Free Web NovelChapter 37: Ch 36: The Leash On The Dog
"Fury suspects SHIELD, Agent Hill. And unfortunately, he is very, very right. As you see, SHIELD is compromised. Hydra has infiltrated it... and has completely taken over it."
The words landed like a bomb in the silence.
But what Veritas had just said seemed somewhat true. Why else would Fury want their own ship hijacked? There might be something important on that ship, perhaps a proof... but even knowing that, she was still in denial.
"That’s not possible. Hydra was destroyed," she said. The words felt hollow even as she spoke them. "Captain Rogers almost gave his life to..."
"Captain Rogers stopped the Red Skull," Veritas interrupted. "But Hydra is not a man. Hydra is an idea. And ideas don’t die. They just go underground. They wait. They grow. Taking in Arnim Zola was SHIELD’s doom."
Agent Hill’s eyes betrayed a flicker of tension. For the first time since Veritas appeared in her back seat, her calm mask cracked. Just a little.
What he was saying... it fit. The pieces clicked together in her mind. The strange orders. The secrets. The way Fury had been moving in shadows lately. It could be true. It could all be true.
If Fury didn’t trust his own home, it might be because he knew the house was rotten.
Hill forced herself to breathe. She was a trained agent. She had faced worse than this. But the man behind her was an unknown. A wild card. And she still didn’t understand his angle.
"What games are you trying to play here, Veritas?" she asked. Her voice was sharp now. "Why tell me all this?"
Veritas leaned forward. The white mask appeared in her peripheral vision, close to her shoulder.
"Games?" He tilted his head. The painted smile seemed almost genuine now. "There are no games. What I said is naked and bare... truth."
He reached out and traced a single gloved finger along the smooth skin of her neck. Hill’s entire body tensed. Every instinct screamed at her to pull away. But she stayed still and continued to drive.
"I told you this because you, Maria Hill..." Veritas continued, his voice a low murmur, "are a very loyal dog. A dog whose leash I would like to borrow sometime. That is all."
His finger completed its path as if it had drawn a leash around her neck and lifted away. Hill exhaled quietly.
"Of course," he added, "your treats would always be as delicious as today’s."
(He means information.)
Hill’s eyes were hard as she glanced at the mirror. "You want me to betray Fury."
Veritas shook his head slowly. "While I would be very pleased if a capable woman like you joined me, I know that is not possible. You lived as Fury’s right hand. And you will probably die exactly as that." He leaned back against the seat. "For now, there are three things I want you to do for me."
He raised one finger. "First, I will accept the hijack mission. But you keep it quiet from Fury until the day of the hijack. It is inevitable, but I do not want to alarm Hydra just yet. Your secure lines are not as safe as you think. Eyes and ears are everywhere."
She gave a single, slow nod. Not agreement. Just acknowledgment. She would weigh this later.
Veritas raised a second finger. "Second, hire Georges Batroc. An Algerian mercenary and terrorist. I will need his assistance during the mission. Also, send me the full life story of every person that will be on that ship with me. Childhood, training, current position, family secrets, habits. Everything. My future guests should feel properly welcomed."
Luke could have done the job alone without any trouble. But he needed Batroc there. He needed to leave the man behind as a bread crumb, so Hydra would trace the attack back to Fury.
Hill’s mind grew heavier. Fury had already given her a list of terrorist candidates she could contact if Veritas refused the job. Georges Batroc’s name had been at the very top of that list. This could not be a coincidence.
’But if he already knows everything, then he wouldn’t have asked for those files. He knows impossible things... but even he has limits.’ Hill theorised in her mind.
The minds of trained agents always worked like that... always trying to figure out the enemy’s weakness or a crack in their armor.
"And third... Fury will send a task force to rescue the hostages. A task force with a super patriot," Veritas said, his voice shifted back to that friendly tone. But his next words contained... a hint of bashfulness. "If it is possible... could you make Spider-Woman come as well?"
That was news... even to her. While Hill fully expected that Fury would send SHIELD agents to rescue the hostages on the ship, she didn’t know Fury was planning to involve Captain America as well.
And hearing his request for Spider-Woman, Hill wanted to roll her eyes. She didn’t. But the impulse was there.
’Whatever keeps him going.’
But she still needed to know his true motive.
She took a slow breath. "Veritas, why are you helping us?"
"Help?" Veritas tilted his head again. "I thought we were very clear that this was business."
Then the black smile on his mask stretched wide, like he had just realized something funny. "Ah... you think because I do not want Hydra in the world I want to create, I must be a friend. Don’t you? Well... that is so flattering to hear."
He suddenly leaned forward and grabbed her by the shoulders, swaying her body slightly from side to side in a playful gesture. freeweɓnovel.cøm
"Sure, my dear Maria! Let’s be friends! Really, really good friends from now on!"
This gesture was deeply unsettling. More unsettling than the gun had been. Precisely because it was so friendly. And mistaking him as a friend was putting your own neck in the guillotine.
She understood now. This wasn’t about helping SHIELD. This man was a predator playing a long game. And right now, Hydra was a hindrance. And SHIELD was useful.
So was Fury.
And herself...
Nothing more.
As he pulled back, Veritas stretched his arms wide, as if the fate of the world’s largest intelligence agency was a boring bedtime story.
"Hm... friends should have a way to reach out to each other, shouldn’t they?" He held out a gloved hand. "Give me your communication device, Maria."
She reached into her console and handed him her burner-spec smartphone.
Luke took the device, and he also took out his own smartphone from his trousers, a completely ordinary-looking iPhone.
Using the interface provided by his Terror Tools, he began to set up a direct line.
He saved his contact information. The tool provided an anonymous, untraceable method of communication. No matter how many S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra tech-wizards tried to decrypt it or trace the signal, the contact would remain invisible to their systems. No one could know what was talked through this line.
The Terror Tools tab was his one-man intelligence agency. If only he could upgrade the [Intermediate Hacking portal], then even S.H.I.E.L.D.’s system wouldn’t be out of his reach.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t upgrade that right now... it required TP. But no matter, the next stream is basically a zero-effort free TP farming stream. After all, SHIELD itself was serving him on a silver platter.
And even though he had already marked Hill’s body with FTG mark, he engraved her phone with a mark as well. Just for the sake of it.
"Well then, Maria, my new friend..." Veritas stretched again and yawned like he was suddenly tired. "I’ll take my leave for today. You should head back and get some sleep as well."
He handed the phone back to her. On the screen, the new contact showed only a single letter: V. The profile picture was blank.
When Hill glanced at the rearview mirror, he was gone... disappeared.
Hill finally slowed the car and pulled it to the side of the road. She parked. She killed the engine. And then she closed her eyes.
The last twenty minutes had been the most tense of her entire life. A rollercoaster of emotions that she had hidden perfectly behind her trained face. Fear. Shock. Doubt. Anger. She had swallowed all of it. Buried it deep where no enemy could see.
But now, alone in the dark, her hands trembled. Just slightly.
She had to warn Fury.
If S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised—if Hydra really was a cancer growing inside them—then everything they did was a lie.
Fury was already suspicious... she knew that much, but Veritas had provided the name of the monster. Hydra.
But she couldn’t tell him everything right now, not even over the secure channel. But she had to give him a hint, right this instant.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Report, Agent Hill," Fury commanded over the secure line.
"The asset declined the mission, Sir," Her voice came through the encrypted channel, sounding uncharacteristically tense.
If Hydra was listening from the start, then they probably already knew about the mission she was assigned, so it was no use hiding that much. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
So for now, she did as Veritas wanted... she’d report Fury in detail about this encounter in person.
Fury’s expression remained unreadable. "He’s a wild card, Hill. I expected a ’no.’ Anything else?"
Hill paused for a second.
"Sir, he already knew the mission details. Perhaps more than even me... Before leaving, he also gave me some advice: don’t trust anyone except for you."
She didn’t mention that Veritas had never actually said that. The lie was small. Necessary. Fury would realize it immediately. And Fury would hear what she really meant.
Fury let out a dry, short chuckle. "Well, I’ll give him some credit—that’s the best advice you’ll ever get. Tell me, how did you finally track him down to deliver the offer?"
Hill’s voice sounded tired. "I didn’t have to, sir."
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