The wind was a bit chilly at three in the morning. Ye Mo leaned against the side of the pickup truck bed, his hand still resting on the half-open door. He had just finished unloading a box of blankets, and his fingertips were numb, while the old injury on his arm began to throb. He closed his eyes for a moment, scanned the surrounding area with his mental energy to make sure there were no signs of life nearby, then pulled his mask down a little and exhaled a puff of white breath.
The mechanical bird flew in from the east, its wings flapping slowly, and landed on the pile of empty cardboard boxes at his feet. With a click, a folded note popped out, on which was printed a line of small print. "Director requests an emergency meeting—codename ' Watchtower '."
He didn't rush to move. He held the note in his hand for a couple of seconds, then turned to the bearded driver and said, "The rest is up to you."
The man was unscrewing the bottle cap to drink water when he looked up and asked, "Aren't you going to take a break?"
"Something came up," he said. "Make sure the elderly stay warm at night and don't let them sit in drafts."
He left after saying that.
He contacted Emma Frost on the way, and she met him in the alley behind the stadium ten minutes later. She was wearing a long dark gray coat, her hair neatly tied back, and the first thing she said to him was, "You look terrible."
"I can still walk." He touched his glasses. " S.H.I.E.L.D.. wants to talk about rebuilding; let's go hear what they're planning."
A fleet of temporary command vehicles was parked beside the East Campus Gymnasium, surrounded by a ring of surveillance drones with flashing red lights. The air still smelled of burning, but it was much clearer than yesterday. A female agent wearing a headset, numbered K-7 on her chest, approached and said crisply, " Mr. X? Please cooperate with iris and voiceprint verification."
Ye Mo stopped, took off his glasses, and handed them over. The scanner beeped, and the system unlocked.
"You can go in now," she said. "The technical lead and emergency response team are waiting for you in vehicle B."
The car was dimly lit, with several map panels on the screen, all marked with red dots. A man in uniform sat in the main seat, glanced up at them, and said, "You came pretty quickly."
"This isn't over." Ye Mo didn't sit down. "You didn't come to me just to thank me, did you?"
"Of course not." The other person opened their tablet. " The New York defenses have collapsed. The mothership is destroyed, but the underground signal source is still fluctuating. We need to know what we'll face next."
"Then you should be glad I didn't go straight home to sleep." Ye Mo stood against the wall. " Loki didn't use an ordinary teleportation array; it was the forbidden Asgard technique ' Star Orbit Rupture.' There's a three-second gesture delay before activation, and the energy frequency is concentrated in the purple band. Next time someone uses this trick, your radar will have to be tuned to this frequency."
He didn't look at anyone when he spoke, as if he were talking to thin air, but every word he said was recorded by the system.
Emma Frost, standing slightly behind him, suddenly spoke up, "I also detected three deeper signal sources, located about thirty meters underground, with a rhythm similar to the Chitauri command node restarting. I didn't investigate further, I only marked the coordinates."
She sent the data packet, and a 3D positioning map immediately popped up on the screen.
The technical supervisor stared at it for five seconds, then nodded. "The signal characteristics match, it is indeed a synchronization pulse... How did you do that?"
"That's not the point," she said. "The point is they haven't activated yet. I suggest sending down unmanned probes to check."
A soft cough came from the corner of the conference room. A man in a black suit stepped out of the shadows, holding an encrypted tablet. "You say you're providing intelligence, but how can we be sure this isn't another trap? After all... you've never registered."
Ye Mo finally turned to look at him.
They stared at each other for two seconds, then he suddenly smiled, "If I wanted to destroy this city, I should have detonated a nuclear bomb yesterday."
After saying that, he walked out without waiting for a response.
Emma Frost followed and closed the door behind her.
The wind picked up outside, and the beams of light from the Stark Tower in the distance were still spinning, illuminating half the sky. The two walked along the edge of the ruins for a while, neither of them speaking. They only stopped when they climbed the maintenance ladder of a communications tower.
"Do you think they'll believe that?" Emma Frost asked, leaning against the railing.
"Whether you believe it or not is unimportant." Ye Mo gazed at the city. "They need a reason to believe that order can return, even if it's just a pretense."
Police cars drove by on the street below, their sirens blaring intermittently. The shelter was brightly lit, with people moving about. A child stood at the entrance, clutching a teddy bear, before being gently pulled back inside by an adult.
"They're starting to believe it," Emma Frost said.
"It's not that I trust us," he shook his head, "It's that I trust I can survive."
He glanced down at his watch, and a system notification suddenly sounded:
[Low-frequency encrypted communication fluctuations detected, source: S.H.I.E.L.D.. command vehicle, Sector B]
He didn't open the analysis; he just noted the frequency number in his phone's notes app and Starbrand.
Emma Frost noticed his movement. "What are you suspecting?"
"It's not suspicion," he put away his phone, "It's remembering. Some people talk about cooperation, but behind our backs they're already thinking about how to guard against us."
So what do you plan to do?
"Don't move now," he said. "Let them start arguing amongst themselves."
The wind was stronger at the top of the tower, making clothes stick to the body. Below, an armored vehicle drove away from the command area, heading west. The antenna on the roof was constantly hopping frequencies, as if sending some kind of command.
Ye Mo narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything.
He knew that some things couldn't be addressed too early, nor could they be left unattended too much.
Emma Frost looked at him for a while, then suddenly said, "You can actually ask for more permissions."
"If I took it, it would only make things worse." He smiled. "It's best this way; no one can say for sure which side I'm on."
"So, which side are you on?"
He didn't answer, but simply raised his hand to adjust his glasses.
The sky in the distance began to turn gray, and the first rays of dawn pierced the rooftops. An old man on a street corner was selling hot coffee from a cart, next to which stood a handwritten sign. "Free for those on night watch."
Ye Mo stared at the sign for a long time.
Then he took a coin out of his pocket and dropped it into the box. It made a soft clinking sound.
He turned to leave the tower, but his phone vibrated as soon as he took a step.
This is a new system notification:
[ Gene Spiral Tower, Level 19, is currently cooling down. Estimated shutdown time: Unknown]
He glanced at it, then locked the screen and stuffed it back into his pocket.
As I reached the top of the stairs, I glanced back at the city.
There was more light and more noise than last night. Some people were fixing water pipes, some were clearing roadblocks, and others were painting on the walls, writing "We're still here."
He nodded and started walking down the stairs.
Emma Frost followed behind, and as they neared the ground, she asked, "Where do we go next?"
"Find a place to sleep for two hours," he said, "And then see who within S.H.I.E.L.D.. can't resist making a move first."
As soon as he finished speaking, he stepped off the last step.
The sole of the shoe shattered a small piece of glass, making a crisp sound.