A face that always wore a kindly smile surfaced in Hill's mind.
Phil Coulson.
During the Battle of New York, Loki had pierced Coulson's chest with his scepter. In theory, he had long since been dead.
But to save his capable subordinate, Nick Fury had activated a top-secret project code-named GH-325.
Hill had seen that top-secret file herself.
It was the corpse of an ancient Kree, stored in a secret base, dead for who knew how many years.
Researchers had extracted a highly concentrated alien bodily fluid from the corpse's tissue and injected it into Coulson, forcibly dragging a dead man back from hell.
The resurrection procedure had been as brutal as torture, and Coulson had suffered several mental breakdowns on the operating table.
So he could live normally, Fury had ordered all his memories of death and resurrection erased, leaving him with only a false subconscious memory of recuperating on vacation in Tahiti.
After Coulson woke up, Fury had sent him out to assemble an independent mobile team and fly around the world aboard a modified transport plane code-named the Bus, specifically investigating alien technology left behind and incidents involving unknown superpowers.
The team had only recently been formed and had not even fully connected to headquarters' internal network.
He should be the cleanest blade available right now.
Hill picked up the red top-secret hotline on her desk and dialed a hidden channel.
A warm, steady male voice came through the receiver. "Coulson speaking."
The beginner village chief
"Phil, it's me."
Hill lowered her voice. "Find somewhere absolutely secure and activate the highest-level anti-eavesdropping mode."
The other end went quiet for a few seconds, followed by the dull thud of a metal cabin door closing.
"Hill? What's happened at headquarters?"
Coulson sounded puzzled. "I just read the internal briefing.