As night deepened, Sean sat alone in the conference room. Through Skynet's omnipresent awareness, he kept a close watch from afar on Doctor Doom's path of conquest.
"Doom has gone out of control?" Skynet's mechanical, icy voice sounded.
It had ended its brief call with Victor Doom. The Latverian had not acted according to the original plan. Instead, he had provoked the local gangs and Warlord first, stealing a crate of weapons-grade plutonium—an important raw material for the nuclear industry that could be used as both nuclear fuel and fissile material for nuclear weapons.
"He is doing something very dangerous," Skynet concluded.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, uranium-235 or plutonium-239 with a purity of 92% to 93% was considered weapons-grade. Once they reached a certain quantity, they could trigger a nuclear explosion. It was generally believed that six to nine kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium or twelve to sixteen kilograms of uranium could be used to make a nuclear explosive device.
Given Victor Doom's excellent education and scientific talent, refining weapons-grade plutonium through electrolysis and creating a compact nuclear bomb with sufficient destructive power would pose no problem at all.
"Did Doom offer any explanation?" Sean showed no surprise. He seemed exceptionally confident in Doctor Doom after the personality conditioning and memory alteration.
"He believes our plan is too slow. To fully enter Latveria's core of power would take at least three or four years, and that is assuming everything goes smoothly."
Hearing Skynet's answer, Sean raised an eyebrow. He regarded Magneto's trip to Africa and Doctor Doom's return to Latveria as casual moves. He had not expected them to become useful immediately; he merely intended to proceed gradually and expand his territory.
At present, all of the young man's energy was focused on expanding and strengthening North America