Free Web NovelChapter 36: Ch 35: The Loyal Dog
Using the Flying Thunder God technique, Veritas appeared perfectly on top of the one-dollar bill he had left in the campus parking lot.
His anti-surveillance mode was fully active. Even if there were a dozen security cameras pointing right at him, they wouldn’t capture a single pixel of his existence. To the digital world, he was air. No machine would ever know he had appeared out of thin air, standing on an unnoticeable piece of paper.
Dressed in his pristine black suit and his white jester mask, Veritas calmly walked up to the sleek black sedan. He looked through the dark windows and knocked, but no one was inside anymore.
’Hm,’ he thought.
He raised his gloved hand and gently pressed his fingers against the glass of the rear passenger window.
Using his new skills, he quickly engraved the Flying Thunder God mark onto the glass. Thanks to his concealment technique, the mark vanished instantly, becoming completely invisible to the naked eye.
With his task complete, he stepped backward and... disappeared out of existence as if he was never even there.
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The black sedan rolled out of the campus parking lot and onto the empty New York streets. Inside, Agent Maria Hill rubbed the back of her neck with one hand while keeping the other on the wheel. The meeting with Gwen Stacy had gone exactly as she expected—short, direct, and a little tense.
Agent Maria Hill had been assigned a few priority tasks recently. One of them was to recruit Gwen Stacy, also known as Spider-Woman.
Recruiting young heroes was never simple. Especially the ones who already had their own rules.
Suddenly, the navigation system glitched and stopped working altogether. The network on her phone was also dead. All communications were down
She reached for the navigation system when a calm voice spoke from the back seat.
"Hello, Agent Hill."
Hill’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. The back seat had been empty two seconds ago. She didn’t panic. She simply lifted her foot off the accelerator and glanced at the rearview mirror.
In the mirror, she saw him.
VERITAS
A black suit. A white jester mask with a frozen, eerie smile.
He lifted his gloved hand and gave a small, friendly wave. The black lips of the white mask stretched into a wider smile.
"Now, don’t stop here. Keep on driving..." Veritas’s calm voice instructed as a cold metal barrel pressed gently against her temple from behind.
Hill’s jaw tightened. She pressed the accelerator again. The car picked up speed.
"What do you want from me, Veritas?" she asked. Her voice was steady. Controlled. Her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror.
"Hmm, why so tense, Agent?" Veritas teased, his tone light and playful. "For a person who loves to give people surprise visits in the dark, it don’t seem like you enjoy getting one yourself."
Hill exhaled slowly through her nose. "It’s not easy to relax with a gun to your head."
Veritas let out a short laugh. "Haha, my bad." He pulled the gun back, resting it casually on his knee.
"You see, that’s exactly why I carry it. Even though I can kill anyone with just a blast from my palm."
He let the words hang in the air, "People understand danger better when they can actually see it. Take the next left."
Hill turned the wheel. The car glided onto a darker, quieter street. She understood the unspoken message perfectly. Gun or no gun, he was still dangerous.
"Now then," Veritas continued, "the reason I’m here is very simple, really. You see, for the longest time, I have been very alone in this vast, empty, and cold world. It was really boring... until recently, I finally found someone interesting. And today, you made me feel very anxious by visiting her... Hill."
Hill gritted her teeth. If this Spider-Woman-obsessed madman decided to kill her right now, she was prepared to tuck and roll out of the moving car.
But Veritas sighed, "You know, Spider-Woman is very similar to me. And that’s why she’s special. But I cannot control her choices. So, I won’t stop her from doing what she wants. Still, I want to know... what my hero’s response was today."
Luke didn’t actually know why Hill had visited Gwen. He wasn’t sure if it was their first meeting or their tenth. But he knew S.H.I.E.L.D. They were either giving a mission or recruiting. By keeping his question vague, he made it seem like he already knew about the reason Hill met with Gwen.
"She said she’d consider it," Hill replied, keeping her voice even.
Veritas nodded slowly. "And..."
Hill said nothing. The silence stretched between them.
Then Veritas let out an exasperated sigh. It was the kind of sound a disappointed teacher might make at a slow student.
"She will visit S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters after she thinks it through," she added reluctantly.
Hearing those words, Luke quickly put the pieces together. This wasn’t a mission. SHIELD hadn’t come to Gwen with an urgent crisis. If they had, Spider-Woman would have given an answer right away. Gwen Stacy didn’t hesitate when lives were at stake.
But SHIELD always had layers. Always. Even their own agents didn’t know everything. Not even Fury knew all the secrets after all. freewēbnoveℓ.com
So, Luke pressed harder. "I see," he said, leaning forward, "But knowing S.H.I.E.L.D., there must be at least one thing you didn’t tell her, right?"
In the brief exchange, she had reached a conclusion. Veritas wasn’t here to kill her. If he wanted her dead, she would already be dead.
And this might be an opportunity to finish her 2nd assignment or at least form a connection with him.
The information he wanted also wasn’t something worth dying over.
"She doesn’t know that she is being recruited as an Avengers candidate," Hill revealed.
"An Avengers candidate? Oh, I am so proud of her!" Veritas clapped his gloved hands a few times. The black smile painted on his mask seemed to glow with genuine joy.
He shifted in his seat. "Well then, let’s catch up again sometime. Agent Hill."
Luke had what he wanted. And this doesn’t affect the plans for his next attack too much.
"Wait!" Hill called out.
Veritas paused, turning back toward her. "You have something to say?" His tone shifted, sounding almost offended that she was delaying him.
He lifted his gloved hand and placed his palm gently against Hill’s cheek.
The touch looked almost soft, like a caress, but Hill knew exactly what it was. It was a deadly threat. One wrong move from her, and her head would be blown into pieces, just like what he did to Patrick Sein on his livestream.
Hill took a steady breath, refusing to flinch. "I have a mission for you. You will be compensated appropriately."
Luke caught her specific choice of words. She said ’I’, not ’S.H.I.E.L.D.’ And Maria Hill never operated independently. She was Fury’s right hand. Always. Even right before her death...
So this was something else.
Luke raised an eyebrow behind his mask. "Hmm... SHIELD wants to hire a terrorist now? Or is it just Fury who’s asking?"
Hill glanced at him through the rearview mirror. He was clearly interested.
Instead of denying it, she completely ignored his question and went straight to the details. "It is a hijacking mission. The target is S.H.I.E.L.D. property."
Her dodging the question confirmed his theory. It was Director Nick Fury’s personal, off-the-books mission.
’Damn...’ Luke thought to himself, his mind racing. ’Fury wants a S.H.I.E.L.D. property hijacked... this sounds way too familiar. Is this the beginning of The Winter Soldier events?’
Luke smiled. This wasn’t just a golden opportunity; it was fucking diamond mine.
If he played this right, he could get the secret base he’d always wanted, and it would be one of the most powerful mobile bases in the world.
"Hijacking a S.H.I.E.L.D. property," Luke said, "Don’t tell me it’s the Lemurian Star. Oh, and take that right up ahead."
The Lemurian Star was a highly classified, mobile satellite launch vessel. Only top-level S.H.I.E.L.D. agents even knew it existed.
And this man, this terrorist in a jester mask, had just named it like he was talking about the weather.
"Yes," she replied, and from her jacket she handed him a thin file, ’Just how much does he actually know about everything?’
Luke flipped through the file. It had a date. A few minor details. Nothing substantial. Of course, Hill wouldn’t hand him the ship’s layout yet. That would probably come later. If he agreed.
In his mind, he compared what was happening now to what he remembered from the old movie. Fury had given this job to an Algerian terrorist group. But here, Fury had chosen Veritas instead.
’Why wouldn’t he? After all, I’m the best terrorist there is. And if I hijack the Lemurian Star, nobody would ever guess it was Fury’s idea.’
But Luke had another plan now. And for it to succeed, he needed Hydra to start doubting Nick Fury. That meant leaving behind clues that pointed straight back to the SHIELD director. Also, for the future phase of his plans, he would need Hill’s quiet help.
He finally lifted his palm from her cheek and leaned back against the seat.
This time it was not condescension... it was meant to be a sign of trust.
"Agent Maria Hill," he said, voice calm and smooth. "You have been the most loyal agent SHIELD has... the most loyal dog Nick Fury has. But there is one thing I have always wanted to ask you."
He let the silence stretch for a moment.
"Do you ever think about the real reasons behind the missions you’ve been given? Or wonder what is truly going on inside that one-eyed head of his?"
Hill kept driving as she replied, "Director Fury doesn’t need to explain every detail. That’s how he keeps people alive. I do my job. I don’t need the full picture to follow orders."
"I almost respect it." He tapped his gloved fingers on the closed file resting on his lap.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Then he let out a long sigh...
"Fury suspects SHIELD, Agent Hill. And unfortunately, he is very, very right. As you see, SHIELD is compromised. Hydra has infiltrated SHIELD... and has completely taken over it."
The words landed like a bomb in the silence.
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