Chapter 1643: Good with Words and Strong Capability

The morning sun rose to pierce the final darkness before dawn, and golden light enveloped the land.

It was another fine early May day in D.C..

No matter the shootout on the streets yesterday or the conspiracies happening at night, worker drones still had to go to work today.

The employees of s.h.i.+ELD entered the Triskelion one after another.

Under the gla.s.s ceiling of the main hall, people flowed through the security checkpoint and into the building.

Unlike regular office workers, many of them werent in good spirits.

Some had dark expressions, some had dark circles under their eyes, some were absentminded, and some looked around.

Nick Fury was dead, Captain America was a wanted man, and the bodies of Rumlows team had been sent back to s.h.i.+ELDs morgue last night.

They didnt know everything, but roughly knew part of it, and there had been a lot more private discussions last night.

n.o.body knew what would happen next, including the person behind everything.

Pierce was standing next to a special hallway in the main hall, which was hidden from view by a screen. Few people came in and out here.

Every now and then, one or two people would greet him politely.

Pierce would just nod in return.

As for the complicated expressions in their eyes, he couldnt be bothered.

Whether or not Project Insight succeeded had nothing to do with these small fry.

The other four members of the World Security Council were the key.

If they sensed anything wrong, it might have an unknown impact on the project.

Pierce had no choice but to show up in person to restrain them.

That way, even if the members held an impromptu vote to urgently take over everything in s.h.i.+ELD, it would be useless.

If Pierce was the only one left to give orders, he would be able to control everything in s.h.i.+ELD within a short period of time.

In any case, apart from these four members, anyone else who wanted to meddle in s.h.i.+ELDs operations would have to go through a complicated process.

It would take them several hours at least, perhaps tens of hours.

As he pondered, he finally saw a group of people enter the hallway, and he greeted them with a smile.

There were three men and one woman. They were the other four members of the World Security Council.

The two parties exchanged greetings.

Pierce had a security guard bring him four silver pins. This place uses biometric recognition. This will let you go wherever you want.

The four council members didnt think much of it. They each took one to pin to their chests.

These four pins provided temporary access at the highest level and gave access anywhere in HQ.

More than 10,000 people came in and out of HQ every day. It was impossible to test every single person. They could only use biometric surveillance to monitor all areas 24/7.

It was too troublesome to register biometric recognition for visitors, so they were all kinds of temporary access pa.s.ses.

If a person without clearance or a temporary pa.s.s was discovered by a surveillance camera, an alarm would be triggered.

That was also why Luke hadnt wanted to come here before.

If he wasnt careful, this biometric surveillance system at s.h.i.+ELD HQ might record his genetic traits.

Without a super disguise, whether it was him or his clones, his genes werent something he could throw away.

What followed was a confidential meeting, and the four council members retinues stayed in the lounge area of the main hall.

The five council members took the elevator to the floor reserved for the World Security Council, which was Pierces office.

Pierces office was a s.p.a.cious room with a desk facing four virtually projected seats.

Usually, the four members communicated with Pierce via virtual projection.

Coming in person today was rare.

Yesterday, they had agreed to activate Project Insight, and had specially come for the final inspection.

While Pierce was talking to the four council members, Steve watched as Maria Hill opened a hidden door with a pair of mechanical gloves.

They took turns verifying their ident.i.ties before the secret door opened.

Steve asked in a low voice, Why have I never heard about this door?

Hill said, I didnt know either. The boss just told me last night.

Steve immediately got it this was standard procedure for Black Egg, and wasnt worth mentioning.

He had just been worried earlier about Hill using this sort of secret door often, which wasnt necessarily safe.

In the end, it turned out to be a way out left behind by that paranoid Black Egg. That was fine, then.

After all, as a man who had already died several times, whatever way out Nick Fury left behind wouldnt be so easily discovered.

What was even more impressive was that Pierce had long cla.s.sified them as key suspects, and their s.h.i.+ELD clearance had been canceled yesterday, yet after their ident.i.ties were verified at this secret door, biometric recognition was reinstated for them.

Also, just like this secret door, n.o.body knew about this biometric clearance, which was at the highest level and allowed them to enter any area without triggering the alarm.

Wearing the unremarkable faces attached to the nanosuits, Steve and Hill swaggered into HQs communications center.

At that moment, Pierce was celebrating with the four council members.

In a bit, the five of them would go to the bas.e.m.e.nt and personally oversee the test run for the Helicarrier.

According to Pierce, they would be just starting up the main Helicarrier largely to check that the numbers were normal, and it wouldnt take off directly.

At that moment, an enigmatic male voice rang out over s.h.i.+ELD HQs emergency channel. Attention, s.h.i.+ELD agents. This is Steve Rogers.

Pierces smile froze when he heard the familiar male voice.

The emergency channel was specially used to broadcast information, and basically covered more than 90% of HQ.

Unless a person just happened to be in a special location, everybody at HQ could hear it.

Steve didnt waste any time, and simply explained what happened in the last two days.

The main point was that Pierce was Hydra. He had killed Nick Fury and framed Steve. Hydra had already infiltrated s.h.i.+ELD, and Steve told everyone to be careful of suspicious people around them.

Listening to Steve, Luke shook his head and sighed. This guy was really good with his words.

More importantly, his position in s.h.i.+ELD and his achievements made his words very convincing.

Luke probably wouldnt be able to do it.

A certain person knew his place. He was best at ridiculing and sneering. He specialized in using words to deal a blow it was impossible for him to turn things around just by talking.

So, he had to play to his own strengths that was the right way of doing things.

While everyone listened in a stupor as Steve dropped the bombsh.e.l.l, Luke, who was wearing a black combat uniform, entered the command center at HQ.

In the biometric recognition system, he was now a genuine member of the Strike force and a Hydra member.

Of course, this team members body had been thrown into s.p.a.ce 1 last night, so this absolutely wouldnt blow up in his face.

Luke had even activated Boogeyman Johns Elementary Concealment along the way, which made everyone subconsciously ignore him as the only person who was moving.

He then chose an unremarkable corner. Gaze sweeping over the command center, he compared it with Elenas painting.