Their public disclosure of intelligence and proactive warnings were intended to compel the United Nations to fulfill its duties and save innocent civilians. However, in the eyes of those secretly orchestrating the scheme, this became the most useful pawn.
The hype, the panic, the widespread online attention—all the groundwork was laid, and then nothing was done in the end.
If the explosion hadn't occurred, the public wouldn't remember the SSC's good intentions in issuing an early warning; they would only remember this senseless panic that swept across Europe. Public opinion would instantly reverse, and everyone would point the finger at the SSC, accusing them of spreading panic, creating chaos, and providing false intelligence.
Without firing a single shot or dropping a single bomb, the opponent was able to completely pin SSC to the forefront of the storm.
Lynn leaned back in his chair, listened to Tony's words, and a faint yet sharp smile slowly curved his lips. His tone was relaxed yet confident. "Just as expected, a fool's clever idea. Small-minded, but he's quite adept at using underhanded tactics."
He looked up at Tony: " Tony, now that things have come to this, you should have some ideas, right?"
"If they don't want to play the game properly, and don't want to play by the rules, then there's no need for us to continue to endure and restrain ourselves."
"Just like you said before, if the card table is no longer useful, let's find a different way to play."
Upon hearing this, Tony instantly understood Lynn's entire thought process. His tense facial lines suddenly relaxed, and a joyful smile ignited in his eyes. All the forbearance, restraint, and frustration he had endured over the past few days vanished in that instant.
Their eyes met in mid-air, exchanging a silent glance, a knowing look on their faces. A matching, wicked smile, tinged with cunning and domineering, appeared on both of their expressions.
Steve, Sam, James Rhodes, and the others standing nearby were stunned by this sudden display of perfect teamwork, their faces blank with confusion, completely unable to follow the train of thought of the two.
After enduring so much restraint and finally escaping layer upon layer of traps, why are these two laughing now?
Lynn withdrew his gaze, looked at the still bewildered crowd, and explained calmly, "They don't want to reason; they only want to play dirty tricks, manipulate public opinion, and set traps. Then we'll completely refuse to play along with their passive-aggressive tactics. Since they dare to orchestrate their own schemes and frame us in secret, we'll simply present all the evidence to the world and let everyone see the truth."
Tony straightened up, snapped his the Snap, and said crisply, "I've already made the arrangements. The press conference is scheduled for five minutes after the originally planned explosion."
"Since they're trying to manipulate our mentality and spread rumors about us, then we'll expose their true colors completely in front of the whole world."
Time flew by, and the scheduled countdown to the explosion reached zero precisely on time.
The cities of Paris, Rome, and Madrid remained calm and peaceful, with no explosions, riots, or accidents occurring.
After a brief moment of relief, the tense atmosphere in Europe quickly turned into a storm of skepticism. The online discourse intensified, with countless netizens and media outlets questioning whether the SSC had fabricated intelligence and created public panic, resulting in a deluge of negative publicity.
The press conference hall at Stark Industries headquarters was already packed with media outlets. Cameras were in place, flashes were going off constantly, and everyone was waiting for SSC to give an explanation and to see how this superhero team would handle the situation.
Five minutes later, the press conference started on time.
Tony, dressed in a sharp dark gray suit, walked steadily onto the podium. There were no superfluous opening remarks, no polite words of comfort; his expression was calm and serious.
Amidst a dense array of cameras and countless stares, he raised his hand in a gesture of acknowledgment.
The next second, the giant screen behind them lit up instantly.
From the initial vague intelligence in London, to the second precise intelligence in Berlin, and now the terrorist warnings for the three cities.
From the timing of each intelligence reception, tracing its origin, and locking down IP nodes, to every email exchange between SSC and the United Nations counter-terrorism team, every reporting record, and every official reply stating "source unverified."
From the time stamps of every United Nations decision-making delay to the casualty statistics after every disaster, all records, all data, and all evidence of origin are clearly displayed frame by frame on the entire screen.
The entire venue fell into a deathly silence.
All the reporters froze, the clicking of camera shutters abruptly stopped, and everyone's eyes were fixed on the irrefutable evidence scrolling across the screen.
Tony gripped the edge of the podium, his gaze sweeping across the entire room. His voice was clear and steady, carrying throughout the hall through the microphone and simultaneously transmitted to the live stream across the internet.
The planned explosion did not occur.
"This surprised us too; we didn't anticipate it."
He spoke frankly, yet every word was sharp and to the point. "All the content on the screen represents our entire process of tracking, tracing, and gathering evidence, starting from the first bombing in London. Until yesterday, we obtained substantial and crucial evidence."
"All intelligence regarding targeted terrorist attacks traces back to internal terminals at the United Nations Office at Vienna."
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire audience erupted in uproar.
Tony maintained his composure and continued, "In the past two explosions, we reported them in advance, provided early warnings, and fully handed over intelligence. However, the United Nations counter-terrorism team delayed their response and refused evacuation, citing 'unverified sources,' ultimately resulting in civilian casualties and damage to public property."
"But this time, we issued a public warning and made it public, putting all three cities on high alert and conducting advance investigations, ultimately resulting in no explosions and no casualties."
His tone abruptly shifted, becoming sharp and forceful. "This presents an inexplicable contradiction."
"The same intelligence from the same source was ignored, left unchecked, and no action was taken the first two times, yet the disaster still occurred as predicted. This time, the intelligence was made public, the entire city was on high alert, and the disaster vanished into thin air."
"I would like to ask the United Nations officials, did your counter-terrorism departments proactively and covertly intercept the bomb this time? Or did you receive some mysterious instructions to terminate this attack ahead of schedule?"
Tony, with a sharp gaze, faced the camera directly and laid his cards on the table, completely tearing away all pretenses. "We have every reason to suspect that, starting with the London bombings, all the terrorist attacks, all the intelligence, all the traps, were all a farce orchestrated by a high-ranking official within the United Nations."
"The goal is simple: to create panic, to create conflict, to create antagonism between the SSC and other countries, to force us to take illegal actions step by step, and to completely control, restrain, or even eliminate this uncontrolled force. They use ordinary people's lives as pawns and public safety as bargaining chips to achieve their political objectives."
The entire venue erupted in cheers, with camera shutters clicking furiously. Reporters could no longer remain calm and began to stand up and raise their hands to ask questions.
Ignoring the commotion, Tony's voice remained calm and powerful as he delivered his final, impactful statement:
"We have no intention of confronting any official organization, nor do we intend to interfere with any international order. But if the rule-makers and maintainers of the order are themselves secretly undermining the order and creating disasters..."
"Then this set of rules has no reason to exist."
"We formally urge the United Nations to immediately conduct an internal investigation. If it needs the assistance of a neutral third party to verify, trace, and thoroughly investigate any internal leaks, it may consider contacting our SSC, which will provide full transparency throughout the investigation."
As soon as he finished speaking, Tony nodded slightly, said no more, and turned to walk straight down from the podium.
There were no further explanations, no compromises or concessions, leaving behind only shocked reporters and a media storm that exploded across the internet.
The press conference's content spread globally within minutes.
The live broadcast footage from major news websites was repeatedly captured, forwarded, and pinned to the top. On the screen, Tony's silhouette standing behind the podium was clearly outlined by the flashlights. Behind him, the giant screen was densely covered with all the intelligence records from the past ten days, the timestamps of every warning, every email exchanged with the United Nations counterterrorism team, every official statement of "source unverified," and finally, the IP tracing chart that made everyone gasp.
The Vienna office, internal network, third floor, terminal numbers are clearly visible.
Lynn did not appear on camera. He stood in the shadows on the side of the press conference hall, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets, watching Tony's back and the uproaring crowd of reporters below.
Lynn chuckled softly, turned around, pushed open the side door, and walked out.
The corridors of the SSC headquarters were unusually quiet. The agents on duty were all staring at their screens at their posts. Occasionally, someone would look up at him, and their eyes no longer held the fatigue and repression of the past few days, but rather a gleam of triumph after being suppressed for too long.
Lynn walked down the corridor and pushed open the conference room door. Natasha was leaning against the window, holding a cup of coffee, and merely raised an eyebrow slightly when she saw him enter.
Steve sat at the other end of the conference table, his hands clasped on the surface, a glass of now-cold water in front of him. Sam and James Rhodes leaned against the wall, their expressions somewhere between "finally getting revenge" and "what's next?"
"You saw everything?" Lynn walked to the window and stood next to Natasha.
"The entire internet is watching." Natasha placed her coffee cup on the windowsill and glanced at him. "After Tony released all the IP traceability data, several Europe media outlets have started digging into the United Nations's counter-terrorism records and internal communications from recent years. Much of this related information has already been shared over a million times. The tide of public opinion has turned."
"There's an even more interesting one."
Sam held up his phone; the screen displayed a live comment section of a news website, with dense messages refreshing rapidly. " The United Nations just issued a statement saying they are closely monitoring the reports and will conduct an internal investigation into the matter."
The wording was exactly the same as the statement issued after the Berlin bombing, not even the punctuation was changed.
Steve didn't speak. He sat there, his hands still clasped together on the table.
He was silent for a long time, then spoke, his voice not loud. "I flew to three cities and didn't find a single bomb. I stood on that empty platform in Madrid, feeling like we'd been played. Looking back now..."
He looked up at Lynn. "They're the ones who got played. They thought we'd continue playing by their script. But they overlooked one thing. We're not afraid to expose the truth."
Lynn looked at him without replying. He knew Steve wasn't the type to boast after a victory. He was simply confirming that every struggle, every act of patience, every near-breakthrough and subsequent pullback hadn't been in vain.
Tony only returned at this point. After the press conference, he was surrounded backstage by several senior reporters for nearly twenty minutes, who kept asking him about the methods used to extract the IP data, the possibility of further negotiations with the United Nations, and whether the SSC would proactively intervene in the investigation.
He just kept saying, "All the evidence is on the screen, see for yourselves," then squeezed out of the crowd and walked back to the conference room. He went to the conference table, picked up a glass of water (whose water he didn't know belonged to), gulped down half of it, then leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh.
"The reporters outside are already planning to surround the Vienna office. Live footage is coming back; there are two rows of security guards standing at the building entrance, and all the curtains are drawn." He placed his water glass on the table, a cold, sarcastic smile playing on his lips.
They're probably having an emergency internal meeting right now, discussing how to coordinate their statements. But it doesn't matter, we don't need to worry about it this time; someone will naturally keep an eye on things for us.
Lynn leaned against the window, suddenly remembering something, and turned to look at JARVIS at the corner of the conference table. " JARVIS, track the real-time activity of that IP address. Since the start of the press conference, has that terminal shown any unusual activity?"
JARVIS's voice rang out calmly, and he responded a few seconds later. "Sir, approximately three minutes and forty seconds after the press conference began, the terminal's network activity suddenly dropped, lasting about eleven minutes before re-entering the network. Upon re-entry, all archived records related to terrorist intelligence within the terminal were erased, including original transmission logs, encryption keys, and proxy links. It is noteworthy that the executor of this erasure was not a regular authorized user of the terminal. The deletion was performed using an external script, which was implanted at least before the London bombings. In short, someone had prepared the cleanup tools before the first terrorist attack, and once the operation was exposed, all traces could be wiped away simply by remotely triggering it."
The meeting room fell silent. Tony put down his water glass, his sarcastic smile turning serious.
"He prepared the cleanup tools in advance. In other words, he knew this day would come from the very beginning. He wasn't gambling on whether we would find out; he was gambling on whether we could prove he did it once we found out. Now he's wiped all his tracks clean, leaving us with an empty terminal. The chain of evidence is broken."
He tapped his fingers lightly twice on the table, paused, then lifted his eyelids. "But he left one major loophole. He deleted all his own stuff, but forgot to delete the United Nations's."
Lynn leaned against the window, placed the tablet on his lap, and took over the conversation. "Then let's trace that script. This thing didn't appear out of thin air; since it can remotely erase records in Vienna, it means it's already deeply rooted in the United Nations network. Tracing the script's propagation path back, let's see what else it erased or what it left behind. Whatever it is, we'll release it publicly once we get it. This time, we don't need to hold any press conferences. Just release the new evidence to the media. The rest, let the United Nations's internal investigation team explain."
Over the next three days, JARVIS traced the script's propagation path layer by layer. The way the script was implanted was not complicated—it was hidden in the attachment of an internal bulletin in the Vienna office, disguised as a routine security update, and successfully bypassed the firewall's review at the time.
However, since that update, it has had no chance to enter the system from other entry points, because subsequent public warnings from the SSC forced the United Nations to upgrade its security check mechanisms. In other words, the script is still stuck in the state it was initially implanted in.
JARVIS extracted the original script attachments, sending timestamps, and list of receiving terminals, packaged them together with the submitter information for that "routine security update," and simultaneously distributed them to all mainstream media outlets.
The next morning, the spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General finally officially announced the launch of an independent investigation.
Lynn saw the news at the breakfast table.
Natasha poked her head out of the kitchen, holding two slices of freshly toasted bread, and glanced at him. "What are you laughing at?" "Nothing." Lynn turned his phone screen towards her, pointing to the announcement, "They finally couldn't hold on any longer. Let's see who they push out."