Smoke filled Colonel Phillips's office.
The acrid smell of cigars mingled with the bitterness of strong coffee, creating an atmosphere of anxiety that belonged to war.
The map of the European theater on the wall was covered with flags representing different units.
Suddenly, piercing static came from the radio in the corner.
A young signalman's terrified scream tore through the gloom of the conference room.
"...Monsters! They're energy weapons! I repeat, our armor is... melting! My God! They're melting like candles! Aah-"
The transmission cut off abruptly, leaving only static.
Phillips slammed his fist on the table.
He wearily rubbed his temples, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the map of the European theater on the wall.
The map was covered with flags representing different units.
The vast majority were red arrows indicating retreat and crisis.
"Hydra's technology is developing faster than we imagined."
"The 4th Armored Division lost twelve Shermans in a single hour."
"Energy weapons."
Peggy Carter stood before the map, her uniform immaculate, but her expression graver than ever.
"They already have stable energy weapons ready for combat."
"All our advantages in armor are worthless against them."
Lynn glanced over the map.
It was a shocking sea of red.
Amid that red despair, a single glaring green arrow thrust into the heart of German-occupied territory.
That front was marked: Soldier Boy.
"His is the only front that's advancing."
Phillips added bitterly.
"He's an army all by himself. But we have only one Soldier Boy. We can't use him to plug every hole across the European battlefield."
Lynn picked up the coffee on the table, now slightly cool, and gently blew at the foam.
A war on the verge of defeat.
An enemy with overwhelmingly superior technology.
To him, this was no crisis.
It was the best billboard.
The perfect billboard to showcase the value of the "ultimate weapon" in his hands.
"Our conventional forces' successive defeats show that our previous tactics were wrong."
"What do you mean?"
Phillips looked up.
"We shouldn't get entangled with Hydra's army. We should go straight for its head."
Lynn walked over to the map and drew a circle around Germany with his finger.
"Their factories, their laboratories, their scientists... where are they?"
Phillips and the officers present exchanged glances, all wearing helpless expressions that said, "You think we don't want to know?"
"Of course we want to! But Hydra's core strongholds are top secret. Every infiltration team we've sent in, even our best, has never come back."
A lieutenant colonel couldn't help speaking up, his voice full of frustration.
"We don't even know which damned rat hole their leader, Red Skull, is hiding in!"
That was exactly the answer Lynn wanted to hear.
Only when conventional methods proved powerless could unconventional methods show their value.
Just then, Peggy Carter, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke.
"I know a place."
"A week ago, I captured a Hydra communications officer in London. He didn't have time to destroy the intelligence he was carrying."
Peggy took a document from her briefcase.
"According to the decrypted intelligence, Hydra has a complex of underground fortifications in the mountains near Wrocław, Poland."
She circled a location in red pen on the map spread across the table.
"Codename: Giant. It was a secret project built by the Nazis early in the war and later taken over by Hydra."
"Intelligence indicates that their most important research facilities and some of their senior personnel have been moved there."
Lynn looked at the red circle on the map.
A perfect stage.
"Conduct the highest level of aerial reconnaissance over this area."
Lynn didn't ask for Phillips's opinion. He issued the order directly.
As Congress's plenipotentiary representative, he had the authority.
"Wait!"
Phillips instinctively rose to his feet.
"Mr. Morris, I respect your position, but I'm in charge of this command. Any military operation requires..."
Lynn slowly turned around, his face still wearing a gentle smile, but his eyes utterly cold.
"Colonel, I am Congress's plenipotentiary representative. That means, here, my word is Washington's will."
He stepped closer.
"Now, do you still want to discuss who has command?"
Phillips froze for a moment. His soldier's instincts made him want to argue, but looking at the sea of blood-red on the map, he finally nodded wearily.
"We'll start here."
Lynn jabbed his finger hard at the complex of fortifications called Giant.
"Deal Hydra's heart a heavy blow."
Two days later.
All the reconnaissance reports lay before Lynn.
Photographs taken by high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft showed that the mountain area was heavily guarded, and energy activity had been detected underground.
Everything matched Peggy's intelligence.
After confirming the intelligence was accurate, Lynn went alone to Soldier Boy's barracks.
Soldier Boy was maintaining his battered shield.
He rubbed its smooth surface over and over with a piece of chamois, as intent as if he were tending to his lover.
"Go on, what boring job is it this time?"
He didn't even look up, his voice full of boredom.
"A stage worthy of you."
Lynn tossed a map and reconnaissance photographs of the Giant fortifications onto the table in front of him.
"Hydra's nest. Their top scientists and their craziest weapons are all inside that turtle shell."
Soldier Boy stopped what he was doing.
He picked up a photograph showing the entrance to the fortifications.
A steel fortress was embedded in the mountainside, surrounded by antiaircraft guns and armored patrols.
"You want me to wipe this place off the map?"
"No."
Lynn shook his head.
"I want you to walk in and bring out whatever matters most to them, or... destroy it. I want their leader trembling in his own bunker as he listens to your footsteps."
"Heh..."
Soldier Boy gave a low chuckle.
He liked this script. It was far more interesting than simple destruction.
He reached out and dragged his finger hard across the red circle on the map.
"When do we start?"
"Midnight tonight. A plane will take you over the target."
Lynn looked at him.
"An airdrop. Any objections?"
Soldier Boy burst out laughing as though he'd heard the funniest joke in the world.
Midnight.
An unmarked C-47 transport plane flew silently above the clouds.
Inside the cabin, red lights flickered on and off.
Peggy Carter sat in the cockpit, calmly piloting the plane. Her voice came over the intercom.
"We've reached the target airspace. Weather below is clear. Prepare for the drop."
Lynn went to the rear of the cabin and pulled open the door.
Deep night lay below. An endless expanse of forest rose and fell in the moonlight like a black ocean.
The outlines of distant mountains were faintly visible.
Soldier Boy walked to the open door and looked down.
The fierce wind whipped his hair. There wasn't a trace of tension on his face, only the excitement of a hunt about to begin.
"Do you need me to repeat the mission objectives?"
Lynn shouted over the wind.
Soldier Boy didn't answer.
He simply turned his head and gave Lynn a cruel, fanatical grin.
The next second, he dove headfirst from several hundred meters up.
No hesitation, no parachute, not even the slightest preparation.
He simply jumped.
Like a meteor, he plunged without hesitation toward the land shrouded in darkness.
Lynn stood in the doorway, watching the tiny black dot quickly disappear from sight.
The wind howled in his ears.
"Go."
He whispered softly, his voice swallowed by the wind.
"Present this world with an... art exhibition called fear."