that Hydra spent decades of effort and hundreds of billions in funding to establish! This is meant to eliminate all chaos in the world! Mr. Lucian... how can he describe it in those terms?"
Rattled. The old bastard was finally rattled.
A broad smile spread across Simona's face, but her voice grew even more aggrieved and sincere. "Mr. Pierce, getting angry at me won't help. I'm just a lowly secretary passing along a message. But the boss did leave one last remark. I don't know whether I should say it..."
"Say it!"
Simona cleared her throat. "The boss said: tell Pierce that if he can't find her, or can't bear to halt construction on those few lousy ships of his, then when I get back to New York, I'll go see Mr. Pierce personally for a face-to-face chat."
At the words "face-to-face chat," the air fell eerily still.
Simona could even picture how, at that very moment in that imposing office, Pierce's