To Nick Fury, Alexander Pierce had always been more than a superior. At different points in his career, he’d been a mentor, an ally, and occasionally the only person whose judgment Fury respected enough to argue with.
The office door clicked shut behind Evenson Richter.
Only then did Fury finally relax.
"The Director can clock out for five minutes," he muttered, gesturing toward the sofa. "Have a seat."
Pierce settled comfortably into the chair opposite him and wasted no time getting to the point.
"You ended that meeting rather abruptly." A faint smile crossed his face. "Let me guess. You believed what the warlock said, connected it to something else, and realized there was a conversation you didn’t want him to hear."
The conclusion of the meeting had been painfully unnatural.
Evenson had overstepped his authority. There had been no discussion of disciplinary action, no formal decision, not even a token reprimand. Fury had simply shut the meeting down.
Pierce knew Nick Fury well enough to recognize that as deliberate.
Fury wasn’t the sort of man to protect someone out of sentiment, especially not so clumsily in front of witnesses.
Which meant something more important had demanded privacy.
"You’ve got most of it right," Fury admitted. "The subject itself isn’t something he doesn’t know."
He paused.
"I just don’t intend for him to know anything more."
Pierce leaned forward.
"What subject?"
"Umbrella."
That answer surprised him.
Evenson already knew far more about Umbrella than Fury had expected, and the information he’d provided had been valuable enough that Fury fully intended to consult him again whenever supernatural expertise became necessary.
But that didn’t mean he intended to make the young warlock part of SHIELD’s investigation.
There was a difference between asking for insight and handing someone classified intelligence.
Evenson could know about Umbrella.
He didn’t need to know how SHIELD was tracking them, what evidence they’d collected, or how much progress they’d made.
"I thought you trusted him," Pierce observed.
"I do."
Fury folded his hands.
"I just don’t trust anyone without limits. And he isn’t a trained intelligence officer."
That distinction mattered.
Evenson was intelligent. Careful. Observant.
None of those qualities replaced professional tradecraft.
A civilian often had no idea how much they revealed through an offhand remark, a stray glance, or an unconscious gesture. A trained operative could dismantle someone’s secrets without the target ever realizing they were being questioned.
Sherlock Holmes wasn’t pure fiction. Intelligence agencies employed people who could do far worse.
Then there was another concern.
Evenson rarely left his apartment, yet somehow maintained an astonishing network of contacts. Through that invisible web, he routinely learned things even SHIELD didn’t know.
That was useful.
It filled holes in SHIELD’s intelligence picture.
But every information channel worked both ways.
If a black warlock could tell Evenson about Umbrella...
What might other spellcasters learn from Evenson?
Not because he’d betray SHIELD intentionally.
Fury doubted he ever would.
But all it would take was one careless conversation. A little bragging. A few harmless details shared among friends.
People rarely leaked secrets by announcing them.
They leaked them one insignificant fragment at a time.
Fury didn’t particularly care whether the hidden magical community lived in isolation or served governments, ancient orders, or themselves.
Classified SHIELD intelligence belonged inside SHIELD.
The fewer operational details Evenson knew, especially the seemingly trivial ones, the safer everyone would be.
With that settled, Fury briefed Pierce on everything SHIELD had uncovered regarding Umbrella.
At first, Pierce put on a convincing performance of surprise.
After all, part of the reason SHIELD had ever discovered Umbrella was because Hydra had quietly nudged the investigation in that direction.
But the act didn’t last long.
Soon he was genuinely stunned.
He hadn’t realized Umbrella’s history stretched back so many decades.
Nor had he expected their ties to run so deeply into the shadows of world history.
Even more impressive was how much Fury had pieced together in such a short time.
No wonder I chose him, Pierce thought.
At the same time, he felt a flicker of relief.
Without Hydra quietly steering investigations away from sensitive areas, Fury might already have dug all the way to Hydra’s front door.
Or so Pierce believed.
Reality, as always, was a little more complicated.
"So your conclusion," Pierce summarized, "is that General Ross forced Umbrella’s technology into his own research. Umbrella anticipated that possibility, sabotaged the process in advance, and Abomination is the result. Powerful, but fundamentally defective."
"That’s the working theory."
Pierce frowned.
"But how did Ross even acquire Umbrella technology?"
"The enhanced soldiers who attacked the Special Facility were Umbrella creations," Fury replied. "Their bodies briefly ended up in Ross’s custody."
"I thought you recovered every one of them before he got access."
Pierce chuckled.
"I’ll admit, the way you pulled that off wasn’t exactly elegant. I was already preparing arguments for the Security Council because I expected Ross to start screaming about jurisdiction."
Fury ignored the jab.
"The bodies remained at the facility for eight hours."
He looked toward the window.
"Eight hours is enough time for competent scientists."
Pierce nodded slowly.
"You think someone collected biological samples before the bodies disappeared."
"Very likely."
Fury’s expression darkened.
"At the time I wasn’t focused on that possibility. Later we learned Umbrella had sabotaged the specimens, making meaningful research impossible. I assumed the issue was dead."
His jaw tightened.
"Apparently Ross managed to salvage something anyway."
Enough to create Abomination.
Pierce considered that for a moment before speaking carefully.
"Everything you’ve said is still speculation."
"And it all hinges on one statement from the warlock."
He wasn’t prepared to accept Evenson’s claim that a soul could be artificially divided simply because the young man sounded confident.
More importantly...
If Abomination truly was nothing more than a defective prototype, the corpse Hydra wanted would lose much of its research value.
A flawed creation was unlikely to produce perfect results.
"You’re right," Fury admitted. "It is still a hypothesis. I’m not completely convinced myself."
"But it won’t stay a hypothesis for long."
"Our sources inside the military should report exactly how Abomination came into existence."
He glanced toward the secure laboratory below.
"And we can begin the autopsy immediately."
According to Evenson, body and soul constantly shaped one another.
Whether the damaged soul had altered the body or the altered body had damaged the soul hardly mattered.
If Abomination’s mind truly had been mutilated, the brain itself should show corresponding abnormalities.
One examination would answer the question.
Pierce sighed.
"Looks like I’m going to be here awhile."
Considering the density of Abomination’s skull, even industrial-grade drills were unlikely to cut through it quickly.
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